California Community-College Educator Receives USA Funds Retention Award

On Sept. 10 Joann Jelly, psychology instructor at Barstow Community College in California, received the USA Funds^® Retention Award for her studies and work in ensuring greater retention and success of BCC students.

Chancellor Diane Woodruff, California Community Colleges, and Ron Lee, USA Funds customer-relations manager, presented the award to Jelly.

USA Funds sponsored the award through a $3,000 grant to the academic-affairs division in the system office through the Foundation for California Community Colleges. In light of the need to increase retention and success of community-college students in California, USA Funds established the USA Funds Retention Award to recognize a faculty member and the faculty member’s work to increase student success.

The grant for the award is part of a larger initiative help bolster student success and the academic preparedness of students attending California community colleges. USA Funds supported this initiative with a $103,000 grant.

“It’s a real honor to present this award to Dr. Jelly,” said Woodruff. “With her extraordinary work in increasing student retention and success, she is a most worthy recipient of the USA Funds Retention Award.”

Jelly has been an instructor at BCC since 1992. She conducted a research project designed to increase student retention and prepare students for success in their present and future studies. Her research — based on the theory that to retain students, their academic-study efforts could be coached to be more effective — is consistent with the California Community Colleges System Strategic Plan adopted in 2006. One of the plan’s primary goals is achieving higher student-retention and persistence rates.

“It’s clear that Dr. Jelly brings her passion and innovation to the table every day, just as the California Community Colleges are taking the right steps to meet the needs of their students,” Lee said. “We are proud to be a partner as they pursue changes to improve student retention and academic preparedness.”

A higher-education instructor for more than 22 years, Jelly noted that many community-college students are first-generation students and therefore they lack role models. “Sometimes they limit themselves by their own stereotypes,” she said. “The more we can help students build their ability to believe in themselves, the more the students will try.”

About 50 percent of all California community-college first-time freshmen drop out of college within one year. Improving both course retention and semester-to-semester persistence rates, especially into the second year of college, is urgent.

Conferences outline research findings
In addition to the award, as a part of its strategic plan, the CCCO has offered three regional conferences across the California Community College System to present findings from a review of literature and best practices for basic-skills education for students. The regional conferences also are part of the USA Funds-sponsored initiative to bolster student success and preparedness at California community colleges. The review focused on the following four areas:

• Organization and administrative practices.
• Program components.
• Staff development.
• Instructional practices.

Included with the review was an assessment tool for effective practices in basic skills and a tool to estimate costs and revenue. Conference officials encouraged attendees to take these tools back to their own schools to evaluate their schools’ effectiveness in meeting student needs in basic-skills education.