Successful Transitions to College, College Spark Grant

Overview of Grant Project

Educators in the Spokane, Washington area see the value in working together across the secondary and postsecondary sectors. Seventy percent of Spokane area high school graduates who matriculate to college enroll in one of the two community colleges or the state university. Hence, the success of those students largely depends on good preparation in high school that is aligned with the expectations of the colleges.

To further this  goal, the Successful Transitions to College (STC): Inquiry-Based Professional Learning to Improve Student Transitions grant was created in 2014 through the support of College Spark. This three-year project included  participants from the Community Colleges of Spokane (Spokane Community College and Spokane Falls Community College) and seven area school districts. It developed and implemented a self-directed professional development program for K-12, community college, and university faculty in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics, with the aim of improving education practice in support of students’ college readiness. The grantees wished to explore, as a university lead partner said, “What is it that our students are struggling with, and what do we do as teachers to effect change?” In sum, the initiative’s goals were to:

  • Create the conditions and strategies for successful ongoing collaboration and professional learning among high school and college educators
  • Identify gaps in learning and skills common to students at all institutions
  • Develop and test new approaches to support the region’s students, particularly those who are low-income, in making successful transitions from high school to college
  • Identify successful strategies for increasing students’ academic motivation, knowledge, and skills
  • Build a public repository of the resources created from the projects

Given the ambitious goals, and the fact that the participants would take on these efforts in addition to their existing professional work, the project leads recognized that “There needs to be one entity that unites everyone and drives what we are doing…who has the big picture in mind.” This was the key role for edBridge Partners, demonstrating the value that the firm brings to such efforts – working collaboratively
with organizations and institutions to achieve their desired results.

For more information, see the online grant report Links to an external site.developed by grant facilitator group edBridge. 

 

Toolkit Items

As the group worked together in cross-sector teams over three years, high school, two- and four-year teachers and discussed their shared problems of practice. Additionally, math and English teachers worked together to improve their group's interventions, providing feedback and input on the draft versions of the toolkit items. As one participant said, "There were more similarities than not in math and English – critical thinking,  perseverance. It was really good for people who hadn’t been in cross-sector work before.”

The final outcome of the project was a dynamic website that contains all the project’s results and resources, including the faculty-developed teaching tools as well as the materials used to guide the project, such as meeting agendas, presentations, and templates for group work.

All the partnerships created a toolkit item that supported the problem of practice identified by their group. These materials are shared openly with the education community on the Successful Transitions to College Website , located at this link Links to an external site.. There are both Math and English projects included on a variety of topics - from "Creating a Math Classroom Environment that Promotes Independent Learning and Perseverance" and "Cross-Sector Understanding of the Difference Between College Ready Reading and College Level Reading." 

 

 

Articles and Presentations Based on the Collaborations

For more detailed information about the collaboration, you can read some of the published material about the project in the Resources section at the end of this module.

 

College Spark Washington Information

For more information on grant funder College Spark Washington and the many programs that they support, please visit their website Links to an external site..