RECENT POSTS |
Labor Market Insights from EMSI Commencement Reflection/Title III at Six-Months In Title III Teaching Innovation Grant |
STATE & NATIONAL COMPLETION EFFORTS |
Helping First Generation Students See Themselves as GraduatesMultiple studies have shown first-generation college students, especially those from lower-income households, struggle compared to their peers who have had at least one parent complete a bachelor’s degree.[i] [ii] [iii] At Roane State Community College, more than half of our students are considered first-generation and are Federal Pell-Award eligible (Federal Pell is a federal aid program for low-income students and families). As part of the Title III grant, Roane State implemented an intervention designed to show these students that they can beat the odds and successfully complete a degree. The intervention, determined to have at least moderate effectiveness by the What Works Clearing House, involved recruiting recent graduates from Roane State to talk with incoming freshmen at orientation about the obstacles they faced both academically and socially, and how they overcame challenges on their path to a degree. While we were not able to invite recent graduates to speak at every orientation, we were able to hold these discussions at three of our new student orientations and one of our adult student orientations. In total, 422 students were able to engage in a conversation with recent Roane State degree awardees. You can read the actual study here and our proposal for the intervention here. Post-discussion surveys indicated:
The discursive portions of the survey also showed that the three most important lessons students derived from the recent graduates were:
As a discussion moderator at one of the new student orientations, I can personally attest to how positive this experience was for new students. I was able to see in the faces of the audience a true sense of identification between the recent graduates and the incoming freshmen. Faces lit-up as the recent graduates talked about juggling school and work, the pride of their parents in them attending college, and overcoming a less than perfect academic past. It was something truly powerful for these students to see someone like themselves achieve what they hope for their own futures. It should be heartening to know, especially on the first day of a new semester, that many of our first-generation students now have models for academic success. August 2017 [ii] Housel, T. H., & Harvey, V. L. (2009). The invisibility factor: Administrators and faculty reach out to first-generation college students. Boca Raton, FL: Brown Walker Press. [iii] Johnson, S. E., Richeson, J. A., & Finkel, E. J. (2011). Middle class and marginal? Socioeconomic status, stigma, and self regulation at an elite university. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 838–852 |
Up Next: Some early results...
Previous: COLS 1010 Expansion, Labor Market Insights from EMSI, Commencement Reflection/Title III at Six-Months In, Student Success Initiative Survey!, Title III Teaching Innovation Grant, Reflections on the ATD Conference, Welcome!
RECENT POSTS |
Labor Market Insights from EMSI Commencement Reflection/Title III at Six-Months In Title III Teaching Innovation Grant Reflections on the ATD Conference
|
STATE & NATIONAL COMPLETION EFFORTS |
Study Succeed Organize/COLS 1010 ExpansionStarting this Fall, Roane State will be making its college success course, COLS 1010: Study-Organize-Succeed (S.O.S), mandatory for all new Freshmen. To make this possible, our college success coordinator, Nancy Hamilton, has reached out to educators across the college and East Tennessee to recruit a corps of excellent adjuncts that will help deliver the COLS 1010 curriculum. During the month of June, this corps of new faculty has had an opportunity to learn more about the course and meet with returning adjunct instructors at two separate trainings. I also had the opportunity to attend one of these trainings and learn first-hand about why this course is so vital for new college students at Roane State. While S.O.S. teaches a number of valuable study skills such as two-column note-taking, at its core, it is a class where students have the rare opportunity to examine their own motivations for and mindset about attending college. The transition from high school to college can be disorientating for many students. The new level freedom, higher academic expectations, and the pressures of finding the right career can result in students becoming overwhelmed or unmotivated. S.OS. challenges students to reflect on their reason for attending college and career goals through journal entries, creating an academic plan, and job shadowing. These activities are paired with both practical study-skills advice and strategies to build resilience in the face of the new challenges. The strategies students learn are all grounded in well-researched applied psychology concepts such as, “creator mindset”, “growth mindset”, “self-management”. Each of these concepts asks students to believe in themselves, their ability to learn new-things, and their own power to overcome setbacks. If students are able to internalize these concepts, there is a much greater chance they will be successful in their time at Roane State. If you are interested in learning more about the concepts and strategies taught in COLS 1010 check out the below resources. They have useful concepts that any instructor can reinforce in their own classroom. I also think that that you will find the general advice provided by S.O.S. can help any of us be more productive, reflective, and intentional in our actions. Mindset and Time Management Concepts Self Management and the Quadrant II system Study Strategies |
Up Next: Helping First Generation Students See Themselves as Graduates
Previous: Labor Market Insights from EMSI, Commencement Reflection/Title III at Six-Months In, Student Success Initiative Survey!, Title III Teaching Innovation Grant, Reflections on the ATD Conference, Welcome!
RECENT POSTS |
Labor Market Insights from EMSI Commencement Reflection/Title III at Six-Months In Title III Teaching Innovation Grant Reflections on the ATD Conference
|
STATE & NATIONAL COMPLETION EFFORTS |
Up Next: SOS: COLS 1010 Expansion
Previous: Commencement Reflection/Title III at Six-Months In, Student Success Initiative Survey! , Title III Teaching Innovation Grant, Reflections on the ATD Conference, Welcome!
RECENT POSTS |
Labor Market Insights from EMSI Commencement Reflection/Title III at Six-Months In Title III Teaching Innovation Grant Reflections on the ATD Conference
|
STATE & NATIONAL COMPLETION EFFORTS |
Commencement Reflection/Title III at Six-Months InCongratulations Roane State Community College graduates! Today we will hold the first of three commencement ceremonies celebrating the more than 1200 graduates from our college (final numbers will be available later this Summer). With the help of Title III completion initiatives, we are confident that in future years that this number will only continue to grow. These graduates will either commence, move forward, in a variety of careers or in their academic programs at a 4-year college or university. They will as a group make our region and communities a better place. In this celebratory mood, it is good to reflect on what we have accomplished so far with our title III initiatives and what we can look forward to in the coming months. Some Completion Initiative Highlights:
Other Upcoming Title III Funded Projects While the Summer may be slower, we will still be actively pursuing our completion initiatives through: COLS 1010 training, more Infosilem training, Fall and Spring data analysis, and New and Adult Student Orientations. Be sure to come back throughout the summer to read about each these projects in more detail. Have a great Summer and congratulations to students and faculty on their many accomplishments this academic year! May 5th, 2017 Up Next: Labor Market Insights from EMSI Previous: Student Success Initiative Survey! , Title III Teaching Innovation Grant, Reflections on the ATD Conference, Welcome!
|
RECENT POSTS |
Labor Market Insights from EMSI Commencement Reflection/Title III at Six-Months In Title III Teaching Innovation Grant Reflections on the ATD Conference
|
STATE & NATIONAL COMPLETION EFFORTS |
Student Success Initiative Survey!There is a famous story, probably apocryphal, about President John F. Kennedy’s first visit to NASA headquarters in 1961. While on his tour of NASA, he stopped to talk to a man holding a mop and said: "Hi, I'm Jack Kennedy. What are you doing?" "Well, Mr. President," the janitor responded, "I'm helping put a man on the moon." Roane State Community College may not be in the business of putting a man on the moon, but we are tasked with the sometimes seemingly impossible task of improving student success. Like putting a man on the moon, this task requires that all faculty, staff, and our students understand our commitment to student success. A central effort in promoting the understanding of Roane State’s student success efforts is an online survey developed by Achieving the Dream called the Institutional Capacity Assessment Tool, or ICAT. This survey sent to everyone, including maintenance staff, will help the college understand how deeply student success initiatives have penetrated the culture at Roane State. During the Fall 2017 semester, there will be a number of follow-up conversations based on the results of the survey. So take the 30-minutes to 1-hour survey and help the college better understand where we are with our commitment to student success. The survey will be open from March 13 – March 24. You can find the authentication code in an email from our Vice President of Institutional Research, Karen Brunner. While Roane State may not be putting a man on the moon we want to ensure the whole college understands what it means to be committed to student success. (We do, however, have an observatory that can get you a pretty good view of the moon and have received recognition from NASA). |
Up Next: Commencement Reflection
Previous: Title III Teaching Innovation Grant, Reflections on the ATD Conference, Welcome!
RECENT POSTS |
Labor Market Insights from EMSI Commencement Reflection/Title III at Six-Months In Title III Teaching Innovation Grant Reflections on the ATD Conference
|
STATE & NATIONAL COMPLETION EFFORTS |
The Call: Teaching projects to implement High Impact Practices that address the findings of RSCC’s 2017 Academic Self-Study findings.One of the core findings of RSCC's 2017 Academic self-study was that students often struggled seeing the relevancy of coursework not directly related to their program of study. Thanks to our Department of Education Title III Grant, we are able to offer grants ranging from $250-$1,000 to faculty or teams of faculty members interested in proposing an innovative activity or series of activities that address the question of:
Faculty are required to incorporate at least one prioritized “High Impact Practice” (HIP) in their proposals: a common intellectual experience that can be adopted across disciplines, leveraging service-learning experiences to demonstrate relevancy, or integrating collaborative assignments and projects that engage students in real-life problem-solving. |
The Application:Resource Guide: (web) (download)FAQQ: I do not teach a general education class. Can I still apply? A: Yes. But, you must partner with another faculty member who teaches a general education class. Some ideas might be to:
Q: What is the Maximum Award A: $1,000 per instructor (up to $2,000 total for a team--award does not necessarily need to be split 50/50). Q: I was hoping to buy supplies not provided to me by my department. Can I do that? Would this be in addition the stipend? A: Yes, as long as it is related to your project. It would be in addition to the stipend. Please note that supply purchases may need additional approval from DOE and would be funded after stipends. Q: I wanted to include extra questions in my course evaluation as part of the evaluation plan, but I won't get the results back until January. Is this ok? A: This is not a problem. The Office of Institutional Research will relieve the student evaluation results. If further follow-up on these particular results are needed the Office of Institutional Research will be sure to contact you. Eligibility
Timeline |
Activity |
Date |
Call for Proposals Published |
|
August 28th, 2017 (Round 1 March 21st, 2017) |
|
Application Workshops |
By appointment email: tinleyjj@roanesate.edu phone: ext. 4816) |
Application Due |
Friday, October 20th |
Awards Announced |
Second Round: November 17th First Round: May 5th |
Project Implementation |
Spring Term 2017 |
Evaluation Due |
May 12th, 2017 |
Up Next: Student Success Survey
Previous: Reflections on the ATD Conference; Welcome!
Reflections on the Achieving the Dream Conference |
RECENT POSTS |
Labor Market Insights from EMSI Commencement Reflection/Title III at Six-Months In Title III Teaching Innovation Grant Reflections on the ATD Conference
|
STATE & NATIONAL COMPLETION EFFORTS |
Last week, a team from Roane State Community College that included President Whaley, Brad Fox, Faculty Senate President, staff from Institutional Research, Dr. Ward, V.P. of Academics, and Amy Keeling, Director of Curriculum and Advising, attended the Achieving the Dream (ATD) Conference. For those of you unfamiliar with ATD, it is a national organization that brings together community colleges from across the nation to share their initiatives to address disparities in student success and increase the number of students achieving their goal of completing a college degree or specialized training. You can learn more about ATD initiatives here. And you can see some visualizations of the ATD conference topics here. With nearly 100 sessions, poster presentations, and multiple key-note speakers, it would be impossible to summarize everything shared at the conference. What follows does not do justice to the amazing work being done by the ATD member colleges (of which RSCC is one). However, it distils a few of lessons shared with RSCC by other colleges into pithy, aphorism-like, or tweet-like, if you will, statements: |
On Student Engagement and Completion/Retention Predictors
(Insights from Civitas Learning, Austin Community College, West Hills College, and Lone Star State) On Guided Pathways
(Insights from Miami Dade, Austin Community College, West Hills College, and Lone Star State) On Sharing Data
(Insights from Pierce Community College) On Creating a Culture of Student Success
(Insights from Northeast Wisconsin Technical College and Bergen Community College) On Changing our Mindsets about Students
(Insights from AAC&U and Being Student-Ready) On Collaboration and Faculty Leadership
(Insights from Tacoma Community College, Palomar College, Patrick Henry College, and Baltimore County Community College) |
If any of these insights or initiatives are of particular interest to you, or echo your own efforts, feel free to reach out to me for more information or to share your efforts to increase student success. |
Up Next: Title III Teaching Innovation Grant
Previous: Reflections on the ATD Conference
Roane State Community College Title III Completion Initiatives! |
RECENT POSTS |
Labor Market Insights from EMSI Commencement Reflection/Title III at Six-Months In Title III Teaching Innovation Grant Reflections on the ATD Conference
|
STATE & NATIONAL COMPLETION EFFORTS |
Drive to 55 |
In October of 2016, Roane State Community College was recognized by the Department of Education for its completion initiatives and awarded a 5-year grant to build on these efforts. The grant will specifically help fund the following completion initiatives: |
|
I hope that you find this blog an informative window into the exciting initiatives designed to help RSCC students to succeed and complete.This on-going record of the grant activities will provide weekly highlights of RSCC efforts and reflections on various completion projects happening at higher-education institutions throughout the country. |
Up Next: Reflections from the Achieving the Dream Conference.
Jeffrey J Tinley • • Click name for email address
Roane State Community College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, ethnicity or national origin, sex, disability, age, status as protected veteran or any other class protected by Federal or State laws and regulation and by Tennessee board of Regents policies with respect to employment, programs, and activities. View full non-discrimination policy.