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The ACCT 2019 Community College Leadership Congress was held from October 16-19 in San Francisco, marking the event’s 50^th anniversary.  The organization supports Trustees, Leadership Boards and Presidents of Community Colleges across the country, and aims “to foster the principles and practices of exemplary governance while promoting high quality and affordable higher education, cutting-edge workforce and development training, student success and the opportunity for all individuals to achieve economic self-sufficiency and security.” The event’s theme was “Past is Prologue;” the focus heavily on preparing for the future and the evolving roles of community college leadership in the quickly changing landscape of higher education.

Last week I attended the Achieving the Dream (ATD) Data & Analytics Summit in College Park, Maryland. Achieving the Dream is an organization dedicated to the success of community college students and closing achievement gaps, especially for low income students and students of color.  Our client, Harford Community College (HCC) is one of 277 colleges currently partnering with ATD to build institutional capacity and develop transformative student success initiatives. HelioCampus’ partnership with HCC has allowed us to not only support the immediate analysis needs of the institution but also provide key performance metrics for ATD.

Our latest eBook explores the topic of analytics programs specific to community colleges. It is an unfortunate truth that discussions of analytics and predictive modeling in higher education often neglect to include community colleges. This may be due, at least in part, to the fact that the majority of community colleges have an open-door admissions policy. Not requiring SAT scores or a specific high school GPA means they often have less robust data sets on incoming students than universities with stricter acceptance requirements.¹ But the absence of specific data points does not mean analytics programs are not needed at community colleges, only that those data needs are different.

After all, more than a third of credit-seeking community college students are nontraditional (over 24 years of age), a stat which begs the question: do the high school grades of a 42-year-old professional looking to expand a skillset really tell us much about their likely success as an adult learner? Community colleges have a unique set of challenges and, like their four-year counterparts, data can help
address these challenges, boost student success, and support institutional goals. Follow along to learn six best practices for building and maintaining a community college analytics program. 

Recently we partnered with Inside Higher Ed and Harford Community College's President, Dr. Dianna Phillips, for a webinar on Implementing Transformational Analytics Strategies. The webinar featured an engaging discussion that started with sharing the challenges facing Harford Community College (HCC) (and other community colleges), and why HCC chose to invest in strategic planning tools and technologies to solve them.

The mission of the North Carolina Community College System is to open the door to high-quality, accessible educational opportunities that minimize barriers to post-secondary education, maximize student success, develop a globally and multi-culturally competent workforce, and improve the lives and well-being of individuals. The 2018 NCCC Summit was a wonderful opportunity for educators and administrators across the state to come together and share knowledge and best practices for improving educational outcomes.
The keynote speaker challenged the audience with the following thoughts:

Last week, I had the privilege of attending Achieving the Dream’s (ATD) Data & Analytics Summit which focused on the data needs of community colleges today, and what to expect going forward. During the conference, I represented HelioCampus, as a corporate sponsor, and in support of one of our first community colleges partners, Harford Community College. With limited expectations before the Summit, this opportunity really changed my perspective and opened my mind to the world of community colleges and the communities they serve.