A national initiative to help more community college students succeed, called "Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count" has selected Triton College as one of the 20 new colleges in seven states to join this nationwide initiative. With the addition of Triton College and the other 19 new institutions, this initiative has grown to 102 institutions in over 22 states.
Achieving the Dream is a long-term national initiative to help more community college students succeed - particularly those students who traditionally face the most significant barriers to success, including students of color and low-income. Triton's student population of nearly 50 percent minorities (16 percent African-American, 28 percent Hispanic, and 6 percent other) and the varied socioeconomic backgrounds of our students parallels those students targeted by this initiative.
"We are thrilled that Triton College has been selected to participate in such an important, ground-level effort to help students succeed," said Dr. Patricia Granados, president of Triton College. "Triton will continue to make student success a priority. As an Achieving the Dream college, our use of data will help us strengthen programs and policies. This in turn will enable Triton to better assist students to successfully complete degrees, certificates and other programs," said Dr. Granados.
" Triton is honored to be joining the Achieving the Dream initiative with peer institutions from Illinois, California, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, New York, South Carolina, and Texas," said Dr. Angela Latham, the vice president of Academic Affairs at Triton College. "The national recognition of Triton College's support of students is important, not only to our students but to our academic institution as well," said Dr. Latham.
This expansion of Achieving the Dream has been made possible with grants provided by four foundations across the country. The Lumina Foundation for Education is making matching grants to provide first-year funding for community colleges in Illinois, and four other states.
Triton has made a two-year commitment to focus its efforts on closing performance gaps among students in targeted populations. "Achieving the Dream colleges are identifying methods for increasing student success and implementing interventions to create institutional improvements for all students," said Carol Lincoln, a senior program director at MDC, Inc., the managing partner of Achieving the Dream and its national director.
"We're excited about bringing these new colleges into Achieving the Dream and continuing our tradition of providing educational and societal benefits to colleges, students and communities around the country," said Lincoln.
"Achieving the Dream colleges have proven successful at ensuring that a student success agenda is a clear strategic focus at all levels of the campus community," said Jamie P. Merisotis, president and CEO of Lumina Foundation for Education, which has been the initiative's primary funder since its inception in 2004. "We're very pleased to help provide this opportunity to additional colleges and, more importantly, to the students they serve."
Achieving the Dream helps participating colleges implement strategies designed to help more students earn degrees, complete certificates or transfer to other institutions to continue their studies. The initiative emphasizes building a culture of evidence, in which colleges use data to identify effective practices, improve student success rates and close achievement gaps.
"Participating in the Achieving the Dream initiative will move Triton College to a culture of evidence to inform decisions that will directly impact the success of students. With added support, Triton will advance the initiatives that support the retention and completion rates of students," said Dr. Granados.
About Triton College
Triton College, centered in River Grove, Ill., is located in western Cook County and serves 25 demographically and culturally diverse towns and villages in Community College District #504. Founded in 1964, Triton College is one of 48 community colleges in Illinois that play a vital role in the education and workforce preparation of the individuals and communities they serve. An integral part of the Illinois higher-education system, Triton provides high-quality, accessible, and cost-effective educational opportunities for residents of the district. The college serves over 28,000 students a year.
Triton has earned a reputation throughout the upper Midwest for its outstanding efforts to develop varied and innovative programs designed to satisfy the unique needs of its increasingly diverse constituents. Coming with a wide range of ages, backgrounds and levels of preparation, Triton students learn skills that enable them to compete successfully in the job market and to make significant contributions to business and industry, while participating in courses geared toward personal improvement, community service, and lifelong learning.
Triton College's two-year participation in Achieving the Dream began when a team of five representative from the college traveled to Austin, Texas from June 15 through June 18. The Triton team met with other teams from participating institutions from across the country and collectively discussed and planned for the implementatiaon of the initiative.
Achieving the Dream has assigned an implementation coach and data facilitator to assist Triton through this initiative.For more information about Achieving the Dream at Triton College, contact Dr. Angela Latham, vice president of Academic Affairs at Triton College, at (708) 456-0300, Ext. 3630, or alatham@triton.edu for a written reply.
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