Few colleges have signed onto the national college completion agenda with as much vigor as Sinclair Community College. And while national graduation rates have seen only a slow inching up, Sinclair has managed a big jump.
The two-year college, in Dayton, Ohio, first began working to improve student success in a systematic way back in 2000. That was when Sinclair was picked by the League for Innovation in the Community College as one of its Vanguard Learning Colleges -- a recognition of institutions that made "learner-centric" completion a central goal.
Since then Sinclair has tried over 100 completion-related projects, ranging from participation in Completion by Design to making new student orientation mandatory and conducting interventions in local high schools.
"Every department on campus is focused on increasing student completion," said Kathleen Cleary, Sinclair’s associate provost for student success, a position the college created in 2011.
However, the college has begun pruning its student success portfolio, to sharpen its focus and concentrate on what works. One recent trim has been its participation in Achieving the Dream, a national nonprofit with more than 200 community college members.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/06/02/sinclair-community-colleges-15-years-completion-projects-pay