about

The Center for Student Success is the research and evaluation arm of the Research & Planning Group. CSS seeks to:

  • enable researchers, practitioners, and policy-makers to identify educational strategies and exemplary practices that promote the success of California community college students

 

  • provide California community colleges with professional research and evaluation expertise to support the adoption of strategies and practices applicable to real time situations at the college level

 

For more information, visit: http://www.rpgroup.org/css/index.html

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CSS reports

We could do that! The Promoting Diversity Practices Project

We Could Do That! is a manual with tools and strategies that California community colleges can use to serve the state’s growing and increasingly diverse student population. Based on findings from a research project a City College of San Francisco, We Could Do That! will inform, inspire, and connect current and aspiring diversity practitioners. The manual begins with an introductory section explaining the history, purpose, and methodology of the project and several themes that emerged from the research. The second part of the manual features thirty case studies describing promising and effective diversity projects. The case studies give readers a quick impression of each project and are based on dozens of interviews with faculty, administrators, and staff members who have hands-on experience designing and implementing the diversity projects. Each case study contains a description of the project, evidence of its impact and success, and information about the cost, skills and staffing, environment, special conditions and project funding. There is advice from practitioners and a contact for each project who is willing––and likely even eager––to tell you more. The intended audience includes decision-makers and diversity practitioners, and the information provided about each project was gathered with these users in mind. The goal of the project is to have decision-makers exclaim: “We could do that,” after reviewing at least one case study in the collection. The content of each case study was gathered with the practitioner in mind and it is presented to answer questions such as, “How do you know it works?”, “What does it take to get started?”, and “Where did you get the money?”. The range of projects covered is deliberately inclusive. They come with a range of price tags and include possibilities for large and small, urban and rural, and well-funded as well as financially stretched colleges. The projects were identified through a research process that used multiple approaches, including a statewide survey of diversity practices and an analysis of state hiring data, to identify promising projects. This data was analyzed and a list of the most promising practices identified for additional research, which included extensive phone interviews with individuals involved in each project.

RESOURCES

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