College picked for program designed to improve graduation rates for minority, disadvantaged students

FARMINGTON — Minority students from high-poverty backgrounds at San Juan College will be getting a little extra support in their efforts to earn a degree or a certification, thanks to the institution’s inclusion in a new national program designed to increase their upward mobility.

San Juan College was informed in February that the school had been accepted as one of 10 community colleges across the country for the three-year Accelerating Equitable Outcomes cohort of Achieving the Dream, a reform network of 300 community colleges across the nation. The Accelerating Equitable Outcomes program offers comprehensive strategies to help more students — especially those of color and disadvantaged backgrounds — earn postsecondary credentials, thus creating pathways to jobs with higher wages, better benefits and the potential to move up the economic ladder.

The cohort is being funded by a $20 million donation from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, according to San Juan College President Toni Hopper Pendergrass. She said the college applied for the cohort in December and learned it had been accepted to the program in February.

“We’re elated,” she said, noting that the competition for inclusion in the cohort was stiff.

The other institutions that will make up the Accelerating Equitable Outcomes cohort are Antelope Valley College in Lancaster, California; Contra Costa College in San Pablo, California; Hartnell College in Salinas, California; Kennedy-King College, Malcolm X College, Olive-Harvey College, Harold Washington College and Wilbur Wright College, all part of the City Colleges of Chicago system; and Queensborough Community College in Queens, New York.

“Achieving the Dream colleges are distinct: They chose transformation over tradition, curiosity over inaction, and innovation over the status quo," said Karen A. Stout, president and CEO of Achieving the Dream in a news release announcing the members of the cohort. “The effort will help 10 more colleges meet their student success goals, transform their institutions and normalize opportunities for racially minoritized students to make their way into lucrative careers that contribute to community economic growth.”

Pendergrass said she believed San Juan College was chosen because of its strong commitment to a student success agenda, one that already places a high priority on preparing students for jobs where they can earn a sustaining wage. That element that will be strengthened by the college’s membership in the Accelerating Equitable Outcomes program, she said.

San Juan College will receive two coaches who will work with the institution on the issues the program is designed to address over the next three years, she said.

The institution also will send several staff members to a kickoff institute for cohort members in June that is designed to introduce the colleges to the program.

“We’ll start learning about how they can help us through coaching and national experts to close the equity gaps,” Pendergrass said.

San Juan College officials likely will begin implementing some of those strategies by the fall semester, she said.

Pendergrass noted that reducing or eliminating the barriers that minority and disadvantaged students often encounter during the course of their studies is something her institution has been focused on for some time.

“We’ve been on this journey for several years,” she said, citing several other programs the college has been part of that are targeting a similar goal.

The school has implemented a number of changes over the years to help challenged students finish their course of study and earn a degree or certification, she said, most notably, “right sizing” all its degree and certificate programs. That means streamlining those programs to ensure that students can complete them in a reasonable amount of time, before the outside pressure of their lives leads them to drop out for economic, family, personal or other reasons.

San Juan College also largely has eliminated placement testing, she said.

“We place students in college-level courses with or without (outside-the-classroom academic) support based on their self-reported high school GPA,” she said. “And in the case of math classes, it’s based on the last math class they took (in high school).”

Pendergrass said those changes have paid off, citing statistics that show the college has had a 7.8% annual increase in graduates since 2010. Additionally, she said, 83% of San Juan College students graduate, transfer to another institution to continue their studies or remain enrolled at the institution — a strong indication of how successful the school has been at helping students avoid dropping out.

Nevertheless, minority students at the college continue to trail the broader student body in the graduation rate, she said, indicating there is a 5% to 12% gap in graduation rates when broken down for race, ethnicity and gender.

“We’re trying to get to the bottom of it, but students have a lot of obligations,” Pendergrass said, explaining that San Juan College tries to offer what she called “wrap-around support” for its students with programs that address not only their academic needs, but also their child-care, transportation, housing, food, mental health, emergency and other needs.

“We want to help them achieve a better life because we have an obligation to help them achieve a better life,” she said.

In another sign that those efforts are paying off, she said, San Juan College experienced an 8% increase in enrollment this spring and a 9% increase in credit hours.

“We’re excited about that,” she said.

But getting students enrolled and getting them to the finish line of a degree or certificate are two different things, Pendergrass acknowledged. San Juan College officials have their eyes firmly on the second objective, she said, adding that she believes her students appreciate the lengths the institution goes to to anticipate and address any obstacles that might interrupt their studies.

Several years ago, Pendergrass said, the college surveyed its students and found that 95% of them said they would recommend San Juan College to a friend or relative. That’s the best endorsement she can think of, Pendergrass said, for the kind of supportive environment school officials are trying to create.

“We’re really proud of that statistic, but we don’t take it for granted,” she said.

Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.

This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: San Juan College joins national Accelerating Equitable Outcomes cohort