Achieving the Dream 2011 Strategy Institute Videos

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Welcome to the Achieving the Dream 2011 Strategy Institute

Walter G. Bumphus, President and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges, welcomes nearly 1,400 attendees representing Achieving the Dream colleges, ATD Founding Partners, funders, data facilitators, coaches and guests to the 2011 Strategy Institute in Indianapolis, IN. William Trueheart, President and CEO of Achieving the Dream, recognizes the ATD Leader Colleges, investors and special guests. On behalf the Obama Administration, Juan Sepulveda, Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, conveys a message about the importance of the nation's educational investment and acknowledges the critical role ATD community colleges play in the national interest in increasing student success.

College Completion Agenda and Leah Meyer Austin Institutional Student Success Leadership Award

Bill Trueheart, President and CEO of Achieiving the Dream, introduces Jamie Merisotis, President and CEO of Lumina Foundation for Education, who celebrates Achieving the Dream's commitment to student success and presents 2011 the award to El Paso Community College, TX, and announces special recognition honors to Montgomery County Community College, PA, for its work in leveraging data, and Zane State College, OH, for increasing completion rates. Richard Rhodes, President of El Paso Community College, addresses the audience via video and college staff in attendance are introduced. Leah Meyer Austin, Achieving the Dream board member, is welcomed to the stage.

KEYNOTE: When All Roads End, Build a Helicopter

Dan F. Bakke, president of Pulaski Technical College in Arkansas, introduces the keynote speaker Toby Dewayne Daughtery whose remarks were titled "When All Roads End Build a Helicopter." An alumnus of Pulaski Tech, Mr. Daughtery movingly shares his life story from childhood to prison inmate to proud community college graduate with honors who now pursues a bachelor's degree at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He describes the positive impact his community college experience made on him as well as his aspirations to give back to his community.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Turning the Tide: A Candid Conversation about What's Working and What Needs to Be Worked On

ATD's Carol Lincoln leads a candid conversation with MDRC's Tom Brock and leaders from a Round 1 college, a new ATD college and the Founding Partners to discuss what's working and what needs to be worked-on for accelerating student success and completion nationwide. The plenary begins with MDRC announcing findings from a new report "Turning the Tide: An Examination of Round 1 Achieving the Dream Colleges' Progress After Five Years in the Initiative." A thoughtful panel discussion follows during which panelists discuss the findings from the report along with reflections and aspirations for Achieving the Dream.

White House Officials Brief ATD Attendees

Elizabeth Gutierrez, Director of State Policy at the Lumina Foundation for Education introduces Juan Sepulveda, Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. He and colleagues from the White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities and the White House Initiatives on Historically Black Colleges and Universities share information about how they are leveraging opportunities and building capacity within the government and other organizations for community colleges. Dr. Sepulveda invites the audience to a Q & A session on how the Obama Administration is supporting the work of Achieving the Dream.

Shout It from the Rooftops and Get News Outlets to Listen! Getting Your Successes in the Media

Achieving the Dream colleges are producing positive data and success stories. This workshop focuses on how to best relay those success stories nationally via the media (print, internet, and television). A panel of experts - including Inside Higher Ed's Schott Jaschik, IndyStar's Dan McFeely, WFYI's Gail Thomas Strong, and Lipman Hearne's Pete Boyle (moderated by Achieving the Dream's Katie Loovis) - share their tips as well as answer participants' questions about communications strategies and getting the most coverage with colleges limited resources. The panelists also share advice on how to get media outlets to understand and care about achievement gaps at colleges' and how to frame those gaps to bring about positive change rather than finger pointing. *Due to technical difficulty, this video recording begins about 5-minutes into the actual start of the panel so unfortunately viewers miss the introduction as well as most of Inside Higher Ed's Scott Jaschik's fantastic remarks. Also, a summary of the panelists suggestions throughout this workshop is available - Top Ten Tips.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

An Update on New Opportunities for ATD Colleges

Samuel Cargile, Vice President of the Lumina Foundation for Education introduces Bernadine Chuck Fong of Foothill College and an ATD Coach and Erma Johnson Haley who is Chancellor of Tarrant County College District and a member of the non-profit The Links, Inc. Presenters share potential opportunities and updates for ATD colleges.

Student Voices on Completion & Success

This plenary session, led by Will Friedman, President of Public Agenda, opens with an introduction of students from Ivy Tech Community College (IN) and Santa Fe College (FL). As a conversation starter, a short video is shown featuring a series of students talking about the daily juggling act they face trying to balance work, family, and getting a college education. The panel of students reflect on the video and share their own experiences about what, from their perspective, is working to help them achieve their goals. A Q&A session with the audience follows.

SPOTLIGHT - Closing Achievement Gaps: ATD Colleges Share Their Secrets

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So you've uncovered achievement gaps. Now what? In this session, a diverse panel from Achieving the Dream Colleges openly discuss the challenges and rewards of their journeys toward reducing inequities. To achieve high rates of success for all students, especially those who traditionally have faced the most significant barriers to success, colleges must be willing to implement policies and practices that promote equity, which does not always mean treating everyone the same. Overcoming challenges such as the fear and discomfort inherent in the issues, institutional inertia, and the belief that the problem is "just too big" can yield the rich rewards of success for a greater number of students.

SPOTLIGHT - Beyond Completion: High-Impact Learning Practices for Student Citizens

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What happens after students complete their college goals? Besides preparing students for the workforce, higher education also has a role to play in developing active, responsible citizens who contribute to their communities. This session puts the spotlight on service learning as a high-impact teaching and learning practice that is prevalent among community colleges. You learn about new reports on the promising connections among service learning, civic engagement, and student success; and hear college leaders share their stories of faculty and student engagement that lead to improved academic, career, and civic outcomes.

SPOTLIGHT - Scaling Up Successful Practices: Drawing from Experience

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The Academy for College Excellence (ACE, www.my-ace.org, formerly known as the Digital Bridge Academy) is designed for students who are underprepared for college. It offers students a carefully sequenced educational program of academic support, instruction in how to grow in self-knowledge and self-discipline, work experience, and preparation for careers with a future. A critical test came when ACE took its promising program with strong evaluation results at one college and replicated it at eight other colleges. In addition to describing what ACE has done to promote scaling, this workshop will draw from experience in scaling programs in the corporate world and consulting with Silicon Valley start-up companies. It will focus on questions that Achieving the Dream colleges are also asking: Why do some great ideas fail to scale? What are some examples of scaling that have worked outside the educational domain? What "proof of concept" work tells us we are on the right path?

SPOTLIGHT - What's Sex Got to Do with Retention? (Rated R for Retention)

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The traditional age student populates community colleges in larger numbers than ever. One of the barriers to their completion of degrees and certificates in a timely way is unplanned pregnancy. A number of resources have become available to help students think about their health, their relationships, and their academic goals. This session features academic and student life professionals who have developed and used tools to build awareness and involve students in responsible decisionmaking. A new micro site on "Student (SEX) Life" is unveiled that can be incorporated into orientation programs, first-year experience, and others classes.

SPOTLIGHT - Tackling the Cutting Edge Issues of Student Success: Proven and Promising Strategies for Engaging Faculty

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Meaningful and sustained engagement of faculty in institutional change can be a critical component to making significant progress on student success and completion rates, yet it remains a real challenge to many colleges committed to Achieving the Dream. This workshop presents the current state of knowledge and practice of faculty engagement and recommendations on faculty engagement practice and research to drive progress. Presentations are based on findings from a work group convened in November made up of national experts, representatives and faculty from ATD Leader Colleges, and ATD partners, coaches and data facilitators. This interactive session engages in a discussion with work group participants and faculty engagement experts, and participate in a small group discussion to share their experiences with faculty engagement as well as the implications of the work presented.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Force Multiplier: The Synergy of Our Collective Work

The nation has given community colleges a bold charge to dramatically raise community college completion rates. ATD Senior Vice President, Carol Lincoln delivers remarks and leads a panel discussion about how to meet and exceed this challenge. Together, the group talks candidly about the urgent national goals before us and the obstacles ahead, including productivity and economic challenges. The panelists Tony Carnevale (Georgetown University, DC), Joaquin Castro (Texas State Representative, TX), George Grainger (Houston Endowment, Inc., TX), Kerry Sullivan (Bank of America Charitable Foundation, NC), Suzanne Walsh (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WA) and Bill Scroggins (College of the Sequoias, CA) offer their visions for our collective work ahead. Closing remarks by Bill Trueheart.