Program & Schedule 

9:00 - 10:05 Welcome and Opening Plenary

10:05 - 10:25 Break

10:25 - 11:15 Breakout Session 1

11:15 - 11:40 Break

11:40 - 12:30 Breakout Session 2

12:45 - 1:30 IRPE Newcomers Networking Lunch

 Wednesday, April 7, 2021 | 10:25 am - 11:15 am

IR Positioning in Anti-Racism Work: Objectivity vs Accountability

Track: Leadership and Planning to Advance Equity

The age of objectivity in IRPE offices is coming to pass, changing the role of IRPE offices to one that is centralized around social justice and racial equity work. IRPE offices have a responsibility to uncover racial and social inequities across the college and hold the institution and its personnel accountable for outcomes. Is your office positioned to take on this role? This presentation, led by members of the Multiple Measures Assessment Project (MMAP) research team, will focus on how to support offices already doing this work and help offices who are not yet centered in this new role make this shift. This will be an interactive session, so come prepared for discussion and dialogue.

Presenters: Craig Hayward, Bakersfield College; Terrence Willett, Cabrillo College; Mallory Newell, De Anza College; Loris Fagioli, Irvine Valley College; and Daisy Segovia, Orange Coast College

Equity and Virtual Learning: Student Perceptions of Synchronous Courses

Track: Research and Evaluation to Advance Equity

Join Cerro Coso institutional researchers and our faculty research partners as we share highlights from our longitudinal research project examining student perceptions of synchronous and asynchronous courses. Our intent is to leverage research that will inform the colleges’ work in strengthening equitable practices for students that may have limited access to technology necessary for distance learning while examining possible contributing factors, such as age, student type, and socioeconomic status. Synchronous courses (courses with a scheduled meeting time, conducted via Zoom) have become especially prevalent. However, many important questions about this instructional method remain unanswered. For one, what is a student’s sense of community, collaboration, and overall satisfaction in synchronous courses and how are these different from experiences with asynchronous online courses? Expanding on Moore’s Theory of Transactional Distance, perceived collaboration, social presence, and overall satisfaction can influence how students perform (Moore M.G., 1991).

Presenters: Melissa Bowen, Nakysha Cummings, John Elder, and Ryan Khamkongsay, Cerro Coso Community College

 Wednesday, April 7, 2021 | 11:40 am - 12:30 pm

Foster Equity-Focused Culture with the Program Review Data Dashboard

Track: Leadership and Planning to Advance Equity

The present study focuses on how San Diego Miramar College has used a major data tool to build a student equity-centered culture. The college has infused an equity lens by intentionally embedding data coaching strategies into a data dashboard that supports the college's integrated program review process. The data tool identifies and visualizes equity gaps at both the program and course levels by disaggregating key metrics that are tracked in the college's Student Equity Plan. The Percentage Point Gap (PPG) method has been applied to assess the significance of the inequities. As importantly, the tool also has included data coaching strategies that help connect users to relevant resources and incite cross-constituency discussions about supporting equitable student success through equity-focused budget planning and resource allocation. The embedded coaching strategy is designed to turn data into meaningful programmatic decisions for collectively mitigating college-wide equity gaps.

Presenters: Daniel Miramontez and Xi Zhang, San Diego Miramar College

Action-Oriented Evaluation of AB 705 for Improving the Equitable Access to and Success in Transfer-Level Math and English Courses at Cañada College

Track: Research and Evaluation to Advance Equity

This study utilized an action-oriented evaluation of AB 705 to improve the equity of access to and success in transfer-level math and English courses at Cañada College. The evaluation was used to identify issues and provide evidence for the improvement of AB 705 outcomes. Policy implementation theory was used as a framework to examine the relationship between the quality of AB 705 implementation and student outcomes. The study found that AB 705 led to dramatic increases in access to transfer-level math and English courses with substantial increases in throughput rates for Latinx and White students. The study found a strong association between the quality of implementation and student outcomes. While the quality of implementation was high, the study identified key areas where implementation could be improved, including quality-of-delivery of guided self-placement, quality-of-delivery in teaching co-requisite courses, and student responsiveness. The study concludes that such improvements would further increase equitable student success.

Presenters: Milena Angelova, James Carranza, Alex Claxton, and Karen Engel, Cañada College

8:30 - 8:45 Guided Mindfulness Practice

9:00 - 10:05 Birds of a Feather Topic Discussion Session

10:05 - 10:25 Break

10:25 - 11:15 Breakout Session 3

11:15 - 11:40 Break

11:40 - 12:30 Jam Session

 Thursday, April 8, 2021 | 10:25 am - 11:15 am

Beyond Data Literacy: Training Faculty Data Coaches on How to Facilitate Racial Equity Data Conversations

Track: Leadership and Planning to Advance Equity

The revised faculty Data Coaching Program at Santa Monica College (SMC) moves beyond data literacy and focuses on building the capacity of the college to engage in meaningful and productive discussions focused on racial equity data. The program's activities were designed to help data coaches hone and practice their facilitation skills as well as enable them to guide others through an equity-minded inquiry process. Case study work was central to the training and was designed to prepare data coaches for common data conversation scenarios that occur as a result of examining racial equity data, including scenarios such as "when colleagues get defensive about racial equity data," "helping colleagues avoid the technical weeds," and "responding to the 'it's not race' argument." In addition, data coaches were trained on how to coach others to not jump to solutions and ask research questions that help us better understand the root causes of racial equity gaps.

Presenters: Ciaran Brewster and Hannah Lawler, Santa Monica College; and Edna Chavarry, West Los Angeles College

Students Speak Their Transfer Truth: The Experiences of African-American/Black and Hispanic/Latina/o/x Students

Track: Research and Evaluation to Advance Equity

When community college students make significant progress toward transfer, why don't they make it "through the gate" to university? What do different student groups say impacts their transfer journey? Learn about new findings from the Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges’ Through the Gate transfer study, including results from surveys and interviews with over 800 students who were close to transfer, but had not yet made it to university. Hear what different student groups, particularly African-American/Black and Hispanic/Latina/o/x students say uniquely impacts their progress toward their baccalaureate goal and ways to boost their university readiness. Share your own and learn about others' strategies using data to improve persistence and completion outcomes of transfer students who have been historically underserved and marginalized by our higher education systems.

Presenters: Katie Brohawn, Darla Cooper, and Alyssa Nguyen, The RP Group

 Thursday, April 8, 2021 | 11:40 am - 12:30 pm

Connecting to Student Voices: Reinvigorating and Refreshing Your Campuses Equity Conversations and Use of Data

Track: Leadership and Planning to Advance Equity

This session includes three 15-minute presentations from Mt. San Antonio College, Cerritos College, and Clovis Community College on the following topics:

• Centering campus research with student voice

• Leverage local, state, and national data to inform Guided Pathways

• Developing equity-focused dashboards for program review

• Building engagement across campus and sharing findings

Presenters:
Naomi Castro, Career Ladders Project; and Michelle Johnson, Clovis Community College
Lisa DiDinato and Marcell Gilmore, Mt. San Antonio College
Lui Amador, Esthela Chavez, and Amber Hroch, Cerritos College

Seeing Our Students: Illuminating Invisible Inequities with Expanded CCCApply Ancestry/Ethnicity Data

Track: Research and Evaluation to Advance Equity

This session will cover the development of the CCCApply Ancestry/Ethnicity expansion and will dive into ways to create transformational change including examples from colleges. The expanded ancestry/ethnicity categories in CCCApply include a new major group and many new subcategories, allowing for deeper and more specific disaggregation, providing a better understanding of the diversity of our students and the impact of our campus-wide equity efforts.  We will explain how these particular categories were selected, the process of including these modifications in CCCApply, and the basics of working with these data to conduct local equity research, including examples of robust dashboards from Cuyamaca College, Bakersfield College, and Cabrillo College. Participants will engage in discussions about strategies to bring these data and research ideas to their institutions and explore ways in which they can facilitate conversations about racial equity as IRPE practitioners, particularly as related to Guided Pathways and Vision for Success goals.

Presenters:
Craig Hayward, Bakersfield College; Terrence Willett, Cabrillo College; and Katie Cabral, Cuyamaca College; and Laura Lara-Brady and Stacy Teeters, The Foundation for California Community Colleges

9:00 - 10:05 The RP Group and CCCCO Updates

10:05 - 10:25 Break

10:25 - 12:30 Workshops

 Workshops: Friday, April 9, 2021 | 10:25 am - 12:30 pm

Shifting IRP from Neutral into Drive for Racial Equity

Track: Leadership and Planning to Advance Equity

Is the role of institutional research in our institutions shifting? At Foothill-De Anza CCD, the answer is "yes," with the institutional research role transitioning from simply servicing data requests to guiding and shaping decision-making (as data coaches and advisors). Our session aims to create a space for other IRPE professionals who are also undergoing this transition or who wish to begin one, to share successes and challenges and dialogue together in community. The session will address: (1) how IRPE can leverage local tools and system-wide dashboards to promote conversation and develop campus allies to advance the work on equity; (2) how IRPE can center race/ethnicity to elicit more meaningful dialogues where student learning is approached from an asset-based/opportunity perspective, (3) how the work of racial equity requires individual self-reflection and responsibility in tandem with campus collaboration, and (4) how racial equity conversation and outcomes could be affected by IRPE's positionality in the campus structure. Note: As the focus of this session is on dialogue and discussion, this workshop’s topics may be more accessible if participants can join at the beginning.

Presenters: Lisa Ly and Mallory Newell, De Anza College; Doreen Finkelstein and Elaine Kuo, Foothill College; and Lara Triona, Levered Learning

Analyzing the Impact of Human Resources Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Reforms

Track: Research and Evaluation to Advance Equity

This interactive, project-based workshop will focus on methods and frameworks that IRPE offices are using to partner with human resources in the evaluation of campus and district diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Participants will hear how Cabrillo College and South Orange County Community College District are approaching this work, and also be invited to share and discuss any of their own experiences evaluating DEI. The workshop will culminate in a planning and data mapping activity intended to help participants structure a formal DEI evaluation plan at their own institution.

Presenters: TBD