Roxbury Community College recognized nationally as leading school

By Matt Rocheleau, Town Correspondent

Roxbury Community College was named to a leading group of institutions this week by a national nonprofit that aims to help community college students, particularly low-income students and students of color, stay in school and earn a college certificate or degree.

Achieving the Dream, Inc. recognized the school as an “Achieving the Dream Leader College,” college officials announced Wednesday.

Of the 160 community colleges within the nonprofit’s network that spans 30 states and the nation’s capital, 52 have been named a “Leader College,” the college said in a press release.

The organization, which formed seven years ago, first honored Roxbury Community College as an “Achieving the Dream College” in 2007, the school said.

The college’s president Terrence A. Gomes said in the release the school is proud to have earned the distinction.

“This recognition is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our students, faculty, staff and the entire Roxbury community,” Gomes said. “The college has been on an upward trajectory for a number of years now, with student success being the foundation of this movement, and we are so pleased to be nationally recognized for our achievements.”

“We will continue to work hard to support the development of the populations we serve, and to provide leadership to other colleges that embrace the complex task of educating students who have not traditionally had opportunities for higher education,” he added.

“Leader Colleges” are recognized based on four principles: “committed leadership, use of evidence to improve programs and services, broad engagement, and systemic institutional improvement.” The “leader” schools have also shown three years of “sustained student success improvement.”

The distinction recognizes schools “for implementing practices that directly correlate to student success and institutional improvement.”

“As a comprehensive, multicultural, urban, open-access college, Roxbury Community College directs all initiatives towards student success, committing resources and programs to enhancing the quality of lives of students and the community,” the release said.

As a “Leader College,” the school says it commits itself to mentoring other colleges within the Achieving the Dream network, advocating for the organization’s principles and practices, and supporting policies on both a state and national level that promote student success.

Other Massachusetts schools named as Leader Colleges are Bunker Hill Community College in Charlestown and Northern Essex Community College which has campuses in Haverhill and in Lawrence.

E-mail Matt Rocheleau at mjrochele@gmail.com.