A Decade of Impact: Two CCA Fellows Reflect on Ten Years of Complete College America

PETER ADAMS:

My first experience with Complete College America was in June 2010 at the inaugural convening in Nashville. I was invited to the event because of the work I had been doing to develop the first co-requisite model in English: ALP at the Community College of Baltimore. I remember sitting in the back row of what looked like a United Nations General Assembly: giant, U-shaped tiers of seating with delegations from 22 states sitting together behind microphones and signs indicating the state they represented. Standing at the podium was Stan Jones, the man who made it all possible.

Stan started talking about the reason for the gathering and for the organization itself. He said higher education had come a long way toward solving the problems of access, but we now needed to focus on completion. Too many students who gain access to higher education never complete a degree or a certificate of value.

LARRY ABELE:

In my 16 years as a provost, I had attended many national meetings; student success was rarely discussed at these events. I remember being filled with uncertainty at that first convening in Tennessee. I was uncertain about the state-level approach, uncertain about some of the recommendations, and uncertain about the ambitious goals. I was not uncertain about the passion and commitment of Stan Jones and everyone associated with CCA.  They were going to transform the discussion around higher education from access to success and provide recommendations and guidance to improve student success.

PETER:

Over the next two days, Stan and other founding members of the CCA staff laid out an ambitious set of strategies for achieving an ambitious goal: by 2020, six out of ten young adults in our country will have a college degree or credential of value. Those early strategies included: establishing a goal and measuring success; transforming remediation; restructuring delivery and accelerating success; performance funding; and building public and policymaker will.

One of my strongest memories from Nashville was sitting next Donna Linderman in the back row and learning for the first time about the CUNY ASAP program. This young organization, Complete College America, was full of impatient reformers, so I felt right at home.  I left Nashville full of enthusiasm for CCA’s strong commitment to redesigning developmental education.

LARRY:

I got to meet all of the Fellows. Of course, they weren’t Fellows at the time. It was incredible. All of the people talking about the same issues and concerns, sharing ideas – it was so exciting. Over the next few years, we started traveling the country, visiting different states and attending CCA events as content experts.  These events would bring together a number of institutions from the same state. Typically, a problem and a solution were covered, and then each institution was given time to discuss how to implement the reform on their campus. Content experts on hand to answer questions and elaborate on specifics where necessary. The goal was to have the campus attendees leave with a detailed plan to implement at least one of CCA’s strategies. These efforts were enhanced by CCA’s growing national profile, as the organization released reports like Time is the Enemy, The Four-Year Myth and Bridge to Nowhere.

PETER:

Fast forward to December 2018 and my tenth CCA Convening at the historic Palmer House Hotel in Chicago. Ten convenings ago, there were 22 states in the CCA Alliance; now there are 46 members. Stan Jones is no longer with us, but a main stage at the event bears his name. The new president of CCA, Yolanda Watson Spiva, welcomes us, and we welcome her as well. Some of the early staff members have moved on to other important work, but while personnel have changed, the commitment, the impatience has not.

Not only has the organization evolved, but the strategies have as well. Four strategies are now directed toward insuring students make a “strong start.” The 2010 commitment to “transforming developmental education” has evolved into two strategies: Corequisite Support and Math Pathways. It is reassuring to find that the ten-year-old commitment to improving developmental education has gotten even stronger. In the intervening years, CCA has also added 15 to Finish to its strategies, along with the idea of ensuring students achieve significant “momentum” in their first year. To maintain that momentum, CCA now embraces “academic maps” and “proactive advising.” Additionally, CCA recommends redesigned systems to be more responsive to returning adults.

LARRY:

Stan began state meetings by reviewing the state-level graduation rate and other data for that state, data submitted by those present. Using a state-level approach turned out to be critical for transforming the state and national discussion from access to success, as state legislators were exposed to the low success rate of most institutions in their state and began discussing performance funding that included graduation rates as a mechanism to improve. Currently, about 36 states have adopted some version of this model (although all would benefit from placing greater weight on graduation).  It is unlikely that this would have occurred without Stan and CCA providing the data and guiding the discussion.

Progress remains a challenge for a number of reasons; chief among them is the high turnover of senior administrators. It takes focus and commitment to change the way things have “always been done” on a campus, and the high turnover makes it hard to maintain the focus over any period of time. However, there is always an individual on every campus who has the passion and energy to do what is necessary to improve student success. The challenge is empowering that individual to make the changes.

PETER:

As I reflect on my ten-year journey with CCA, much has changed, but CCA’s commitment to work unfailingly to improve the completion rates of college students has only grown stronger. While I may have had some initial concerns about CCA’s approach, I recognize that of the more than 300 schools currently using the ALP model, more than half of them first heard about it at an CCA-organized event. I owe the organization much gratitude for their support of my program and for the other wonderful work they are doing.

LARRY:

It has been an amazing educational experience to observe the growth of CCA, both in number of institutions participating and in intellectual contributions to student success.

PETER:

We’ve come a long way toward the goal that Stan set at the 2010 convening. We’ve also learned how much work and leadership is necessary to make the kinds of changes needed in the complex system of higher education. Whether the goal is met by 2020 or takes a few more years, there is no doubt that much of the progress is being made by Complete College America. It has been inspiring to be a part of that effort.