Drop the Deficit

Though our intentions our good, we higher education professionals at times operate within the deficit model. Perhaps unaware, we use language such as low-income students, disability, non-traditional, and so on. Without thinking about it, we design programs to address academic deficiencies and to mitigate socioeconomic factors and to serve at-risk students. And in the assessment of our own contributions, we sometimes assume that we are doing pretty good if we can get a fair amount of our students to succeed, since they come to us with so many obstacles and challenges.

No doubt, there are circumstances and realities that disproportionately impact each of our life histories and trajectories. It is unfair to assume that we are all dealt the same hand in life, that  somehow if we just work hard enough, we can pull ourselves up by the boot straps. Certainly our role as an institution of educational access and opportunity is to work closely with those seeking to change their stars despite the challenges life has afforded them. But that does not mean that we define our students' future by looking into their past.

It is time to drop the deficit.

Let's take TRIO Student Support Services as an example. A description of our program using deficit language: TRIO SSS serves low-income, first-generation, and disabled students in order to increase the graduation and transfer rates of disadvantaged populations. Compare that to a description of our program using strengths language: TRIO SSS partners with students overcoming obstacles to higher education - such as limited income, first generation to attend college, or need for accessibility services - in order to achieve their high goals of graduation and transfer.

The language and thought models that we use have a huge impact on the climate of our programming and the energy of our students and staff. These impact how our students view themselves and how they construct their place in the world.

And so, TRIO SSS is a student development program involving a community of resourceful, creative, motivated, and committed students; the fact that our students have made it to CCD - given the cards many have been dealt - is nothing short of inspiring! We expect our students to work hard, to utilize a student support network, and to continually develop their potential. "Good enough" is not good enough for our students.

Learning Outside the Classroom

Each semester, TRIO Student Support Services completes a community service project. It is a great opportunity for students to develop leadership skills, explore career options, add to professional networks, and build community. In my view, it is also a great opportunity to strengthen the student-staff relationship, which is integral to supporting student success.

Data-Based Advising

There are plenty of projects out there that use data to direct student advising, but I decided to develop my own for the TRIO SSS program here at CCD. For one, it is free to develop and use our own system. For two, it allowed me to create a system that fits our contingent situation.

It is quite simple (though its description is not conducive to a narrative). I select ten quantifiable variables that historically indicate problems with persistence and completion for our students: Term Grades, Term GPA, Cumulative GPA, Cumulative Completion Rate, Cumulative GPA Hours, Financial Aid Standing, Financial Aid Application Status, Hold Status, TRIO Meetings, and TRIO Activities. Then I operationalize the data for each variable, crunch the data, and end up with a Persistence Score for each student. The Persistence Score is like a golf score, the lower the better. The higher the score, the greater the risk of student stop out.

Then, in the following semester, I use the Persistent Report as a triage model for intentional advising. For students scoring low, I provide no additional services beyond standard TRIO activity. For students scoring medium, I enact one additional intervention. For students scoring high, I enact two additional interventions.

The Persistence Report is also helpful when meeting with students, as it provides plenty of important conversation points. As another project, I am currently creating a "flipped classroom" curriculum that uses a website to guide students through the data collection for themselves, and then connects them with student development advising and activities.

An important question is: Does data-based advising based on the Persistence Report make a difference in student persistence and completion? Anecdotally, I can say - at minimum - that it raises awareness of student trajectories and is a helpful tool for student advising. I have not yet completed a scientific evaluation, though I am currently working on another project to methodically evaluate TRIO, so perhaps I will include it there.

The Balancing Act

As a student advisor, I understand the importance of creating a welcoming, supportive environment for the students. As Vincent Tinto argues in his research on retention, relationship and a sense of community is key. "You want to go where everybody  knows your name," as the song goes. And if a student feels comfortable coming to us as they face obstacles and challenges, then we are positioned to utilize our skills and tools to strengthen and motivate.

On the other hand, I see it equally important to be an agitator. Sometimes a little "tough love" is needed, and it is our role to push and challenge the student. Carol Dweck makes a convincing argument for this view in her book  Mindset. To reach our full potential, we all need those people and  moments that nudge us beyond our comfort zone, that create disequilibrium and difficulty. It is through these experiences, too, that we grow stronger.

Sometimes a student needs a cookie, but other times the student needs to eat his vegetables.

To me, this leads to a balancing act between being friendly and empathetic, and being tough and challenging. Key to walking this line is trust. In my very first meeting with students, I make it clear: your success is my success, and you are capable of far more than you can imagine; I am here to support you and be with you every step of the way, but I am also here to push you and challenge you. And to live into this trust, I personally have to deeply take to heart what I say, and to do my best to reach this high standard each and every day that I come to work.

What's A Degree Worth?

Recently, a very interesting piece of student data was just released in a commissioned report and joint effort with CDHE and College Measures that revealed some interesting first year employment outcomes for recent college graduates in Colorado. Though important variables were excluded, like those who may have obtained work with the federal government, those who matriculated directly into graduate programs and those who move out of state, some surprising information was revealed.

Most revealing was data reflecting that median first-year earnings for those with AAS degrees were on average $7,000 above those who earned bachelor degrees.  This data snap shot is sure to bolster the community college marketing of CTE programs as an important, critical and viable path to securing good middle class jobs. While the data certainly reflects the value and importance of CTE programs, life-time earnings generally tend to start off more slowly for those with a four year education but generally out pace those with AAS degrees in the long run. 

I found the release of the College Measures data and an article published in the NY Time a few days ago to be very timely. The article entitled The Great Aid Gap highlights the regulation that allocates student aid for those in traditional degree programs but does not make eligible for aid those who are in short-term credit or non-credit industry aligned certificate programs.  

True, many non-credit and continuing educational programs at various schools may be considered skills directly related to workforce training for those already employed in their respective industries, and many people who take these classes have the financial means to pay directly for them. However, as someone who does a lot of out-reach at locations like our local workforce centers, I can see the value of allowing student access to federal student aid who are seeking short term industry aligned trainings. Many of these students do not have the means to fund short term certificate programs and must seek assistance via other more restrictive programs like the Department of Labor’s (i.e. W.I.A) dislocated worker fund. 

As new data continues to reflect the economic value of shorter term degrees and certificates, I wonder what national effort should be directed toward opening up the possibility of financial aid eligibility for programs that prove a viable path to obtain industry skills that lead to employment.  True, many certificate programs and all AAS degrees are financial aid eligible, but many are not: Examples include C.N.A. training, project management certificates, some short term precision machining certificates, etc. In fact, as the article reveals, many white papers produced for the Malinda Gates Foundation suggest many strategies for overhauling financial aid. 

While those suggested strategies would be great fodder for another post, I feel it’s worth considering  the outdated provision of financial aid that exclude eligibility for very relevant and in demand training programs.  These restrictions often exclude certain programs that provide viable options for adults of all ages seeking training that can help them quickly adapt and keep current in the ever present changing labor market.  The Pell Grant needs to remain fully intact as a vehicle of opportunity for low income families to achieve a four year education and to be clear, I’m not in favor of limiting aid for those on the traditional educational path by increasing aid to programs not now eligible. However, aren’t we limiting access and options for low income families who seek to begin their educational path with a shorter term post-secondary certificate? 

Food Matters

Food is a connecting point between sustainability (since food production is inextricably earth-based and ecological) and nutrition (since human physiology is inextricably bound to food inputs).

Ecological Sustainability

• Food Matters Summary: production, consumption, and food type impacts resource use, environmental health, and carbon footprint.
• Institutional Commitments: Auraria Sustainable Campus Program, LEED Certification of the Confluence building.
• Student Commitments: Composting Club, Community Garden.
• Individual Choices: how we consume is a reflection of our values (how we relate our individual life to everyone/everything else).
• CCD Choices: ecological sustainability often correlates with financial sustainability within our offices.
• Student Advising: one’s environment affects one’s health, energy levels, and life opportunity (World Health Organization: approximately one-quarter of the global disease burden, and more than one-third of the burden among children, is due to modifiable environmental factors).
• Student Advising: careers in sustainability, resource management, renewable energies, research (NREL). 
• How can we – in our various roles as higher education professionals – incorporate sustainability into our student learning outcomes?

Human Nutrition

• Food Matters Summary: less processed food, more fruits and vegetables, complex grains, and proportional lean protein leads to better health.
• Institutional Commitments: CCD Health and Wellness Committee, Be Well Auraria.
• Student Commitments: advocacy for more healthy food options on campus, family nutrition.
• Individual Choices: good nutrition improves your physical and psychological quality of life. 
• CCD Choices: good nutrition leads to more energy and less sick days.
• Student Advising: nutrition (and healthy lifestyle choices overall) impacts cognitive functioning. 
• Student Advising: careers in nutrition, healthcare, public health, exercise science, research (NIH). 
• How can we build the capacity of our students to utilize healthy living as an academic success strategy?

Social Justice

• Sustainability and nutrition tend to track along socioeconomic lines. For one, there tends to be an increased cost to sustainable or nutritious purchases. Additionally, differences in political advocacy and educational opportunity –which tend to track along socioeconomic lines – variously impact access to and awareness of sustainability and nutrition. Moreover, on the flip side of the same coin, the burdens of unsustainability and poor nutrition disproportionately fall along socioeconomic lines, whether we are talking about cardiovascular disease, Type II Diabetes, or the location of landfills. And so, for me, it is contingent upon us, as advocates for equity and opportunity in our society, to not only include sustainability and nutrition in our own lives and our own offices, but to be able to take these issues into account as we advise our students about careers, about resources, and about their own self-advocacy on campus and in society.   
• What role does education play in creating a more healthy and ecologically sustainable future for our community?  In particular, how does the mission and vision of the community college relate, if at all, to socioeconomic disparities within nutrition and sustainability?

* As part of a college-wide conversation, CCD faculty and staff are encouraged to read Food Matters, by Mark Bittman.

The Justice of Educational Opportunity

On February 22, the sun shone, the earth spun, and students told amazing stories of educational opportunity as a part of National TRIO Day. As I sat in my chair and listened contently, all seemed right with the world.

There are many reasons why I feel privileged to work with TRIO students at Community College of Denver. Moments such as TRIO Day or graduation or a student rescuing a failing grade allow me a part of their success, a feeling that how I choose to spend my days makes a difference in the lives of the individuals and communities surrounding me.

Yet, as I sat there,  I sensed something more, something deeper, something beyond my role in things. 

Justice: what it is depends on who you ask. I have considered Plato; I have googled Rawls; I have read of it rolling down like waters in an ever-flowing stream; and it is the best word I can come up with to describe what was before me on TRIO Day, producing alpenglow on my soul.

Justice, to me, is the freedom to become who we are.

There is much in this world working against justice: poverty, exploitation, greed, conformity, anthropocentrism. These shackle the potential of the kid down the street who has no mentors, the teenager being bullied because of his sexual orientation, the forest on the mountain slope being strip mined.

The arc of history is long, they say, yet it bends toward justice. As a society and as individuals, we progress - in fits and stops - toward ways of relating more in harmony with the rights of the other to become. The universe, it seems, evolves in creative and beautiful struggle.

There are the days, the moments, when justice takes shape before us, resolute. The day that the sun shines, the earth spins, and the student, regardless of the circumstances of her life, has equal opportunity to become who she is.

As professionals at a community college, we are the vanguard forging the path of justice for individuals seeking educational opportunity. And as I  listened contently, I could do little but smile - to have such a privilege, to witness the ever-flowing stream.