Community Colleges to Study Impact of Student Engagement on Outcomes

RESTON, VA--(Marketwired - September 02, 2015) - Leading community college network Achieving the Dream announced, today, a new collaboration with Echo360 to explore which student engagement behaviors and pedagogical strategies may be leveraged for greater student persistence and completion.

Around the country, colleges and universities are working diligently to deploy new strategies to ensure that students are set up for academic success. Building on an established body of research that recognizes the impact student engagement has on outcomes, Achieving the Dream will collaborate with teaching and learning platform Echo360 to provide more specific insight into what contributes to student success.

"Achieving the Dream puts a significant focus on teaching and learning as the critical lever of change for improving student success. This new project is one of the ways we're supporting our network colleges to move the needle for students," said Dr. Karen A. Stout, President and CEO of Achieving the Dream. "Echo360's Active Learning Platform enables community colleges to track and continuously improve student persistence and completion outcomes. Our goal is to provide more actionable strategies that help community colleges ensure that more students are successfully meeting their educational goals."

The new project will establish a cohort comprised of a select group of ten Achieving the Dream Network colleges to study the correlation between components of engagement -- such as taking lecture and reading notes, participating in class, revisiting the lecture after school -- and resulting student outcomes. Participating colleges will study student engagement using the Echo360 Active Learning Platform, which enables students to participate during and beyond class and gives instructors real-time insight on where their students are struggling. While using the platform, students can ask questions during class in an anonymous and risk-free way and take notes that are aligned to lectures and other content for easy review; and then collaborate and engage with course materials, instructors, and peers any time and any place. Instructors then receive real-time input on where students are struggling as well as their engagement in and outside of class.

"Community colleges hold the key to transforming our nation's economic competitiveness. Our partnership with Achieving the Dream reflects our shared vision in transforming a student's future through their learning experience," said Fred Singer, Founder and CEO of Echo360. "By providing real-time insight into student engagement, instructors and institutions can ensure they take advantage of every learning opportunity. This new working relationship is an exciting opportunity to further explore how engagement can make a difference for students of every background."

About Echo360
Echo360 believes that improved outcomes start with great moments in the classroom. Developed by educators, Echo360 helps instructors capture and extend those moments to improve student engagement before, during and after class. Through our Active Learning Platform, students have 24/7 access to classroom discussion, presentation materials, and the lecture itself. We generate data that helps instructors and institutions identify problems early and take action. Today, Echo360 technologies are used by over 3 million students in 8,000 classrooms at 600 institutions across 30 countries. Echo360 is backed by Revolution Growth led by Steve Case, Ted Leonsis and Donn Davis. For more information about Echo360, visit: www.Echo360.com.

About Achieving the Dream
Achieving the Dream, Inc. is a national nonprofit that is dedicated to helping more community college students, particularly low-income students and students of color, stay in school and earn a college certificate or degree. Evidence-based, student-centered, and built on the values of equity and excellence, Achieving the Dream is closing achievement gaps and accelerating student success nationwide by: 1) guiding evidence-based institutional improvement, 2) leading policy change, 3) generating knowledge, and 4) engaging the public. Conceived as an initiative in 2004 by Lumina Foundation and seven founding partner organizations, today, Achieving the Dream is leading the most comprehensive non-governmental reform network for student success in higher education history. With over 200 institutions, more than 100 coaches and advisors, and 15 state policy teams -- working throughout 35 states and the District of Columbia -- the Achieving the Dream National Reform Network helps more than 4 million community college students have a better chance of realizing greater economic opportunity and achieving their dreams. For more information about Achieving the Dream, visit: www.achievingthedream.org.