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Narrowing the Education Gap with Lia Wetzstein, CCRI

UW Today shares Undergraduate Academic Affairs’ recent interview with CCRI director Lia Wetzstein to discuss critical details of the importance of transfer. Having recently attended the U.S. Department of Education’s first ever National Summit on Transfer, Lia examines the paramount issues surrounding transfer between two- and four- year institutions and their impacts. Lia also details the work CCRI contributes to building the necessary bridges for students across pathways, centering equity and student support within the processes of transfer for continually building student success. 

 

Read more on UAA’s Q&A with Lia Wetzstein on how community college transfer students help narrow the education gap

Photo of attendees of Raise the Bar Summit.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

On 01/15/1929, one of the most prominent philosophers, political leaders, and civil rights activists came into the world, Martin Luther King Junior. And it is on this day that we honor the memory of him and his call to action within his “I Have a Dream” speech. It is through these words that we continue to guide our research and action, towards a more equitable and inclusive world for all people moving through the education system.

 

Whether through our Rural Learner Success research, where we examine the processes of rural learners and how best to support them along their academic journey, or our STEM transfer research, where we continue to support and build connections across universities and community colleges for our future STEM leaders, we continue to move towards the future that King called for. As King describes, “Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives”. 

 

With this phrase in mind, we welcome you to join us in our celebration and progress toward the future King describes. As we take time to honor him, we gathered a list of resources for ourselves and want to share them with you.

The Seattle MLK Coalition

Northwest African American Museum

United Way of King County

University of Washington Women’s Center
The women’s center has recently launched a leadership and equity-based program with more updates to come.

UW Health Sciences MLK Tribute
The UW Health Sciences team has created a space for shared stories and connections regarding anti-racism and activism.

Bridging the Rural Mentorship Gap: A Data Note on Mentorship Programs in Rural Community Colleges

A recent data note, the first in a series, published by the Community College Research Initiatives and generously funded by the Ascendium Education Group as part of its Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success initiative, examines mentorship programs at public 2-year rural-serving institutions (RSIs). Using institutional website data, it explores the prevalence, distribution, and focus of mentorship programs, shedding light on who these programs serve and the variations across states.

The findings highlight an asymmetry in the distribution and location of mentorship programs across 444 public 2-year RSIs. While 301 of the 444 RSIs had at least one mentorship program, the number of programs ranged from one to eight per institution. A large proportion of mentorship programs lacked an explicit focus on underrepresented student groups. Approximately 3 out of 10 programs (29%) explicitly targeted low-income students, and 10 percent of programs targeted specific racial/ethnic student groups in their program descriptions. The analysis also found that many website descriptions did not provide clear information on who was providing the mentoring and how mentorship was defined.

These findings inform our future questions:

  1. Mentorship: How is mentorship defined, and who is providing the mentoring? What structures are embedded within mentorship programs that support the success of rural community college students?
  2. Rural Student Experience: How do mentorship programs impact the academic and career outcomes of rural community college students?
  3. Intersectionality: How do mentorship experiences align with rural students’ evolving needs and intersectional identities, including low-income and racially minoritized students?
  4. Best Practices: What best practices can be identified to inform mentoring models that are adaptable and tailored across institutions to support the success of rural community college students? How can programs better cater to the unique needs of students residing in rural communities? How does rurality play a role in program design and implementation?

In the next phase of this research, CCRI is exploring these questions through in-depth interviews with staff and student support practitioners, focus groups with students, and a national student survey. The “Landscape of Mentorship Programs at Rural Serving Community Colleges” data note serves as a starting point for understanding the availability of mentorship programs across public 2-year RSIs. As this research progresses, the insights this work provides will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of mentorship in rural settings, guide the development of inclusive and effective mentorship programs for rural students, and work towards bridging critical gaps in serving historically underserved students at RSIs.

In Recognition and Celebration of Native American Heritage

The month of November is recognized as Native American Heritage Month. In 2009, President Barack Obama signed “The Native American Heritage Day Resolution,” designating the Friday after Thanksgiving as “Native American Heritage Day.” After signing H.J. Res 40 into law he stated, “I encourage every American to join me in observing Native American Heritage Day….It is also important for all of us to understand the rich culture, tradition, and history of Native Americans and their status today, and to appreciate the contributions that First Americans have made and will continue to make to our Nation.”

 

Along with us at CCRI, we invite you to celebrate Indigenous Heritage, the cultures, and the many communities in which these people are deeply rooted. It is our responsibility to recognize the mass genocide and atrocities committed by settler colonialism and it is our commitment to ameliorate the residual effects. Honoring the resilience and strength of Native and Indigenous peoples, we continue to build paths of healing and connection with those who came before us in our research and conduct at CCRI. 

 

The following resources and websites provide excellent information and ways to engage and support our indigenous communities: https://www.nativehope.org/ provides information on methods of support and information regarding the history of indigenous peoples, https://native-land.ca/ provides information regarding the peoples whose lands we occupy and the communities affected by one another, and the UW Office of Tribal Relations and UW Native Life provide on-campus sources for support, protection, and embracing of our Indigenous and Native students, staff, and community members at UW.

 

The University of Washington acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip and Muckleshoot nations. Whose land are you on?

New Data Dashboard from the Transfer Summit

Last week CCRI Lia Wetzstein, joined fellow delegates selected to represent Washington state at the Raise the Bar Transfer Summit where over 200 higher education professionals are gathered. 

 

This summit brings together state, institution, and other leaders in the field and is part of the Raise the Bar: Attaining College Excellence & Equity series: Tackling Transfer to Increase Access, Improve Completion, and Prepare Today’s Workforce.

 

At the summit, the federal government released new data. Since then, CCRC (Community College Research Center) an East Coast-based research organization, has turned it into a data dashboard and we want to share it with all of you.

 

https://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/easyblog/new-federal-transfer-data-which-colleges-are-serving-community-colleges-transfers-best.html

Raise the Bar Transfer Summit

Today, November 9th, CCRI Director Lia Wetzstein joins fellow delegates selected to represent Washington state at the Raise the Bar Transfer Summit where over 200 higher education professionals are gathered. This summit brings together state, institution, and other leaders in the field and is part of the Raise the Bar: Attaining College Excellence & Equity series: Tackling Transfer to Increase Access, Improve Completion, and Prepare Today’s Workforce. https://lnkd.in/gQ7N3j-4

Literature shows that transfer disproportionately impacts students of color and other underserved students including those from low-income backgrounds. Despite the national statistic that 40% of students transfer at some point in their higher education journey, the barrier of credit loss has yet to be resolved. The impact on these students is that their degree will cost more, take more time, and for some not be able to earn the credential they sought in the first place.

To that end, the intention for this immersive summit is to make progress toward increasing access and completion for all transfer students.

The day-long summit will take place at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia.

Celebrating First Generation Students Day

We invite you to join us in celebrating National First-Generation Day. It is a call to celebrate students, faculty and staff who are the first in their family to attend college. November 8 was identified as the date for the annual National First-Generation College Celebration to honor the anniversary of the signing of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

First-generation students consist of a diverse group of leaders. Moving through unique challenges and adversities, these students are paving the way for their families and the greater communities they come from. We also want to acknowledge the first-gen staff and faculty for all of their incredible work and dedication to higher education, including our own CCRI team members Lia Wetzstein, Mayra Nunez Martinez, and Leandra Cate.

The University of Washington, across all three campuses, has available an incredible amount of resources for our First gen students. For more information, you can learn more about these resources HERE

STEM Transfer Partnership’s Convening 4

We are excited to share the great work being accomplished with this community of practice which is dedicated to improving transfer for STEM students from low-income backgrounds. The STEM Transfer Partnerships program convened for the 4th time last week and we experienced new connections being made for STEM pathways among 2- and 4-year institutions in WA state, sharing ideas on ways to continue growing and sustaining these partnerships, and new team members! We’ll be writing about what we’ve learned from this convening and look forward to sharing it with you. We invite you to read our previous 3 data notes on structuring STEM transfer partnerships, complex networks of community and learning from students.

 

                 

NTSW: Cultures of Collaboration- Making Transfer Happen

Transfer, whilst an individual’s choice, does not come easy. There are many considerations when approaching the decision to move from one locale of education to another. Just as it is difficult for students, institutions must also work through the difficulties of losing certain students or moving them through different phases of their collegiate careers. At CCRI, we recognize these points as critical and unique experiences of transfer. As such, we centered a “Culture of Collaboration” as the backbone of the CCRI mission for transfer partnerships.

 

In this culture, we are dedicated to four guiding principles that allow the success of the program to continue well beyond what we can hope for. These principles are as follows: student-centered focus, win-win perspective, equal commitment to the partnership, and web of connections. These principles have allowed countless students to go through the transfer process feeling more confident and supported whilst also supporting the means of connecting institutions to one another in an equity and student-forward framework.

 

You can learn more about this dynamic framework HERE.

 

AAAS 2020

Transfer, as a critical component of student life and educational function, deserves increasing recognition and collaborative effort put forth, and we have extended ourselves above and beyond to do just that. Many of our institutions continually fulfill those connections and build up those pathways for our students to succeed. As such, in honor of National Transfer Student Week, we want to recognize our amazing members of the institutions working to continue to support and build these pathways just as much as it is vital to recognize the incredible students who have directed our research into this phenomenon.

NTSW: Overcoming the Turbulent Period of COVID-19 Through CCRI Student Support

MoveInDay_2020 072.jpg

With Transfer being one of the most understudied yet most frequently occuring phenomena in higher education, it is important to recognize the functions at play involving societal inequities that continually contribute to adversities transfer students face. Considering transfer students already deal with intense adjustments depending on the institutions they come from (i.e. new requirements, new social communities, and completely readjusting their own approach to participation in contrasting cultural even linguistic circumstances), providing students with adequate connections, staffing support, and guidance becomes a much-needed tool in their tool kit for success. 

 

Attending to student needs, overall, has taken a massive shift since the pandemic. Being a transfer student during this time poses a unique challenge of navigating two big transitions as they adapt to a new institution. One is the online learning environment and adjusting to regulations and rules that continue to change, and one is related to returning to the “normal” standards of the school (something students are unaccustomed to because of the pandemic’s influence). 

 

The CCRI team sought to raise awareness on transfer student needs during this time. Our researchers, Debra Bragg, Lia Wetzstein, Elizabeth Apple Meza, & Theresa (Ling) Yeh analyzed different methodologies to support students and bolster their success during this unstable period. Read more about this in Data Note 11 of the Transfer Partnership Series.