In today's global economy, a college degree is virtually required for a job that pays a family wage and provides a real shot at the American middle class. This can include a technical certificate in a field such as construction, health care, or engineering, or an associate or bachelor’s degree that will help graduates launch a professional career. According to the Department of Labor Statistics, over the next decade jobs for community college graduates will grow at a rate almost twice as fast as the national average.
While more people than ever are going to college, only about half of Americans earn some degree or certificate after high school. In fact, only one third of students who enroll in two year degree programs will graduate within three years. Why these low numbers? A key challenge is that too many students who enroll in college are unprepared or are severely behind academically. At the same time, few colleges have organized themselves around the increasingly busy lives of their students, many of whom struggle to balance the demands of work, school, and family.
Washington State: A Leader in Reform
The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC), which oversees the state’s 34 community and technical colleges, is pioneering innovative efforts to help Washington’s residents complete college and find good-paying jobs. Through its Student Completion Initiative, the state is focusing on smarter uses for technology, state funding based on student achievement, and retooling course offerings.
The State Board's I-BEST (Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training) program combines basic academic courses and career skills classes to ensure the state’s least-prepared students not only complete their training programs, but are competitive in the workforce. Around 55 percent of I-BEST students, on average, earn a vocational certificate, compared to 15 percent of similar students who are not enrolled in the program. (Read the evaluation of the I-BEST program.)
That’s a gap of 40 percentage points—large enough to draw the attention of President Obama, who mentioned I-BEST during a speech on higher education.
SBCTC’s Student Achievement Initiative is working to reward colleges not just for enrolling students but also for supporting them through key milestones that ultimately lead to graduation. The Initiative offers colleges financial incentives when their students hit certain academic milestones that have been proven as critical steps along students path to degree completion, such as completing five credits in college-level math or moving from remedial to college-level courses.
Colleges that piloted this new approach during the 2007-2008 academic year increased student achievement by nearly 5 percent. A study conducted by the Community College Research Center at Columbia University revealed that the Initiative motivated most colleges to make reforms aimed at boosting completion.
In addition to expanding I-BEST and the Student Achievement Initiative to all of SBCTC’s colleges, the state will launch two new programs as part of its Student Completion Initiative:
- Online course access and success: Many students never complete college because they become stuck in a web of costly remedial skills classes for which they do not earn college credit. The Student Completion Initiative will redesign 80 high-enrollment gatekeeper and pre-college courses into online classes and those offering “blended” delivery—a combination of in-person and online instruction. These redesigned courses will use open source materials, reducing textbook costs for students.
- Improve success in pre-college and college math: Math is a major hurdle to completion for many of Washington’s community college students. Nearly 70 percent of all students in basic skills programs are taking remedial math to catch up. The Student Completion Initiative formed a coalition between seven colleges to make substantive changes in math curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The program aims to increase successful completion of developmental math courses by 15 percent.
Measuring and Sustaining Success
The State Board is using comprehensive data systems to evaluate students' success in relation to the courses they attempted (including college-level academic courses, workforce training, and basic education courses), grades earned, and credentials awarded. This data will be used to evaluate the Student Completion Initiative and to ensure that students are receiving the support they need to graduate and connect to successful careers.
The Student Completion Initiative serves as a stepping-stone to future efforts to improve the higher education success of low-income and working-class students. To learn more, visit www.sbctc.ctc.edu.