Moon Shot for Equity at Delaware County Community College
Leadership Team
Harry J. Costigan, Ed.D.
Chief of Staff & Vice President
for Strategic Planning
Marple Campus, Executive Suite
Email
Momodu C. Taylor, Ph.D.
Vice President of Institutional Equity
Marple Campus
Founders Hall, Executive Suite
Email
Office of the President
Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
What is Moon Shot for Equity?
Moon Shot for Equity is a transformational initiative to improve student outcomes and close equity gaps across race, gender, financial status, and others by changing systems, organizational structures, policies, practices, and behaviors.
Moon Shot for Equity at DCCC is a partnership with West Chester University (WCU) and EAB, covering the region of Southeastern Pa., to eliminate institutional equity gaps by 2030. This work will employ evidence-based best practices implemented to remove institutional barriers to student success. This process involves examining the community college experience from various levels, perspectives, and layers to reveal what aspects of the institution can be improved to support all DCCC students.
This initiative is driven by two complementary principles:
Two- and four-year colleges and universities within each region agree to implement the following best practices to create an institutionally focused and equity-minded approach to student success:
- Change Management
- Equity-Mindedness
- Campus Climate Assessment
- Reduction of Registration Holds
- Retention Grants
- Aligned Mathematics
- Expanded Meta-Majors and Majors
- Remediation and Developmental Education Reform
- Academic Maps
- Streamlined Transfer Pathways
- Access to a Second Chance
- Proactive Advising Enabled by Technology
- Coordinated Care Network
- Confidence-Building and Belongingness
- College Access Partnership with Community-Based Organizations
This regional approach creates local collaborations with government, community-based organizations, and employers will help boost college attainment. These regional collaborations between schools are also critical in order to establish common academic pathways that allow students to move between two- and four-year institutions and earn a degree more quickly and efficiently. Streamlining credit transfers between institutions and accelerating time to degree are significant aspects of the equity challenge.
A Four-Part Model Providing Training, Accountability, Scale and Coaching to Catalyze Transformation:
- Grounding in Equity-Mindedness
- Change Management Support
- Tech-Enabled Student Support
- Accountable and Data-Informed
EAB’s role and responsibilities include the provision of these benefits across Moon Shot for Equity regions:
- Leadership Institute: Change Management and Equity Skill-Building: EAB will facilitate a cohort-based Leadership Institute to develop equity-minded practitioners armed with exceptional change management skills to uphold the Moon Shot principles and drive and sustain change throughout the region.
- Best Practice Research: Regions will have access to evidence-based best practices and policies that already have been deployed at scale across institutions, while rapidly contributing their own groundbreaking discoveries.
- Student Success Management System Technology: EAB will deploy at scale a common student success technology. This will create a nearly seamless approach and infrastructure to collectively identify obstacles, collaboratively design interventions, rapidly compare results, and urgently deliver improvements.
- Implementation Expertise and Project Management: EAB will provide regions with a dedicated consulting team tasked with providing regions with a structured, measurable, and deadline-driven timeline to implement practices and policies. As new areas of opportunity are determined for each region, EAB will work with ecosystems to provide technical experts and support.
- Data Transparency, Metrics Alignment, and Assessment: EAB will facilitate the use of common metrics for measurement, comparison, and assessment of our progress and success for rapid adjustment and improvement.
- Convenings: EAB will organize and convene equity regions virtually across the year to efficiently share results, engage in thoughtful discussions, and facilitate structured work sessions.
