On April 10, 2012 Los Medanos College was honored by The Campaign for College Opportunity for its successful implementation of the Center for Urban Education's Equity Scorecard over the past four years.
The Capitol briefing and recognition ceremony in Sacramento featured six California Community Colleges, including Los Medanos College, that "are innovating and leading the way in improving student completion rates ... delivering high quality programs ... and demonstrating success."
In 2008 Los Medanos College's Equity Scorecard Evidence Team first assembled and, with CUE's help, examined institutional practices ranging from instruction to student services. By utilizing the action research tools of the Equity Scorecard to examine its practices, Los Medanos initiated changes to bring about more equitable outcomes among racial-ethnic groups of students enrolled at the college.
The long term effects of utilizing The Equity Scorecard look promising for LMC.
"The biggest takeaway so far as a team is that we've become so much more comfortable being researchers - looking at the data - how not to swallow it whole but keep digging into it," Joellen Hilbrand, an Evidence Team member and faculty member, said. "We're more comfortable now with teaching other people how to do it so it will have a wider and more cumulative effect as we go on."
The other five California Community Colleges honored by the state on April 10th included: Chabot College, Chaffey College, City College of San Francisco, Fresno City College and Long Beach City College.
