First-Year Momentum: Student Success at PVCC

Achieving the Dream (ATD) is a network of colleges that help institutions "catalyze equitable, anti-racist, and economically vibrant communities through institutional transformation that advances community colleges as profoundly accessible hubs of learning, credentialing, and economic mobility that eliminate inequities in educational and workforce outcomes."

PVCC chose first-year momentum as its student success focus. First-year momentum, as defined by the Community College Research Center (CCRC), is identified by three leading measures of academic success:

• Credit momentum—defined as attempting at least 15 semester credits in the first term or at least 30 semester credits in the first academic year.
• Gateway momentum—defined as taking and passing pathway-appropriate college-level math and college-level English in the first academic year.
• Program momentum—defined as taking and passing at least nine semester credits in the student’s field of study in the first academic year.