Thursday, March 28, 2024
The RP Group

 Theme and Tracks

Creating Student-Ready Institutions and Equity-Driven Change Through Research, Planning, and Institutional Effectiveness

Institutional, research, planning & effectiveness (IRPE) professionals are uniquely positioned to be institutional change agents on California community college campuses. Having broad access to institutional and student-level equity data—and central roles in key college-wide planning processes—comes with significant responsibility at a time of increased focus on antiracism, equity-minded change, and student-ready institutions. Together, we seek to elevate the methods by which IRPE professionals are intentionally equitizing their work to keep student needs and priorities at the core of institutional research, planning processes, decision support, and effectiveness. By humanizing students’ experiences, we treat them as individuals with unique needs and interests rather than mere data points. RP Conference 2024 will provide IRPE professionals with a dedicated space to strategize and share how they are informing and supporting equitable change focused on identified student needs and priorities at their institutions.

This year’s conference sessions are organized within three tracks.

  • Planning & Institutional Effectiveness 

  • Research & Evaluation 

  • RP Toolbox

Planning & Institutional Effectiveness

The Planning & Institutional Effectiveness track showcases projects, tools, and approaches that address the challenge of integrating improvement efforts in college planning, resource prioritization, governance, initiatives, structures, and processes to embed institutional equity.

The topics of this year’s track include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Developing, fostering, and fortifying an equity-focused culture that guides planning across the institution

  • Developing and integrating institutional equity goals, objectives, and key performance indicators to inform planning

  • Facilitating difficult conversations about student equity, diversity, and inclusion

  • Advancing and assessing inclusive campus culture

  • Exploring biases in institutional structures and processes (e.g., hiring processes, professional development, etc.)

  • Linking research and planning with budget and resource allocation using an equity, diversity, and/or inclusion lens

  • Defining “institutional effectiveness” for system-wide equity

  • Organizing, implementing, and evaluating guided student pathways for transformational change and equitable systemic change 

  • Evaluating programs, processes, and systems to inform improvement efforts using an equity, diversity, and/or inclusion lens

  • Implementing effective organizational change to achieve equity, diversity, and/or inclusion goals (e.g., promising practices, strategies, plans, or frameworks)

Research & Evaluation

The Research & Evaluation track aims to showcase impactful equity-focused research studies, tools, and strategies to support new and seasoned institutional research/institutional effectiveness professionals. This track highlights effective methods for conducting and conveying equity-related findings for historically underrepresented populations and initiatives with non-academic barriers—e.g., adult learners, Strong Workforce, SSSP, Guided Pathways, homeless students, LGBTQ students, veterans, foster youth, students with disabilities. Proposals that specifically address racial equity will be given special consideration.

The topics in this track include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Applying methods for disaggregating data to effectively assess equitable student access and outcomes

  • Exploring methods for collecting, highlighting, and sharing student stories 

  • Designing inclusive qualitative research studies (such as focus groups) that amplify student voices 

  • Showcasing effective practices that lead to equitable student achievement

  • Leveraging the student voice in equity-focused activities and evaluation efforts

  • Leveraging IRPE positionality to convey research findings and facilitate conversations about data that incorporate an equity, diversity, and/or inclusion lens

  • Leveraging software and other tools for data visualization and sharing the equity data story

  • Exploring and understanding unconscious bias

  • Analyzing student loss and momentum points, including identifying intermediate metrics to measure student progress and success with an equity, diversity, and/or inclusion focus

RP Toolbox:

The RP Toolbox track aims to showcase and demonstrate practical tools, research methods, approaches, software, and other resources for new and experienced institutional researchers and planners.

Sessions in this track will feature interactive activities and discussions and may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Navigating institutional governance structures and processes focused on equity, diversity, and/or inclusion

  • Exploring and sharing data insights with visualizations that focus on equity, diversity, and/or inclusion

  • Sharing analytical approaches, research methods, and statistical software that focus on equity, diversity, and/or inclusion

  • Demonstrating qualitative data collection and analysis methods, tools, and software that focus on equity, diversity, and/or inclusion

  • Showcasing tools or methods for addressing statewide initiatives or accountability mandates (such as the following) through an equity, diversity, and/or inclusion lens:

  • AB-705 & AB-1705

  • Dual Enrollment

  • Guided Pathways

  • Incarcerated & Formerly Incarcerated Students

  • Non-Credit to Credit/Diploma

  • Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM)

  • Student Centered Funding Formula

  • Strong Workforce/Career Education 

  • Vision 2030

  • Vision-Aligned Goals