Progress on the goals from COM’s 2015-2016 Student Equity Plan
A.1. Offer JumpStart program of a tuition waiver for high school students attending College of Marin
Progress: Completed and Ongoing: Tuition costs of dual-enrolled students have been waived, leading to more avenues for access in transitioning students from high school to college. We continue to use funding to support dual enrollment programs at College of Marin.
A.2. Continue pilot of expanded services and evaluate the impact of Student Accessibility Services' Individual Tutoring and learning disability testing on student success and equity
Completed and Ongoing: Equity funds have been utilized to embed tutoring services within our Student Accessibility Services area and directly support our students with disabilities population. We have also been able to update our technology assistance capabilities and continue to provide for our students in academic settings. In addition, SAS continues to provide learning disability testing for our students.
A.3. Pilot and evaluate the use of Equity Funds to support access to course materials and activities for low-income students, particularly in Basic Skills courses and learning communities.
Completed: Our Equity funds have been used to provide a variety of programs that support our basic skills students and learning communities such as textbook rentals, laptop rentals, and tutoring.
B.1. Continue and expand the implementation of COM CARE early alert program to assist and retain students at risk.
Ongoing: We have expanded our COM Care Team and have instituted weekly check-in meetings in order to provide updates and support for students at risk.
B.2. Enhance coordination and expand opportunities for students to participate in learning communities.
Completed and Ongoing: Our three learning communities have grown and developed considerably in the last couple of years with support from staff, faculty, administration, and access to Equity funding. With their robust growth and increase in programmatic structures, the learning communities curriculum and coordination will be integrated into the new Guided Pathways model that COM will be implementing. This will allow for greater co-curricular coordination and will allow room for the anticipated growth of the programs. It will also allow for more cross-community events and activities to develop a network of support and increased campus visibility.
B.3. Review current course prerequisites, co-requisites and advisories and assess student success in courses lacking prerequisites or advisories.
Ongoing: More work needs to be done in this area to glean significant results.
C.1. Sponsor Algebra Academy to enhance math preparedness, STEM career interest and college-going behavior of first-generation, low-income, English learner Latino students in Marin County.
Completed: Through a partnership between COM and the North Bay Leadership Council of Marin, the program was implemented with some success. However, COM’s efforts are now redoubled in COMPASS and reaching a higher number of high school students.
C.2. Create Math Professional Alignment council to align high school to college math curriculum/course content to reduce math placement into college basic skills level.
Completed: The council was created and the work was completed. Data derived from the work helped inform the growth of the COMPASS and Summer Bridge programs at College of Marin.
C.3. Continue growth of Summer Bridge program.
Completed and Ongoing: The Summer Bridge program has been developed and continues to grow. In 2014, we offered just one cohort, and 24 students completed the program. However, in 2016, that number grew to 86 students, eliminating 89 semesters of remediation. Then in 2017, we offered five cohorts, and 118 students completed the program, eliminating 64 semesters of remediation (The number of eliminated semesters decreased from 2016 to 2017 as a result of using Multiple Measures for placement, as many students placed higher and directly into transfer level courses).
C.4. Support Basic Skills Master Planning, including partnering with those involved and BSI Steering Committee around recommended initiatives.
Ongoing: Many of the recommendations from the Basic Skills Master Plan are in development, such as structured pathways (Guided Pathways), HUM 101, College Hour, and greater focus on inclusivity with the IDEA Committee.
C.5. Offer Math Jam to enhance student success on assessment for placement.
Completed and Ongoing: Our Math Jam program has been implemented and continues to help COM students place higher through intensive math review the week prior to classes.
C.6. Provide Enhanced Counseling Outreach to ESL Students
Ongoing: We have been able to successfully offer enhanced counseling for ESL enrollment through weekend events as well as night hours and continue to provide these opportunities multiple times each semester.
D.1. Outreach to students undecided on majors, in Basic Skills, or on academic/progress probation or dismissal for federal aid or BOG fee waivers
Ongoing: One semester, we contacted undecided students to come in for an appointment, but we had limited success. We have also offered workshops for students on probation or dismissal, but they were low attended. However, soon we will be offering a one unit course (Counseling 105) for these students, and with our Guided Pathways framework, we hope to create a more effective system and structure for tracking and supporting students.
E.1. Increase Puente Program
Ongoing: With the assistance of Equity funding, Puente has integrated math tutoring into the program and can now provide better support toward basic skills subjects. Puente continues to grow at College of Marin.
E.2. Implement UMOJA program
Completed and Ongoing: The Umoja Learning Community was successfully implemented and continues to provide essential wrap-around support for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds. As Umoja develops, the community is actively engaged in creating community development programs, linked Umoja courses, and instituting peer mentorship opportunities.
E.3. Continue and expand as needed recent targeted outreach to classes, marketing of Transfer Fair to students, staff, and faculty, as well as other efforts to promote transfer.
Ongoing: Transfer ambassadors are working to bridge students who are transferring with offices that can provide direct student support and build communities of support around disproportionately impacted identities. This will include multicultural affairs and EOP offices at transfer institutions.
F.1. Redesign master course scheduling to ensure sufficient and timely offerings, complementary planning to avoid key conflicts to support transfer and degree attainment.
Ongoing: We are currently in the process of mapping to align with transfer and degree attainment. We plan to connect and integrate this work into the Guided Pathways framework to inform the master schedule redesign.
F.2. Increase support for and retention of enrolled Foster Youth
Ongoing: We are working to expand our focus in this area.
F.3. Implement COMPASS to increase the college readiness of participating students and contribute to their academic success in high school and beyond, predicated on the belief that college is an inevitability, not just a possibility.
Completed and Ongoing: COMPASS has been expanded from just one to five high schools with 234 students enrolled in Fall 2017 and 250 students in Fall 2018. Our COMPASS coordinators and counselors have worked closely with the local high school districts, greatly increasing COM's visibility and providing high touch points of access.
F.4. Implement EAB's Navigate platform to enhance onboarding and retention of students
Complete: The Navigate platform was unable to adequately meet student needs.
F.5. Increase staff resources for equity data collection, research and analysis to support equity planning.
Completed: A senior research analyst position in PRIE is now being partially funded with Equity funds. By supporting staffing in the PRIE department, COM has been able to create a bridge between the data collection and analysis and the programmatic support of equity initiatives.
F.6. Increase staff and faculty resources to support equity planning, coordination, and achievement of related goals.
Completed and Ongoing: An Equity Coordinator staff position was created and filled. In the past year, the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity Action) Committee and Integration Working Committee were created to support equity planning, coordination, and the achievement of these initiatives at the College.
F.7. Improve Veteran student outreach, services, support, and coordination
Completed and Ongoing: We continue to improve our support services for Veterans.
F.8. Seek Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) federal funding status
Ongoing: While COM’s Latinx population is 30%, the College does not currently meet all of the criteria to become an HSI. However, we continue to investigate the possibility of submitting a waiver application.
F.9. Provide professional development opportunities for staff and faculty that enhance awareness, understanding, capacity and motivation to support student populations identified in equity plan.
Completed and Ongoing: We have held a number of Flex events and professional development opportunities for our staff, faculty, and administration in the past two years. Some of them include:
- Sending staff, faculty, administrators, and students to attend a number of conferences including:
National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE)
Achieving the Dream
Instructional Design Conferences
Equity Summits
On Course Conference
Veterans Summit - Offering on-campus professional development flex opportunities including:
Understanding the needs of students with disabilities
Understanding the needs of veteran students
Undocually Workshop
Campus-wide Equity Summit