High-Impact Practices at Community Colleges
By: Ken O’Donnell
Here’s an e-mail I got from a colleague after this session: “Brings tears to my eyes. Truly amazing.” I wasn’t quite crying, but this was an amazing set of stories. Professor Barbara Clinton of Highline Community College has developed an Honors Program that, since its 2003 inception, has transformed hundreds of lives. Her three copanelists were all alumni, with spectacular stories to tell.
Clinton described Highline as a college in a “poverty pocket” of King County, near Seattle, Washington. It’s the most diverse community college in Washington state, and most of its students come in not knowing a lot about higher education — where it can take them, and how they can get it. She was blunt about the raw material of the student body, and I was surprised her three panelists were, too.
Highline students volunteer for the Honors Program, usually their third quarter in; the absence of a teacher recommendation process is intended to make it inclusive for all kinds of learners, not just those who stand out in traditional classrooms. A 3.5 GPA in any one course is enough to qualify. The program’s student demographics match those of the college. AAC&U has recognized it as a site of Inclusive Excellence.
In the first term of the Honors Program, students enroll in a two-unit “boot camp” to learn about writing personal statements, resumes, and college-level essays. Grading is with rubrics, and by the end of the term, students use those to grade their own work — accurately. Clinton pointed out this leverages the independent streak of the community college learner, often older than the traditionally aged, and used to taking responsibility in other spheres (home, work). All these materials are available online.
From the boot camp, students move on to regular coursework. Many Highline faculty have signed on to the program by offering their Honors students supplemental assignments on a pass/no-pass basis, usually an additional research project. Completion doesn’t change the course grade, but adds an Honors designation to the transcript. The course number stays the same, to preserve articulation. A typical research project: in a philosophy survey course, teach the class about a philosopher not on the syllabus.
Clinton’s three students told amazing life stories: a woman from Ethiopia who learned writing and networking skills to harness her natural charisma. A nightshift package handler at UPS whose resume exercise got him promoted to manager so he’d be less exhausted in class, and who’s now earning a law degree at George Washington University. A former Marine security guard and computer programmer now studying international relations at Tufts, who learned to “translate” the strengths of his military background into civilian lingo (e.g., a security clearance is a kind of character reference).
In each case, Clinton used a practical knowledge of student affairs to support her classroom claims about what’s possible — for example, by meeting students’ concerns about money with specific advice about financial aid.
It was well after the session that I realized what the stories had in common: Clinton had helped all three of these students find a way to see themselves candidly but differently, as university students and professionals. In the words of student Joseph Burnett, she “helped me restructure my self-image.”
Ken O’Donnell is associate dean of Academic Programs and Policy at the Office of the Chancellor, California State University.
