Student Services
Campus walkway with banners

IERP Newsletter

The IERP team is excited to share some strategic planning strategies to help continue the goal-setting momentum for AVC’s strategic plan. Additionally, we will outline the available data to guide your planning and decision-making.

What is Strategic Planning?

Strategic planning involves the development and prioritization of short- and long-term goals that support the college’s mission. Below are five questions to engage with as you begin goal setting:

1. Where do we want the institution to be? This involves projecting what the future of AVC and your area can be and determining how to align our vision, goals, purpose, and outcomes to this future vision.

2. What will determine when we get there? We create quantifiable measures of achieving this future state via data collection and analysis.

3. Where are we now? Assess your areas strengths and weaknesses.

4. How do we get there? Identify how gaps can be closed between the current situation and the ideal situation in a holistic way.

5. What factors will/may change in the future? Analyze the factors that impact your area's operating environment and build a strategic plan considering those factors.

Planning Tip #1: Force Field Analysis

Identify the forces and factors in place that support or work against the solution of an issue so that positives can be reinforced, and negatives are eliminated or reduced.

How to:

  • Draw a large letter “T” on the flip chart
  • At the top of the “T” write the issue or problem that you plan to analyze
  • To the far right of the top of the “T,” write a description of the ideal situation
  • Brainstorm forces that are driving you toward an ideal situation (may be internal or external)
  • Brainstorm the forces that are restraining movement toward where you want to be as a department or area
  • Prioritize the driving forces that can be strengthened through group consensus
Drivers and Restrainers

Creating Measurable Goals

All goals should be SMARTIE (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-Bound, Inclusive and Equitable). So, what does this mean?

Specific
• Reflects an important dimension of what your area seeks to accomplish (i.e., programmatic).

Measurable
• It includes a standard or benchmark to be met.

Ambitious
• Challenging enough that achievement would mean significant progress—a "stretch" for the organization.

Realistic
• Not so challenging or reflective of too little thought about resources, capacity, or execution; possible to track and worth the time and energy to do so.

Timebound
• Includes a clear timeline.

Inclusive
• Brings traditionally marginalized people—particularly those most impacted—into processes, activities, and decision/policymaking in a way that shares power.

Equity
• Seeks to address systemic injustice, inequity, or oppression.

Tips for Writing SMARTIE Goals

Specific
• What does your program/area hope to accomplish?

Measurable
• Did you establish benchmarks?

Achievable
• Does you program/area have the capacity/resources to achieve this goal?

Realistic
• Does your objective reflect the population of focus?

Timebound
• Did you establish a deadline or timeframe?

Inclusion
• Do you have representation from socially and economically marginalized individuals and groups?

Equity
• Did you include an element of justice?

Example of a SMARTIE Goal: Through ensuring every new student has an Ed Plan in their first semester, by June 2026, decrease by 10% the number of African American male students accumulating more than 60 units.

Resource:
Bibbs, M (2021, January 5) Be a SMARTIE: An Equity-Forward Approach to Goal Setting. The Alford Group. Available at: https://alford.com/be-a-smartie-an-equity-forward-approach-to-goal-setting

Using Data

At the Strategic Planning Retreat, AVC’s IERP team and ATD Data Coaches presented data to attendees.  The data included the latest service area demographics and characteristics, data used for AVC’s Student Equity Plan, findings from the RISC (Revealing Institutional Strengths and Challenges) survey, Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE), CTE Employment Outcomes Survey (CTEOS), Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE), and our Student Profiles. These reports/dashboards can be found on the IERP website.

RISC Survey (Spring 2023)

Students were asked about the challenges they faced during their college journey. Sixty-five percent of survey respondents reported that work and personal issues were the top challenges to student success. Additionally, more students identified that academic support services (43% at AVC vs. 31% at benchmark colleges) and the campus environment (35% at AVC vs. 18% at Benchmark colleges) posed a major challenge to their success compared to benchmark institutions.

This survey also provides rich qualitative data where students expand on their responses to the quantitative questions. These data have been used to inform programmatic changes to better support students at AVC. Want to dig deeper? The summary report for this survey (and other surveys) can be found here: https://www.avc.edu/institutional-effectiveness-research-planning-ierp/surveys-students-employees.

Student Profile

The student profiles from previous semesters were shown during the Strategic Planning Retreat. The latest student profile can be found on our Tableau site. These data help us provide us with an overview of the student population we serve.

Fall 2025 overview of our student demographics (as of 10/07/25):

  • 64.5% of students at AVC are Hispanic/Latine
  • 54.7% are women
  • 68.6% are 24 years old or less (with 40.6% aged 19 or less)
  • 69.4% are enrolled part-time (w/ 38.8% of students enrolled in 3 to 6 units).

Want to see more? Visit the Fall 2025 Student Profile

Planning Tip #2: Equity-Minded Sensemaking

Meaning-making that goes beyond noticing equity gaps in outcomes to interpreting those equity gaps as an indicator that current practices are not working. (McNair, Bensimon, Malcolm-Piquex, 2020, p. 61).

  • When looking at data disaggregated by race/ethnicity, consider the following:
  • What patterns do you see in the data?
  • Which racial groups are experiencing inequities?
  • What might be contributing to the equity gaps?
  • What additional information is needed to better understand equity gaps?
  • What questions might you ask for deeper understanding?
  • How might you use this information to inform goal setting?

Student Equity Plan Dashboard

Data are provided for each metric across cohort years, disaggregated by student demographic group, and intersected with gender. Disproportionate Impact (DI) is examined for all disaggregations. SEP Plan data metrics include Successful enrollment in the first year, persistence to primary term, completion of transfer-level Math and English in their first academic year, and Vision Completion Goal in three years.

This data can be used to inform where additional support is needed to close equity gaps for disproportionately impacted student groups. How does your area help support Black students who persist at AVC? How does your area support Latino/a/x students transfer to 4-year institutions within three years?

For more information, visit the Student Equity Plan Dashboard.

Data Resources

We now have a few ways you can access information. Our team is excited to launch the new Tableau dashboards and Precision Campus site (see more information below). Most of the dashboards allow you to slice and dice by student demographics and other characteristics to better understand where our institution needs to focus to close equity gaps. Visit our IERP Data Dashboards page to access the dashboard links.

Not finding what you need? You can request data via our Research Request Form.

Tableau Dashboards

The following dashboards are available:

Enrollment

Student Success

Statewide Initiatives Student Equity Plan Dashboard

Service Area

Precision Campus

Password-protected reports and on-demand analytics with the ability to slice data for informed decision-making.

Faculty

  • You can now access your student success data disaggregated by race/ethnicity and gender via Precision Campus. This data is only viewable to you.

Deans, Chairs, and Managers

The following dashboards are available to assist with your data-informed decision-making:

  • Enrollment by division/department
  • Daily enrollment trends
  • Optimized fill rates
  • Productivity Measures by Section
  • Classroom Meeting Times
  • Section Fill Rates by Subject

First-time logging in to our internal dashboards or seeking additional access? Reach out to our team! :)

Need help navigating a dashboard or interpreting data? Join us for our Data Bits & Bytes sessions. Book an individual or team session.

Printable Newsletter (PDF)

Year in Review

2025 IERP Year in Review

IERP Team

Svetlana Deplazes, PhD
Interim Dean - IERP/Library
svetlana.deplazes@avc.edu

Vacant
Administrative Coordinator

Vacant
Research Analyst

Amanda Stinson
Research Technician
amanda.stinson@avc.edu