Nationally, community colleges continue to have lower retention, completion, and transfer rates for African American students (National Student Clearinghouse, 2019). Specifically, 55% of African American students who enroll in postsecondary education at twoyear colleges leave without earning a credential in 6 years. Teaching and learning must be a central focus if colleges desire to produce sustainable change (Stout, 2018). Student success literature compels faculty to create data-driven strategies to improve teaching and learning (Hora et al., 2017). However, there is little research on the outcome of faculty members' attempts to interpret student success data (Kisker, 2019). Early momentum metrics during the first year are essential leading indicators of student success (Belfield et al., 2019; Driscoll, 2007; Jenkins & Bailey, 2017). The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to examine faculty perceptions of the reasons for the equity gap between African American students and all other students at Hillman Community College in first-year curriculum student progression. The theoretical framework for this basic qualitative study was Argyris and Schon's (1978) single- and double-loop learning theories. Equity-mindedness provided a conceptual framework for this study, as equity-mindedness was a lens to interpret faculty members' responses to early momentum metrics. Data were collected through semistructured interviews of 10 college faculty who have taught first-year community college students. The findings confirmed deficit-mindedness is the governing cognitive frame and suggested that a facilitator can serve as a proxy for the cognitive framing necessary in the equity-minded sensemaking process when data are presented to practitioners. Faculty expressed ownership of their role in closing the equity gap for first-year African American students through adjusting teaching practices to improve student success and initiating engagement with students. In addition, findings underscored the need for racially disaggregated first-year student progression to be made accessible to all faculty and integrated into continuous improvement processes, especially for faculty who teach first-year students. The implications for practice that emerged from this study are applicable to faculty, department chairs, deans, and senior administrators who aim to close racial equity gaps and improve outcomes for African American students. This study contributes to knowledge around how faculty make sense of student success data and may help guide how data-driven decision-making processes should be shaped when efforts originate with faculty interpreting data. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]