Executive Summary

Overview

Equity-Minded Education: Uniting for Student Success is Santa Fe College’s five-year Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) to improve equitable outcomes for students through the design and implementation of a professional learning program. Institutional data disaggregated by race and ethnicity reveal that when compared with their White and Hispanic classmates, Black students at Santa Fe College (SF) experience significantly lower rates of course success, especially in liberal arts and sciences courses, as well as lower rates of retention. This project will promote equity-minded teaching practices shown to cultivate greater academic success, improve retention, and narrow racial equity gaps. Refining teaching practices that foster greater success among a diverse community of learners, this QEP advances the College’s mission by promoting “excellence in teaching and learning” and “innovative educational programs and student services.” The project also encourages collaboration among faculty, staff, and students to support key goals of Santa Fe College’s 2021-2024 Strategic Plan: working as a “singularly focused, cohesive college to ignite and reinforce a love of learning”; creating an “equitable experience”; fostering a “growth mindset” that closes “performance gaps”; and designing “professional development to support a culture that meets students where they are and inspires them to thrive.”   

Equity-Minded Education’s comprehensive professional development program will support equity-minded teaching and encourage cross-college collaborations to enhance student success through three initiatives:  

1. Introduce and Reinforce Equity-Minded Teaching Themes. This initiative focuses on providing coordinated, foundational learning to support faculty in adopting shared equity-minded teaching practices that create more equitable learning environments. SF will use proven professional development programs including the American Association of College and University Educators (ACUE), the Student Experience Project (SEP), and Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TiLT), in addition to designing custom professional learning opportunities through the new SF Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence (CTLE). 
2. Implement and Assess Departmental Action Research Plans with a QEP Focus. Once faculty strengthen their equity-minded teaching strategies, they will collaborate within and across departments to review student success data, apply theme-based strategies to courses, and assess the impact of various approaches. The resulting departmental action research plans will be implemented and modified through an annual cycle to surface effective approaches, which will be shared across the College.
3. Partner with QEP-Sponsored Student Fellows for Equity-Minded Education. Learning from students and collaborating with them to promote success are important features of equity-minded teaching. This initiative employs students from the target population as partner consultants. Student fellows will serve as a focus and advisory group, providing formative feedback about professional development, departmental action research plans, and faculty artifacts. These fellows will also lead campus panel discussions and forums, raising greater awareness of equity challenges and student experiences.

By promoting equity-minded teaching practices shown to benefit minoritized students, SF’s QEP will narrow equity gaps in student course success and retention. Research suggests, however, that these teaching strategies benefit all students—regardless of race and ethnicity. Thus, the College anticipates the project will improve overall course success rates of students in liberal arts and sciences courses and improve overall retention rates of First-Time-in-College (FTIC) students.