Evidence of Excellence - South Texas College

South Texas College is one of twenty-seven community colleges selected nationally in Round One (2004) to build a culture of evidence to help improve student success. Achieving the Dream aims to bring about change within community colleges and in state and federal policy. The initiative also seeks to augment knowledge about strategies that increase student success and to expand public support for raising postsecondary attainment levels.
At its core, the initiative seeks to help more students reach their individual goals, which may include earning a community college certificate or degree, attaining a bachelor's degree, and/or obtaining a better job. Achieving the Dream colleges maintain a high degree of access for historically underrepresented groups while working to increase the percentage of students who accomplish the following:

• successfully complete the courses they take;
• advance from remedial to credit-bearing courses;
• enroll in and successfully complete gatekeeper courses;
• enroll from one semester to the next;
• earn degrees and/or certificates. 

South Texas College is one of two institutions of higher education selected to participate in a pilot program with Public Agenda and MDC to help colleges and the community work together to help more students succeed in college. The initiative involves the creation of a Leadership Team at the college, made up of a diverse group from the community. The Leadership Team works together to reflect and assess the community’s history, assets, and current leadership culture. The Leadership Team also received training and related materials to utilize Public Agenda’s community conversation model to engage the community in a dialogue about creating a college-going culture and helping student succeed in college.

South Texas College was one of six community colleges in the nation selected to participate in Phase two of the Excelencia in Education Latino Student Success (LSS) at Hispanic Serving Institutions initiative. Starting Point: Community College engaged six selected community college HSIs and build on their partnerships with the baccalaureate granting HSIs that comprise the LSS coalition.  These two-year HSIs in California, Texas, and New York were asked to use the LSS model to:

1. Analyze institutional practices on persistence of Latino students at selected community colleges.
2. Engage the campus leadership, including the community college presidents, in a dynamic and productive dialogue about how their institutions serve Latino students academically.

The purpose of the initiative is to assess the data capacity of the participating community colleges as well as identify community college practices and qualities of institutional leadership that enhance Latino student success. The study of institutional practices that promote Latino student success in community colleges is important, as almost 60% of Latino students today begin their post secondary education in community colleges.

Accelerating Latino Student Success (ALASS) at Texas Border Institutions:

South Texas College was one of eight institutions of higher education selected to participate in the Excelencia in Education initiate, Achieving Latino Student Success. The initiative required the institutions to examine, benchmark, and design plans to accelerate Latino student success.

Beacon Mentoring Program Study:

South Texas College is one of a select group of Achieving the Dream colleges chosen by MDRC to participate in a national evaluation of innovative strategies to increase student success. The STC Beacon Mentoring Program is a collaborative initiative by the divisions of Academic Affair and Student Affairs & Enrollment Management to increase success rates in gatekeeper courses. The program assigns a trained Beacon Mentor to a gatekeeper course. The faculty member and the mentor work together to provide a support structure in and out of the classroom. The program requires at minimum four mandatory visits by the mentor with the students. Preliminary results indicated that they program has a positive effect on student retention and completion.

Male Ethnographic Qualitative Study:

South Texas College is one of five colleges nationally chosen as a site for a MDRC Male Ethnographic Qualitative Study. The purpose of the study is to provide details and depth of understanding to the experiences of minority male community college students who are taking developmental coursework. The study is focused on learning more about factors that affect student engagement and retention in their developmental coursework and in college more generally.

Achieving the Dream Cost Study:

South Texas College is one of a select group of colleges chosen to participate in the MDRC Achieving the Dream Cost Study. The purpose of the cost study is to learn more about the real expenditures that colleges are making in both staff time and hard costs to launch and maintain their Achieving the Dream initiative. Understanding the true costs of the initiative is a critical component to understand how Achieving the Dream will be sustained over time and adopted by those outside of the initiative.

MetLife Foundation Community College Excellence Award:

South Texas College is one of two colleges nationally to be selected for the MetLife Foundation Community College Excellence Award. The award recognizes community colleges that demonstrate significant success in student outcomes, particularly for students from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in higher education. To be considered, colleges had to demonstrate institution-wide commitment and achievement in helping high-need students enter and succeed in postsecondary education.