What’s Up with DEI: Patrick Henry Community College

For the past month and a half, we’ve been sharing some of the DEI state policy team and college accomplishments from the last year of work. We’ve made our way (alphabetically!) through the six DEI states, profiling the DEI colleges in those states as we go. Yesterday, we introduced Virginia’s state policy work; now it’s time to learn a bit more about Patrick Henry Community College in Martinsville, Virginia.

Patrick Henry Community College (PHCC) serves almost 3,000 students in the city of Martinsville and in Patrick, Henry, and Franklin Counties. We’ve selected some highlights from their last year of DEI work in three main categories: scaling, institutional policy change, and academic and supportive service innovations.

Scaling

• The college has exceeded the projected goal for increased use of cooperative learning in the classroom; cooperative learning is becoming a standard teaching methodology for PHCC, with nearly 2000 students enrolled in courses that used this methodology in 2010-11. In order to better measure the effectiveness of cooperative learning, faculty trainers and institutional research staff have developed comprehensive survey instruments for faculty and student participants. The surveys have undergone one round of validation to date. The final validated survey will be administered in fall 2011.
• PHCC also exceeded its targets for enrollments in fast-track math and accelerated learning program courses. Pass rates in accelerated and traditional math courses were 59 percent and 54 percent. Pass rates in accelerated and traditional English courses were 73 percent and 54 percent. The college anticipates enrollment in ALP courses to increase tremendously, due in part to the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) Developmental Education Redesign Initiative.
• Patrick Henry has established the Southern Center for Active Learning Excellence (SCALE) to provide training to other educators on campus and across the country. The college is developing a business plan to establish SCALE as a self-sustaining unit through the PHCC Foundation.

Institutional Policy

• The college is adopting a PHCC-designed student success prediction model as part of its dual enrollment program to advise entering high school students.
• Policy changes that the college has implemented to support the success of underprepared students include: increased funds available for tutoring purposes; incorporating COMPASS Test Preparation Workshops into the responsibilities of the Integrated Advising, Testing and Career Center; providing emergency funding from the PHCC Foundation for students, targeting low-income and first generation students; and paying adjunct faculty who complete cooperative learning professional development training a higher per credit hourly rate.

Academic and Supportive Service Innovations

• Professional development is imperative and has contributed to the success of PHCC’s DEI work, including training for full-time and adjunct faculty and staff in cooperative learning and accelerated learning methods, use of the new advising model, use of technology (MyMath Lab, MyWritingLab, and iPads), and an annual data summit attended by faculty, staff, and administrators.