On December 1st, CCA convened representatives from its Alliance teams and various institutional and organizational leaders in the region. In addition to a panel of experts that addressed key topics in the region, CCA held breakout sessions where attendees had an opportunity to identify higher education priorities to address COVID-19, economic downturn, and inequitable outcomes for our students. The event was co-facilitated with our colleagues from CollaborativeLabs.
Top 4 Prioritized Areas of Focus, within College Completion, for the Alliance & Region
- Reinforce the understanding about the purpose and value of higher education.
- Redesign/reimagination of higher education to better serve students (removing barriers or been-like-this-for-ever)
- We need to double down on making sure that every student has the access, mechanisms, and infrastructure to become students at our institutions. Displacement of Covid has created a whole new set of barriers. This will disproportionately affect minority students.
- Revisit the large scale CCA pillars through the lens of the environment of Covid-19 (15 to finish, co-requisite). We know these are tried and true but need to revisit how they work in covid-19 environment
Additional Areas of Focus for the Alliance & Region
- Disparity in collecting and analyzing data – Creative solutions to bring equity among all of our colleges to analyze data.
- Align to job economic development. Help students see the goal at the end of the tunnel and the opportunities out there
- Before students get to college…how do they get prepared to go to college and find success in college (linking K-12 & Post-Secondary) – Having conversations together!
- Financing of higher education/affordability (state appropriation, adult financial aid)
- Finances, particularly for low-income students, beyond CARES act to support students so they matriculate and persist in college.
- We need to identify what will make institutes feel like a safe space in this new reality. Mental health plays a huge part in understanding what the delivery model looks like. Are we going to have budget in place to support this?
- Equity data: disaggregating data to better understand needs of students
- Addressing the technology divide so students are missing hardware and/or Internet and technology skills to have reliable access so they succeed in higher education.
- Alignment to workforce. They need motivation to complete in whatever way we can adjust teaching & services
- Adjustments to how institutions use stimulus. Roll out new initiatives instead of spending the money business as usual
