Recent Work with the Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin TRiO Chapters

April has been a great month for interacting with MAEOPP members about submitting education practices to the MAEOPP Best Practices Center. The Center hosted a webinar on April 3rd with MAEOPP members from more than 30 institutions. Another webinar was provided as a preconference workshop for nearly a dozen members of the Michigan TRiO chapter. I had the opportunity to address attendees of the combined Minnesota/Wisconsin TRiO chapter meeting about the work of the Center. In addition there was opportunity for a number of personal conversations about submitting practices to the MAEOPP Center.

The more that I have the opportunity to talk with people, I gain new language to use when describing the work of the MAEOPP Center. One conference attendee put it this way. "It is like the conference sharing tables that we have taken advantage of for decades. People leave handouts, extra copies of Power Point presentations, and other resources for other TRiO programs to use." The MAEOPP Center functions in a similar function, it is just an online version of the sharing table.

Another MAEOPP conference attendee shared with me how she would respond to others who think that they maybe do not have anything to contribute to the MAEOPP Center for other TRiO programs to review. She said, "We may all do nearly the same things, we all do them differently based on local student needs and local resources." The MAEOPP Center celebrates the diversity of ways we all work to achieve the same TRiO program goals. The practices you could share do not have to just be something new, it may be an education approach or practices used successfully by your TRiO program for decades.

Please consider attending one of the free webinars that explores the possibilities of education practices that might be sugmitted and the procedures to do so. Even if you do not know what you might share, attend the webinar and it may generate some ideas. The webinar is only 90 minutes with frequent stops for discussion and questions. Think about having a couple of you participate from your TRiO program. During those stop periods during the webinar you can brainstorm with your colleagues.

Free webinars will be held on Friday May 4th and Friday June 8th from 9:00 to 10:30 am Central Time. Click on the "webinar" link on the top menu bar of this page to register for the event and receive instructions how to join the event. We hope you will.

Assistance for Submitting Promising Practices to the MAEOPP Center

To encourage submissions from a broad range of MAEOPP TRIO and other education opportunity programs, the MAEOPP Center offers a series of webinars to help MAEOPP members submit their promising practices to share with others. These webinars will provide examples from other MAEOPP members that are submitting some of their program activities. The webinars will also feature video interviews with some of them. The webinar team will include Dr. David Arendale, MAEOPP Center Project Manager. Enrollment for each free webinar is limited to 100. Please click on the web link below to register for the webinar. If you have questions, please contact the MAEOPP Center at education.practices@gmail.com or (612) 625-2928. Thanks for your interest.

Video Recording of April 3rd Webinar on Submiting an Education Practice

Click on the following to view a video recording of the webinar for submitting an education practice,  https://netfiles.umn.edu/users/arend011/talks/MAEOPP-PP/Submitting to MAEOPP Center.mov  The following documents were shared in conunction with the webinar.

• Handout of the Power Point Slides

• Instructions for submitting an education practice

• Sample of a submission

Still Time to Register for April 3rd Free Webinar on Submitting Your Education Practice to the MAEOPP Center

Nearly 20 schools have registered for the free webinar identifying steps to sharing your promising and best education practices with others within MAEOPP. I will also be conducting a preconference webinar for the MnTRIO and Wisconsin state chapter meeting in Duluth in a few weeks. Please joinus. To register, click on the "webinar" tab on the menu bar.

Free Webinars for Submissions of Promising and Best Practices to the MAEOPP Center

The primary mission of the MAEOPP Center is identifying, validating, and disseminating best and promising practices to increase student achievement and graduation. To encourage submissions from a broad range of MAEOPP TRIO and other education opportunity programs, the MAEOPP Center offers a series of webinars to help MAEOPP members submit their promising practices to share with others. Instructions for those submissions are found under the main menu tab named "submit" located on the web site (http://besteducationpractices.org).

The MAEOPP Center offers free webinars to help people prepare submissions of promising practices. Enrollment for each free webinar is limited to 100. Please click on the web link below to register for the webinar. If you have questions, please contact the MAEOPP Center at education.practices@gmail.com or (612) 625-2928. Thanks for your interest.

Click on this link to register for the April 3rd Webinar, 9:00-10:30 a.m. (Central Time)

More Information About Call for Practices by Dept. of Education

A perfect opportunity has been created for educators to share promising and practical strategies to increase postsecondary success, transfer, and college graduation through the U.S. Department of Education. Please read further how you can share what works with your students and programs with your colleagues nationally. While it is the middle of the academic term and you no doubt have more than a full work load, do not miss the chance to influence other educators and policymakers with what you know for making a difference and demonstrate how your profession has the expertise to increase college success rates. The priority review deadline for submission is April 30th.

The U.S. Department of Education announced at its College Completion Symposium and posted to the Federal Register on January 30, 2012 a Request for Information (RFI) for any person or organization to share with them strategies for increasing college completion that may then be made available through a special web site created by the Department. Submissions received by April 30, 2012 receive priority consideration for dissemination. Click on the following web link for the complete announcement published in the Federal Register, https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2012/01/30/2012-1963/promising-and-practical-strategies-to-increase-postsecondary-success#p-3

It is important in your proposal to stress the unique features of your activity or program. For example, while many schools have a tutoring or mentoring program, what is novel about yours? How are your credit-hour courses different than others? These are some of the questions the RFI asks for the submissions to address.Based on the regulations from the published announcement in the Federal Register, click on the following web link for suggestions by a Jandris Center staff member for the submission: http://www.besteducationpractices.org/storage/pdf-documents/Summarized%20RFI%20Announcement.pdf

For more official information and technical assistance with the submission, contact Dr. David Soo at the Department of Education, (202) 502-7742, david.soo@ed.gov Information about the Jandris Center is available at http://cehd.umn.edu/jandris/

Department of Education Collecting Strategies for College Completion

The U.S. Department of Education has asked colleges and universities to report on their successful strategies toward achieving President Obama’s goal of the United States having the highest percentage of postsecondary-degree holders in the world by 2020. In a notice scheduled to appear in Monday’s (January 30) Federal Register, the department is reaching out to institutions of higher education, as well as states and nonprofit organizations, for strategies that have worked. The reported best practices, the notice says, will be posted online in due course.

The U.S. Department of Education is convening a one-day symposium on college completion on Monday, Jan. 30, for 50 of the nation’s leading researchers, policy experts, and practitioners from 30 postsecondary institutions to identify evidence-based best practices that work to increase college completion. At 2:30 p.m., Education Secretary Arne Duncan will address the symposium, challenging participants to think creatively about ways to substantially boost college completion.Sessions will highlight ways to support students’ achievement through accelerated programs, learning communities and bridge programs; as well as through advising, coaching and mentoring. The symposium will also focus on affordable and innovative ways to promote completion in an effort to meet President Obama's goal that the United States once again have the highest college attainment rate in the world by 2020.

New Report Highlights Practices to Increase College Completion Based on Experiences from Illinois

Illinois Lt. governor Sheila Simon this month released a report called "Illinois Community Colleges: Focus on the Finish." <Click on this link to download the complete report> It is practical examples how the collegtes are implementing practices to improve college completion rates for their students. Some of these could be appropriately modified and integrated into TRIO and other opportunity programs.

Following is the Executive Summary of the report: Community colleges are the future of the Illinois economy. Nearly 1 million students pass through their doors each year in search of accessible, affordable education and career training. Unfortunately, too many students leave campus without the certificate or degree necessary for a good-paying job. Slightly fewer than one in five Illinois students who began their studies as first-time, full-time students at Illinois community colleges in the fall of 2007 graduated by the summer of 2010. In order for our state to attract and retain businesses – and do right by our students – we need to dramatically increase this success rate.

As the Governor’s point person on education reform, I completed a statewide fact-finding tour of all 48 Illinois community colleges in 2011. I wanted to hear firsthand how schools were working to improve completion rates, and to gather input on how the state could facilitate their success. Given that community colleges reach more students – but graduate fewer – than other higher education institutions, their performance is critical to creating a globally competitive workforce.

Today, the Illinois workforce is slightly ahead of most states, with 41 percent of our nearly 7 million working-age adults (25-64 years old) holding at least a two-year degree. But if we do not increase the proportion of certificate and degree holders over time, Illinois will not only fall behind our neighbors, but also lose out on international job investment. As Chair of the P-20 Council’s Joint Educational Leadership Committee and a member of Illinois’ Complete College America team, I am working to increase the proportion of Illinoisans with meaningful college and career credentials to 60 percent by 2025.

During the tour, I found that colleges are actively pursuing the state’s “60 by 2025” completion goal. I witnessed several small scale, but promising, reforms to prepare incoming students and reduce the time it takes for them to earn credentials and enter the regional and national workforce. These emerging on-the-ground practices, coupled with overviews of national research and completion strategies, provide the foundation for this report.