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Richland College has been selected as one of 20 new community colleges in seven states to participate in Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count, a national initiative to help more community college students succeed.
With the addition of these colleges, the initiative has grown to include 102 institutions -- 98 colleges and four universities -- in 22 states.
Achieving the Dream (AtD) is a long-term national initiative to help more community college students succeed -- particularly those students who traditionally face the most significant barriers to success, including students of color and low-income students. The initiative is built on the belief that broad institutional change, informed by student achievement data, is critical to significantly improving student success rates.
Each new college has made a two-year commitment to further enhance its focus on closing performance gaps among students in targeted populations.
“Achieving the Dream colleges are identifying methods for increasing student success and implementing interventions to create institutional improvements for all students,” said Carol Lincoln, a senior program director at MDC, Inc., the managing partner of AtD and its national director. “We’re excited about bringing these new colleges into AtD and continuing our tradition of providing educational and societal benefits to colleges, students and communities around the country.”
“Achieving the Dream colleges have proven successful at ensuring that a student success agenda is a clear strategic focus at all levels of the campus community,” said Jamie P. Merisotis, president and CEO of Lumina Foundation for Education, which has been the initiative’s primary funder since its inception in 2004. “We’re very pleased to help provide this opportunity to additional colleges and, more importantly, to the students they serve.”
Student Success is one of Richland’s strategic planning priorities. Participating in this initiative will assist Richland in advancing its ongoing efforts in assessing and implementing strategies designed to help more students earn degrees, complete certificates, or transfer to other institutions to continue their studies.
“Aligned with our vision to be the best place we can be to learn, teach, and build sustainable local and world community, this initiative will help us benchmark best practices with other AtD institutions to identify additional methods for increasing student success and implementing interventions to create institutional improvements for all students,” said Richland President Stephen K. Mittelstet.
Other new Achieving the Dream community colleges include:
CALIFORNIA
College of the Sequoias, Visalia
San Jose/Evergreen Community College District
San Jose City College, San Jose
Evergreen Valley College, San Jose
ILLINOIS
Danville Area Community College, Danville
Elgin Community College, Elgin
Morton College, Cicero
Triton College, River Grove
Harper Community College, Palatine
INDIANA
Ivy Tech Community College, Indiana
KANSAS
Johnson County Community College, Overland Park
MARYLAND
The Community College of Baltimore County, Baltimore
MICHIGAN
Macomb Community College, Warren
NEW YORK
LaGuardia Community College, Long Island City
SOUTH CAROLINA
Greenville Technical College, Greenville
TEXAS
Austin Community College District, Austin
Blinn College, Brenham
Odessa College, Odessa
Temple College, Temple
VERMONT
Community College of Vermont, Waterbury
About Richland College
For 37 years, Richland College of the Dallas County Community College District
has focused on teaching, learning and community building. Richland
helps students build their future through courses that can be applied
to the first two years of a baccalaureate degree, one-or two-year
certificates in a number of career fields, and training in the latest
technology for students who want to advance in their current careers.
The student body of more than 17,000 college credit students and more
than 4,000 continuing education students at Richland is internationally
and ethnically diverse, speaking more than 79 first languages. Visit www.richlandcollege.edu for more information.
About Achieving the Dream
Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count is a national initiative
to help more community college students succeed, particularly students
of color and low-income students. The initiative works on multiple
fronts — including efforts on campuses and in research, public
engagement and public policy — and emphasizes the use of data to drive
change. Achieving the Dream was launched in 2004, with funding provided
by Lumina Foundation for Education. Seven national partner
organizations work with Lumina to guide the initiative and provide
technical and other support to the colleges and states. They are: the
American Association of Community Colleges; the Community College
Leadership Program at the University of Texas-Austin; the Community
College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University; Jobs
for the Future; MDC Inc.; MDRC; and Public Agenda. MDC is the
initiative’s managing partner.
