Achieving the Dream at BCC

welcome back atd sessions

Welcome!

BCC was a successful candidate due to its committed leadership, its equity goals aligned with those of the grant and ATD, and its preparation of a compelling argument for inclusion.

Dr. Mary E. Ostrye, a consultant to ATD

Conceived in 2004, Achieving the Dream (ATD) now leads the most comprehensive non-governmental reform movement for student success in higher education history, and its efforts are gaining attention.

ATD accepts grant applications from community colleges; recently, BCC won a grant to become part of an ATD cohort called Building Resiliency in Rural Communities for the Future of Work.

BCC ATD Action Plan (PDF)

Nearly half of all students seeking higher education choose a community college. Fewer than half of those students actually finish what they start. ATD, a national program that partners with more than 300 community colleges, including BCC, is determined to change that statistic.

Contact Us

Adam Klepetar, Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management
aklepetar@berkshirecc.edu
413-236-2140

Laurie Gordy, Vice President for Academic Affairs
lgordy@berkshirecc.edu
413-236-2103

We initially engaged with ATD at the same time we began working on our institutional Strategic Plan in 2020. Since then, our work with ATD has informed many of the equity-centered strategic projects we have launched, including making improvements to the first-year student experience, enhancing support through advising and coaching, and prioritizing access to essential needs, financial support and open educational resources.

President Ellen Kennedy

Ellen Kennedy

ATD at BCC

  • BCC Announces New Liberal Arts Course and Digital Literacy

    BCC announces the creation of Introduction to Liberal Arts, a first-semester course available for all students declaring liberal arts majors without concentrations.

    With a focus on career and educational planning, the course engages students in thinking critically about their academic and/or career plans with an emphasis on digital literacy. Faculty involved in developing course content represent a range of liberal arts disciplines, including communications, biology, music, psychology, English and math.

  • BCC Announces SUCCESS Program

    BCC was pleased to announce it has received an allocation earmarked for the Supporting Urgent Community College Equity through Student Services (SUCCESS) Fund, which focuses on vulnerable populations.

    Check out the SUCCESS funding press release

    Visit Academic SUCCESS Coach

    Through this work, BCC improved overall fall-to-fall persistence for first-time-in-college students by 14.1 percentage points, from 42.2%for the fall 2019 cohort to 56.5% for the fall 2022 cohort. The College implemented three main strategies over thatthree-year time period, all aimed at increasing first-year persistence: first-year experience improvements,investments in student success supports and early alert interventions, and enhanced financial support forstudents.

  • Workforce Readiness

    Workforce and Community Education embedded Life Skills That Matter, a Workforce Readiness curriculum, into its paraprofessional cohort noncredit trainings. The majority of the graduates found immediate employment in the Berkshires. The focus would be to embed this curriculum into future workforce trainings as well.

Mission Statement for Student Success

At BCC, student success is the heart of everything we do. From connection to completion, and at each step along the way, we will guide and assist you in exploring and attaining your academic and career goals. Through integrated academic and support services across the college experience, and clear, concise academic pathways that align to you interests and aspiration. We believe in you and your potential and will do all that we can to help you achieve your goals.

ATD Data Points Examples:

  • Persistence from Year One to Year Two (fall-to-fall retention)

    Pell recipients improved in fall-to-fall persistence from 39.4% for the 2019 cohort to 62.3% for the 2022 cohort,while non-Pell recipients improved from 46.9% for the 2019 cohort to 48.6% for the 2022 cohort.

  • Completion of gateway math and/or English in Year One
    • Gateway course completion between White students (started 56.1%, ended 51.7%) and Black students (started 31.6%, ended 58.8%). The equity gap moved from 24.6 to –7.1.
    • Gateway course completion between White students (started 56.1%, ended 51.7%) and Hispanic students (started 45.7%, ended 75.8%). The equity gap moved from 10.4 to –24.0.
  • Improvements since working with ATD

    Since engaging with Achieving the Dream as part of the Rural Resiliency Cohort, BCC has instituted a studentsuccess strategy focused on improving first-year student retention and gateway course completion. BCC's targetedstrategies fall into four areas:

    1. First-year experience improvements;
    2. Gateway course curricular reform;
    3. Investment in student success supports; and
    4. Improved financial supports for students.

    The College's successmetrics show that we have moved the needle on our larger student success metrics for all students, with fall-to-fall persistence for first-time-in-college students improving from 42.4% for the fall 2019 cohort to 56.5% for the fall 2022 cohort. In addition, these initiatives narrowed the College's equity gaps between White students and students ofcolor (especially for Hispanic/Latinx students, whose retention rates improved by 29 percentage points from the2019 to 2022 cohorts) and between non-Pell recipients and Pell recipients (whose retention rates improved 22.9percentage points from the 2019 to 2022 cohorts).

Institutional Capacity Assessment Tool

The Achieving the Dream Institutional Capacity Assessment Tool is an online self-assessment to help colleges assess areas of strength and improvement in the Institutional Capacity Framework. Institutions may also use the tool to measure changes in capacity over time.

The purpose of this Results Summary is to display the aggregated responses from all college participants and disaggregated results by functional area and role to identify areas where there is a convergence or divergence of opinion. The results may be used for individual reflection and as a springboard for campus conversations on overarching themes, strengths to celebrate or build on, opportunities to
build, and actions to build capacity.

View the Results Summary (PDF)

In addition, the completion of the self-assessment allows Board members, administrators, faculty and staff to evaluate their institution's level of capacity in relation to what improved capacity could look like.

View the Response Distribution Summary (PDF)

ATD Virtual Visit I Capacity Cafe

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