Austin Community College’s Board of Trustees recently approved a strategic plan that sets forth a comprehensive and ambitious set of performance targets to guide college operations through 2021.

At their November 21 work session board members praised the plan, which reinforces the college’s mission and is driven by a push for more individuals to obtain postsecondary education and the need to improve completion rates of ACC students.

The plan outlines three overarching goals that align with the college’s transition to guided pathways and focus on student success. Each goal includes detailed objectives, tasks, metrics, and specific targeted outcomes.

View Student Success through Guided Pathways: ACC Strategic Plan 2017 – 2021

The three goals and a few of the targets for each are:

Goal 1: Improved access and enrollment

• Increase overall college enrollment, as well as enrollments in credit, Continuing Education, and Adult Education courses by 10 percent within five years.
• Increase the number of financial aid awards and the dollars awarded each by 20 percent.
• Increase enrollment of Hispanic students by 25 percent, African-American students by 20 percent, and Asian-American students by 10 percent.

Goal 2: Increased persistence and engagement

• Increase the percentage of overall successful course completions by 3 percentage points.
• Increase the number and percent of first-time-in-college (FTIC) students who earn 6 or more credits in their first term.
• Increase the percentage of students completing developmental education within two years by 10 percentage points and within one year by 20 percentage points.
• Increase the number of FTIC students who complete 30 credits within their first two years by 10 percent.

Goal 3: Increased completion and transition to employment/transfer

• Improve the average time to an associate degree by one year, from 5.7 years to 4.7 years.
• Increase credential and core curriculum completions by 15 percent in each category.
• Increase the ACC graduation rate as defined by IPEDS by 100 percent.
• Increase the ACC transfer rate as defined by IPEDS by 10 percent.
• Increase the overall number of student transfers to four-year universities by 15 percent.

Dr. Charles Cook, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, said the strategic plan is intended to be a “living document” that will be revisited each year to ensure the college is achieving the intended improvements. The college will report its progress on performance measures annually.