As its next Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), the College has developed the VPCC Cares plan to improve student success and retention by placing embedded tutors into introductory mathematics and English courses. Additionally, the plan will provide faculty who teach those courses comprehensive professional development to enhance the classroom experience and foster success and a greater sense of belonging.
The VPCC Cares Plan focuses on the following three courses: College Composition I (ENG 111), Quantitative Reasoning (MTH 154), and Precalculus I (MTH 161). These courses were chosen for their high enrollment, relatively low success rates, and significant capacity to impact overall retention and student success. With embedded tutoring, additional academic support is provided directly in the classroom, meeting students where they are without requiring them to seek additional services outside of class. Concurrently, faculty development supports the faculty in creating classroom environments that encourage strong engagement with course content, faculty, embedded tutors, and other students. Strategic investments in the College’s Tutoring Center and Center for Teaching and Learning will support these efforts and ensure successful implementation and ongoing effectiveness.
There are five components that SACSCOC requires of a QEP. Below, we outline VPCC Cares in relation to each of those components:
Topic:
The institution identified a topic through its ongoing, comprehensive planning and evaluation processes.
The VPCC Cares plan emerged from annual planning efforts aligned to the College’s Thrive 2027 strategic plan and a review of performance on the College’s core student success metrics. Through those efforts, the College identified student success and retention as the most critical area needing attention. The Plan was further refined by reviewing current literature and best practices , which identified the classroom experience as the greatest opportunity to reach students, increase their sense of belonging, and positively impact their success and retention. By investing strategically in an embedded tutoring model and supporting professional development, the College reaffirms its commitment to its mission and the VPCC Culture of Care.
Broad-based Support:
The topic has broad-based support of institutional constituencies.
The VPCC Cares plan was developed over two years through the collaborative effort of a large group of faculty, staff, administrators, and students. Input was consistently gathered from the College community at each stage in the development process. The Plan has been reviewed and endorsed by the President’s Cabinet, the VPCC Local College Board, and the VPCC Educational Foundation Board. To ensure broad-based support, the College’s QEP Steering Committee will continue to engage the College community and its partners through ongoing outreach and annual reporting.
Focus:
The plan focuses on improving specific student learning outcomes and/or student success.
The VPCC Cares plan is focused on student success and will increase student pass rates, enhance students’ sense of belonging at the College, and translate into improved retention rates. Specifically, the VPCC Cares plan will produce the following outcomes:
- Increase the success (pass) rates for students in targeted courses
- Increase the sense of belonging reported by students in targeted courses
- Increase retention rates for students who participate in targeted courses
- Increase overall sense of belonging reported by students at the College
- Increase overall full-time and part-time student success and retention rates at the College
Resources:
The institution commits resources to initiate, implement, and complete the QEP.
Successful implementation of the new embedded tutoring model will require additional staffing, training, and professional development. To meet these needs, the College will be adding two new full-time positions (one in the Tutoring Center and another in the Center for Teaching and Learning), expanding its pool of part-time and peer tutors, and allocating dedicated funds to faculty and tutor professional development. The VPCC Educational Foundation has provided funding to fully support these new expenses in the first year of the QEP and partially support in the second and third years. The College will begin budgeting for the costs in the second year and will fully take on the expenses by the fourth year, allowing for a phased and sustainable model.
Assessment:
The institution has developed a plan to assess the achievement of its QEP. The VPCC Cares assessment plan is designed to measure the plan’s impact on student success, course completion, student retention, and student belonging. A report on VPCC Cares implementation and effectiveness will be generated each year and reviewed by the QEP Steering Committee. Analysis of that report will be used to inform changes and improvements that may be needed to better meet the goals of the QEP.