About Us

The RP Group is a nonprofit, nonpartisan team made up of a dedicated Board of Directors and staff.

We work together with a shared and resolute goal: to increase the success of California community colleges and beyond. 

Through collaboration and commitment to authenticity and quality, our work is focused on promoting inspired futures for California community college students in important areas such as equity, success, completion, and employment.

The RP Group has two distinct roles:

  • A membership organization that represents institutional research, planning, and effectiveness (IRPE) professionals in the California Community Colleges (CCC) system
  • A service provider of customized research, evaluation, and professional development services
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These two roles help us strengthen the ability of CCCs to discover and undertake high-quality research, planning, and assessments that improve evidence-based decision-making, institutional effectiveness, and student success.
 

Our Mission and Vision

Our Board of Directors, staff, consultants, and volunteers are committed and devoted to a common goal: student success and equity in our California community colleges.

In addition to our shared Mission, Vision, and Values, we are guided by a Code of Ethics and a commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion in our work and culture.

Mission

The RP Group is a leader that supports equitable outcomes for minoritized and marginalized students through race-conscious, equity-minded research, planning, and professional development. We uplift student voices and empower researchers and planners to improve institutional effectiveness by dismantling systemic barriers and injustices.

Vision

The RP Group envisions itself to be a change agent at local, state, and national levels that addresses longstanding injustices to ensure that students’ demographics do not predict their postsecondary success.

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Our Values

Championing Equity and Antiracism

Illuminating and eradicating racial injustice and inequities in both the outcomes and experiences of systemically minoritized and marginalized students.

Centering Student Voice

Leading efforts at the local and system levels to transform how students experience and succeed in California’s community colleges through race-conscious research, planning, and professional development that is designed to impact policy and practice.

Leading Transformational Change

Validating and uplifting student voice and lived experience to guide our data collection and research analysis, creation of professional development for the IRPE community and system partners, and support of institutional planning and policymaking.

Working Collaboratively and Building Community

Empower our constituents and clients to lead their own meaningful inquiry and evidence-based decision-making in support of the educational success of minoritized and marginalized students by engaging in intentionally inclusive, action-oriented, and race-conscious approaches that draw on the collective wisdom of our system.

Demonstrating Integrity and Quality

Developing, producing, and providing high-quality research and professional development that are thoughtfully conducted, thoroughly vetted, and broadly informed to drive systemic change and advance equity for racially and other minoritized students.

Our Strategic Goals 

The organization’s strategic planning process is built on a foundation of equity, diversity, and inclusion, with the goal of strengthening advocacy for IRPE professionals and the California Community Colleges system. By prioritizing collaboration between the Board and staff, this process ensures that all voices are heard and that the resulting strategic goals and priorities for the organization, are ambitious and operationally realistic.

The RP Group's four strategic goals are:

  1. Inclusion of Student Voices: Validate and uplift student voice and lived experience within the organization and in local, regional, and statewide planning and policy development.
  2. IRPE as Change Agents: Empower IRPE professionals to advocate for improvements that advance student-centered institutional and systemic change at the local, regional, and statewide levels.
  3. Growing and Sustaining the IRPE Community: Actively engage the California Community Colleges system in the recruitment, retention, and advancement of a diverse and inclusive field of research and planning professionals that intentionally reflects our students.
  4. EDI-centric Research, Planning, and Professional Development: Serve as a leader at the state and national levels in the design, production, and delivery of professional development, research, and planning in higher education that is centered on principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI).
Photo mosaic of The RP Group staff and conference participants.

Our History and Impact

Our Beginnings

1960s

The Southern California Community College Institutional Research Association (SCCCIRA) and the Northern California Community College Research Group (NORCAL consortium) form.

1960s

1986

To address high community college dropout rates, California AB3 mandates matriculation services and research, resulting in the first institutional, research, planning, and effectiveness (IRPE) roles.

1986

1992

The Research & Planning Group (The RP Group) forms to provide professional development for researchers and evidence-based research to highlight effective policy and practice in the California Community Colleges (CCC).

1992

1994

The RP Group becomes incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

1994

1996

The first RP Conference is held at Granlibakken Tahoe.

2000

The RP Group's Center for Student Success forms -- jumpstarting our journey into state-wide research and planning efforts. 

2005

The RP Group conducts the first statewide enrollment projection project.

2006

The first Strengthening Student Success Conference (SSSC) is held, hosting one of the first cross-section gathering of CCC professionals across the state focused on data and student success. 

2007

The RP Group hires its first Executive Director, Kathy Booth.

2007

2007

The RP Group releases “Basic Skills as a Foundation for Success in the California Community Colleges,” (known as “Poppy Copy”).

2012

The Center for Student Success transforms into the Research and Evaluation Division of The RP Group.

2012

2012

Student Support (Re)defined sparks an action-based movement across the CCC system to use student voices as a motivator for change.

2013

The RP Group employs its second Executive Director, Michael Howe.

2013

2013

The first Leading from the Middle Academy is held, marking the start of the organization's professional development offerings focused on leadership development. 

2014

The Multiple Measures Assessment Project (MMAP) team releases its first set of guidance and replication code colleges using high school transcript information to place students into all levels of math, English, and credit ESL courses.

2016

A multi-phase study, Through the Gate, commences to identify strategies for increasing transfer for students who have completed all or most of their transfer requirements, but who do not make it “through the gate” to a university.

2017

AB 705 is signed into law, requiring CCCs to maximize the probability that students will enter and complete transfer-level English and math coursework within one year. Based on MMAP’s analyses, a majority of CCCs pilot the use of high school transcript information in the CCC assessment process. 

2018

The RP Group Board of Directors promotes its Director of Research and Evaluation, Dr. Darla Cooper, to be the organization's third Executive Director, leveraging her 20+ years of experience in the CCC system.

2018

2020

The African American Transfer Tipping Point study launches to understand the programs, practices, and factors that facilitate or hinder university transfer among African American/Black students.

2020

The RP Group’s Board restructures to a regional representative model with Board members elected by 12 regions across the state. 

2020

2022

The RP Group celebrates 30 years of service and impact to the IRPE community.

2022

2022

The RP Group launches the Geographical Barriers to Transfer study to understand the factors that facilitate or hinder university transfer for students in geographically diverse parts of the state and in areas with limited educational offerings. 

2024

The RP Group launches the Transfer Among Rural Learners study to understand the practices and policies that influence transfer and completion among rural learners in California. 

Today

Our Vision

Ensuring that students’ demographics do not predict their postsecondary success.