Research & Planning Group’s Bridging Research Information and Culture (BRIC) Initiative
BRIC Colleges Are Benchmarking for Equity
As a nationally recognized leader on issues of racial-ethnic equity in higher education and the use of data to inform effective decision making, CUE is collaborating with educators and leaders from the California Community Colleges to improve action planning, evaluation, performance benchmarking, and equity in the Basic Skills Initiative (BSI) and other complementary initiatives.
CUE is partnering with The Research & Planning Group (the RP Group) on a program called Bridging Research Information and Culture (BRIC) Initiative, funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
CUE researchers are applying their expertise in data analysis to assist educators in using institutional data, disaggregated by race and ethnicity, to create performance benchmarks as part of a strategic planning process to improve equitable student outcomes.
Learning to use data for action planning and identifying where interventions can be made are key to student success, whether in STEM, basic skills or completion.
In Spring 2011, CUE researchers hosted workshops at participating colleges to focus on the use of data for action planning through the Benchmarking Equity and Student Success Tool™ (BESST).
New Book
College Bound: Strategies for Access and Success for Low-Income Students
Dr. Dan Walden (pictured above), dean of institutional effectiveness at Los Angeles Southwest College, co-authored the chapter.
This book offers reflections from distinguished faculty in the USC Rossier School of Education about barriers - real and perceived - that keep low-income students from enrolling in college and succeeding once they get there. It features a chapter about CUE’s partnership with Los Angeles Southwest College (LASC) in an effort to better serve its predominantly African American and Latino student population.
Read the chapter here.
- Cosumnes River College
- Grossmont College
- Cuyamaca College
- Los Angeles Southwest College
- San Diego City College
2011 Spring Workshops
Participants from the four colleges will learn to use institutional data, disaggregated by race and ethnicity, to create specific, measurable performance benchmark goals to improve student outcomes.
One of CUE’s tools is the Benchmarking Equity and Student Success Tool™ (BESST). It tracks outcomes for a cohort of students through selected milestones in the educational pipeline. It can also pinpoint trouble spots along the way and be used to identify intervention points. Its interactive format allows campus leaders and practitioners to set short-term objectives, as well as longer term equity goals.