Every day, you go into your office and you work diligently to improve student success. It’s hard work, but it’s noble work. The good news is that — overall, advising work is working. It’s proven to improve student persistence by 5.8 percentage points. The lift is even more significant for our most vulnerable students.

Whether you’re energized, skeptical, or a bit of both, there’s no denying that the innovation imperative has become an animating force in college leadership since the 2000s, and especially in the wake of the Great Recession. More than a talking point and a conference theme, it is now a currency of its own, a standard by which institutions and presidents are judged and even ranked.

Four waves of technology are linked to access and success—the twin pillars of community college philosophy. We are poised to have more tools, techniques, and technologies at our fingertips than ever before to help our students access learning, succeed on their learning journeys, and ready themselves for productive careers and lives.

Eleven outstanding alumni and community members will be welcomed into Mesa Community College’s Hall of Fame during a reception and ceremony hosted by the MCC Alumni Association on October 24. The MCC Hall of Fame honors alumni, community members, and MCC employees whose personal and professional accomplishments, and positive contributions to the college and community set them apart.

Guided pathways have become a full-fledged movement among community colleges in the past few years.

So far, more than 300 institutions have adopted the model, which helps students graduate on time by outlining the courses they need to earn a credential or transfer to a four-year college.

Student success initiatives may not have as much impact as intended–a new study shows that just 60 percent of student success initiatives have a positive impact on student persistence, with 40 percent having either no impact or a negative impact.

The University of South Florida has had formal programs to improve graduation and student success rates for a decade. The institution launched a Student Success Task Force in 2009, and was able to raise six-year graduation rates from 48 percent to 68 percent in 2014. But those gains plateaued two points shy of the state of Florida’s benchmark to measure excellence in student success.

What keeps college students coming back for more? A new report on the effects college programs have on student retention attempts to answer that question.

New research analyzing more than 1,000 student support initiatives at 55 institutions found that 40 percent of those services demonstrated no impact on student persistence.

Looming enrollment declines and persistent equity gaps are prompting colleges to do more to help the students they have complete college. Those pressures have resulted in many institutions ramping up their student services, but it can be difficult to determine which initiatives are working and which aren’t.