HIPs Case Study

Reem Jaafar

Professor of Mathematics

HIPs Practice Area: First-Year Experience, HIPs Intersections

Exponential Curves: Innovation, Leadership, and the Systemic Power of HIPs

“It’s about building a culture of collaboration—where the administration commits and the faculty see value.”

Case Study

“When you have the right colleagues, when you start small, when you keep going, that’s when things compound,” says Reem Jaafar, Professor of Mathematics at LaGuardia Community College. Over her years at LaGuardia, Jaafar’s work with high impact practices has grown from early student research projects into a multi-layered approach to institutional change. “If you implement one element of HIPs one semester, you’ll feel the motivation to do more next semester, and better.”


Jaafar began her HIPs journey through STEM, launching the Math Society and organizing student participation in math competitions with faculty colleagues. The initiative evolved into research-based student projects, ultimately laying the groundwork for LaGuardia’s “Math is Everywhere” signature project. But it was the introduction of First Year Seminars and writing-intensive seminars that expanded her view of how HIPs could transform the student experience across the college. “I was able to start connecting the dots of students’ growth journeys, from FYS to capstone,” she says, describing a collaborative effort across departments to scaffold student learning through multiple HIPs.


In one such initiative, Jaafar and colleagues team-taught First Year Seminars and capstones simultaneously, pairing students for peer review and shared research themes. Students explored social movements through writing, reflection, and interdisciplinary study. “It’s not a learning community exactly,” she explains, “but we were blending HIPs, making a smoothie. In the end, you can’t separate the ingredients anymore.”


Writing has remained central to her teaching. “One of the barriers to learning math is fear,” she notes. “Writing helps students focus on the concept, not the number.” Her work includes a published study on writing-to-learn strategies in calculus, and even in developmental math courses, she incorporated writing through a history of math lens. “When students write, the level of understanding is completely different.”


Jaafar’s focus has shifted over time from course-level innovations to broader faculty development and institutional leadership. As a principal investigator (PI) on a National Science Foundation grant centered on equity-minded data coaching, she has helped develop and lead a two-tiered professional development model rooted in faculty-led leadership. “Faculty as change agents is a critical concept,” she explains. “Mid-career faculty often go through a plateau. This kind of leadership development is vital.”


The work has extended through LaGuardia’s Shared Equity Leadership project, where Jaafar and colleagues are conducting audits of high impact practices and tracking who has access to which practices. “We know students are exposed to HIPs in their first year. But who gets access after that? Who gets to do undergraduate research?” These questions, she argues, require system-wide solutions. “HIPs should not be thought of as an endless extra thing. We need institutional approaches, like how we do curriculum mapping for core competencies.”


For Jaafar, institutional capacity building is essential. “You cannot solve systemic problems as one person,” she says. “It’s about building a culture of collaboration, where the administration commits and the faculty see value.”


She envisions a learning organization modeled on Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline, which emphasizes personal mastery, shared vision, team learning, mental models, and systems thinking. “We could have 20 people doing great work, but if it’s not embedded systemically, it won’t be sustained.” What’s needed, she argues, is second-order change, change that is strategic, collaborative, and supported at every level of the college.


Sustaining HIPs, then, is about intentional planning. “Start small, plan carefully, and build through long-term professional development. It’s not a one-semester fix.”


To move forward, Jaafar sees a need to align the Center for Teaching and Learning with the college’s strategic plan and to bring together faculty leaders, Shared Equity Leadership teams, and assessment experts to build a shared vision. “This isn’t Liz’s work or Milena’s work or Reem’s work. This is LaGuardia’s work. It should be part of the fabric of who we are.”


And for new faculty, she adds, that vision needs to be visible from day one. “It shouldn’t just be task-oriented. New faculty need inspiration. They should see the innovation happening around them and feel empowered to shape it in their own way.”


Jaafar’s understanding of HIPs comes back to math. She outlines an exponential curve on the wall, next to where we’re drinking coffee. “If you think of an exponential curve,” she says, “it really doesn’t grow much at the beginning, but then once it takes off.” She rockets her finger up the wall. “It goes up exponentially. Most of us get impatient when we’re here, before the growth. I think all that was the HIP work. And what I’m finding now is that 15 years into my career, I’ve reached that point where I’m on the upward side of the curve, which is amazing.”

Courses Targeting High Impact Practices

Other High Impact Practices Used

About

Dr. Reem Jaafar is a seasoned leader, educator, and equity champion with over 15 years of experience driving innovation in higher education. She is a Professor of Mathematics at LaGuardia Community College, where she also serves as Co-Director of the Shared Equity Leadership project. Her work focuses on building institutional capacity for inclusive excellence, advancing student success in STEM, and fostering a sense of belonging. At the national level, Dr. Jaafar serves on the Board of Directors of the Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education and is Chair-Elect of the American Council on Education Women’s Network in New Jersey, where she leads initiatives supporting women’s professional development. Dr. Jaafar has published on equity in higher education, assessment, STEM education, and institutional effectiveness. Recent articles have appeared in the Community College Journal of Research and Practice, Transformative Dialogues, and Higher Education Policy. Her research bridges the fields of educational development, assessment, and faculty leadership for change. Dr. Jaafar is known for blending systems thinking with a deep commitment to student-centered change. Her professional mission is to empower individuals and institutions to create sustainable, equity-minded transformation that drives meaningful results.