For all the scores you get, the professors you meet, and the final grades you have with classes, all that data is often looked at to rate your chances of future success. All the individual scores may count up for your future; but what about a professor’s success teaching the course? The research department intends on answering this question by working on a student success survey.

The student success survey intends on surveying students from different courses and then calculating the overarching success rates of the student body by professor.

Nathan Rexford, the dean of research and planning, explains the measurements, “There’s an entire launch board that the Chancellor’s Office maintains that contains everything from number of units completed in the first semester, transfer outcome,”

Rexford adds, “But one of the easiest for a college to know at its individual level, and one of the easiest to understand because it really does speak to the individual student journey, is just simply performance in the class.”

With a recent push for student equity by the Student Success and Equity Council, there’s been a push from faculty like Professor Commodore and Dean Watson-Perez for the data to be given to faculty. This has been seen as a controversial move by members of staff.

Rexford weighs in on the debate, “My hope is that if this reticence is from this fear of safety…that the continued efforts of Commodore and of Heather in terms of sharing it will at least be able to demonstrate between groups like the SESC and faculty-run groups like the Teaching for Equity…that there’s enough safe spaces. That they can take the initial step and that we can guarantee the resources are there.”

While the survey’s release for participation is unknown and overarching results are still unknown, the efforts of the council may finally be getting paid off.