December 11, 2015

Updates:

• The Equity Plan
• ETO software
• Peer Mentors training
• ESP

Next Steps:

• On projects
• SCRUM model

Agenda 12-11-2015

December 11, 2015

Attendees: Jen Altenhofel, Adam Bledsoe, Dan Hall, Vicki Jacobi, Danielle Vohnout, Sharyn Eveland, and Mark Williams.

Updates:

• The Equity Plan was updated and submitted to Board of Trustees this month.
• The paperwork for the ETO software was completed and can be used starting Monday December 14^th
• The peer mentors had a training on December 10^th and it sounded like it went well
• The ESP group wrote a mission statement

Next Steps:

• We have had the big conversations, so now is the time to make sure we follow through with all the ongoing projects
• Continue to follow the SCRUM model
• Meet once a week for regular oversight but for 15-30 minutes
• Access works as the oversight and bring in other groups like ESP with student mentors, Cognos Club for data modeling, and Division Chairs for enrollment management

 Minutes 12-11-2015

Nov. 13, 2015

Budget

• Review of what money has already been allocated for specific purposes and summary of how much will be left over.

AB86

• Plan for possible centers.

Cognos

• Update on what Cognos Club has been doing.

SSSP

• SSSP and Student Equity

Pre-collegiate Mentors

• Briefly discuss how we can encourage more students to apply

 Agenda 11-13-2015

Nov. 13, 2015

Attendees: Jen Altenhofel, Adam Bledsoe, Dan Hall, Lourdes Gonzalez, Vicki Jacobi, Danielle Vohnout, Mark Williams, Sharyn Eveland, Velda Peña, Fernando Lara, Tina Mendoza, Darcy Bogle, and Rebekah Horton.

Budget

• Review of what money has already been allocated for specific purposes and summary of how much will be left over.

There is currently $97k in the budget, with $57k projected spending on items like: Critical Thinking, Conversation, Campus Quad, ETO, iPads, and a possible trip to the Museum of Tolerance. After these expenditures there is an estimate of $40k leftover.

AB86

• Plan for possible centers

Mark spoke briefly on a plan to possibly develop centers around the local communities, Taft and outliers, to promote literacy, high school completion, and ESL and citizenship. This would offer not-for credit classes to communities and help funnel students back into Taft College. These centers would staff two learning assistants and a faculty member in order to help serve the community. The plans were recently completed and will be sent out campus wide soon.

Cognos

Cognos Club has still be meeting and implementing new training and skills. They have been looking at success data for educational plans.

SSSP

• SSSP was discussed in detail and a handout was given about bridging the gap for students

Darcy handed out a paper on Bridging the Gap for students. It explained how SSSP and Equity overlap in areas and how they can work together. Also, the handout explained out Core Services, Enrollment Management, At-Risk Follow-Up, and who would be served. It was discussed throughout the group that SSSP and Equity can rank DI students by how at-risk they are in order to organize and have a plan on whom to serve first. Equity was discussed as the first strategies in prioritizing the students who need help. There was an agreement that the word about different services needed to be campus wide so that students were not falling through the cracks. The slogan for SSSP was discussed to be ‘Equity First’ as that was a major group that both SSSP and Equity could help with. It was mentioned that SSSP might be able to aggregate their data at specific steps to help filter out Equity students so that Equity could follow-up with those students.

Pre-collegiate Mentors

• Briefly discussed how we can encourage more students to apply

Since few students have filled out the Peer Mentor applications, that the applications process will be opened up to any interested student who meets the hiring criteria. Previously it was decided among the group before that DI students should mentor other DI students. However, with the low number of interested students, the group decided to open mentor positions to other non-DI students and have the mentees be the prioritized DI students in need of help.

Minutes 11-13-2015

Meeting Date: Thursday, April 10, 2015 Meeting Time: 1:10-2:00pm Meeting Location: HR Conference Room Committee Members: J. Altenhofel, A. Bledsoe, D. Hall, V. Jacobi, D. Vohnout, and M. Williams, Student Rep Alexander Victoria

AGENDA

1. Cognos Training Wish list
2. Institutional Set Standards Definition
3. Jenn & !dam’s work on demographics

Agenda-4-10-15

Sept. 30, 2015

Attendees: Jen Altenhofel, Adam Bledsoe, Lourdes Gonzalez, Vicki Jacobi, Danielle Vohnout, Sharyn Eveland, and Alexander Victoria.

Pre-collegiate equity mentoring

• Review of outcomes of student focus group yesterday

Vicki, Lourdes, and Jen shared what happened on September 29, 2015 when a student focus group met and discussed the access peer mentoring program. Students shared many ideas including more signage/advertisement that was permanent and visible since students didn’t know about resources on campus. Students also suggested tours of the campus. It was agreed that the tour leaders should be other students who are familiar with the campus. An App or better website to get information to students was mentioned as well as something called Link Crew which teams up a 2^nd year student with a 1^st year student. Ten to fifteen students attended.

• Decide on next steps for pre-collegiate equity mentoring program
  • Establish a program maximum of 15 hrs/wk

The next steps are to identify students who are in the following D.I. groups: DSPS, EOPS, 1^st generation and foster youth who are also eligible for student worker jobs (have at least a 2.2 GPA, be enrolled in 6 units, and have fewer than 60 units completed). Adam will generate this list. These students will receive an email to invite them to apply for a student worker job for up to 15 hours per week. These students will be paid and receive training on how to be mentors. Each student will also be mentored by a faculty member. The timeline for this is 2 weeks. The trainings for mentors will also be available to other groups on campus with mentoring such as EOPS.

Sharyn shared with the group the 80% rule tables for both courses and programs as well as the tables using proportionality. Currently we use the 80% rule to define disproportionally impacted groups. Proportionality requires establishing the percentage of the population represented by each subgroup and the percentage of the successful population represented by the subgroup. Using proportionality, the set standard is .85. Sharyn said that proportionality benefits smaller subgroups. It was mentioned that Strategic Planning or Access would need to make the decision to use proportionality rather than the 80% rule. She also handed out the Equity Plan Template that needs to be board approved and sent to the Chancellor’s office by December.

 Minutes 9-30-2015

Sept. 30, 2015

Pre-collegiate equity mentoring

• Review of outcomes of student focus group yesterday
• Decide on next steps for pre-collegiate equity mentoring program
  • Establish a program maximum of 15 hrs/wk

Equity Overview

• First year and beginning of second: capacity building, planning, professional development
  • Equity originated/emphasized awareness of 80% rule for ISS, SSSP
  • Developing equity strategy model
    • replicating APR data but with equity disaggregation
    • developing a master DI list
    • Creating real institutional strength/capacity in data reporting
  • Professional development
    • Manuel Pastor
    • multiple conferences
    • Cognos
    • Develop equity library collection
    • Kimberly Papillon on Implicit Association Bias
    • Garden Pathways – community partner, conversations on Trauma Informed Approaches, and training in mentor model
    • ESP – group that is self-educating on pre-collegiate strategies and issues
  • Equity as think-tank for interventions, on DI students -> to SSSP if taking to scale
    • Exploration of role for TC childcare center
    • Commitment to cohort/concierge models
    • Avoiding jumping prematurely into “solutions” – temptation to (e.g.) hire a bunch of new counselors/advisors
    • Funding with direct impact on students
  • First year outcomes
    • Upgrade servers, licenses; Cognos trained reporters; specialized training in Framework Manager to understand data packages; development of Cognos club; SQL Servers for extension datamarts; SSIS ETL training; special training in APR/DI
    • Childcare – moving to voucher exploration – capacity and funding issues with direct child care
    • APR reporting – in progress; replication of successful course completion (based on Governance Council priority) – have Cognos club members speak to their ability to now extend and develop APR with equity disaggregations
    • DI reporting – version 1; anchored in successful course completion; version 2 a likely rewrite using new ability to create ‘minimarts’

• Staffing
  • Classified position to manage administrative overhead of running mentor program and doing extensive ongoing professional development
  • Pre-collegiate coordinator – 11-month faculty position dedicated to coordinating pre-collegiate across campus – equity funded for first year or two, but keeping commitment/focus on implementing with Equity and scaling with SSSP/AB86/BSI/etc.
• Data capacity
  • As outlined above – moving quickly to develop minimarts
  • Improvements to APR data model, data collection and distribution, automated email distribution of reports
  • Ongoing training and mutual support for Cognos Club
• Equity Mentors
  • Group discussion on what led us here, where we are at currently, where we’re headed with this
• Equity Plan v2
  • Much more detailed and prescriptive template from state
  • Exploring proportionality
  • Alignment with SSSP around enrollment management – focus on equity data as we develop our comprehensive data model to support comprehensive program review (really comprehensive program “plan”), integration of ideas and direction with Strategic Planning Committee
  • Agenda 9-30-2015

Update(s) – 10 min

• Equity template/plan
  • due dates for AS, Governance, Board, chancellor’s office (now Dec 18)
  • We’ve been asked to budget 170% of last years – or approx. $340K
  • Will send out current budget update
• APR reports – DI reports

“Cognos Club” is meeting all day today and a half day tomorrow with Consultant Chad Harvey who wrote for us:

• the two Annual Program Review (APR) reports that replicates Successful Course Completion and Successful Course Section Completion, and
• the Disproportionate Impact (DI) report that identifies students in DI population cohorts

Practically speaking we are now able to use the DI report to identify students for interventions.

• Adam’s data conference – report?
• Hiring update(s)
  • Equity position hiring pool – review committee
  • Pre-collegiate full-time faculty

Mentoring conversation

• Garden Pathways conversation
  • Trauma Informed approaches
  • Mentoring
• (ESP meeting notes handout)

Review of strategy / overall plan (ID DI -> R&D -> SSSP)

• Alignment with Student Success – enrollment management
  • Two year schedule of baseline/core offerings and optional/marginal offerings
  • Subcommittee for program discontinuation, offering/cancelling class sections
• Equity Extensions to APR
  • Equity data/disaggregations in standard APR data
• Equity DI
• Equity “lens” to proposed CPC – Comprehensive Program Committee
• Student Mentors – work of informal ESP group
  • Goal “get on the bike, start riding”
  • Engage student mentors now
    • Carefully define/limit the scope
    • Scale up quickly

Writing the next Equity Plan

• Who would like to be on writing team?
• Oct AS: Discussion of TC Equity model at Oct Academic Senate (Jennifer? Sharyn?)
• Nov AS: Summary discussion/action
• Nov GC: Discussion/action
• Dec Board: approval
• Dec 18: submission deadline

Agenda 9-11-15

Update(s) – 10 min

1. Equity template/plan
   • due dates for AS, Governance, Board, chancellor’s office (now Dec 18)
   • We’ve been asked to budget 170% of last years – or approx. $340K
   • Will send out current budget update

1. APR reports – DI reports

• “Cognos Club” is meeting all day today and a half day tomorrow with Consultant Chad Harvey who wrote for us:
  • the two Annual Program Review (APR) reports that replicates Successful Course Completion and Successful Course Section Completion, and
  • the Disproportionate Impact (DI) report that identifies students in DI population cohorts
• Practically speaking we are now able to use the DI report to identify students for interventions.

The benefit of this is that we can use the data in the APR for our purpose with Equity.

III. Adam’s data conference – report?

Adam is in the Cognos Club and will report at the next meeting

1. Hiring update(s)
   • Equity position hiring pool – review committee
   • Pre-collegiate full-time faculty

The equity technician position will hopefully be screened next week. The pre-collegiate full time position will go to board in October. Vicki recommended that an organizational chart be created as there are lots of pieces with BSI, QFS, AB86, etc.

1. Mentoring conversation

• Garden Pathways conversation
  • Trauma Informed approaches
  • Mentoring
• (ESP meeting notes handout)

The people from Garden Pathways presented the strategies they use in their mentoring program. Several steps need to be taken next: purchase the ETO software to track mentoring interactions, edit the mentor agreement, identify students, and organize a meet & greet with mentors/mentees. The plan is to identify DI students and hire them at 10 hours a week to be mentors, but they will also be mentored by a faculty/staff member. Issues with student pay such as do students need a SSN need to be addressed.

1. Review of strategy / overall plan (ID DI -> R&D -> SSSP)

• Alignment with Student Success – enrollment management
  • Two year schedule of baseline/core offerings and optional/marginal offerings
  • Subcommittee for program discontinuation, offering/cancelling class sections
• Equity Extensions to APR
  • Equity data/disaggregations in standard APR data
• Equity DI
• Equity “lens” to proposed CPC – Comprehensive Program Committee
• Student Mentors – work of informal ESP group
  • Goal “get on the bike, start riding”
  • Engage student mentors now
    • Carefully define/limit the scope
    • Scale up quickly

The group agreed to focus our energy on enrollment management. The goals include: a 2 year schedule and creating a subcommittee for program discontinuation. The subcommittee for program discontinuation needs to focus on policy: setting benchmarks, using APRs, etc. to plan for program discontinuation. It was pointed out that the Comprehensive Program Committee would really be a Comprehensive Program Planning committee. The goal would be to look at the APRs of the last 5 years, to make a plan for the future, not to review what has already been reviewed.

Writing the next Equity Plan

• Who would like to be on writing team?
• Oct AS: Discussion of TC Equity model at Oct Academic Senate (Jennifer? Sharyn?)
• Nov AS: Summary discussion/action
• Nov GC: Discussion/action
• Dec Board: approval
• Dec 18: submission deadline
• Minutes 9-11-15

There is 100k Equity money to spend before December 2015.

• Data systems
  • Reports (e.g. completion monitoring)
  • Processes (e.g. APR > disaggregation demographics)
  • Trainings (e.g. classes for Cognos research and reporting roles)

Licensing costs are about 29k. The Cognos Club continues to meet and work. Adam stated that it is most useful if there is time to work it immediately after trainings.

• All-Campus trainings
  • E.g. Pastor on demographics
  • Papillon on implicit bias
  • Trauma-Informed Approaches
  • Other PD?

Training for the fulltime coordinator (future hire) and the Equity Technician as well as the mentors was discussed.

• Equity Capacity Building
  • Full-time pre-collegiate coordinator position, non-teaching, 11 month
  • Other Equity roles—e.g. similar to equity data coaches but on small scale?
  • Equity Technician
  • Library Collections

The Equity Technician job should be posted any day now. That doesn’t need to be included in the 100k. Discussion was had regarding the full-time pre-collegiate coordinator position including changing the name to full-time equity coordinator and the job duties/roles. Ultimately it was decided to hold off on the coordinator position until the technician is hired, and we evaluate the need. Mark also stated that he would be in favor of spending around 10k on Library collections to include books and resources related to Equity.

• Interventions
  • Childcare
  • Students
    • Mentors/mentees
    • Equity ambassadors – visibility with student population
  • Equity Data “specialists” – release time, working out of class
  • Other?

Mark mentioned that opening up childcare spots to equity students continues to be a difficult task, but starting in Fall 2015 there will hopefully be space for 20 children at the Center. It was discussed that one role for the Equity “specialists” would be as mentors for students. The idea is to have both Staff Mentors as well as Student Mentors. The Staff Mentors would receive a stipend for mentoring 3 students. The purpose is two-fold. 1. It reaches disproportionally impacted students through mentoring and 2. It provides the opportunity to reach more Taft College employees to teach them about the Equity Plan, disproportionally impacted groups, and the importance. These staff members could be non-instructional employees, and they would learn about how their job affects student success. They would be assigned up to three students who they would touch base with once a week. They would become those students’ first contact at Taft College. The Staff Mentors would also meet up with each other to discuss to have an opportunity to discuss what they and their mentees are experiencing. The Equity Technician would help facilitate and coordinate this effort.

Dan presented a Distance Education Funding Proposal as a way to reach distance learning students. The proposal included a part-time advisor as well as a part-time Student Support person and a student worker. It was discussed that we have to be careful with Equity money and that it needs to be used to reach disproportionally impacted students. This may be coupled with other Equity projects to ensure disproportionally impacted students are reached.

Minutes 7-21-15