Building Networked Improvement Communities to Help Scale Innovations to Improve Community College Student Outcomes
As a result of the innovative work funded through rounds 1, 2, and 4 of the Department of Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grants, Missouri’s community colleges continue to experiment with program design, delivery, and intentional student support to help transform healthcare, manufacturing, and STEM related career and technical programs.
Cosgrove & Associates, Bragg & Associates, and the Missouri MoWINs TAACCCT grant team are working together to explore program implementation, measure impact, and use evidence to sustain and scale grant-related innovations. Three of these innovations – Career Pathways, Developmental Education Reform, and Intrusive Student Supports – have caught the attention of community college educators for statewide scaling.
Based upon evaluation results, Cosgrove & Associates and Bragg & Associates are now working with the Missouri Community College Association (MCCA) to design a Network Improvement Community with the goal of scaling up successful local initiatives. Missouri community colleges hope to engage college leadership and workforce and employer partners in a transformative change to improve student outcomes.
Scaling successful innovations doesn’t happen because the innovation is a “good idea” or even because the innovation is “needed.” The Office of Community College Research and Leadership (OCCRL) suggests that scaling innovation occurs when these key principles occur:
- Leadership: Scaling of transformative change will occur when leaders envision, encourage, and support innovation that supports all learners.
- Adoption and Adaptation: Scaling of transformative change will occur when adoption and adaptation honor and influence the cultures of the settings involved.
- Evidence: Scaling of transformative change will occur when evidence collected through ongoing and responsive evaluation is used strategically.
- Storytelling: Scaling of transformative change will occur when storytelling is used to facilitate learning about innovation and transformative change.
- Networks: Scaling of transformative change will occur when individuals engage in networks to gain access to expertise, professional development, and other vital resources.
- Dissemination: Scaling of transformative change will occur when dissemination is led by individuals with deep knowledge of their settings.
- Technology: Scaling of transformative change will occur when effective and appropriate technology is used to strengthen resources and expertise.
- Spread and Endurance: Scaling of transformative change will occur when innovations are chosen for scaling that show the potential to spread and endure (see University of Illinois, Office of Community College Research and Leadership: http://occrl.illinois.edu/projects/tci/principles/).
Learn more about this effort by visiting the OCCRL’s Transformative Change Initiative.
| TCI Research Symposium: Evidence of What Works from TAACCCT – Presentation Slides Now Available |
On November 10, 2015, the TCI Evaluation Collaborative presented research papers that reflect results from sixteen third-party evaluations of TAACCCT projects at this information-packed research symposium. The presentations were on (1) transformative change and impact evaluation, (2) workforce and employer partnerships, (3) the national evaluation, and (4) student learning. Visit the TCI Research Symposium page to learn more and download the presentations slides.