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Building a Culture of Evidence for Community College Student Success: Early Progress in the Achieving the Dream Initiative

By Thomas Brock, Davis Jenkins, Todd Ellwein, Jennifer Miller, Susan Gooden, Kasey Martin, Casey MacGregor & Michael Pih

In 2003, Lumina Foundation for Education launched a multiyear, national initiative called Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count, to help students stay in school and succeed. The initiative focused particularly on students who have faced the most barriers to success, including low-income students and students of color. Initially, 27 community colleges in five states joined the initiative.

Participating colleges committed to collecting and analyzing data to improve student outcomes—a process known as “building a culture of evidence.” Specifically, colleges analyzed student data, and from this work implemented strategies to improve academic outcomes. Colleges then evaluated their strategies and expanded effective ones, using data to guide budgeting and other institutional decisions.

This report describes the progress that the first 27 colleges made after one year of implementation.

Download report
May 2007
  • Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count

Related Publications

December 2012

Progress in the First Five Years: An Evaluation of Achieving the Dream Colleges in Washington State

March 2009

Achieving the Dream Colleges in Pennsylvania and Washington State: Early Progress Toward Building a Culture of Evidence

February 2009

Evidence-Based Decision Making in Community Colleges: Findings From a Survey of Faculty and Administrator Data Use at Achieving the Dream Colleges

Additional Resources

For more policy briefs and fact sheets, visit CCRC’s Policy Resources page.

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