Administrador

A national initiative

In 2007, UHCC Vice President John Morton was introduced to the four year-old initiative called “Achieving the Dream”. It was through his effort and foresight and in cooperation with the Council of Chancellors of the seven University of Hawaiʻi community colleges, which agreed to join in the effort to address the lagging achievement of Native Hawaiians.

Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count (AtD) is a multi-year, national effort whose focus is to “help more community college students succeed, with a special focus on students of colour and low-income students.” ("Achieving the Dream," 2010) AtD emphasizes data driven decision-making processes that result in strategies designed to eliminate the achievement gap between low-income, underachieved student populations. This initiative began in 2004 with twenty- seven colleges participating in five states - Texas, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, and New Mexico. Since then, more than 100 institutions from 22 states have joined, including the University of Hawai’i Community Colleges. AtD recently announced their intention to add 20 new colleges each year, through 2013.

On the U.S. continent, this enormous effort is funded and supported by more than 20 organizations, educational foundations, and state institutions such as the Lumina Foundation for Education, an Indiana-based private organization which “seeks to identify and promote practices leading to improvement in the rates of entry and success in education beyond high school, particularly for students of low income or other underrepresented backgrounds” (Lumina Foundation Website). Other national and organization partners include education and social policy research organizations MDRC, MDC, Public Agenda, Jobs for the Future, Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University, Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas at Austin and the American Association of Community Colleges.

In 2007, the seven University of Hawaiʻi community colleges joined Round Four of the AtD Initiative. This particular round consisted of self-funded colleges and institutions. A funding partnership was established with the University of Hawaiʻi, Office of Hawaiian Affairs and Kamehameha Schools who have each pledged $500,000 toward its support for a period of five years.

Each college defined their target populations according to the AtD standards of educational attainment by ethnicity, as well as by family income. As a result, the target student populations for the 100 U.S. continental institutions are primarily Blacks or Hispanics. Unique to the national initiative are the demographics of the State of Hawaiʻi where Native Hawaiians are targeted as the under-represented and under-achieved group. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, 23% or 282,667 of the total population of 1,360,301 residents are Native Hawaiian (State of Hawaiʻi Databook, 2010). It is important to note that the military population stationed in Hawaiʻi is included in the total number of residents. Only .07% of the total population is Black and .03% is Hispanic, a category, which excludes Filipinos. As a separate ethnic group, Filipinos make up about 11% of the resident population.

In Fall 2010, Hawaiians comprised 23.4% (7,996) of the UHCC student population, the largest single ethnic group, followed by Filipinos at 16.8% (5,751); a significant population compared to Blacks or African Americans at 1.4% (485) and Hispanics at 2.1% (721). Third in size, Caucasian students are 16.1% (5,496) of the UHCC population.

At Hawaiʻi CC, Native Hawaiians were the largest ethnic group or 41.6% of the student population, followed by Caucasians at 20%, and Filipino’s at 9%. The Mixed Ethnic category comprised 10.7% of the population. See Figure 3.1:

Figure 3.1: Hawaiʻi Community College Student Ethnicity – Fall 2010

(University of Hawaiʻi System Institutional Research Analysis Office)

Goals of the achieving the Dream Initiative

The following goals were established in 2009 to measure student success within the Hawaiʻi community college system. These goals were selected to gauge the ability for students to proceed through their educational journey at the community college in the most academically successful and financially efficient way.

A. Successful Completion– This goal measures the success of students who receive a “C” or better in all courses that they are enrolled within the semester. This goal addresses the cost of higher education by minimizing the time it takes to complete the requirements for a certificate or degree.

B.Advance from Remedial to Credit Bearing Courses – A large

percentage of students enter the community college unprepared to enrol in courses that are applicable to their degree. The most critical of those courses are in English and Math. This goal measures the rate of success of students who successfully complete English and Math remedial and developmental courses and advance to credit bearing

Hawaiian/Part   Hawaiian  -­‐  41.6%   Caucasian  -­‐  20%   Mixed  Ethnic    -­‐  10.7%   Filipino  -­‐  9%   Asian/PaciDic  Islander  -­‐   6.9%   Japanese  -­‐  6.3%   Hispanic  -­‐  1.7%  

course levels. This could impact a student’s educational cost and financial aid benefit and leave them without sufficient support to complete their degree program at the end of their journey. Also, a student who begins their college career by taking remedial/development courses takes longer to achieve their final academic goal.

C.Enrol In and Successfully Complete Gatekeeper Courses – This goal measures the success of students who enrol in and complete English 100, English 102 and Math 100 level courses with a “C” or better. In addition, all courses that have high enrolment and low success rates are deemed “Gatekeeper” courses and are measured for student success. Further, high enrolment has been defined as having more than .05% of the students enrolled in a semester, and success rate is defined as higher than 70% of enroled students passing with “C” or better. Overall, more than 27% of the Gatekeeper courses are in English and Math. Other subject Gatekeeper courses include History 151 – World History I, History 152 – World History II, Hwst 231 – Hawaiian Culture I - ʻAikapu, SCI 20 – Individual and Environment, Art 101 – Introduction to Visual Arts, Phil 110 – Introduction to Logic (a substitute course for Math 100), and ACC 20 – Fundamentals of Accounting 1. “Gatekeeper” courses are those identified as prohibiting students from moving forward in their journey to complete the requirements to achieve their certificate or degree.

D.Re-Enroll From One Semester to the Next– Persistence is defined as the successful completion of enrolled courses in one semester and re- enrolment in the next semester. Persistence rates affect a student’s ability to complete their educational program within a time frame supported by U.S. Department of Education Financial Aid programs and manages the cost of education by limiting or eliminating the need to pay tuition to repeat courses in which the student did not succeed.

E. Earn Degrees and Certificates – The goal for the majority of students entering college is to earn a degree or certificate in the major of their choice. This measurement determines their success in achieving that goal. This goal also acknowledges the successful transfer of students into other two-year colleges or baccalaureate or four-year institutions that can occur before actual completion of a degree program.