Contents
Instructions / 2Introduction
Completing and Submitting the Annual Reflection
Feedback
Questions
Annual Reflection Narrative Questions / 4
Appendix A:
Student Success Measures & Definitions / 20
Appendix B:
ATD Data Template Example / 23
Annual Reflection: Table of Contents
1
Instructions
Introduction
All Achieving the Dream institutionsare required to submit an Annual Reflection (except colleges that entered ATD in 2013 that will submit an Implementation Plan). The Annual Reflection provides an opportunityto consider your institution’s student success progress over the past year and to plan for the coming year.The Annual Reflection includes several components to guide your institution in this reflective process: the Principles Assessment Survey, Annual Reflection Narrative, Interventions Showcase Update, and Leader College Application (if relevant).
Completingand Submitting the Annual Reflection
A. Principles AssessmentSurvey:To facilitate your review and reflection process, Achieving the Dream provides the ATD Principles Assessment Survey, which should be used to solicit stakeholder feedback and group reflection as well as discussion. We recommend that your institution administer this survey to a representative group of stakeholders (administrators, faculty, staff, students, etc.) who have been involved in your reform work.
Administer the online survey by sharing the link( and ask stakeholders to submit their survey by April 10, 2014. Achieving the Dream will collect the results for your institution and send an aggregated response summary to your Core Team Leader by April 23, 2014. Please note that individual survey responses will be anonymous to both the institution and Achieving the Dream. Even individual survey
responses will be identifiable only by an institution’s IPEDS Unit ID.
Once you have completed the survey and received the aggregated responses, Achieving the Dream suggests that your institution engage a representative group of stakeholders to review and discuss your student success and equity work, the results of the Principles Assessment Survey, and your outcomes data for the five Achieving the Dream student success measures. This discussion will be informative as you complete the Annual Reflection Narrative.
B. Annual Reflection Narrative: Complete the Annual Reflection Narrative document and save the document as “Institution Name_2014 Annual Reflection_Date” [ex: Mountain College_2014 Annual Report_5.10.14]. Return to the Annual Progress Site( where you will find a link to the Submission Site. Click on the Submission Site link and sign in with your email address and your institution’s IPEDS number, and upload the saved document.Also, be sure to have your chart or graph ready to upload (see Question 5 and Appendix A). The file should be saved as “Institution Name_2014 Annual Reflection_Data_Date” [ex: Mountain College_2014 Annual Reflection_Data_5.7.2014].
C. Interventions Showcase Update:Add new interventions and update existing interventions by goingto theAnnual Progress Siteand following the link to the Interventions Showcase.
D. Leader College Application (if relevant): Institutions applying for initial Leader College status and institutions required to apply for Leader College recertification must also submit a Leader College Application with their Annual Reflection. More information about the Leader College Application can be found at theAnnual Progress Site.
Feedback
Institutionswill receive feedback on their Annual Reflectionby early fall of 2014.
Questions
If you have a question about the Annual Reflection, please send an email or call 240-450-0075.
Annual Reflection: Instructions1
Annual ReflectionNarrative Questions
Please enter your responses directlyintothe spaces provided below.
Note that the period covered by this Annual Reflection is May 2013-April 2014. Please reflect on activities during this time period throughout the narrative.
Institution Name:University of Hawai‘i Maui College (UHMC)
1)Contributors to the Annual Reflection
Achieving the Dream suggests that your institution engages a representative group of stakeholders to review and discuss your student success and equity progress, the results of the Principles Assessment, and data for the five Achieving the Dream student success measures (as described in Question 5 below).
Names of Contributors to this Annual Reflection / Titles of Contributors to this Annual ReflectionBenjamin Guerrero / Title III Project Director, Campus Leader- Student Success Committee
John McKee / Vice Chancellor Academic Affairs
Kristine Korey-Smith / Director-The Learning Center
Samantha Bowe / Math
Laura Nagle / English
(You may add more rows to this table as necessary)
2)Student Experience
In what ways is your reform work transforming the way students experience college?
Question 2: Student Experience (2-3 Paragraphs)In an effort to get to know our students better and improve scheduling and course offerings, a pre-registration update checklist, a system initiative in Banner was initiated - pop up optional questions - will be required for 10 campuses for fall 2014, Maui and UH Mānoa are piloting in spring 2014. This Banner data gave us the following results:
- Of 3446 students who were surveyed about their immediate and highest educational goals, 1595 students said that their highest educational goal was the Bachelor's degree. 908 out of 1595 students (57%) said that they plan to do so at their home campus, Maui.This indicates there is a strong desire from Maui students to pursue their bachelor's degree on Maui as opposed to going away and also indicates a need for more baccalaureate options.
In round 1, 510 surveys were sent out. 94 were viewed and 74 were completed and submitted. 251 flags resulted from those completed surveys. (18 % response rate)
In round 2,507 surveys were sent out. 82 were viewed and 66 were completed. 225 flags resulted from those completed surveys. (16 % response rate)
Implementation team to survey faculty to get feedback
Possibly do a faculty focus group to inform the campus wide launch
Targets: Fall 2014- 30%, Fall 2015 50%, Fall 2016 70%
New department structure-TLC, Developmental math and English
We have established a new department structure by combining developmental math and English into The Learning Center that will be managed by the 11-month faculty Learning CenterDirector. The new department will be involved with scheduling, assessment of instructors, faculty and lecturer development, integration of academic coaching and supplemental instruction, providing tutoring services and building a stronger team toward improving services for our most vulnerable students. Meanwhile, the math and English faculty will continue to work separately on curricular matters, since it is important for developmental and college curricula to be in alignment.
In fall 2013, to serve part-time evening students, the college began a new cohort, Degree-in-3, which guarantees block scheduling to assist working, part-time students to achieve an AA in Liberal Arts within three years, including summer. For fall 2014, to serve part-time day-time students, a new cohort will be offered to allow part-time students to earn an AA degree in three years, including summer. The college has secured a grant to purchase laptops to be placed in open lab space for cohort students to use.
3)Progress Statement
Please describe your institution’s progress in improving student success and completion over the past academic year. Consider both the positive factors and challengesaffecting the student success efforts at your institution. This summary may include aspects related to the institution’s culture and environment such as leadership changes, engagement of full and part-time faculty, staff additions or transitions, state or federal influences, budget reductions, and reaffirmation of accreditation efforts.
Question 3: Progress Statement (No more than 2 pages; 1 page preferred)Developmental math continues to be a problem area for the Maui campus but some of the following changes have shown some improvements and hopes are high that these successes will be greater in the upcoming academic year. Upon deeper analysis, the math department identified student barriers with learning linear equations, which were taught early in the semester; engagement with instructors in computer-based classrooms; and difficulty keeping up with the amount of assigned problems throughout the semester. The following actions were initiated:
1) Created a Math Task Force to analyze curriculum and research best practices
2) Created a survey for current and past math students to understand challenges they were having
3) Changed approaches to lesson sequences because students were having challenges
with linear equations early in the semester
4) Adapted the current Emporium model (purely computer-based instruction) to incorporate more lectures and activities for student engagement. In fall 2014, students will attend classes 2 times per week; currently they meet with instructors only 1 time per week with one session in the math lab.
5) Providing student orientation for Math 18 students prior to taking computer-based
math courses
6) Created instructional videos to assist students with challenging course content
7) Accepted alternative placement method to COMPASS test, such as high school GPA
and transcript of math courses, as well as ACT and SAT scores
8) Reviewed the quantity of math problems assigned to maintain rigor and quality. As a result, reduced the number of mandatory homework problems in Math 18 from 1511 to 900 and reduced the number of mandatory homework problems in Math 82 from 900 to 838 during course of semester
2012 ATD Cohort Data / UHCC Success-raw/percent / UHMC Success-raw/percent / Comments
Goal 1: Dev Writing 1 level below college / 1141/1848=62 / 154/236=66 / UHMC up 8% from 2011-
Dev Writing 2 levels below / 343/555=62 / 111/142=78 / UHMC up 17% from 2011
Dev Writing 3 levels or more below / 220/338=65 / 69/91=76 / UHMC up 10% from 2011
As seen in the Table above, Developmental writing is showing improvement in all three levels below college level when comparing 2012 data to the previous year’s data. Success rates are higher overall, with the two lowest writing level courses exceeding the avg. success rates by double digit increases vs. the other 6 UHCC campuses.
The College leveraged TAACCCT round 1 funding to increase student success in developmental courses. To this end, the College, with grant funds, hired two full time instructors to teach developmental math and developmental writing courses. The college also invested in two targeted interventions that increased student success and engagement: 1) academic coaching and 2) in class tutoring.
Academic Coaching is based on one-on-one executive -style coaching to help students balance the demands of school, work, and family life. The coach challenges the student to think about his or her personal and/or professional goals in order to relate them to his or her academic/educational goals. In the learning process, the coach encourages the student to become more self-aware by understanding his or her strengths, values, purpose, and passions as well as behaviors that impede success. Coaching supports students in developing the skills and habits they need for long-term success. The College, with grant funds, contracted an outside company to deliver coaching services and also train UHMC faculty and staff to provide coaching. The fall 2012 to fall 2013 persistence rate for the coached group was 57.2% whereas the comparison group persistence rate was 52.3%.
In fall 2013, the campus provided in-class tutors who assisted students enrolled in developmental math and English courses during class or lab time. Many of the math and writing faculty modified their instruction to provide a “workshop” environment where tutors worked with students one on one or in small groups. The in-class tutoring greatly impacted the number of students enrolled in developmental education that are benefiting from tutoring services. 64.4% of students who regularly engaged with their in-class tutor perceived the tutoring sessions as helping them to improve their math and writing skills.
4)Principles Assessment
For each principle listed below, please provide a brief analysisof your institution’s aggregate responsesregarding the principles inherent to the Achieving the DreamStudent-Centered Model of Institutional Improvement.
You may access complete definitions of each of the Five Principles here.
Each principle summary should be no longer than 3 paragraphs and may also include a synopsis of your institution’s group discussions regarding each principle.
How many people from your institution submitted an online Principles Assessment?
15
Question 4: Principles Assessment AnalysisPrinciple 1: Committed Leadership (2-3 Paragraphs)
The Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs has identified that the low number of full-time math faculty members as a barrier to student success. For the past several years UH Maui College has employed four full time math faculty members with only one of this group teaching at the developmental math level, despite over 700 developmental math student enrollments each semester. To date the VCAA has successfully hired a second full-time developmental math faculty member and has a goal of finding the resources to hire one to two more thereby increasing the number of Developmental Math faculty from one to four. He is also pursuing hiring additional college level math faculty with the overall goal of growing the size of the math department from four to nine or ten full time faculty members.
The UHMC VCAA is also the VCAA representative to the system ATD Core team. In this role he attends system meetings and serves as a liaison between ATD and the System VCAA group.
Administration from UHMC and the UHCC Systems Office of the VP have continued their commitment of funds for strategies to increase Developmental Education, increase student access through improvements in Financial Aid processes, Innovations to increase Student success, and reduced summer tuition rates for developmental math and English, and courses that have a tie to a developmental education course.
We also must commend our UHCC Systems Office VP Morton who has set aside funds for ATD Innovations; improve Financial Aid services and participation, and improvements in developmental English and math. The UH system is also supportive of developmental course rate reductions during the summer. Students who decide to take these courses pay the same rates per credit hour as the previous semester. Usually summer courses cost 3 times as much when compared to the fall and spring semester.
NSO has yet to be institutionalized even though we have evidence from 2008-2013 that shows that no matter how NSO has been changed in its curriculum, or pedagogy, regardless of staff changes, and assuming all other related support services (counseling, advising, etc.) remained similar over these time periods, NSO has a positive, lasting effect on retention, even more so for Native Hawaiian students. Our new, Interim VC Student Affairs will approach administration about institutionalization of NSO.
Assessment Survey results showed that (100%) of those surveyed believe that faculty leaders are increasing or fully support a broad-based student agenda.
Principle 2: Use of Evidence to Improve Policies, Programs, and Services(2-3 Paragraphs)
A UHMC representative who attended the DREAM Institute in 2013 brought back a strategy from Guilford Technical Community College: Developmental Education Initiatives & Completion by Design thatshowed data for students who bypassed developmental math, enrolled in college level math and were successful. Our campus decided to implement this strategy and started a pilot to allow incoming students from the graduating class of 2013 who had a cumulative high school GPA of at least 2.6 and had passed Algebra II with a C or better to immediately enroll in an entry level college math course regardless of COMPASS score. We had 20 students whose COMPASS test placed them into developmental math who chose to be members of the pilot.
The following table shows students who qualified for the Alternative Placement Pilot and chose to self-place into a college level math course either in summer 2013 or fall 2013, even though their COMPASS placement was 18 or 82.
Maui Data
Course taken / Participants / Successful
(C or better) / Success Rate / MAU historical SR (Fall 05 - ) / Number of students for MAU historical SR
Math 100 / 2 / 1 / 50% / 56% / 1220
Math 103 / 18 / 12 / 67% / 66% / 816
Total / 20 / 13 / 65% / - / -
NH success rate was 62%. This pilot will continue and the math dept. is looking to scale up the pilot to include all students who meet the qualifications the opportunity. As mentioned previously, currently only graduating high schoolers entering the college who meet the requirements can take this course.
Assessment Survey results showed that 1) (60%) of those surveyed believe that Little/No policies and procedures are in place to ensure integrity of the data, 2)(60%) of those surveyed believethat IR staff capacity is inadequate to meet demand for data and research, 3) (53%) of those surveyedDO NOT think IR staff effectively educate and assist college personnel to use data and research to improve programs and services, 4) (47%) of those surveyed think that the college should conduct more surveys and focus groups with students, faculty, and staff to identify weaknesses in programs and services and opportunities for improvement, (see Goals and Plans for 2014-2015 for action plans).
Principle 3: Broad Engagement (2-3 Paragraphs)
In summer 2013, the UHMC Achieving the Dream campus team reorganized into a new committee that analyze and discuss college student success initiatives. This committee has been charged with developing a system for assessing and prioritizing student success initiatives to help determine which strategies should be given support and be institutionalized. This ongoing assessment will help the college understand which of the numerous initiatives have the most impact in student learning. The plan was to reach out to others in the campus community to increase the scope/reach of student success strategies.