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Strategic Plan

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Strategic Plan 2024-05-21T19:00:39+00:00

Strategic Plan for Equitable Student Success

The Strategic Plan for Equitable Student Success is a living document that guides the development of annual work plans. At the beginning of the 2022-2023 academic year, the College adopted a set of strategic goals and objectives to determine the trajectory of the college in accomplishing its mission. These strategic goals and objectives, which are aligned with the college’s Mission Fulfillment Report, have an overarching purpose to drive equitable student success.

Much work led to the development of the Strategic Plan for Equitable Student Success. The goals and objectives adopted in September 2022 were informed by other work plans developed by the college.

Plans:

  • Strategic Enrollment Management plan
  • Equity plan
  • Degree Pathways work plan
  • Title III work plan
  • Institutional Effectiveness plans
  • Program Improvement plans

As part of the planning process, the college wrote a new Mission, Vision and Values which were adopted by the Board of Trustees in October 2022.

In alignment with the Mission, Vision, and Values, the four broad goals that anchor the Strategic Plan for Equitable Student Success and  will be used to focus actions for the next three to five years  are:

  1. Access – Increase equitable and representative access to postsecondary educational and career opportunities that lead to social and economic mobility in Highline’s service area.
  2. Learning – Increase equitable learning, retention, completion and transfer rates, and improve labor market outcomes using evidence-based innovation and high-impact practices in and out of the classroom.
  3. Community – Increase breadth and depths of partnerships with K-12, other postsecondary institutions, community-based organizations, employers and government that align with Highline’s strategic priorities and contribute to economic and social vibrancy of communities it serves.
  4. Culture & Capacity – Create capacity for meaningful strategic planning and institutional transformation through intentional development of employees, facilities, and systems that support student success and close equity gaps.

For each goal –– access, learning, community and culture & capacity –– Highline leadership identified a series of objectives, creating a framework for the Strategic Plan for Equitable Student Success.

Student Success Council

The Student Success Council acts as Highline’s strategic planning oversight committee for the Strategic Plan for Equitable Student Success. This council is comprised of faculty, staff and student representation. The council integrates the college’s formal governance structures, including Executive Cabinet, Deans and Associate Deans, Division Chairs, and representatives from HCEA, WPEA, Faculty Senate, Associated Students of Highline College, Institutional Effectiveness Committee, Assessment Committee, Institutional Research, Title III, and the Public Information Officer.

The council is responsible for overseeing and holding accountable those involved in the strategic planning process. The council works by setting short-term (quarter-long) concrete goals in five areas and reporting out on progress at the end of each quarter. Depending on the nature of the work to be done, a single area might be a focus for the whole year or longer.

In fall 2022, Executive Cabinet identified five priority areas for that quarter, and with input from council members, created plans to begin advancing them.

The priority areas for Fall 2022 were:

  1. Complete the process for selecting, purchasing and beginning the implementation of a customer relationship management (CRM) technology tool to support the recruitment-to-enrollment pipeline
  2. Create awareness of Aviso for students and provide frequent and clear communication to students about how to find their advisor through the new Aviso system.
  3.  In partnership with Federal Way and Highline Public Schools, engage staff and students to provide accurate information on Highline College programs and entry processes to include support for navigation through identified barriers as highlighted through our Strategic Enrollment Management plan and feedback from high school partners.
  4. Increase capacity for the financial aid file review process and increase communication with students about the financial aid application status and other financial aid-related action items (e.g. receipt of documents, file review status, review/approval status, etc.)
  5. Improve the college’s top-level site (highline.edu) and three most commonly visited subdomains: admissions.highline.edu, registration.highline.edu and financialaid.highline.edu to provide clearer direction and access to information for prospective students seeking information to enroll, get financial aid and enroll in classes to increase enrollment quarter by quarter through 2022-23 and 23-24.

The priority areas for Winter 2023 were:

  1. Complete the organizational structure, process, and data decisions required to support future prospective student recruitment work to inform and support the implementation of the Watermark CRM module during spring quarter 2023.
  2.  Implement the use of Aviso to support all four phases of Highline’s advising model so that, from entry through completion, students feel supported in choosing a program and completing the related certificate/degree requirements as efficiently as possible.
  3. Improve communication with students, faculty, and staff, by providing outstanding forward-facing customer service and easy-to-follow, financial aid-related resources.
  4. Identify a CMS (Content Management System) and establish a projected timeline to migrate from WordPress to the new CMS for a new Highline College website. In addition, continue work to improve the college’s current top-level site (highline.edu) and three most commonly visited subdomains: admissions.highline.edu, registration.highline.edu and financialaid.highline.edu to provide clearer direction and information for prospective and current students.
  5. Complete the foundational research and program mapping needed, by the end of March 2023, to develop an adult learner recruitment and marketing strategy for spring quarter with the target of seeing an impact to fall quarter 2023 enrollment.

The priority areas for Spring 2023 were:

  1. Develop a working definition of culturally competent Financial Aid Service to align with our Student Experience Statement, administer a survey for non-FA staff who went through Fall 2022 training to assess successes, challenges that persist, and next steps for information sharing, and begin awarding for 2023-2024 by mid-April.
  2. Rework navigation, incorporate plain language  and reduce amount of overall content on the FA webpage to make it manageable for prospective and current students; incorporate more student persona where possible; and prepare home page content for migration to a new CMS system that will be centrally managed so there is increased consistency throughout the website.
  3. Design clear organizational structure, processes, and responsibilities for recruiting at Highline, as well as tools and systems to track and report on prospective students in the enrollment pipeline and improve our recruitment processes.
  4. Develop and implement a recruitment campaign focused on adult learners that includes new microsites featuring high wage, high demand areas: BAS, STEM, Cybersecurity, Business, and Paralegal programs and marketing strategies to drive visitors to those sites, and create a holistic plan including a timeline to address barriers to enrolling and completing faced by adults
  5. Develop a single plan that coordinates resources and time, builds on the assets of RISE (Retention, Intervention, Student Empowerment), HAC (Highline Advising Community), and Title III, and sets the college on a path for increasing retention beginning with the 23-24 academic year. Present a draft of this plan to the Title III Steering Committee Support and then to Executive Cabinet during spring quarter. This plan must include short-term objectives.
  6. Conduct preliminary research that will assist in creating a more efficient and strategic approach to class scheduling with the goal of offering student-friendly schedules, accommodating diverse pedagogical approaches, and making efficient use of current resources including space.

The priority area for Fall 2023, Winter 2023, and Spring 2024 is:

Increase first to second quarter retention for all demographic groups to 80%. Focus is being placed on the following strategies:

  • Student-centered scheduling
  • Peer navigators and early alerts
  • Improving funding for new students including those transitioning from non-credit programs
  • Digital literacy supports
  • Culturally responsive practices focused on on first quarter classes

Each quarter, teams across the college are actively engaged in completing the actions outlined in these priority areas. Through the Student Success Council Communications Team, the institution will be kept abreast on the progress toward meeting each goal and objective on a quarterly and annual basis.

View the Student Success Council’s 2022-23 End-of-Year Report.