Overview
ACC was one of 10 community colleges across the country to participate in the inaugural cohort of Achieving the Dream’s Racial Equity Leadership Academy (RELA). In partnership with the Center for Race & Equity at the University of Southern California (USC), a small leadership team from each community college received coaching and guidance from both Achieving the Dream and USC as we examined our data and developed a racial equity change effort (RECE). ACC’s RECE was informed by student focus groups as well as data, and focused on the top eight high enrollment/high withdrawal gateway courses.
Accomplishments
- For the 2022–2023 academic year, ACC supported the creation of a Racial Equity Leadership Academy Faculty Learning Community (FLC) to support a reduction in student withdrawals in the top eight high-enrollment/high withdrawal “gateway” courses in history, math, English, and student development.
- Throughout the year, 73 faculty engaged with 18 hours of synchronous professional development that led to substantive changes in syllabi, learning environments and faculty-student interactions.
- 67 faculty members completed all professional development activities and deliverables.
Impact
Preliminary data showed much improvement in faculty confidence concerning student engagement. We will build on this and on what our students have told us in focus groups to help more faculty offer a welcoming, inclusive, and engaged learning environment for all students.
Next Steps
- A new cohort of up to 80 RELA FLC faculty will be identified and invited to our second year’s activities.
- We will also survey the fall semester-enrolled students of the first year FLC cohort to compare both student perceptions and withdrawal rates between fall 2022 and fall 2023.
- This work has also spearheaded additional professional development opportunities, especially in the area of asynchronous inclusive teaching environments which will be held for the first time in summer 2023.