Overview

At West Kentucky Community and Technical College, professional development means far more than a menu of workshops. Faculty convocation each term focuses not just on college policies, but on teaching skills. Every new professor receives structured mentoring. When the college discovered that its students were reading at levels below the national average, it made reading an institution-wide focus and has put half the full-time faculty through intensive yearlong training on integrating reading strategies into their courses.

The process of identifying and measuring student learning outcomes is nascent in many community colleges; at West Kentucky, it has led to visible improvements throughout the college, as professors look at results and plan new approaches together. For instance, teachers of developmental and college-level writing, whose expectations had previously diverged, developed a single, rigorous scoring standard and graded essays together to ensure consistency. 

Keeping Students on Track 

The college has achieved strong completion rates, working to keep students on track from the moment they arrive. An inviting one-stop center makes it easy for students to register, apply for financial aid, and access other services.  Intentional efforts have improved the rate at which students choose majors, a decision strongly correlated with completing a degree. And when data reveal challenges, the college responds.  To improve flagging completion rates in anatomy and physiology, for example, the college created a brush-up course for students struggling mid-term, which funnels them back into A&P the following semester, better prepared. And a new health science technology degree paves the way to good jobs for students who are interested in the field but lack the qualifications for competitive programs like nursing.

A Great College for Employers
West Kentucky quickly develops new programs when needed and has built a state-of-the-art technology center for industry training. Chad Chancellor, CEO of Paducah Economic Development, says for companies considering a move to the area, the college is the region’s “number one incentives program.”