1. Los Angeles Community College District Annual Summit Friday September 23, 2011 Keynote: Experiencing Achieving the Dream at Northern Essex Community College

2. Be alert for the Epiphanies… … and think hard about how to use them

3. Keynote Agenda Introduction/Background Impact of Achieving the Dream at Northern Essex Fishbone Exercise Epiphany: The Importance of Policy Faculty Interest in Achieving the Dream

4. Your Guides Rick Lizotte: Professor of ESL, instructional designer, faculty leader; 26 years at NECC Co-Chairs of the Northern Essex Community College (NECC) Achieving the Dream Core Team: Bill Heineman: Faculty member, Dean, and now Vice President of Academic Affairs; 15 years at NECC

5. NECC Facts Located in Haverhill and Lawrence, Massachusetts

6. NECC Facts Over 7000 credit students each semester On suburban Haverhill campus And urban Lawrence campus Demographics 62% part-time 62% female 40% minority (28% Hispanic) Average age: 27 Median age: 23

7. Achieving the Dream Comes to NECC Four principles of institutional improvement Committed leadership Use of evidence Broad engagement Systemic institutional improvement

8. Precursors to Achieving the Dream Strategic Planning Key Performance Indicators Process Management Other “pockets” of a research-based approach: in grants by individual faculty in their own inquiry

17. Fishbone Diagram Exercise your turn to theorize about causes of effects

18. Filled-in Fishbone Diagram

19. Back to Fishbone: Lessons Learned? Including a wide constituency promotes broad engagement taps valuable experience/multiple perspectives Models culture of inquiry you are trying to build starts with questions develops hypotheses searches for evidence to prove/disprove

20. One Epiphany for NECC … So do college policies, both large and small Changes in policy proposed and passed No more late registration Mandating developmental prerequisites The “three-peat” rule Eliminating marks that encourage course dropping One-year limit on placement exam results Although instruction, advising, and support in first-year do influence student success…

21. Thank You! Questions? Rick Lizotte: [email_address] Bill Heineman: wheineman@necc.mass.edu

22. Achievements in Years 1-3 Mostly modest but steady progress in the numerical goals we set for students