DREAM Studios are three-hour workshops where experts dive into effective practices to support your work and advance the field. Presentations highlight critical elements for advancing student success.
DREAM Studios will take place Monday, February 19, 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. and 12:30 p.m.–3:30 p.m. ET. Registered DREAM 2024 attendees may sign up to attend for an additional fee.
9:00 a.m.–12.00 p.m.
Becoming an Adaptive Learning Organization To Advance Student Success
Research shows that professional learning “done well” is essential to engaging educators in the action-oriented partnerships needed to implement equity-focused practices with quality and at scale. With ATD’s framework for building a culture of teaching and learning excellence as a starting point, participants in this workshop will consider how to leverage professional learning — for full-time and part-time faculty, staff, and administrators — to guide a process of becoming an adaptive learning organization that advances student success.
Speakers:
Jonathan Iuzzini, Director of Teaching & Learning, Achieving the Dream (jiuzzini@achievingthedream.org)
Bret Eynon, Strategic Teaching & Learning Coach, Achieving the Dream (beynon@achievingthedream.org)
Registration Fee:
$195 per workshop for in-Network colleges
$245 for out-of-Network attendees
Equitable Pathways to Success: Using Achieving the Dream’s Equity Toolkit to Support Student Access, Momentum, Mobility, and Community Vibrancy
In this interactive DREAM Studio, attendees will delve into the resources and approaches necessary to propel equity forward for their respective institutions. Engaging in practical exercises, group discussions, and collaborative troubleshooting, attendees will analyze the equity principles within the Achieving the Dream’s Equity Toolkit: A Researched Based Guide to Operationalizing Equity, with the overarching themes of the DREAM conference: access, momentum, mobility, and community vibrancy. Be it individually or as part of a group, participants will establish explicit links between equity and student success. Attendees will also connect with like-minded colleagues who face similar challenges and successes when planning to implement lasting change.
Speakers:
Jairo McMican, Associate Director of Equity Initiatives
Francesca I. Carpenter, Director of Equity Initiatives,
Dr. Paul Hernandez, Senior Advisor to the President and CEO
Registration Fee:
$195 per workshop for in-Network colleges
$245 for out-of-Network attendees.
Expanding Access to Opportunity for Historically Disconnected Adult Populations
Community and technical colleges across the country are working harder than ever to expand access to pathways that lead to social and economic mobility for the more than 90 million U.S. adults who do not hold a postsecondary credential. Faced with both long- and short-term enrollment challenges and a rapidly changing labor market, this work is both a financial necessity and a mission-centered goal for colleges. Further, it is equally critical for the vitality and health of the communities the colleges serve. This DREAM Studio is designed for practitioners from colleges working to expand access and support to adults in their community will join ATD staff in highlighting high impact policies and practices:
What we know about adult learners’ goals and common barriers they face in enrolling, progressing, and completing higher education programs
Data-informed strategies that meet different adult learner populations where they are
Tools colleges can use, including ATD’s new Strategy Hub, to identify opportunities to better connect with and serve adult populations historically underserved by higher education
Practitioners from colleges in the Prioritizing Adult Community College Enrollment (PACCE) and Improving Economic Mobility for Adult Learners Initiatives will join ATD staff in highlighting high impact policies and practices.
Speakers:
Julia Lawton, Director of Program Administration, Achieving the Dream
Melinda Anderson, Executive Director for Network Engagement, Achieving the Dream
Paula Talley, Executive Director, Program Development, Achieving the Dream
Dr. Abraham Dones, Vice President and Chief Student Services Officer, Durham Technical Community College
Registration Fee:
$195 per workshop for in-Network colleges
$245 for out-of-Network attendees
Strategic Planning for Access, Momentum, and Mobility
Strategic planning should be a process that produces a living document that gives a voice to the collective priorities of the college and results in action that advances the college’s strategic vision.Unfortunately, many strategic plans sit on shelves gathering dust.In this workshop, participants will learn about high impact practices that enable a dynamic strategic planning process that integrates with the college’s culture and operations and leverages the college’s competitive advantage as a hub of learning, credentialing, and mobility in its community. Participants in this workshop will deepen their skills for building plans that set measurable and important goals, selecting a small number of high impact strategies for realizing those goals, and choosing metrics that measure institutional success beyond enrollment and completion.
Speakers:
Dr. Mary Spilde, President Emerita, Lane Community College and ATD Coach
Susan Mayer, Chief Learning Officer, Achieving the Dream
Registration Fee:
$195 per workshop for in-Network colleges
$245 for out-of-Network attendees.
12:30 p.m.–3.30 p.m.
Advising Redesign: High Impact Practices that Support Student Academic and Personal Needs
What are the practices that colleges have in place to encourage conversations between advisors and students that foster a sense of belonging and student success? This comprehensive DREAM studio will explore advising redesign with a focus on high impact practices that support?marginalized students, such as student parents, adult learners, poverty-impacted, first-generation, and BILPOC students. Participants will gain insights into structures, policies, and strategies that create a supportive and inclusive campus environment, accessible financial and academic support, and connections to community resources.
Speakers:
Paula Pitcher, Director, Holistic Student Supports
Leah Woodke, Director of Institutional Research, UTTC
Monte Schaff, Dean of Enrollment Management, UTTC
Registration Fee:
$195 per workshop for in-Network colleges
$245 for out-of-Network attendees
AI, Digital Tools, and the Future of Higher Education: Ramifications for Policy and Practice
In the evolving landscape of higher education, artificial intelligence (AI) is not merely a novel tool — it's transforming the pedagogical process and the student experience. But how do faculty ensure that these transformations benefit every learner? This workshop delves deeply into the real-world application of AI in the classroom, highlighting its potential pitfalls, such as algorithmic biases, and the subsequent equity issues.Faculty will explore a curated list of AI tools, including widely-used ones like ChatGPT, understanding their efficacy and adaptability for both their practice and student learning. Participants will learn from community colleges that have embraced AI, gleaning insights from their real-world experiences and best practices for equitable implementation. We'll discuss the classroom-centric challenges posed by AI and touch on administrative implications and policy considerations, but the heart of this workshop is practical: charting a path for educators to leverage AI in ways that enhance their teaching practice and support learning outcomes for every student, regardless of background or prior achievement.
Speakers:
Susan Adams, Associate Director of Teaching and Learning, Achieving the Dream
Eric Fiero, Project Manager of Program Development, Achieving the Dream
Nancy Murray, Associate Professor of Academic Literacy at Community College of Baltimore County
Registration Fee:
$195 per workshop for in-Network colleges
$245 for out-of-Network attendees
Assessing Program Health and Relevancy
Today’s education climate requires a different lens in assessing program health and relevancy through a more holistic and data-centered framework, as we must assure that college decision-making centers on completion or transfer with credentials that have labor market value.This data approach requires that program design/approval/review provides high value to students (and is not undertaken simply to meet college enrollment goals). It helps colleges discover new program opportunities, validate successful programs, and identify programs that may need to be sunsetted or redesigned.This interactive session will synthesize the best of emerging research on persons, metrics, and strategy to assure that college programs are positive contributors to healthy colleges, economically mobile graduates, skilled employer labor pools, and vibrant communities.
Speakers:
Cami Cooley, Academic Planning and Assessment Director, College of Southern Maryland
Jennifer McBride, Associate Director, Accreditation and Assessment, St. Petersburg College
Registration Fee:
$195 per workshop for in-Network colleges
$245 for out-of-Network attendees.
Building Better Bridges: Assessing Your College’s Portfolio of K–12 Partnerships
Consistent with ATD’s vision of community colleges as profoundly accessible hubs of learning, credentialing, and economic mobility, effective K–12 partnerships must be strategic and intentionally equity-centered and must broaden access to college and career for a wider population of students in the communities they serve. ATD has developed a framework to assess a wide range of K–12/college partnerships, including dual enrollment and early college, as well as college readiness and college bridge programs, aligned CTE pathways, and shared professional development.
Are the programs that make up your portfolio of K–12 partnerships based on a shared vision of success? Are you and your partners achieving that vision? Are there regular opportunities for collaboration and planning? In this DREAM Studio session, you will learn how to use ATD’s K–12 partnerships framework to assess the efficacy and impact of your K–12/college partnerships. Designed for a team of colleagues or individual leaders, this session will provide an opportunity to reflect on a specific program or your entire portfolio of K–12 partnerships through a lens of equity, student success, and community impact.
Speakers:
Dr. David Thomas, Vice President, Strategic Initiatives & Community Engagement, Community College of Philadelphia
Other: TBA
Registration Fee:
$195 per workshop for in-Network colleges
$245 for out-of-Network attendees
