2021

The Art and Science of Culture Change creates a visual, linguistic, and conceptual infrastructure that provides scaffolding for shared transformational journeys and engages practitioners in intellectual fun on the road to innovation and entrepreneurship. Through probing questions that prompt a thoughtful, and at times uncomfortable, exploration of purpose and process, this approach facilitates connecting the dots of innovation and entrepreneurship. The Maricopa Center for Learning and Innovation (MCLI) at the Maricopa Community Colleges district office is using this framework to, as this approach teaches, “catch others doing something right” and shine a light on that work. When MCLI applied the framework to a major change initiative—ensuring a work-based experience (WBE) for every student—at Phoenix College (PC), cultural patterns emerged that support use of innovation and entrepreneurship to improve opportunities for student engagement and success.

Bold Vision

A majority of PC students have reported enrolling in classes to improve their employability or advancement prospects, while employers in the community have articulated their needs for a well-prepared workforce. The PC leadership team committed to a Bold Vision of providing 100 percent of the college’s students with at least one WBE while they are enrolled.
With the opening of the Maricopa Information Technology Institute (ITI) at the college, Maria Reyes, Dean of Industry and Public Service, initiated plans to integrate WBE into all ITI programs and led efforts to secure a $2.4 million National Science Foundation grant for that purpose. The resulting WBE model was designed so it could be replicated across the college to serve all students. Ten types of WBE were identified—apprenticeship, clinical experience, co-op, externship, field experience, internship, job shadowing, preceptorship, research, and service learning—with student participation determined by program and progress. 
WBE allows students to apply their learning and gain experience in real-world job settings while building professional networks, and employers to engage educated student workers who may become new hires. A Bold Vision centering on a collegewide transformation can face challenges from those who are comfortable with the current culture or do not fully understand the purpose or benefits of change. PC’s leadership strived to help all college faculty and staff learn about the initiative, their role in it, and its advantages for students and the community.

Shine a Light on the Work of Others

Understanding the importance of recognizing the strengths and talents of the team, PC President Larry Johnson shined a light on the work of others. He recognized Reyes as a leader who “fosters a spirit of innovation and growth mindset and has galvanized colleagues to prepare our students for transfer and careers through work-based experiences.” As catching each other doing something right becomes an organizational norm, increased goodwill and well-being can contribute to a healthy workplace poised for collaboration and engagement.

Everyone Is Invited: Student, Employee, and Community Engagement 

The ITI WBE program intentionally reached out early to potential internal and external collaborators to involve students, employees, and community partners, thus bridging traditional silos with an everyone-is-invited approach. ITI WBE connected college employees and students with the district office and community partners such as City of Phoenix, Black Chamber of Arizona, and Greater Phoenix Economic Council. PC leadership continues to leverage resources and interest among individuals and organizations with complementary goals. 

Toes, Turf, Control, and Credit

Endeavors that challenge existing systems often run into toes, turf, control, and credit issues. ITI WBE is built on internship and service learning models at peer colleges, Estrella Mountain Community College and Chandler Gilbert Community College, and on guided pathways and other ongoing work at PC and the district office. PC leadership transparently honored the contributions of others, finding that a clear understanding of student and community benefits opened minds to change. 

Integrative, Integrated, Sustainable, Scalable Programming

According to Reyes, “Even with the . . . grant, we have limited resources and a large community to serve so it’s important that our program design is integrative, integrated, sustainable, and scalable. We can’t afford to design in silos.” ITI WBE’s design contributes to college and district visions and ensures sustainable and scalable programming, which supports the college teams’ heightened awareness of the need to provide value to students and the community.

Get Outside Your Comfort Zone: Action and Learning

The size and scope of this project took members of the PC team outside their comfort zones, but their bias toward action ensured working through obstacles and learning together to expand relevance in the student experience. Reyes explained, “Just as the students we serve are often taken outside their comfort zone in the experiences we offer them, our paths toward innovation and more entrepreneurial outcomes require new action and learning from us, too.” One strategy that helped everyone clearly see themselves in the overall, collegewide vision was creating common WBE language for use in all messaging for students, educators, employers, and community partners and in outreach materials to stakeholders about engagement opportunities.

One Thing Leads to Another: Inclusion and Meaningful Results

Although work experiences have been available in various programs at PC—involving, for example, 2,414 students in 2018-2019 and 3,031 in 2019-2020—they have been isolated within departments. ITI advanced progress toward PC’s 100-percent goal, including diverse groups in developing the WBE model and sharing it across the institution so all programs have WBE and all students have the opportunity to enhance skills in workplace settings. Ultimately, one thing leads to another and ITI WBE has become an innovative and entrepreneurial endeavor already achieving meaningful results for PC students. 

Caron Sada

Residential Psychology Faculty, Paradise Valley Community College, and works with Innovation and Entrepreneurship programming at MCLI, Maricopa Community Colleges

America faces a desperate shortage of workers with the skills and training to do the jobs that keep the economy and the country going, including jobs in healthcare, clean energy, IT, construction, and other vital industries. For the millions of people who are now unemployed or underemployed due to COVID-19 and the economic recession, these jobs can be safe havens, offering good wages and long-term stability. They also provide smart career options for high school students who aren’t interested in, or can’t afford, a four-year degree. 

Community colleges have long provided custom-designed workforce development centered on the needs of business and industry. Short-term credit and noncredit programs that lead to industry-recognized credentials, certifications, and licensures are more critical than ever, both to businesses with jobs to fill and to people who need a faster path to a substantial paycheck. 

According to the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC, 2020), community colleges awarded 579,822 certificates in 2017-2018. More than four-year degrees, these certificates, as well as other nondegree credentials, power the workforce America needs now. For workers whose industries have been decimated, they open the door to a job that will remain in high demand for the next decade and beyond. 

The return on investment is often significant. AACC (2020) reports that the average annual tuition and fees for public community colleges stand at just $3,730. Median annual wages in the skills-based professions range from $44,890 for a solar photovoltaic installer to $54,760 for a computer support specialist, with the highest paid earning much more. And students who land apprenticeships earn while they continue to learn.

Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland is one institution leading the workforce development charge. In addition to more than 100 credit degrees and certificates, it offers noncredit courses in everything from coding to welding to dental assisting, along with four-year apprenticeship training programs developed in conjunction with organizations such as Associated Builders and Contractors and Maryland Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association.

Another leader, Mesa Community College in Arizona offers more than 30 programs and over 100 degrees and certificates. Career and technical education programs created with the input of local professionals train students for in-demand jobs such as robotics technician, engine mechanic, construction manager, Amazon Web Services practitioner, desktop support specialist, and firefighter.

One challenge to meeting the current need for skills-based workers is getting new skillers and reskillers to see the possibilities. In many cases, these careers are not on their radar. If they are, the steps to getting a job are often unclear. 

Countless businesses and other organizations are stepping in to showcase the opportunities and light the path. Online platforms such as SkillPointe, a one-stop resource designed to help people explore career options and find training and jobs in their area, are promoting skills-based professions and making it easier to find training and, ultimately, employment. SkillPointe’s career pages allow users to research more than 70 trending careers across eight industries. In addition, a database of more than 50,000 training programs helps users to quickly and easily identify a program near them that paves the way to the career they want. Taking the mystery out of these careers, and the guesswork out of how to enter them, can point more people to community colleges, not to mention worthwhile jobs. 

While community college is a good bargain, it’s not free. SkillPointe also assists users in finding funding for the training they need. An increasing number of scholarships are available to make trades training more affordable, such as mikeroweWORKS Foundation’s Work Ethic Scholarship Program, AWS Foundation Scholarships for students learning welding, and coming in 2021, the SkillPointe Scholarship.

Community colleges are working hard to beat the clock and train new workers for fast-growing, skills-based jobs before more baby boomers retire and bottom lines—or public health and safety—suffer. These programs, along with resources like SkillPointe that help people discover them, provide a lifeline for displaced workers and a launching pad for prospective students looking to sidestep the quicksand of college debt. They are critical to building the skilled workforce America needs today and tomorrow to do the jobs that will keep America moving, and keep Americans employed.

Reference

American Association of Community Colleges. (2020). Fast facts 2020. https://www.aacc.nche.edu/research-trends/fast-facts

James Franchi

CEO, SkillPointe

The League for Innovation and SkillPointe are partnering to connect users to more than 55,000 member college training programs and working with community colleges to promote their programs to potential students. For more information, contact Jennifer Gravel.

For years, access was solely about opening doors to those who didn’t know they belonged in our classrooms. This idea led to a holistic student success focus in which students were supported from entrance to completion, but it soon grew to include students’ needs beyond academics. In the pursuit of creating a path for every student, community colleges can find themselves stretched incredibly thin.

Often overlooked, access can also mean providing the right courses for a student at the right time. Options to make this happen abound and include eight-week terms, multiple intakes, multiple modalities, weekend courses, and online sections. But each college has only one course catalog and student demand cannot always be fully met by the course offerings at a single institution. As a result, students’ access is limited to a schedule that is created months in advance and, inevitably, has gaps. 

Access can also mean exposing students to new programming and opportunities. At industry conferences, innovations are shared, and many wish their colleges had the resources to replicate them. They may learn about expanded pathways, corequisite courses that can improve developmental education outcomes, and the newest career tracks in data science and technology. With limited resources for new program development and limited access to faculty, however, many colleges are overstretched and struggle to optimize on behalf of the institution and the student. 

Colleges have historically strived to align their resources with student demand, but because demand is constantly fluctuating, they can end up running  inefficient operations, spending precious resources on underenrolled classes, and struggling with optimal space utilization. Furthermore, not all prospective students fit into the traditional intake timelines. Limited to their own catalog, it is all too often a zero-sum game: either the institution loses, or the student loses. Yet, by working together, community colleges can provide another option. 

Colleges can leverage a network of peer institutions to help guide students to paths that overcome institutional limitations with course sharing. This construct builds on a consortium model that has existed for over 100 years, with many notable achievements. For example, community college-based Maryland Online consortia, formed in the late 1990s, was the birthplace of the Quality Matters standards. Similarly, the distinguished Digital Higher Education Consortium of Texas (formerly Virtual Colleges of Texas), launched in 1998, embraces course sharing at scale, affording students and institutions immeasurable benefits. 

Course sharing can enhance the agility of institutions in impactful ways. Earlier this year, for example, AcadeumTM worked with a college whose one Spanish instructor unexpectedly could not return to the classroom. Hiring an adjunct professor with a week’s notice was not an option, so the institution called on another college to share an online course and cross-registered 20 students. Another college offered calculus once a year due to lack of demand, but had three students who needed to take the course in the spring in order to transfer to a four-year university. Connecting to a peer institution to teach these students was the answer. Another institution cancelled eight low-enrolled courses for a fall session, but served the 30 impacted students by leveraging a course sharing consortium. In this example, the provost and scheduling team found an easy way to respond to student needs and avoid the economic burden of teaching under-enrolled courses. Finally, another institution used a course sharing consortium to share the open capacity of their sections. Operational efficiency was improved by expanding access to other colleges so they could increase options for their students. 

Although each institution is already spread thin, they all want to do more. Students’ success and progress toward completion need not be limited by the availability of a course sequence at their institution. A consortium model creates the capacity for colleges to secure each student’s pathway. In our connected world, we have access to an abundance of online courses, and the open capacity in these courses can be unlocked to boost enrollment and student progress. Enhancing institutional efficiency, outcomes, and sustainability through cost-effective strategies that help institutions address course supply and demand issues can enrich pathways and motivate more students to complete their certificates or degrees. By increasing access to each other, we can increase access for students.

Patrick Frasier

Vice President, Academic Partnerships, Acadeum

The League for Innovation has partnered with Acadeum to launch the first national community college online course sharing consortium to expand students’ access to the courses they need. Acadeum powers consortial course sharing networks and creates a place to connect home institutions and teaching institutions. Home institutions can leverage the online courses of teaching institutions to provide additional options for their own students. Acadeum makes it easy to view course inventories and syllabi and to exchange data and money between institutions. For more information about the League for Innovation Online Course Sharing Consortium powered by Acadeum, contact Patrick Frasier.

Almost half of U.S. community college students responding to the #RealCollege survey conducted by the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice indicated that they had experienced food insecurity within the previous 30 days (Goldrick-Rab et al., 2019). To help community colleges reduce food insecurity for students and their families in sustainable ways that foster student retention, persistence, and success, the League for Innovation in the Community College (League) launched its “Innovative Solutions for Hunger Relief and Student Success” initiative in fall 2019.

With support from the Walmart Foundation, the League is working with two community colleges serving rural, economically distressed areas to develop effective, innovative models for hunger relief and healthy eating that can be adopted or adapted by community colleges and other institutions.

In January and February of 2020, staff, students, and community members at Northeast Texas Community College (NTCC) and West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC) began training in Innovation Engineering (IE), a proven systems approach to innovation developed by Eureka! Ranch. Trainers and coaches from Eureka! Ranch are using IE’s Jump Start Your Brain portal to work with the colleges’ project teams to identify and develop innovative solutions for hunger relief and healthy eating.

Last spring, progress was slowed by the pandemic, as the colleges worked to move their operations online and the League and Eureka! Ranch transitioned a largely face-to-face project to a virtual format. By midsummer, the college teams were again able to focus on the project, and food insecurity issues were at the forefront as never before. In fall 2020, teams began in earnest to develop and test projects and potential solutions.

At NTCC, the team, guided by IE experts at Eureka! Ranch, is developing the EatBetter4Less program, which includes online training videos on nutritious, low-cost meal planning and preparation, with the option for students and other community members to earn badges as they develop life skills around healthy eating. In collaboration with college and community food pantries, they are promoting the EatBetter4Less program and badges through food and snack kits distributed to students on campus and at community food pantries. The food kits include recipe cards with instructions on creating tasty, nutritious family meals using the food items in the kit.

The WKCTC team is focused on identifying and eliminating friction points that hinder student access to hunger relief resources. The team is creating a detailed playbook to share with other colleges on what worked, what didn’t work, and why, as they carefully catalog details of the projects they test. The college is leveraging its holistic advising model to meet with students not only to discuss their educational needs, but also to connect them with college and community hunger relief and other academic and social service resources. WKCTC tested its first project in November, using grocery store gift cards to incentivize students to make and keep virtual and/or socially distanced advising appointments. The college also held a Students Speak event which included community organization representatives providing information on services students and their families can access. As part of the IE process, all aspects of these and other activities are evaluated, and revisions are made based on the findings.

At both colleges and in the overall project, we are looking at food insecurity not in isolation, but in the context of a larger ecosystem and ways it can better support the basic needs of its population. Learn more about the project and the progress participating colleges are making on the Innovative Solutions for Hunger Relief and Student Success page. We also invite you to share your college’s innovative solutions for hunger relief and healthy eating; click here for more information.

Reference

Goldrick-Rab, S., Baker-Smith, C., Coca, V., Looker, E., & and Williams, T. (2019). College and university basic needs insecurity: A national #RealCollege survey report. https://hope4college.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/HOPE_realcollege_National_report_digital.pdf

The COVID-19 pandemic has helped expose two systemic flaws in higher education. First is the inflexibility of the traditional learning model, and second is the institution’s overvaluing of their campus experience. Both have led to a deer-in-the-headlights response as students and other education consumers take the opportunity to question the very value of what they are paying for. The surprising case I would like to make is that the solution to both these flaws is leadership, and not leadership in the traditional sense.

I have found that the only way to get through times of existential change is to lead through it. These crisis situations require every person affected to think and act like a leader and change agent. Unfortunately, higher education has been built on titles, driven primarily by credentials and degrees, that assign or designate responsibilities but often limit those who can and should contribute leadership in times like those wrought by the pandemic. 

My argument, based on over 30 years in higher education and the better part of 20 years of consulting for the entire spectrum of higher education institutions, is that in times of fast-paced advancement and transformation, leadership should not be restricted to the highest rank. It absolutely must be shared and shouldered throughout the institution. 

It begins with shared vision. Leadership begins with vision, and organizations thrive when a clearly stated vision is supported by the entire organization. Consider your own position: If the people you report to and the people reporting to you are pursuing different visions for your college, then you will not send the mission-critical shared vision to students and external stakeholders so they can align with you. For example, if the new chancellor/president is the only person with vision and faith in a plan for the future, operational members who don’t buy into that vision are unlikely to effectively relay it to students. In this scenario, how is transformation possible?

The vision must be customer-centric. To succeed in today’s educational marketplace, every person in your institution must thoroughly understand the educational consumer’s mindset and rethink their strategies and approaches based on that. The successful institutions of the future will lead with this new mindset and build followership from each level on the campus, including students and future education consumers. Simply put, in the new normal, it is everyone’s role to lead. 

The next generation of higher education leadership is about reimagining your college’s academic and campus enterprise, and that can’t happen solely from the top. When we advise our clients who are looking to pursue innovation and transformation, we tend to look at the organization through four levels of leadership.

1. Institutional Leadership. Chancellors/presidents, board members, and provosts hold responsibilities to create a specific vision for the institution and its offerings. They need to set specific goals to develop the brand that creates market value. This vision enables all levels of leadership to foster the five value drivers—brand, experience, specialization, convenience, and affordability—that, when successful, resonate with education consumers.

2. Academic Leadership. Academic chairs and faculty members are responsible for leading the academic culture within an institution. One of the key assets of an institution is the unique knowledge these leaders possess, develop, and share. As many campuses reimagine the academic enterprise influenced by the future of work, the ability of these individuals to lead the educational shift will be vital.

3. Executive Leadership. The staff at this level, primarily CEOs, vice presidents, and deans, create and think about specific strategies and changes that need to happen in order for the vision set by institutional leadership to be made clear. They are called to have a more innovative, rethinking mindset to create a new campus enterprise and way of serving the market. Especially during challenging times, this group must lead by figuring out why students should come to their college and why industries should want to work with them and their students.

4. Operational Leadership. These individuals, typically staff members and directors, are the root of activity that intersects with the consumer experience. On the forefront, they need to lead by remaking and reimagining the culture they create for their students, alumni, and community.

Although these four structures are at different pay and status levels, and have different day-to-day tasks and objectives, they still must perform as one integrated unit working toward a common outcome. Therefore, leadership must run through each member and structure so innovation isn’t limited or blocked at any one of the layers. 

Sound impossible given your current culture? Have faith. It is absolutely possible, and we are seeing it happen across the globe. 

I have found that an overall culture that embraces leadership and entrepreneurial innovation unlocks an environment in which everyone uses their personal responsibilities to make the institution as a whole more sustainable and attractive to consumers. When that culture is not embraced, silos and fiefdoms follow. 

Some people believe a title makes a leader. That is far from the truth. I categorically find title inflation to be real in higher education. Fancy titles abound, but the people who hold them too often lack the actual empowerment to lead. Titles don’t make leaders. An ability to innovate, deliver stated outcomes, and create followership makes a leader. 

No matter what seat you sit in on your institution’s bus, ask yourself these two questions:

1. Am I being innovative, looking for ways to improve the consumer experience and/or the institution’s sustainability?

2. Who has taken notice of what I am doing and chosen to follow me and my work as a result?

The answers to these questions will set you on a path of authentic leadership in your institution. Now, more than ever, every layer and title in the institution must think entrepreneurially and see themselves as the change agents the college needs most. As I often say, lead by letting others see their vision through you.

Matthew Alex

Higher Education Thought Leader and Futurist, Beyond Academics

For millennia, the Socratic method has been a pillar of effective, engaging classroom discussion. Rooted in sparking thoughtful dialogue among learners, it has been touted as the type of authentic learning (Levine & Rascoff, 2020) that may help higher education recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Many instructors feel apprehensive about creating effective discussions in this radically changed environment. If designed intentionally and implemented thoughtfully, technology can play a role in facilitating more effective discussion than face-to-face classes.

Faculty and students alike tend to think of online discussion forums as not just time-consuming, but boring. In the words of WestEd’s Cameron Sublett (Lederman, 2020), the pandemic may lead instructors to “populate their LMS [learning management system] shells with asynchronous online discussion forums and have time and resources for little else. . . . The consequence will almost certainly be decreased learning and increased inequity.”

Regardless of student and instructor misgivings, the prospect of remote learning as the new normal is beginning to sink in. While students may have given their schools leeway during the hectic spring 2020 semester, they now expect a high-quality experience. If we remain confined to the Zoom classrooms and stilted forums that characterized the first few months of the pandemic, won’t that spell doom for any meaningful class discussion? That may not be the case

To be sure, the COVID-19 crisis will continue to reshape the landscape of higher education, but online class does not mean that effective discussion is impossible. Emerging approaches to technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), rooted in core academic concepts like inquiry-based learning and self-determination theory, have helped students at HACC, Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, to overcome fears surrounding the online classroom.

The reality is that in many cases, face-to-face discussion can be a challenging way for students to engage. The classic scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a reality for many instructors, who find that students are often reluctant to share untested ideas in a public forum. It can take time to think of a good question, and many classes have evolved to do everything in their power to avoid the all-too-frequent awkward pause. Furthermore, research indicates that implicit biases may prevent women (Bauer-Wolf, 2019) and Black students (Laufer, 2012) from speaking up, allowing their White male peers to dominate the discussion experience.

While higher education pundits often talk about technology as the great destroyer of face-to-face interaction, HACC has applied AI in ways that enhance classroom discussion. Asynchronous discussions that don’t require an answer right away can be a means to facilitate deeper, more meaningful conversation—with the right tools to encourage students to make the most of that extra time. AI-powered platforms help by providing students real-time feedback that clarifies their thinking. For instance, Packback’s curiosity score motivates students to ask tougher questions and find more compelling sources to back up their answers. The instantaneous nature of AI-based feedback can be less stressful for students, and can help flag issues like plagiarism and inappropriate language that are time-consuming to address in a traditional LMS. While AI may not be a substitute for feedback from instructors, it can provide regular and reliable responses to students in ways that are often just not feasible for an instructor to scale alone.

Research suggests that these tools are making an impact, e.g., HACC students who used an AI-enabled discussion platform were twice as likely to post and five times more likely to cite sources. We’ve also seen improved academic outcomes and increased retention of key concepts in classes where AI is implemented.

Perhaps most impactful are the stories from students and instructors. At first, I was surprised to hear so many of them talk about the community they were able to create and foster through online discussion. Now, though, I hear almost every week from students and faculty who have found their voices and helped their peers see challenging issues in new ways. As one HACC student put it, the platform we use “enables us to come up with answers we wouldn’t have been able to come up with just reading the textbook . . . we’re collectively working together to make the discussion as interesting as possible.”

Realizing the potential of online discussion has become even more important in the wake of COVID-19. Technology in the classroom was once a nice-to-have—now, it is an absolute must. Building an infrastructure for effective discussion has enabled HACC faculty to keep leading productive conversations even as more faculty begin teaching remotely. It is also more critical than ever to create open dialogue that elevates the contributions of all students at a time when the national discourse is focused on the many voices that are being silenced.

In higher education, we often talk about technology as something that dehumanizes the classroom experience. But across classes at HACC, we’ve seen technology light the spark of curiosity among our students and play the role of a 21st-century Socrates.

References

Bauer-Wolf, J. (2019, June 3). Speaking out in the classroom. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/06/03/new-survey-shows-fewer-female-students-male-are-ease-sharing-uncomfortable-views

Laufer, M. A. (2012). Black students’ classroom silence in predominantly White institutions of higher education. [Master’s thesis, Smith College]. Scholarworks. https://scholarworks.smith.edu/theses/639

Lederman, D. (2020, March 18). Will shift to remote teaching be boon or bane for online learning? Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2020/03/18/most-teaching-going-remote-will-help-or-hurt-online-learning

Levine, E. J., & Rascoff, M. (2020, April 15). Lessons for learning after the crisis. Inside Higher Ed.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/views/2020/04/15/restoring-learning-and-humanities-higher-educations-center-after

Doreen Fisher-Bammer

Associate Provost, Virtual Learning, HACC

Many community college students come from low-income, minority households where the family is not able to assist with college costs. Students, therefore, often work to support themselves and concurrently pay for their education. Community colleges can accommodate students whose work schedules or lack of support services, such as transportation and childcare, prevent them from accessing support resources during standard business hours and where language barriers can exacerbate the already confusing process. The college funding process is complicated in general, and students without a personal support network need more direct interaction—in person or online—with college counselors to understand their options and make informed financing choices.

Creating personalized plans for students that step them through the college funding process from initial interest to successful completion is essential to increasing graduation and transfer rates. Using data to track what strategies work for what types of students can help institutions more quickly identify at-risk students, provide timely support, and optimize positive outcomes.

Data related to American community college populations are presented below as a supplement to the cover story in this issue of Innovatus, Shifting the Focus From Student Financial Aid to Student Financial Success.

References

1. www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/02/03/student-loan-debt-statistics/#4bd85d4a281f
2. ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Community-College-FAQs.html
3. tytonpartners.com/library/finding-fit-evolution-student-centered-financial-aid
4. www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/10/31/new-data-36-million-americans-who-left-college-without-credential
5. hechingerreport.org/new-book-addresses-low-community-college-graduation-rates
6. www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-postsecondary/news/2019/10/10/475629/graduation-rates-missed-community-college-students

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CampusLogic

We are in the midst of a student financial aid crisis. Student loan debt exceeds $1.5 trillion, 70 percent of college graduates leave school with debt, and 36 million Americans currently have some college with no credential. With rising tuition costs and lower federal funding, colleges face the frustrating task of helping students make sense of financial aid processes. Through no fault of their own, they often fail. 

The Real Student Financial Crisis

Today’s financial aid system is a series of overly complicated processes and regulations hidden in thousands of pages of legislation and complex terminology. Advocates, including the financial aid community, are overstretched and under-resourced, leaving students and families to navigate the myriad complexities in the funding system while access to aid gets harder and costs escalate each year. 

The actual crisis is not the $1.5 trillion student debt, but rather the three million college students who drop out annually, many with student loans. We have a completion crisis, exacerbated by an underinvestment in technology and staff. The result is a lack of transparency, understanding, and affordability in the financial aid process, from students’ first decisions regarding college and financial aid through to their final repayment. While limited progress has been made at both the institutional and federal levels, the system is still largely seen as broken and clearly failing at-risk populations.

Community colleges have the power to solve this problem for many students. Institutions that organize, design, communicate, measure, and innovate for student financial success will enroll, engage, and retain more students.

Understanding the Student Financial Journey

Students today have more questions and fewer answers regarding financial aid. Community colleges face shifting demographics and diversified student needs across multiple generations and delivery methods. National media and federal policymakers have amplified a message that questions the value of higher education and the return on investment of a postsecondary education. 

With little to no change in access to technology or personalized financial counseling resources, many students and parents lack a clear understanding of how much financial aid is needed, how to apply for it, and how to make good borrowing decisions. Low transparency and high complexity results in three fundamental problems: a comprehension problem because students lack the financial literacy to decode relevant financial aid information; a complexity problem where students must navigate a series of overly complicated processes; and a prioritization problem as schools struggle to identify and assist at-risk students. 

An overhaul is needed regarding our thinking about financial aid and how we achieve student financial success, beginning with every community college developing and investing in a strategic student financial success plan embodying the following five core principles.

1. Organize for Student Financial Success

The typical financial aid system was built to make decisions that favor compliance and policy as opposed to student experience. The organizational structures and teams in place turn the complicated financial aid journey into a series of rote processes that can be executed quickly and accurately by offices. It may be easier to build the financial aid journey so that each piece works independently, but with little cross-integration, students feel the brunt of this disconnect as they wander through the campus maze trying to get answers to individual pieces of the funding and payment puzzle.

Colleges that embrace student financial success, however, organize around the student, focusing less on the function of financial aid and more on successful student outcomes. They organize by establishing a student financial success center populated with student financial success coaches who are student-driven cross-functional resources.

2. Design for Student Financial Success

In addition to organizing around the student, community colleges must design processes that make funding education simpler. Funding college is many students’ first major purchasing decision and it is a daunting multi-year journey. They need guided processes designed to make their choices easier and more efficient.

By partnering with external groups at the federal, state, and employer levels, institutions can better invest in student outcomes. Through redesigning and simplifying current processes and language, institutions can orient around the actual student experience. The entire ecosystem of inputs and outputs must be realigned to connect the student to the right people and resources at the right time. With innovative technology, colleges can eliminate superfluous tasks, automate repeatable processes, and empower students to self-service when possible.

3. Communicate for Student Financial Success

Historically, budget and technology restrictions have made communication between students and the financial aid department at most community colleges strictly transactional, with little to no personal advising available. Communicating for student financial success means approaching student interactions from a coaching and education mindset rather than a compliance one. Proactive, personalized advising becomes crucial to financial success, enabling institutions to provide students with the support they need to make decisions that maximize success and achieve better outcomes, like increased comprehension, lower borrowing, and higher completion rates. In return, colleges will be better able to identify at-risk student groups, creating more effective communication strategies.

4. Measure for Student Financial Success

Community colleges must track and analyze the outcomes of these key strategies. Incorporating tracking analytics and data collection into their processes enables colleges to monitor what works and what doesn’t, and to quickly course correct to achieve their goals. Creating a framework to identify what, when, and how to measure is crucial. Each step in the student financial success framework will reveal ever more targeted and specific data that will aid institutions in delivering timely, proactive, and prescriptive interventions.

5. Innovate for Student Financial Success

Finally, armed with clearer and more targeted information, community colleges should embrace a culture of innovation and experimentation. The current, broken funding model is unsustainable. Institutions must start thinking outside the box in order to enact positive change. Trying new ideas, creating new initiatives, and overhauling current processes can yield ever more specific data that will help colleges realign in the right direction. Through experimenting with alternative funding types or developing innovative partnerships, community colleges can begin to promote better outcomes, one new idea at a time.

Innovation Benefits Colleges and Students

Many institutions have attempted to improve student success by investing dollars and resources in academic success initiatives, but have left a glaring gap by not addressing students’ financial needs. By broadening initiatives to include programs and processes that address not only educational needs, but also student financial needs, institutions can better serve their diverse student populations. Colleges that focus institutional efforts on student financial success rather than student financial aid will see an uptick in student enrollment, engagement, and retention. This emphasis will lead to positive outcomes for students, as well as the institutions they attend.

Amy Glynn

Vice President, Student Financial Success, CampusLogic