New Developments
One of the Achieving
the Dream strategies at RTC is improving data systems integrity. Our
Integrity Task Force consists of representives from faculty, Information
Services, and Registration - as well as the directors of Registration,
Information Services, and Research and Development. Our main objectives are:
- Developing tools that increase data integrity
- Developing systems that get decision making data to our campus as fast
as possible.
- Providing training and support to the users of these system: our
faculty, administration, and staff.
- Automating these processes to make them more efficient.
Two developments in this area are the Cohort Retention Model and the "Madrona"
System.
The Cohort Retention Model
The Cohort Retention Model is an ongoing project to answer questions, provide
analysis, and support decision making by employees and staff at Renton Technical
College with respect to student success. By tracking retention progress from the
start of a student's professional technical program of study, we can see how
well the college is supporting our students in their success. This model allows
you to drill down into student characteristics to answer questions, such as,
"What is the completion rate for female students between the ages of 30 and
39?".
Would you like to take it for a test drive? Please see our
reports
section and try it out!
The "Madrona" System
The Madrona system is a secure access point for administrators, faculty, and
staff to access reports to help them with understanding our students and aiding
them decision making. It takes the above Cohort Retention Model and provides the
level of detail for the employee's needs, for example, all of our professional
technical instructors can now access a detailed retention report for their
individual programs - at any time. Also, our counselors and administrators have
full access.
We are working on setting up our part time, Basic Studies, General Education,
and Developmental Education instructors on this system. In addition, we are
aligning our system with the
Washington
State Student Achievement Initiative. This initiative tracks the students
through milestones from entering the college and what level they enter through
their experience to determine at which points they have difficulties (e.g.,
college math). By identifying these difficult areas, RTC can focus resources to
help our students succeed.
In addition to the Cohort Retention Model, the Madrona system supplies
employees with student job placement statistics, economic forecasts, and student
feedback.
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New Developments
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