CCRC is evaluating the Caring Campus Initiative, a project created and administered by the Institute for Evidence-Based Change (IEBC), at 24 colleges. The initiative is designed to create a positive, supportive campus culture and to increase students’ sense of connectedness to the college through the development of student-centered behaviors and activities among faculty and staff. The goal is to increase the likelihood that students will learn and persist.
IEBC provides coaching to administrators, faculty, and staff over a one-year period to implement the initiative. Some of the 24 campuses in the project will focus on both faculty and staff while others will focus only on faculty or only on staff.
Caring Campus began with the goal of bringing college staff into student success initiatives. Coaches train staff on ways to increase student connectedness to the college by changing how they interact with students and developing strategies that help students feel at home in college. With a second round of funding, IEBC is bringing faculty into the project. The initiative encourages faculty to engage in behaviors intended to improve the student experience, such as interacting with students by name, holding one-on-one meetings with each student early in the term, creating a transparent course structure, and monitoring and supporting students.
CCRC will evaluate the implementation of project activities, including those that establish conditions conducive to future innovative change efforts; assess the effect on college culture and student academic and socio-emotional outcomes; and evaluate the costs and benefits associated with the initiative.
This project is funded by Ascendium Education Group via the Institute for Evidence-Based Change.