Tuesday, March 19, 2024
The RP Group

Completion by Design

Timeline
2011-2013


Overview

After the first two years of implementation, Completion by Design engaged the RP Group to develop a series of four inquiry guides that documented the approaches and insights emerging from the initiative. Completion by Design is a five-year initiative that works with cadres of community colleges within three states — Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio — to develop coherent pathways of study, thereby increasing completion and graduation rates for low-income students under 26, while holding down costs and maintaining access and quality.

Completion by Design focuses on three key completion goals: earning certificates and degrees, transferring to four-year institutions, and raising the value in the labor market. In order to fundamentally rethink their systems, colleges have engaged in a process of student-focused inquiry, which includes:

  • Constructing thoughtful questions to better understand the student experience

  • Facing realities about the status quo

  • Collecting and examining various types of data

  • Interpreting the evidence with colleagues

  • Collectively engaging in passionate discourse on how to interpret this evidence and use it to inform action

After the first two years of implementation, Completion by Design engaged the RP Group to develop a series of four inquiry guides that documented the approaches and insights emerging from the initiative:

  1. Building a Culture of Inquiry: Using a Cycle of Exploring Research and Data to Improve Student Success

  2. Understanding the Student Experience Through the Loss/Momentum Framework: Clearing the Path to Completion

  3. The Nuances of Completion: Improving Student Outcomes by Unpacking the Numbers

  4. Principles of Redesign: Promising Approaches to Transforming Student Outcomes

Explore more information on Completion by Design.

RP Group Lead

Rob Johnstone

RP Group Project Team Members

Kathy Booth, Priyadarshini Chaplot, MBA, Elisa Rassen

Funders

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Partners

Community College Research Center, Jobs for the Future, Public Agenda

Guides and Tools

Building a Culture of Inquiry: Using a Cycle of Exploring Research and Data to Improve Student Success

Inquiry guide exploring the concept of a culture of inquiry and introducing a framework to strengthen a college’s ability to better use research and evidence to inform improvement efforts.

Understanding the Student Experience Through the Loss/Momentum Framework: Clearing the Path to Completion

Inquiry guide introducing an approach to examining students’ own experiences at community colleges, identifying factors that catalyze and impede student progress, and using these insights to address opportunities to improve student outcomes.

The Nuances of Completion: Improving Student Outcomes by Unpacking the Numbers

Inquiry guide examining the hidden complexity of completion outcome data and offering an approach that teases out the complex factors that affect student completion and success.

Principles of Redesign: Promising Approaches to Transforming Student Outcomes

Inquiry guide presenting eight core ideas to help colleges address the fundamental challenges to student success.

News and Events

This project is complete. Visit "Related Projects" below to learn about our other initiatives in this project's area(s) of impact.