From Left: GWC President Meridith Randall, Sacha Sacha, Jeannette Jaramillo Hernandez, Lauren Davis Sosenko, Erin Craig, and Coast District Trustee Jim Moreno accept RP Group Award
Huntington Beach, Calif. — Golden West College (GWC) was recognized by The RP Group as a 2026 award recipient for its project, “How to Quiet the Continuous Cycle of Complaints to Amplify a Continuous Cycle of Improvement.” The College received the award at The RP Group conference on April 15 in Garden Grove.
The RP Group Awards highlight innovative, evidence-based practices that improve student outcomes across California community colleges. GWC’s project was recognized for its collaborative, data-informed approach to strengthening student success in transfer-level math.
In Summer and Fall 2024, GWC math faculty and staff from the Office of Research, Planning, and Institutional Effectiveness (ORPIE) partnered with EdTrust-West through an AB 1705 Community of Practice to strengthen collaboration between the math and counseling departments. In Spring 2025, the College expanded this work to examine policies and practices impacting student outcomes, supported by data analysis and qualitative research.
The effort led to improvements in grading practices, enrollment processes, and course recommendations. As a result, GWC saw its highest math course success rate in five academic years, along with increased first-year enrollment and completion in transfer-level math. Achievement gaps for Black/African American, Hispanic/Latine, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students were also eliminated in both enrollment and throughput. GWC’s overall math course success rate, defined as the percentage of enrollments earning a grade of A, B, or C, increased by 4 percentage points to 75.5% in 2024–25. During the same period, differences in outcomes among student groups also decreased.
Equally important, the work shifted the College’s approach to continuous improvement, centering student experiences and using data to guide decisions.
“This recognition reflects the thoughtful, cross-campus work happening at Golden West College to better understand and support our students,” says GWC President Meridith Randall. “By listening to students and using data to inform our decisions, we are creating meaningful improvements that strengthen the overall student experience.”
