Dr. Sonya Christian
President
Bakersfield College
1801 Panorama Drive
Bakersfield, CA 93305
Dear President Christian:
We are thrilled to have Bakersfield College as part of the Achieving the Dream National Reform
Network (ATD) and are deeply appreciative of you and your colleagues’ continued commitment
to student success and equity. After reviewing your 2015 Annual Reflection and receiving input
from your coaching team, we offer several observations in this letter about your institution’s
progress to date toward achieving the student success and equity goals identified by your team.
We have arranged the review using the five broad principles that ATD views as key to
institutional transformation, which also serve as the sections for your Principles Assessment
Survey.
Reflections on the Five Achieving the Dream Principles
Committed Leadership
 We are impressed with the commitment and direct engagement you have shown
throughout the past year as well as the strong support demonstrated by senior
administrators and faculty leaders. This collaborative, unified leadership has driven the
student-success agenda forward at Bakersfield College.
 As a large college, broadening and sustaining engagement across the institution to reach
those faculty and staff who have not been involved in the interventions can be
challenging. However, allocating sufficient resources to bring the interventions to full
scale will help broaden and deepen engagement.
Use of Evidence to Improve Policies, Programs, and Services
 Bakersfield College has demonstrated exceptional use of disaggregated data to inform
planning, implementation, and evaluation with respect to its student-success agenda.
 The research conducted to develop and implement the multiple measures approach to
student placement demonstrates a remarkable depth and breadth of commitment to datadriven decision-making.
 We commend the college’s pursuit of predictive analytics as a component of
matriculation services.
 It would be beneficial for the college to work in conjunction with the district IR and IT
offices to ensure that the necessary data are produced to evaluate implementation and
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scaling of the college's interventions. Additionally, the college may wish to evaluate the
success of its own internal data coaches and adjust their roles as appropriate.
Broad Engagement
 Collaboration between academic affairs and student services is strong, as evidenced by
collaboration on refinements to assessment and placement instruments and protocols. The
improvement in successful completion of developmental courses is, in part, attributable
to that collaboration. We applaud the strong efforts in program review that have led to the
successful implementation of refinements to assessment and placement and to successful
changes in developmental English and math courses.
 It is encouraging to note that communications from the senior leaders to define and
promote the student-success agenda have been clear and consistent. To expand
engagement across the campus, the college could leverage the integration of the various
state-funded initiatives on student success and equity, Achieving the Dream, and
accreditation.
Systemic Institutional Improvement
 The integration of the various initiatives focused on student success has brought clarity
and coordination to institutional planning and evaluation. We are pleased to note that
institutional planning is integrated with resource allocation and aligned with accreditation
standards and activities. It is clear that the college's strategic plan aligns with its efforts
under Achieving the Dream and state initiatives on student success and equity.
 It is admirable that opportunities for professional development for faculty and staff are
increasing, particularly under the college’s student equity plan.
 We recognize that the size and complexity of the college makes scaling interventions a
challenge. However, we encourage the college to boldly begin full scaling of its three
Achieving the Dream interventions, as these have demonstrated success during initial
implementation.
Equity
 We commend the college for its clear and strong commitment to reducing achievement
gaps. This commitment is reflected in the college’s willingness to host several regional
conferences on equity on its campus.
 It is exciting to note that the integration of the state's student equity and success
initiatives with the college’s Achieving the Dream work has brought enhanced focus to
reducing achievement gaps among certain groups of students.
 To maintain focus and commitment on equity, the college should continue to engage all
stakeholders in examining disaggregated data to determine achievement gaps among
various groups of students. It would be particularly beneficial to identify ways to support
and encourage the increased engagement of adjunct faculty in this work.
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Final Thoughts
Bakersfield College has created and embraced a strong and clear student-success agenda, which
is led by a strong team. The initial implementation of the interventions has been successful and
prospects for scaling and sustaining the changes to practice, policy, and curriculum are positive.
We are excited to congratulate Bakersfield College for earning a 2015 Exemplary Program
Award from the Board of Governors for California Community Colleges for your excellent
mentoring program, “Making It Happen” as well as being recognized by the Brookings Institute
as the best community college in California and among the top 10 in the U.S. for value-added
mid-career earnings for its alumni.
ATD is continuously building upon the institutional change lessons learned from our network
over the last ten years and, as a result, we have recently released the next iteration of our
institutional change framework. This framework identifies seven core capacity areas essential to
growing colleges’ abilities to impact student outcomes through systemic and sustainable
practices. In the next year, ATD plans to release a new suite of tools and other resources to
undergird colleges’ implementation of and maturation in the core capacity areas. We urge you to
make the most of the new framework and resources as you take your student success work to the
next level.
We appreciate the hard work, time, and resources that your institution devotes to your Achieving
the Dream efforts. We encourage you to discuss the feedback in this letter with your Leadership
Coach and Data Coach, who are ready to support and guide you moving forward as it may assist
you in shaping the direction of your ongoing student success efforts. We look forward to
working with you in the coming year and welcome your questions and comments along the way.
Sincerely,
Dr. Karen A. Stout
President & CEO
Cindy Lenhart
Vice President for Community College Relations
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