Ventura College: How Faculty Leadership Advanced Student Success

(A. Solano)

Ventura College English faculty recently did something many of us talk about in higher education, but few have the time, structure, or support to actually do: they enhanced their teaching practice through intentional, inquiry-driven collaboration and action—and persisted through the productive struggle it required.

With dedicated coaching from me on my inquiry & action team process (featured by Columbia University’s Community College Research Center), Inquiry & Action Teams examined and strengthened their own classroom practices. The result? Significant gains in student success and retention, especially for Hispanic and female students.

At Ventura, the English department launched three teams with my coaching support:

• Assessment Team: Focused on redesigning a rubric and ensuring student check-ins to reduce stress and increase engagement.
• Hybrid Instruction Team: Enhanced the hybrid teaching experience by centering identity, cultural analysis, and personal reflection.
• Writing Pedagogy Team: Helped students write stronger, more structured essays with clear arguments and textual evidence.

Faculty studied their practice, implemented their “treatment” in Fall 2024, and compared the outcomes against the previous semester that lacked a "treatment."

The Results: Success and Retention Jumped

The outcomes were clear: students did better.

Assessment Team (n=112)

• Success Rate: ↑ from 49.0% to 68.8%
• Retention Rate: ↑ from 86.5% to 93.8%

Hybrid Instruction Team (n=295)

• Success Rate: ↑ from 54.3% to 76.9%
• Retention Rate: ↑ from 85.2% to 94.2%

Writing Pedagogy Team (n=212)

• Success Rate: ↑ from 50.8% to 51.9%
• Retention Rate: ↑ from 78.7% to 88.7%

Even in the team with smaller gains in pass rates, retention increased by 10 percentage points—students stayed in the class even if they struggled. That’s foundational progress. It’s also worth noting that the Writing Pedagogy Team had a high percentage of students who struggle with English for the Fall of 2024.

Equity Gains: Serving the Students We Serve

Ventura College is a Hispanic-Serving Institution, and these results show clear equity improvements—especially among Hispanic and female students.

Assessment Team

• Hispanic success: ↑ from 41% to 66%
• Hispanic retention: ↑ from 88% to 93%
• Female success: ↑ from 54% to 67%
• Female retention: ↑ from 85% to 95%

Hybrid Instruction Team

• Hispanic success: ↑ from 51% to 75%
• Hispanic retention: ↑ from 84% to 94%
• Female success: ↑ from 55% to 78%
• Female retention: ↑ from 88% to 94%

Writing Pedagogy Team

• Hispanic success: ↑ from 46% to 48%
• Hispanic retention: ↑ from 79% to 89%
• Female success: ↑ from 48% to 55%
• Female retention: ↑ from 72% to 89%

While there’s still work to do—particularly in writing instruction—these improvements are measurable, meaningful, and fast. Faculty implemented these changes in just one semester of the inquiry and action process.

What Made This Work?

• Faculty had space to reflect, design, and act collaboratively—not just attend one-off PD.
• Focus on internal attributions instead of external attributions. They focused on their own classrooms—what they have control over.
• A dedicated coach helped structure the process and keep it moving forward.
• Data was gathered and disaggregated to identify impact and equity challenges.

Final Takeaway

This work shows what’s possible when faculty are treated as professionals and supported to do what they can do best: teach with kindness.

If we’re serious about closing equity gaps and improving student success, we need more of this kind of structured professional inquiry—grounded in collaboration, productive struggle, and measurable action.

The goal isn’t dependency—it’s capacity. After two years, departments typically build enough internal expertise to sustain the process without continued coaching. That’s by design. A core part of my role is to help colleges institutionalize the Inquiry & Action model so it becomes part of their everyday practice—not a one-time initiative. Ventura’s English department just proved what’s possible. Now, we’re eager to see results from the current Math and Communication Studies Inquiry & Action Teams. We have also recently adapted the model to support implementation of the college’s Equity Plan and Guided Pathways Workplan integration—bridging the all-too-common gap between planning and implementation.

A special thanks to Ventura’s leadership for championing and supporting this important work—and deep appreciation to the Office of Research & Institutional Effectiveness for their partnership in gathering, analyzing, and clearly presenting the data that tells the story of impact.

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