Sustainability
- Determining barriers to sustainability (state, system, and institutional levels)
- Redefining the roles of faculty, staff, and administrators as needed
- Identifying needs for professional development and technical assistance
- Revamping technology to support the redesigned student experience
- Reallocating resources as needed
- Continuing to engage key stakeholders, especially students
- Integrating pathways into hiring and evaluation practices
PRACTITIONER, PRESIDENT, AND PARTNER PERSPECTIVES
Diane Troyer, DKT Solutions, Pathways Coach; Rebekah Woods, Provost, Jackson College, Pathways College; Kathleen Cleary, Associate Provost for Student Completion, Sinclair College, Pathways Coach; Anne Kress, President, Monroe Community College, Pathways College; Charlene Dukes, President, Prince George's Community College, Pathways College (posted 4/5/2018)
(1) So for it to be sustained, I think we really have to see that whole institutional shift, which is beyond culture change to actually operational change.
(2) It’s imperative to make sure that faculty are not just engaged in this assessment work but that they’re leading this assessment work. This is their work, this isn’t the administration’s work, this is faculty’s work. They’re the teachers, so they need to be given the authority and the responsibility that they need to be the ones that are crafting these. They’re the experts in their fields. They know what their students need to know after they leave them, after they successfully complete their programs.
(3) One of the best ways to sustain momentum through these changes is to share data on student success. And I think when faculty and staff see that their hard work is paying off, it reenergizes them and keeps them moving. But those data need to be shared publicly. You know, it’s important when our president says, “Look at the data, look at how great this is, all of your hard work is paying off.” That goes a long way to keep people moving, and they start believing in their own work and the possibility of change.
(4) The reality for most community colleges now is that it’s not about finding new resources, it’s about reallocating existing resources. And, you know, when you’re reallocating something, it means you’re taking it away from some place and putting it some place else. So there are going to be some folks who may not be happy about it. But I think getting ownership of that idea, having enough folks who can say, “This is the right place to spend those dollars.”
(5) Well, I think one of the challenges is, like many institutions, people come and go. So you always have to make sure that we’re helping new people who come into the institution, new professionals, understand that this is what our work is. So what we actually did is we changed our job position descriptions at the college so that we have an opening paragraph in every position description about our work around student success, our work with Achieving the Dream, and our work with the guided pathways project.
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Sustainability