Address on Student Success.

By Barbara Dunsheath

This is a welcome address I presented at opening day to the faculty, staff and administrators of NOCCCD. This is the direction I will continue to advance as a trustee.

Our job is to provide them with exemplary educational opportunities and assist them to achieve their dreams. The need for increased success resonates from multiple voices.

• President Obama has challenged the country to produce more college graduates.
• The National Center for Public Policy contends that the United States no longer leads the world in adults receiving bachelor degrees and is falling behind other industrialized countries in college attainment.
• The Commission on the Future calls for one million more college completions by 2020.

Our nation and our state need educated citizens. Our community benefits from our efforts. Nearly one half of college graduates begin their higher education at a community college. Community colleges provide 70% of the nurses for the state and 80% law enforcement officers. Every dollar spent for community colleges returns revenue to society approximately three-fold by providing job skills for employment at livable wages; reduced health care costs; reduced crime and imprisonment. Community college graduates are more likely to be informed citizens who vote, volunteer and participate in our communities.

Our students deserve the best. After all, these are the children of my friends who I've watch grow from newborn babes.

The board articulates the vision, but we need to work collegially together to achieve it. This will require some courageous conversations. We expect to do things differently. We hope to build a culture of evidence where the current status is unacceptable. We want to increase course completion; fall to fall persistence; and degree and certificate completion. The needle on these measures needs to move.

As you begin this year, consider what your part will be to ensure student success and how we can work across silos to adopt practices that promote completion. This is not to diminish the noble efforts and conscientious dedication you as professionals have already contributed. Nor is it a simplistic exercise in lowering standards. Nor is it the latest fad. It is a primary mission of NOCCCD that says every student counts and deserves not only access to college, but attainment of their educational goal. It is not enough to merely get into a class. Students need to successfully complete the classes they enroll with a passing grade.

At my initiation, the board along with the approval of the District Planning Committee has developed an Innovation Fund. It is the Board's desire that this fund seed money for any district employee to create projects aimed at student success, based on best practices, with measurable outcomes. As district employees, you are most qualified to ascertain the needs of our students.

To quote a former patriot, "All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1,000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."

Thank you