Why Is Student Success and Equity in Access Imperative for Higher Education?
Keith Curry is the president of Compton College and CEO of the Compton Community College District. At the 2019 Community College League of California Annual Conference, Curry was honored as one of three 2019 Champions of Equity by the Campaign for College Opportunity and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund. The award honors those who prioritize student-centered policies that produce equitable outcomes and expand opportunities for Californians. In June 2020, Curry was invited by Governor Newsom’s Senior Policy Advisor for Higher Education Lande Ajose to serve on the California Higher Education Recovery with Equity Task Force. Since spring 2021, he has served as a distinguished research fellow and an adjunct faculty member at the California State University, Los Angeles Charter College of Education. Curry earned his doctorate in educational leadership from the University of California, Irvine, and a bachelor’s degree in American studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
You have a slogan: “every student is a success story.” Why is this belief so important to you?
I think it’s important as educators that we recognize that every student is a success story. Our job is to help bring out that story. It could be from an instructional program that we have. It could be because of the different support service we provide. It could be from the campus climate. How do you engage students within your compass community? Where are you able to tell their story and help them to tell their story? Because every student is a success story. Our job is to help students figure it out, so they can be able to tell their story.
How can community colleges help with improving equity and access to higher education for all students?
I look at racial equity and frame all of our conversations around racial equity. We ensure that we’re looking at data disaggregated by race, gender, and income and looking at it from a racial equity lens as the work that we do on our campuses and try to do that on the large scale so all students are being served. And why is that important on a large scale? A lot of times people will come to us and talk about, “Let’s do a program for 30 or 60 students,” and I’m saying, “Okay, that’s fine. But what about the thousand or 1,500 other students who have the same type of background who are struggling as well?” So how can we provide the services to every student? How can we think bigger, not smaller? If you are looking at how you transform organizations with a focus on racial equity, that means every student matters—and that you look at your data from a different perspective, and it’s not about 30 or 60 students. So if you believe in the work that you’re doing to advance racial equity and transform your organizations, then you going to put money toward it.
How can community colleges—a and other institutions—ensure that students remain on the path to success once they are enrolled and that they are able to attain their degrees?
First, know who your students are: know what their major is and know what their interests are on your campus. That is critical during the first year to know your students and provide support services to support them. That is critical during the first year to know your students and provide support services to support them. Second, is to monitor your students’ academic performance; most colleges use some type of early-alert system to be able to monitor students’ academic performance, but also follow back up with those students—that’s critical to monitor your students’ performance. Third, is to look at the whole experience that students are in—as an educational experience—and try to make sure that you provide the quality of services to ensure that students are able to meet their end goal of that educational experience, which is achieving their two-year degree or certificate, transfer to a four-year college university, or get a job with livable wages. To do that, we must understand that everything that we do is a part of that experience and document what that experience looks like on our campuses. At Compton College, we follow the Completion by Design Framework that was researched from the Gates Foundation, and with that framework, we examine our work through the student experience.
Share on LinkedIn
