Community college done right As the 2017 Aspen Prize proves, South Dakota’s Lake Area Technical Institute ranks with America’s best

By TOM DENNIS

When you think of America at its finest, you probably think of the Marines on Iwo Jima, not a hobbyist fussing about in his or her garage.

But the fact is, both scenes should be draped in red, white and blue. That’s because tinkering is one of our country’s great strengths. It’s the quality on display in the garage; it’s the trait that energized both Thomas Edison and Steve Jobs, among other American inventors.

And here’s the thing: Educators and other professionals can be tinkerers, too.

Consider Lake Area Technical Institute in Watertown, S.D., a twoyear school whose inventiveness seemingly has “cracked the code” for community college success.

At Lake Area Tech, “80 percent of students remain enrolled from their first to second year, and 67 percent of students graduate within three years, a percentage three times greater than the national average. … (Furthermore,) nearly every student who graduates does so with a job. Within just six months of graduation, 99 percent of students are employed or continuing their education.”

That’s from a citation – and not just any citation. Earlier this year, Lake Area Tech won the 2017 Aspen Prize, America’s preeminent award for community college excellence.

How did the college do it?

Essentially, by tinkering. Lake Area Tech was a finalist for the prize in three previous rounds; and each time, the college listened and learned, further refining its educational approach.

Today, Lake Area Tech is “a cohort-based community learning environment that’s hands-on and closely tied to industry,” said Mike Cartney, the school’s president, in a Prairie Business interview.

And over the years, he said, the school has learned that “all those factors play a significant role in our students’ success.”

For example, “cohort-based” means the students “come in together as a group, and we keep them together as a group,” Cartney said.

So, if a student needs remedial math, he or she learns it at times that don’t interfere with the group’s course of study. Lake Area Tech takes pains to make this happen; and that way, “the students can stay with their group and really get to be a community, going through together and helping each other out.”

The “close ties to industry” evolved the same way. Today, “we have over 400 industry partners,” Cartney said.

“You’ll see them on campus almost every day. Every program has an industry advisory board; they have the final say on curriculum, to make sure that what we’re doing is meaningful to industry.”

The attention pays off. “We had nine programs last year in which the starting salary for our graduates is over $40,000 a year,” Cartney said.

“We have two programs where the starting salary is over $50,000. … Employers are vying for our students, and I say ‘vying for’ because most of our students will have a job in December before they graduate.”

Here’s another policy that grew from active listening: At Lake Area Tech, “we’ve redefined success,” Cartney said.

“It’s not graduation. It’s placement. … What that does is, it changes the whole conversation for students,” many of whom are the first in their families to go to college.

So, “we don’t talk about the degree they’re going to get. We say they’re going to be an energy technician or a machinist, or they’re going to build parts for satellites.”

That matters, as the tangible goal seems to give the students much stronger motivation to stay in school, Cartney said.

Now, here’s a lesson for colleges in North Dakota, Minnesota and beyond: Thanks to both policy and philanthropy, South Dakota and Lake Area Tech are making progress on equity – the fact that across America, students from low-income families tend to graduate at much lower rates.

The Build Dakota program helps. Funded by $25 million from philanthropist T. Denny Sanford and $25 million from South Dakota, the program gives full-ride scholarships to students in high-demand technical fields. The students, in return, pledge to work in that field in South Dakota for three years after graduation.

Couple that with hundreds of thousands of dollars in local scholarships from other community and industry partners, and you’ll see why Lake Area Tech has “significantly reduced the gap in completion between low-income and other students,” the Aspen Prize citation states.

Joshua Wyner, executive director of the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program, put it this way at the time of the award.

“On every measure of community college excellence, Lake Area Technical Institute is firing on all cylinders,” Wyner said.

“Its outstanding graduation and job placement rates are a result of its deep commitment to ensuring that all students thrive in the classroom and in great jobs after graduation.”

Those words may not rival “Uncommon valor was a common virtue,” the famed inscription on the Iwo Jima monument in Washington. But they’re inspiring in their own all-American way. PB

TOM DENNIS EDITOR, PRAIRIE BUSINESS 701.780-1276