University Business - November 2006 - (Page 84)

END NOTE Accounting for Outcomes Colleges can close the student achievement gap by focusing on defining problems. By Marshall Drummond T previously called the Diversity Scorecard H E CALIFORNIA COMMU have varied by school, overall it's apparent nity Colleges system is vast: 112 that this work is valuable and can help re- colleges and 50-plus centers serving form institutional practices and policies about 2.5 million students annually. There such as curriculum and teaching methods. are many exemplary programs and educa- When I learned of the Lumina Founda- tional practices, and a virtual renaissance is tion for Education providing $300,000 to taking place in our colleges' physical plants implement Equity for All in a small num- as communities and the state invest nearly ber of community colleges, I jumped at $17 billion in rebuilding. the chance to help fund the project and Overseeing all of this from a policy and spread the participating institutions over fiscal perspective is the Board of Governors. Marshall a broader spectrum of our college taxono- In the 1990s, long-standing concerns about Drummond mies. I matched Lumina's contribution with student performance and outcomes led the The aim is to find $300,000 of personal funds so 10 colleges, board to pass a requirement that every col- rather than three or four, could participate. lege prepare and submit a student equity blockages or gateways The ultimate goal of implementing Eq- plan. The requirement kicked in in 1993. in student academic uity for All is to find a model that can be The system's enrollment demographics performance. used across the system as a research basis for are almost identical to California's overall the next generation of student equity plans. demographics. However, the end results Only by using a proven and uniform tool namely graduation and transfer rates don't for gauging students' success throughout Institutional Responsibility for Student mirror the ethnic or gender makeup of the their educational progression will we be able Success, is headed by Professor Estela Mara state. The idea of these student equity plans to locate and fix the pedagogical and struc- Bensimon of the University of Southern was primarily to make our back door tural problems that are continuing to make California's Rossier School of Education. more reflective of our front door. our back door much less diverse and equi- It involves a number of our colleges, to- Despite more than a decade passing, the table than our front door. gether with some public and private com- quality of the plans has been mixed. Some Equity for All involves teams of faculty, prehensive universities. The project's aim colleges have yet to submit one. Part of the counselors, and administrators using cam- is to disaggregate student academic perfor- problem: no framework for the development pus data to identify gaps in academic out- mance data, and then look for identifiable of the plans was provided, and no specific comes for underrepresented students. Team blockages or gateways that prevent certain measurements were required. This resulted members assume the role of researchers and underrepresented students from moving in plans that varied from well-thought-out develop ownership for the problems our further in their pursuit of education. proposals based on research and quantita- colleges face. They want to take action. Most achievement gap initiatives focus tive outcomes, to plans that were idealized We have much confidence that the on solutions. Equity for All focuses on de- stories of how things would be in a perfect Equity for All project will provide us with fining the problem. It uses the Equity Score- world. The system office has provided some the uniform framework needed to help us card, an analysis of educational outcome framing structure and measurement require- help more students reach their educational indicators and benchmarks organized into ments, but much work remains to be done. goals. four perspectives: academic pathways, re- tention, transfer readiness, and excellence in AN EQUITY SCORECARD achievement. While the results and applica- That's where Equity for All comes in. The Marshall Drummond is chancellor of the Cali- fornia Community Colleges system. tions resulting from the use of the scorecard project, whose full name is Equity for All: 84 | November 2006 www.universitybusiness.com EndNt1106.indd 84 10/23/06 11:09:19 AM http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - November 2006

Table of Contents
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Editor's Note
Stats Watch
People Watch
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
Marketing
Human Resources
Money Matters
Community Colleges
Wireless: The "n" is Near
TECH Central
Rising Stars
Coming Back from Katrina
Business Technology
What's New
Calendar of Events
Direct Connect
End Note

University Business - November 2006