Achieving the Dream Initiative collects data on education barriers

MOSES LAKE — Figuring out why certain demographics of students are not accessing and progressing through college programs is a question the Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count Initiative is intended to help Big Bend Community College administrators answer.

"Our student population should mirror the demographics in our service district and they don't do that right now," said Terry Kinzel, BBCC director of family literacy and WorkFirst Foundation services.

BBCC is one of six community and technical colleges in the state to participate in the national initiative.

As part of the college's participation, it will receive grant money and support in order to implement strategies to help students, specifically those of color and low income, succeed.

"This will help our faculty use hard and fast data to establish practices that will help more students complete their degrees," said BBCC President Bill Bonaudi in a statement released by the college.

The college has already been awarded a $50,000 grant from College Spark of Washington to launch Achieving the Dream. Next year BBCC will apply for a implementation grant worth up to $400,000 over a four year period.

In several communities within the college's service district, which include all of Grant and Adams counties and the Odessa School District in Lincoln County, there are a high percentage of minority and low income populations.

Educators say they are often prevented from education and work opportunities because of language, economic, transportation and other barriers.

"I think if we keep that amount of our community out of a pathway to post-secondary education that keeps the service district as a whole from growing economically," Kinzel said.

BBCC is in the process of collecting data beginning with students in the fall of 2003 and following their progress over a six year period as they continue beyond BBCC. The demographic being examined include those in professional and technical programs and academic transfer students.

Data from all 58 participating community colleges nationwide is to be collected and used to implement strategies to help under served students better succeed.

"We're just trying to see what and where are the (barriers) for our students," said Valerie Kirkwood, director of institutional research and planning. "If we find that then we're going to try and figure out why."

According to the Access monitoring report for BBCC from March of 2006 students of color make up 42.7 percent of students in state-supported classes. In the community college system 31.9 percent are students of color compared to 23 percent in the state population.

The report also shows that 29.3 percent of adults (age 25 or older) in the BBCC service district, which includes all of Grant and Adams counties and the Odessa School District in Lincoln County, have not attained a high school diploma or its equivalency. That is compared to 10.6 percent in Washington state.

"We collect data in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons but we haven't looked at our data in this way before," Kinzel said. "We have done a good job of access, but not hanging on to the students you get."