SCT

Success College Team

Update

March 2002

Report on Success Forum 1

About 50 BHCers attended the first Success Forum held Tuesday, March 5 at noon in A-203.  There was a lively discussion around the topic of redefining success.  What follows is a summary of some of the themes that emerged during the discussion:

1. Implement.  A number of participants talked about past initiatives which generated a lot of talk and valuable ideas but which still languish unimplemented.  They suggested that rather than "reinvent the wheel," it would be a good idea to build on past ideas and actually implement them.
   
   Comment: One example cited was the advisement task force (EAT) several years back.  In fact some of initiatives Thread IV is working on are directly related to that task force’s report.  In that way, Success College is sort of Son of EAT, and an opportunity for a belated implementation of all that good work.
   
   
2. Focusing on "at-risk" students/Building on success:  Here were two contradictory themes.  First, the idea that we should focus our energies on those students who have certain characteristics which predict difficulty in college.  The second idea was that we make "appreciate inquiry" into what we did right to help students who ended up successful.
   
   Comment: There is no reason why we can’t do both.  It makes sense for us intervene with students who need the help.  But it is also wise to try to work back from success to what we did to encourage that success.  The approaches are not an either/or.  This leads to the next theme.
   
   
3. Success Stories.  Part of the motivation for Success College was to find a way to celebrate what we already do well.  We all know "successful leavers" who didn’t show up as successes in the traditional measures-graduation rates etc.  A number of participants expressed a desire to  collect those "Success Stories" so that the College can document the difference we make to students.
   
   
4. Listening to Students.  There was a lot of discussion of involving students in planning for their own success.  The students present were particularly articulate on the subject.  They made the point  that student success is often about what happens on campus outside of class as well as in the classroom.  A corollary of listening to students was the idea of listening to all students, with special emphasis on night students who might be looking for different services from day students.
   
   
5. A couple of people noted that we cannot individualize all our services for students-that we have to treat categories of students (first time in college students, high risk students, honors students etc.), but one faculty member noted that we can and do individualize in class.  And it might be added that although we have to devise programs for categories of students, we can implement the programs in an individualized way.
   
   
6. A comment was made that we need to pay attention to the "incremental goals" that our students can achieve on their way to achieving larger goals.  For example, if student achieve short-terms goals (like feeling comfortable and confident by end of the second week in a class), they will be more likely to achieve larger goals, like getting a passing grade in the course.  The aggregation of achieved incremental goals will lead eventually and inevitably to larger successes.
   
   
7. "Did you feel successful?"  One participant proposed that question as a way of getting students to tell us about the effect of a class or program.  And the follow up question:  "What action did you take as a result of that success?"
   
   
8. Scaring students.  One participant commented that her best students were the ones-like women returning-who were most scared.  She didn’t propose scaring students as a policy, but there was agreement that some of our students would benefit from a healthy and realistic appreciation of the consequences of their actions-studying versus not studying, coming to class versus not coming to class etc.

Addendum:  Another point of view on student success has come my way personally and electronically from a colleague who could not attend the forum, but wanted his position represented:  it deals with success in instructional areas which is measured by how well students are able to perform in the "real world" after they leave us. 

The view is that one important function (perhaps the most important function) of the instruction we provide is to produce completers who are highly creative and highly productive (Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Knowledge Integration etc.) and who will thus be able to give back to the tax-base community that initially paid their way to "success."

The question of how we measure this "real world success" is a thorny one, but our colleague suggests that a follow up of completers would get at it.  (Others have talked of reviving the alumni association.) 

This point of view reminds us that student success is not to be achieved by watering down standards and therefore giving students only the illusion of success.

What can happen as a result of this meeting?

1.      The Success College Team hopes that participants in the forum (and those who read this report) will volunteer their ideas and their time to help work on one of the various initiatives.

2.      We intend to heed the advice that students be involved in all aspects of our work.

3.      The idea that Success College has to proceed to implementation remains central to our work.

4.      We will work on the idea of finding ways to document our success stories.

5.      We will continue to look for ways to define student success in ways which help us help students.

6.      We will be aware of maintaining standards for instruction as we work for student success.

7.      The "we" that is working on Success College will continue to grow until we all are Success College.

The Success College Team wish to thank our member, Linda Lee, and her staff, Karen Belgard, Dennis Maddox, and Sheila Williams, for all their efforts to make the first Success Forum a success.

- Ed Garcia