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The RP Group

 Read the latest from The RP Group!

Read the latest from The RP Group: Our 2022-2023 Annual Report!

 News, Facts, and Media

  • September 2023
    This edition features information about our ongoing research efforts and professional development programs, a project spotlight: African American Transfer Tipping Point (AATTP) study, and celebrating 10 years of impact: Leading from the Middle.

  • October 2022
    This edition includes our ongoing efforts to infuse equity within the organization and across our projects; as well as a Project Spotlight: The EOPS Impact Study 2.0.

  • August 2020
    This edition spotlights innovations across multiple colleges informed by research conducted by The RP Group’s Student Support (Re)defined, Through the Gate, and Multiple Measures Assessment Project (MMAP).

  • February 2020
    This edition includes highlights from research exploring the preliminary affects of AB 705 implementation, and college examples focused on redesigning the student experience using the Six Success Factors to support guided pathways, and a data visualization of the transfer continuum using the Through the Gate framework.

  • June 2019
    This edition focuses on three big ideas around student success - the importance of student voices, middle leaders, and high school transcript information for placement.

  • The RP Group Strategic Plan 2019-2024
    Five-year strategic plan guided by a Strategic Planning Taskforce comprised of board members, field representatives, and staff.

  • The RP Group Fact Sheet
    Fact Sheet about The RP Group. Includes information about The RP Group events, professional development and learning opportunities, research and evaluation projects, key projects, presentations, awards given, and The RP Group resources and publications.

  • California Community Colleges Eye A Different Future Amid Pandemic Disruption
    2022 | EdSource |
    The RP Group's Dr. Darla Cooper, Executive Director, provided additional context about the survey metrics, noting that, “many students are open to returning,” and that “about half of the students surveyed said they wanted their local colleges to contact them about the possibilities,“ which was interpreted as an indication of wanting to come back.

  • California Community College Enrollment Plummets To 30-Year Low
    2022 | Los Angeles Times |
    The RP Group's Dr. Darla Cooper, Executive Director, provided additional context about the survey metrics, noting that, “many students are open to returning,” and that “about half of the students surveyed said they wanted their local colleges to contact them about the possibilities,“ which was interpreted as an indication of wanting to come back.

  • Open for antiracism: supporting educators to use open education for antiracist teaching
    2022 | Journal for Multicultural Education |
    The RP Group's Alyssa Nguyen, Senior Director of Research & Evaluation, and Ireri Valenzuela, Director of Leading from the Middle and Senior Researcher, collaborated with others on this research article about the Open for Antiracism program.

  • Dr. Matthew Wetstein Recommended for Cabrillo College Presidency
    December 15, 2017 | Times Publishing Group Article |
    Matthew Westein, The RP Group President from 2014-2016 will be “the next President/Superintendent of Cabrillo College, with a projected start date of February 1, 2018.”

  • All Things Transfer
    December 14, 2017 | Growing Inland Achievement Blog Post |
    Blog post on transfer information where The RP Group’s Through the Gate: Mapping the Transfer Landscape for California Community College Students was referenced as “[investigating] why many students in California enter higher education through the state’s community college system with the intent to transfer to a four-year college or university, and yet the transfer rate from the California Community College (CCC) system is stubbornly low.”

  • New bill removes remedial classes by 2018
    December 4, 2017 | The Connection Article |
    MMAP, led by The RP Group and Educational Results Partnerships’ Cal-PASS Plus system, is used by Cosumnes River College to determine “how high school transcripts can be used to determine college competency.”

  • Reedley College - Equity Executive Summary
    November 28, 2017 | Equity Executive Summary |
    To determine how to best serve students, Reedley hired The RP Group to conduct focus groups with students.

  • Norco College
    November 15, 2017 | Completion Initiative Workgroup |
    Norco College used Completion by Design’s “Loss and Momentum Framework,” and The RP Group’s work that “focuses on six success factors that contribute to student achievement” to prepare its Equity Plan.

  • Through the Gate: Mapping the Transfer Landscape for California Community College Students
    November 13, 2017 | College Futures Foundation Article |
    Many California Community College students enroll with the “intent of transferring to a four-year college or university,” but the transfer rate is low. The RP Group’s Through the Gate report “aims to identify which students transfer, which do not, and for what reasons.”

  • OEI Updates: Supporting Student Success Through Online Ecosystem
    October 19, 2017 | CCC Tech Edge Update |
    The data gathered from The RP Group’s evaluation shows “colleges that have implemented the Online Education Ecosystem had success rates 2.9 percent above the statewide average.”

  • OEI To Release Outcomes Summary For 2015-16
    May 11, 2017 | CCC Tech Edge Update |
    “The California Community Colleges (CCC) Online Education Initiative (OEI) will be releasing its Online Education Initiative Enrollment, Demographics, and Outcomes Summary 2015-16 report. Conducted by experienced independent evaluator The Research and Planning (RP) Group, the report analyzes the impact of online education at 24 OEI pilot colleges in supporting student completion and transfer.”

  • Two Applied Solutions Kits Are Live on the PLN
    April 12, 2017 | IEPI Newsletter |
    “The Applied Solutions Kit (ASK) was created out of a need for tools and practices that provide information for colleges on a variety of critical topics. The idea is simple: provide materials that dive deeply into challenges facing your college and/or district. ASKs are developed by the Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative (IEPI) in collaboration with The Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (The RP Group).”

  • More Than $5.7 Million in Grants Awarded to CSUF During Last Three Months of 2016
    January 4, 2017 | California State Fullerton News Service |
    Director of the Social Science Research Center at Cal State Fullerton, Laura Gil-Trejo, received “$32,676 from The RP Group for the ‘Joyce Foundation Academy for College Excellence (ACE) Study.’” Read the article here.

  • Four Finalists Announced for Lake Tahoe Community College President Job
    November 9, 2016 | South Tahoe Now |
    In this article, former The RP Group board member, Matt Wetstein, is one of “four finalists for the position of Lake Tahoe Community College's Superintendent/President.”

  • Easy Change Could Improve College Racial Equity, July 2016
    July 27, 2016 | San Diego Union-Tribune |
    Article states that the process for assessing which students get to take college-level courses or remedial courses aids in the racial inequity within California Community Colleges. The RP Group President, Greg Stoupe, “estimates that 50 to 60 percent of inequity is rooted in assessment tests.”

  • Community Colleges Sending Too Many into Remedial Math, May 2015
    May 29, 2015 | San Francisco Chronicle |
    Article states California Community Colleges’ placement tests have unfairly placed students in remedial courses. The RP Group is referenced as estimating that “each year, nearly 50,000 students who have passed Algebra 2 in high school with a C or better are required to repeat the equivalent course — and sometimes several remedial math courses — when they enroll at community colleges.”

  • Reworking Remedial Education, November 2014
    November 11, 2014 | EdSource |
    The RP Group’s 2014 report, Curricular Redesign and Gatekeeper Completion: A Multi-College Evaluation of the California Acceleration Project, was referenced in an EdSource article about restructuring the approach to remedial education and placement policies.

  • CLU Professor Receives Fulbright, 2014
    May 27, 2014 | Cal Lutheran News |
    Out of 1,100 candidates, The RP Group senior researcher Diane Rodriguez-Kiino “received a Fulbright Scholar grant to teach at the University of Tokyo and Tsuda College in Japan during the 2014-2015 academic year.” She “will teach courses on the history of diversity in American higher education.”

  • Public Campuses Mimic Private University Experience
    June 24, 2012 | SF Gate |
    Metro Academies Initiative is a program that provides students in public colleges with a private university experience for a small additional cost to each school. Researchers Jane Wellman, a college cost expert, and The RP Group’s Robert Johnstone report that “Metro's modest extra costs are far outweighed by the cost savings realized from reducing the waste currently resulting from very large attrition rates.”