2022 RP Group Awards
The RP Group Awards program seeks to promote exceptional work in the California Community Colleges (CCC) Institutional Research, Planning, and Effectiveness (IRPE) community. Each year, the RP Group recognizes colleagues and organizations that have made extraordinary contributions to student and institutional success through community college research, planning, and institutional effectiveness efforts.
We are proud to recognize projects and professionals who have made significant contributions to overall institutional effectiveness; positive campus climate; infrastructure for continuous assessment and improvement; student success and equitable student outcomes; fostering professional growth and development of others; and local, regional, or statewide policy or practice.
2022 IRPE Professional Leadership Award
Daylene Meuschke, EdD
Associate Vice President, Institutional Research, Planning, Effectiveness and Student Experience Redesign
Co-Chair, Institutional Review Board
College of the Canyons
Daylene Meuschke initially began her service at College of the Canyons (COC) in 2001 to support the writing and production of a Title III grant for the college. Shortly thereafter, she was hired as a full-time Research Analyst owing to her immediately apparent skills, keen mind, and educational acumen. In the 20 years since, Daylene served as a Senior Research Analyst, Director of Institutional Research, and Dean of Institutional Research. She became the Associate Vice President for Institutional Research, Planning and Institutional Effectiveness (IRPIE) in August 2018 and, as of January 2022, now serves as the Associate Vice President for Institutional Research, Planning, Effectiveness and Student Experience Redesign.
Daylene’s passion for education is shown in her ongoing professional development and learning. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Drury University in Missouri. Studying a Global Perspectives curriculum in the Midwest was not enough. Daylene wanted to be part of a more diverse community, which led her to pursue her Master’s degree in Psychology at Pepperdine University. After joining COC, Daylene continued her studies to earn a doctorate in Educational Psychology, with an emphasis on learning and motivation, at the University of Southern California. She has participated in many professional development programs at COC, including the very first class in their Leadership Education in Action Program (LEAP) in 2008, and she has also participated as both a mentee and mentor through its mentorship program.
Daylene has co-authored hundreds of research reports at COC and continues to supervise the annual production of countless research items, surveys, and analyses through the IRPIE team. Daylene, with support from COC, has helped cultivate a formidable research, planning, and institutional effectiveness team that serves as a model for other colleges, and her staff proudly share her reputation as hard-working and data-savvy practitioners. She has developed an extraordinary reputation for her research talents and abilities, assisting any and all departments or inquirers with focused data needs.
Daylene also helps to lead the Institutional Effectiveness and Inclusive Excellence (IE)2 Committee at COC, which has played a key role in many of the college’s priorities including Guided Pathways, equity, student support and experience redesign, and the California Community Colleges (CCC) Chancellor’s Call to Action. Both her local and statewide reputation for excellence are known through her participation in The RP Group and multiple Partnership Resource Teams in support of other community colleges. Daylene has served on the executive team for the CCC Chancellor’s Office Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative and as a Board member and volunteer with The RP Group.
Daylene believes relationships matter and strives each day to build bridges that help connect the dots between people and efforts on campus. She has a goal to make people smile and laugh each day. She loves institutional effectiveness, design thinking (white boards and markers!), and applying her manifold talents to making a difference for students.
2022 Outstanding Project Award
Moorpark College
Led by Project Team Members:
Oleg Bespalov, Dean of Institutional Effectiveness, Moorpark College
James Schuelke, Director of Outreach and Marketing, Oxnard College
Gabby Chacon, Sr. Administrative Assistant, Moorpark College
Karla Montenegro Gonzalez, PACE Program Coordinator, Moorpark College
Jennifer Lawler, PACE Counselor, Moorpark College
Project Title: “Institutional Effectiveness and Marketing Collaboration: Using Data-Driven Decision-Making to Measure and Improve College Marketing Strategies”
Projection Description: In light of declining enrollments, colleges are increasing their marketing efforts. How can Institutional Effectiveness support these marketing initiatives to help improve their chances of increasing enrollment?
Moorpark College (MC) shared how they used data-driven marketing to grow a program designed for adult students from 0 to 500 students, or about 4% of the college’s full-time equivalent students, in just two years. The project provided key evidence that utilizing data can improve marketing and lead to higher enrollments among historically marginalized student groups.
The college initially focused on students participating in the college’s Program for Accelerated College Education (PACE), whose average age was older than the general student population at MC, and whose ethnic background was more diverse. Given the structure of the program, where students take two courses every eight weeks, PACE students were shown to have better outcomes than non-PACE adult students. In a recent survey, 90% of PACE students agreed with the statement, "I am able to stay enrolled at Moorpark College because of the PACE program. If PACE did not exist, I would drop out or enroll at another college/university."
The types of marketing data analyses (surveys, A/B tests, control and treatment groups) that were conducted at MC are considered the norm for large and for-profit universities, but remain novel and innovative at community colleges, which typically have much smaller marketing budgets.
Given the success of the PACE program at MC, the other two colleges in its district have decided to start or reincarnate their own PACE program, and the MC project team will be helping their colleagues implement their programs, including establishing their own marketing research protocols.
The project team showed that these kinds of tools were easily adaptable and could be used to market other college programs immediately. These insights are helping to level the playing field to ensure more programs and departments can effectively recruit students with fewer resources.