EVANSVILLE — Ivy Tech Community College has joined a nationwide movement aimed at boosting the quality and global competitiveness of associate degree recipients.
"Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count" involves more than 100 institutions in 22 states.
"It's the largest privately funded community college initiative in the history of community colleges," said Dan Schenk, chancellor of Ivy Tech's Evansville campus. The Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation for Education is a major donor.
Community college enrollment is increasing locally and nationally. Schenk said a goal of Achieving the Dream is to help local colleges develop information-based strategies to help students reach their potential.
Member institutions are to receive:
On-campus coaching with faculty, staff and leadership.
Assistance with data collection and analysis.
Access to information on innovative and successful practices.
Networking opportunities and resources to address barriers.
Guidance on engaging the college and community in supporting student success.
Achieving the Dream, Schenk said, is a national effort to bring about "culture change" in community colleges.
It represents a transition away from emphasizing issues such as enrollment and facilities and toward "educational output," Schenk said.
Ivy Tech has 23 campuses across Indiana and more than 150,000 students. The community college system joined Achieving the Dream only recently, and "several colleges are further down this road than we are," Schenk said.
However, he noted the Evansville campus already is implementing student intervention strategies that mirror those of Achieving the Dream.
The college is requiring new students to go through an orientation process and individual academic plans are developed for students who need remedial education courses.
A new academic advising center has assisted nearly 2,000 Evansville students since opening this year.
Schenk said Ivy Tech, consistent with the mission of Achieving the Dream, is using data analysis like never before to help students.
Achieving the Dream is especially concerned about the academic plight of minority students and students of low income, he said.
Schenk said Ivy Tech will be collecting and examining demographic data as it considers "what kinds of interventions we need to put in place to help students."
The Ivy Tech Evansville campus' own strategic plan for 2013, mirroring that of Achieving the Dream, calls for "more degrees, more certificates and providing a more competitive workforce for Indiana," Schenk said.
He said the college will look to build on cooperative efforts with K-12 schools, noting Ivy Tech is working with the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. on its Early College High School.
That program, which is in its first year, is designed so students can earn both a high school diploma and work toward an associate degree or up to two years of credit toward a bachelor's degree before high school graduation.
Other participating schools in that effort are Vincennes University and the University of Evansville. "As the state moves in this direction, we're going to be well positioned," Schenk said.