Area Report for Board of Trustees

Core Theme 1: Promote student engagement, learning, and achievement

Seeking student input on Highline’s current pathways:
A subcommittee of the Advising Council is working with Institutional Research and an outside consultant to gather student input about the current Highline pathways. Feedback will be gathered in two stages. Later this month, students in selected courses will be asked if the current groupings of programs into pathways makes sense to them. Based on that feedback, pathways may be re-organized. In winter, focus groups with students will be conducted to find out how best to describe these pathways to new students. The team working on this project crosses divisions and is committed to using culturally responsive research methods.

Rethinking and revising Highline’s Assessment Committee to better support faculty engagement:
Highline has a robust history of faculty-led assessment work, particularly at the level of assessing course outcomes. In preparation for the NWCCU self-study, the charge of the Assessment Committee has been expanded, and support for the work has been increased. The attached Assessment Newsletter provides an overview of the way this important work is unfolding.

Implementing Math Attainment Committee recommendations:

• Alternative curriculum for Math 081 in being piloted in IBEST course and Winter quarter in the Math department with the goal of building an articulation from ABE to credit math courses and increase success in Math 081.
• Math in 45 Campaign launched, encouraging students to take Math within their first 45 credits and asking faculty/staff to ensure students are selecting the math needed for their degree.
• Highline hosted a conference on corequisites in math on November 5th, and is currently supporting the math department in developing corequisite options for Math 111, 141, and 146.

Increase support for students to transition from non-credit to credit courses:
With wide support from faculty and staff, one of the dean positions in Academic Affairs has been substantially revised to provide additional support for faculty and staff working to improve transition rates. A search is underway for someone to fill the position of Dean for College and Career Readiness, with the hope a new dean will join the Academic Affairs team in winter quarter 2020.

Strengthening partnerships with Highline Public Schools:
One objective in the Academic Affairs work plan tied to Core Theme 1 is strengthening partnerships with area school districts, beginning with Highline School District (HSD). To that end, we started to identify current connections between the Academic Affairs and HSD:

• Through the Achieve program, we have dually enrolled students.
• The Native Student Success Summit is held in partnership with HPS Native Education Program Manager Sara Ortiz.
• AANAPISI is tabling at high schools in the district, and participating in College Nights at the schools.
• We work with Highline Public Schools in our placement process as we use Smarter Balance scores and transcripts.
• We have dual credit articulation agreements for specific professional-technical courses taken in the high schools.
• We offer Career Start courses, the professional-technical version of Running Start
• We have a College Spark grant which is funding a mini-grant to support a Bridge to College math course
• We offer Pathway to College, HS Success and ELL ExCEL as programs that create an alternative route for students to finish high school and earn college credits, with an MOU that has been in place since 2011.
• We have Summer Scholar, Summer Bridge, offer College 100 Courses on the high school campuses and coordinate quarterly campus visits for 100-350 middle and high school students in partnership with HPS through Gear Up.

In order to strengthen our partnership and generate synergy, Highline College is going to host a team of key stakeholders from Highline Public Schools this winter, and Highline Public Schools will host Highline College in spring.

Other news:
Faculty and staff are moving out of Buildings 5 and 11, and into Buildings 15, 18, and 26 starting next week. Moves are never easy, and many people are working hard to try and limit the disruptions to student and faculty work.

Report submitted Nov. 08, 2019, by Interim Vice President Emily Lardner, Ph.D.