What’s Up with DEI: Ohio

During July and August, we’re sharing some of the DEI state policy team and college accomplishments from the last year of work. We’re making our way (alphabetically!) through the six DEI states, profiling the DEI colleges in those states as we go. This week, we’re focusing on Ohio, the Buckeye State!

The Ohio Board of Regents serves as the state team lead for Ohio’s ATD/DEI state policy work. Five of the state’s 23 community colleges participate in DEI: Cuyahoga, Eastern Gateway, North Central State, Sinclair, and Zane State. In the last year, Ohio has moved forward on all three DEI State Policy Framework levers:

Data-Driven Improvement

• One Board of Regents effort will identify levels of developmental education classes offered at all 23 community colleges; this information will be added to the Higher Education Information system to determine outcomes for students who enter developmental education at various levels. Such analysis will enable them to identify what type of innovations work with particular subsets of students.
• The Board of Regents has produced college-level reports of outcome data and convened meetings with Institutional Research and other college staff to explain the reports. These meetings predated a series of regional data workshops in which the five DEI colleges facilitated meetings with community colleges in their region. 
• The Board of Regents will also fund a second study aimed at compiling results of research on effective developmental interventions that have been implemented by Ohio’s DEI colleges and other Ohio community colleges and disseminating that information throughout the state.

Investment in Innovation

• Twenty-two of Ohio’s 23 community colleges and their local ABLE program partners are participating in a pilot program to identify the practices and procedures most likely to lead to stable college-ABLE agreements. This alignment project is ultimately aimed at increasing student postsecondary success and to inform the Board of Regents as it develops recommendations for determining when a student is not yet ready to be enrolled in any college course, including developmental education. This pilot also will provide data to satisfy a commitment made to the Ohio legislature to better align the state’s ABE, adult workforce, and community college systems.

Policy Supports

• The Board of Regents has completed the first phase of a survey of Ohio community college assessment and placement practices. The second phase will dig deeper into some of the trends reported by colleges related to when placement tests are administered, how much information is provided to students about the test, and what type of test preparation is offered or suggested.  Results of this study will inform recommendations for appropriate testing and placement procedures.
• The state of Ohio has implemented a performance funding system based on these Success Points. Under this system, the community college funding formula will distribute 95 percent based on traditional enrollment calculations, and 5 percent based on success points. The percentage based on success points will increase, with 7.5 percent for next fiscal year and 10 percent the following.

For more details on DEI state policy accomplishments, check out Jobs For the Future’s latest DEI publication Driving Innovation: How Six States Are Organizing to Improve Outcomes in Developmental Education Outcomes.