Our number one priority is our students. We need to figure out the challenges they are facing and what we can do to eliminate or at least reduce these achievement gaps.
Michael Rogers steadfastly maintains that, with a little help, all Milwaukee Area Technical College students can realize their hopes and dreams.
“I believe our students can achieve anything,” said Rogers, the college’s vice president of student engagement and community impact.
Yet data shows that students of color at MATC are achieving and succeeding at lower rates than White students. On April 23, faculty and staff gathered at the college’s four campuses and Walker’s Square to figure out how to solve the problem.
“Our number one priority is our students,” MATC President Dr. Anthony Cruz said in his opening remarks at the second Voice of the College Live session. “We need to figure out the challenges they are facing and what we can do to eliminate or at least reduce these achievement gaps. We have seen some improvement, but we still have a ways to go. We need to all be on board with this effort.”
Dr. Cruz held the first Voice of the College Live session in February, when faculty and staff discussed ways for the college to improve hiring, promoting, hearing complaints and collecting input.
Phillip King, Ed.D., provost and executive vice president of student success, and Yan Wang, Ph.D., vice president of enrollment and retention, presented and explained recent data on achievement gaps at MATC:
- Persistence rate — students who enrolled in the Fall semester and enrolled again the next Fall — for White students at MATC was 23% higher than for students of color in the Fall 2023 semester.
- Retention rate — students who enrolled in the Fall semester and then again the next Spring semester — was 17% higher for White students than students of color in the Fall 2023 semester.
- Both persistence and retention rates were higher among students who received federal financial aid.
- Completion rate — students who finished a program within 150% of the designated time — was 21% for White students in the Fall 2020 semester, and 12% for students of color.
Closing these gaps will take mindfulness and precision, said Dr. King, who also noted that students come to MATC from a variety of backgrounds and experiences.
“We don’t know what all these students are experiencing,” Dr. King said. We need to figure out how to lift them up and assist them. We need to have a thoughtfulness to what we do. Also, we have to know that we can’t do everything.”
After the presentations, faculty and staff met in breakout groups to discuss the data and to brainstorm solutions to the ongoing problem of achievement gaps at MATC. Suggestions included mandatory orientation or a class on how to navigate college for first-time college students, mentoring, hiring more retention and advising staff, and increasing outreach to high schools and even middle schools.
They also reviewed the resources the college has to get students to enroll, to stay in school and to finish their programs.
Dr. Cruz said the sessions are fulfilling two pledges he made after his first 100 days in office: hiring an outside firm to review the college’s recruiting and complaint processes, and getting more input directly from college faculty and staff.
“Ensuring you have confidence and trust in these processes is critical as the college works to build a caring culture centered on equity and excellence,” Dr. Cruz said in February.
About MATC: As Wisconsin’s largest technical college and one of the most diverse two-year institutions in the Midwest, Milwaukee Area Technical College is a key driver of southeastern Wisconsin’s economy and has provided innovative education in the region since 1912. More than 30,000 students per year attend the college’s four campuses and community-based sites or learn online. MATC offers affordable and accessible education and training opportunities that empower and transform lives in the community. The college offers more than 180 academic programs — many that prepare students for jobs immediately upon completion and others that provide transfer options leading to bachelor’s degrees with more than 40 four-year colleges and universities. Overwhelmingly, MATC graduates build careers and businesses in southeastern Wisconsin. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.