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SANTA BARBARA CITY COLLEGE NAMED ‘HEWLETT LEADER IN STUDENT SUCCESS’
Source: SBCC

Santa Barbara City College was one of only four from among 110 community colleges in California to received state-wide recognition in October for its innovative efforts to increase the success of students in basic or “pre-collegiate” skills. SBCC was named one of the “Hewlett Leaders in Student Success” at an educators’ conference in Anaheim and received a stipend to support efforts to share their strategies with other schools.

The Hewlett Leaders in Student Success program seeks out colleges that have made significant progress in basic skills education, offering models of institutional commitment to this issue in mission, planning and practice. Along with SBCC, the other winners were Columbia College (Sonora), De Anza College (Cupertino), and Southwestern College (Chula Vista).

SBCC has long made service to under-prepared students a top priority. The college’s Partnership for Success, now in its third year, transformed the approach to basic skills education. This broad effort expanded advising and tutoring and sparked collaboration between academic and student services. Gateway to Success is a faculty-driven tutoring program developed for basic skills courses. Its impact on retention and success was so persuasive that the program soon expanded to higher-level classes. This fall Gateway encompasses nearly 350 sections in 42 departments. The college’s goal is to have one quarter of all credit-bearing classes offered as Gateway courses.

Basic skills education is designed to help underprepared students master the skills required for success in transfer-level courses. Every year roughly half a million students arrive at a California community college with the goal of transferring to a four-year college. But at least 70 percent are not prepared.

Experts from across the country contributed to the selection of the 2008 Hewlett Leaders. Data analyses identified strong programs, and visiting teams made site visits to interview faculty and administrators.

Hewlett Leaders in Student Success is administered by the Research and Planning Group of the California Community Colleges and funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

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