News & Updates
Achieving the Dream’s Kickoff Institute, an annual event to welcome incoming Network colleges, will be held June 12–15 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Kickoff will set the stage for the colleges’ partnerships with ATD and introduce them to the organization’s Institutional Capacity Framework, a comprehensive assessment built on seven essential capacities that help colleges develop a student-centered culture and enhance student success.
Among the 13 colleges are three institutions that were announced today as Network colleges by ATD in a press release: Arapahoe Community College (Colorado), McDowell Technical Community College (North Carolina), and Piedmont Virginia Community College (Virginia).
These colleges join 10 others that are part of the Accelerating Equitable Outcomes (AEO) cohort, announced in February and funded in part by a gift from MacKenzie Scott to help increase the number of racially/ethnically minoritized and poverty-affected students who earn postsecondary credentials.
According to Dr. Karen A. Stout, president and CEO of Achieving the Dream, by joining the ATD Network during a time when community colleges have seen a steep decline in enrollment over the past several years, these 13 institutions are making a bold statement that they are dedicated to doing better by their students and their communities.
“The colleges in our 2023 cohort, like all ATD colleges, understand the role that community colleges play not just in in the social and economic mobility of their students as individuals but in lifting up entire communities,” she stated. “ATD’s focus on equity underpins the broad, transformational changes that our Network colleges experience and which, in turn, benefit the entire populations that they serve. These colleges are deeply invested in the process of change-making and have already identified goals toward greater student success. I’m excited to see how much further we can all go along this journey as they join our network.”
Collectively, the 2023 ATD Network cohort has a demonstrated commitment to tackling equity challenges, building a culture of data-informed decision-making, and maximizing the student experience through high-quality teaching and learning. Individually, as Dr. Stout noted, each college has begun a process of self-reflection and has identified key areas in which they hope to grow as they progress through the Foundations of Transformation and beyond. The three newly announced member colleges enter the Network with specific goals for the coming years:
Arapahoe Community College seeks to develop institution-wide standards of sharing data and success metrics; address issues related to retention and completion, including gaps in credit momentum among economically marginalized students; and to identify, refine, and scale up its most effective student support systems.
McDowell Technical Community College intends to work with ATD to build capacity for institutional research, intensify collaborations with high school partners, and leverage community relationships to align programs with workforce development needs.
Piedmont Virginia Community College is looking to expand its institutional capacity to impact student success and completion, deepen its analysis of data to better understand student needs, and expand internal and external partnerships to advance student success.