Recommendations
for Action
Fe
Baran, ESL Instructor
Marcia
Corcoran, Dean of Language Arts & Member, Staff Development Committee
Cindy
Hicks, English Instructor, Project Development Coordinator, Learning Connection
Ming Ho,
Math Instructor
Alisa
Klevens, English Instructor
Matthew
Kritscher, Dean of Counseling
Jennifer
Lange, Biology Instructor
Kathryn
Linzmeyer, Director of Financial Aid
Melinda
Matsuda, Vice-President of Student Services
Bill
McDonald, Counselor
Shirley
Pejman, DSPS Counselor
Cristina
Ruggiero, Political Science Instructor, Co-Chair, Institutional Planning &
Budgeting
Michael
Thompson, History Instructor
Tram
Vo-Kumamoto, Counselor, Assessment and Placement Coordinator
Anita
Wah, Math Instructor
Sherri
Yeager, History Instructor
And
input from faculty leaders of projects funded under first round of Chabot’s BSI
funding:
Clara
McLean, Angie Magallon, Ramon Parada, Jane Wolford
Developmental education has been an explicit priority in
various institutional documents and activities in recent years – e.g. strategic
plan, Basic Skills Initiative projects, plans for Title 3 grant, Carnegie grant
activities, expanded tutoring under Learning Connection. Additionally,
positions in English and Math have been prioritized in faculty hiring
decisions, with basic skills instruction explicitly included in position
descriptions. While these are positive trends, questions remain about whether resources
are sufficient to provide effective support services for developmental
students, or for faculty to engage in the kinds of practices that yield
stronger outcomes for these students (e.g.: limited professional development
opportunities, 44-student class size in developmental math, teaching load for
general education faculty – 5 classes of 44 students per term). The institution
needs to broaden its commitment to developmental education by creating a
campus-wide basic skills philosophy that incorporates and integrates
assessment, orientation, counseling, placement, classroom strategies, and
student services
There is no single “developmental education program” at Chabot.
There are developmental-level courses in Math, English, and ESL, and various
support services (e.g.: DSPS, Learning Connection, Counseling). Additionally,
faculty in “non-developmental” disciplines teach developmental students in
transfer-level classes without pre-requisites. These faculty face the
particular challenge of meeting content coverage demands while embedding the pedagogical
practices of developmental education in their courses.
Because developmental education is so decentralized, there is
no single mission or over-riding philosophy, and there has been no forum for
goal setting on developmental education as a whole. Goal setting occurs across the college through
unit plans, but our planning does not typically involve specific focus on
developmental education. Additionally, it often focuses on institutional goals
(FTE/WSCH, staffing, fiscal matters), rather than goals for improving specific student
outcomes. For example, to what extent do we set goals for increasing
retention within the semester, or increasing engagement rates across the
curriculum, or persistence from one semester to the next? The role of the basic
skills committee will be to facilitate the establishment of an institutional
logic to the wide-ranging goals of developmental education.
As noted above, developmental education at Chabot is
de-centralized and has been minimally coordinated. Budgeting for developmental
education is subsumed within larger division budgets. A movement toward greater
coordination is evident in the integration of student tutorial services under
the Learning Connection and the creation of a college-wide Basic Skills
Committee. Formal and informal mechanisms exist for faculty within
developmental disciplines to discuss instructional issues (Math’s long-standing
Basic Skills faculty group, English “Talking about Teaching: English 102”
series and ongoing workshops/retreats, ESL’s regular faculty workshops).
Cross-disciplinary conversations about basic skills education have historically
been limited to special programs (e.g.: learning communities), but have recently
occurred more broadly among faculty involved in the Learning Connection, in
Flex Day programs (e.g. college-wide viewing & discussion of video Reading
Between the Lives), and among faculty participating in projects funded by
Basic Skills Initiative or Carnegie grant. In 2008-2009, the newly-created
Basic Skills Committee will focus on institutionalizing cross-disciplinary
conversation and consultation to more effectively coordinate our efforts in
developmental education.
A.4: Institutional policies facilitate student completion of
necessary developmental coursework as early as possible in the educational
sequence.
Assessment, orientation, and placement are encouraged at Chabot
through registration incentives, and students who see counselors are advised to
take developmental coursework early. However, many students do not participate
in these processes, and few pre-requisites block them from enrolling in
transfer-level courses outside of English, Math. We do not have clear data on
how many complete developmental coursework early and how many postpone these
(often dreaded) classes. There is no campus-wide consensus about the
advisability of requiring students to pass a series of prerequisites to gain
entry to college-level courses. Certainly, this issue must be seriously
examined to develop institutional programs and strategies that will
appropriately prepare students to proceed expeditiously through their college
program.
This has been an area of significant focus and investment in
the last few years, as separate support services (e.g. Math Lab, WRAC lab,
Language Lab) have been integrated under the new college-wide Learning
Connection, and support services have been developed in new disciplines.
Services take many forms, (e.g.: individualized instruction from faculty,
student-led supplemental instruction, peer learning assistants embedded in the
classroom, subject-matter peer tutors, study groups). Faculty from the
following disciplines currently serve as liaisons
and/or tutor trainers: English, math, world languages, speech and communications,
ESL, chemistry, life sciences. Student learning assistants provide support in
classes in the following disciplines: business, CAS, art, anatomy, math,
chemistry, English, ASL, Learning Skills, ECD, world languages.
The Learning Connection plans to expand these offerings further through a “bottom up” approach in which instructors and
staff across the curriculum identify learning needs, and the Learning
Connection works with them to create and then to institutionalize successful
pilots to address those needs. As the Learning Connection moves into its next
phase of development, one area for attention involves gathering data to
systematically assess its support services, then sharing those results with the
broader college.
This is a given in disciplines like ESL and Learning Skills.
Enthusiasm about developmental education has also been an explicit criterion of
the last several rounds of full-time hiring in English, where all faculty are
expected to teach both developmental and transfer-level courses. Throughout
much of the college, however, faculty are hired for their discipline-specific
expertise, and while many have teaching experience, many do not have
training or expertise in teaching, nevermind specific training in developmental
education. Individual faculty may pursue their own professional development in
this area, but aside from recent grant-funded projects, this has not been an
organized effort across the college.
A.7: Institutions manage faculty and student
expectations regarding developmental education.
It is hard to assess the extent to which this is occurring at
Chabot, as it occurs in such disparate contexts (faculty syllabi, individual
classrooms, tutoring, student services, groups of faculty working within
disciplines or in special projects). At a college-wide level, recent videos
produced under the Carnegie grant use student voices to illuminate the question
of student and faculty expectations, and a new video is currently planned in
collaboration with Student Services to address what being a college student
involves, and the services available to students at Chabot.
Effective
Practice Area B: Program Components
B.1: Orientation, assessment, and placement are
mandatory for all new students.
Orientation, assessment, and placement are
voluntary for new students at Chabot, rather than mandatory. Student services
has set up incentives to encourage students to participate in orientation and
assessment, with points awarded that give earlier registration dates to
participating students. We don’t currently have solid numbers about the
percentage of new students who participate, but data from the Office of
Institutional Research indicates that new students participating in assessment
and orientation persist and succeed at a higher rate than those who do not.
There was
significant interest among the Basic Skills Committee in exploring the question
of mandatory assessment, placement, and orientation at Chabot. Faculty within
Math and English expressed interest in examining and possibly changing parts of
the assessment/placement process in their areas. Faculty in other disciplines
spoke of the challenges posed by the lack of pre-requisites in their
transfer-level classes. There were significant differences of opinion on the
question and concerns about the impact of such policies.
B.2: Regular program evaluations
are conducted, results are disseminated widely, and data are used to improve
practice.
Chabot has
instituted a new Program Review process in the last several years, and basic
skills were identified as a key area for programs to investigate. Program
evaluations occur regularly, though results do not appear to be widely
available to the college community. We were not able to evaluate the extent to
which data are used to improve practice. As an ongoing, college-wide process,
Program Review represents a potential partner in building a college-wide,
coordinated effort to strengthen basic skills education.
B.3: Counseling support provided is
substantial, accessible, and integrated with academic courses/programs.
Counseling support
is integrated with academic instruction in special programs like the Daraja,
Puente, and Springboard Learning Communities, as well as EOPS and Aspire.
However, for students in the general curriculum, access to substantial
counseling is limited, and there are no specific initiatives targeted toward
developmental students.
B.4: Financial aid is disseminated
to support developmental students. Mechanisms exist to ensure that students are
aware of such opportunities and are provided with assistance to apply for and
acquire financial aid.
Financial aid is disseminated to all
Chabot students, including those who assess into developmental coursework (92%
of the new students in Fall 2007). Over the last several years, expanded
outreach has significantly increased the number of students receiving financial
ad and the amounts of aid awarded (e.g.: The Financial Aid Office reports that
between 00-01 and 07-08, the number of Cal grants awarded has increased 149%).
In their self-assessment, the Financial Aid office expressed concerns about
their reliance on soft, categorical funding sources and the limited staff time
available for personal guidance to students.
Effective
Practice Area C: Staff Development
C.1: Administrators support and
encourage faculty development in basic skills, and the improvement of teaching
and learning is connected to the institutional mission.
C.2: The faculty play a primary
role in needs assessment, planning, and implementation of staff development
programs and activities in support of developmental education programs.
C.3: Staff development programs are
structured and appropriately supported to sustain them as ongoing efforts
related to institutional goals for the improvement of teaching and learning.
C.4: Staff development opportunities
are flexible, varied, and responsive to developmental needs of individual
faculty, diverse student populations, and coordinated programs/services.
C.5: Faculty development is
connected to intrinsic and extrinsic faculty reward structures.
The relationship between staff development and basic skills
education has emerged recently through several different projects, particularly
as funded by the state Basic Skills Initiative and the Carnegie grant. These projects have made direct and indirect
contributions in professional development.
The long-standing New Faculty Group has been a place where new full-time
instructors receive training and support in some of the effective classroom
practices highlighted in the BSI Literature Review (e.g. using Classroom
Assessment Techniques, designing good reading assignments). Faculty/staff
participating in special programs (e.g.: EOPS, Puente) also receive regular
professional development, some relating to basic skills education.
Outside of specific projects/programs, there has been
little coordinated, college-wide attention to the area of developmental
education. Staff development funds are overseen by a committee that includes
developmental faculty, but these funds are distributed for conference-attendance
in general (not developmental education in particular). Staff development in
developmental education has been constrained by two main factors: limited time
for faculty to come together, limited financial resources to organize and fund
such work. College hour has been eroded by construction-related scheduling
changes, and while the quality of recent Flex Day offerings has been strong,
two days a year are not sufficient time for faculty to come together on matters
of teaching and learning. Many members of the committee expressed interest in
expanding professional development opportunities in developmental education –
both within their disciplines (with funding for adjunct faculty to participate)
and across disciplines. This need has also been highlighted in the proposal
being drafted now for a Title 3 grant, and as an area for future attention
within a new Center for Teaching and Learning to be housed within the
college-wide Learning Connection.
Effective
Practice Area D: Instructional Practices
D.1: Sound principles of learning theory are applied in
the design and delivery of courses in the developmental program.
D.2: Curricula and practices that have proven to be
effective in specific disciplines are employed.
D.3: The developmental education program addresses the
holistic development of all aspects of the student. Attention is paid to the
social and emotional development of students, as well as to their cognitive
growth.
D.4: Culturally Responsive Teaching theory and practices
are applied to all aspects of the developmental instructional programs and
services.
D.5: A high degree of structure is provided in
developmental education courses.
D.6: Developmental education faculty employ a variety of
instructional approaches to accommodate student diversity.
D.7: Programs align entry/exit skills among levels and
link course content to college-level performance requirements.
D.8: Developmental education faculty routinely share
instructional strategies.
D.9: Faculty and advisors closely monitor student
performance.
D.10: Programs provide comprehensive academic support
mechanisms, including the use of trained tutors.
Despite its central importance, Area D is the shortest section
of our self-assessment. This is in part because many of the above issues have
been addressed in earlier sections, such as the integration and expansion of
tutoring services under the Learning Connection, questions about entry/exit
requirements related to assessment and placement, the insufficient time and
funding available for faculty to share instructional strategies, and the
limited staff development targeted to developmental education.
Another reason for the limited attention to Area D was there
were few responses to this area from those who participated in the
self-assessment process. One Math instructor explained that she questioned the
validity of the evidence for these practices cited in the BSI Literature
Review. A Science instructor said, “Scientists are notoriously bad at adapting
learning theories - we typically teach in the way that we were taught, which is
the typical lecture format. With the
amount of content that must be covered in each course (which is ever expanding
as well) taking a more learner-centered approach is extremely difficult. We do not take any additional steps to
address developmental level learners, and if we do, we tend to then go too
slowly or laboriously for those whose skills are at the college-level.”
An English instructor reported that, based upon conversations
among colleagues, these practices are used by many different individuals, but
that she’s not aware of organized, ongoing efforts to provide faculty training
and support. Overall, because most of the above instructional practices are
dispersed across a wide range of courses and instructors (in Chabot’s
decentralized and minimally coordinated developmental education “program”), it
is difficult to assess how extensively practices like D1-D5 occur. The above list of effective practices does,
however, provide guidance we can use in our upcoming work to design
professional development activities, curricular changes, and academic support
services to strengthen developmental education at Chabot.
Strengthening Basic Skills Education at
Chabot
Recommendations and Action Plan
Setting the Course for Basic Skills
Committee & BSI Expenditures
2008-2009 and Beyond
Introduction
The following recommendations for action emerged from Chabot’s
Basic Skills Self-Assessment, conducted by the Basic Skills Committee and
synthesized by committee co-chairs Katie Hern and Patricia Shannon. The
recommendations reflect areas where committee members noted significant
interest and need at the college. They fall into four major categories:
1)
Coordinated college-wide basic skills
philosophy and framework
2)
Professional Development: Effective
Instructional Practices in Basic Skills Education
3)
Direct Support for Developmental Students:
Tutorials and Counseling Services
4)
Curricular Review and Change:
Strengthening Student Outcomes
A common philosophical theme ran through the self-assessment:
We are all basic skills instructors. Given this, our recommendations
reflect not only activities in English, Math, ESL, but efforts to strengthen
basic skills across the disciplines and in key student services areas.
Recommendations
1)
Develop an institution-wide, integrated basic skills philosophy and framework
Participants:
College as whole, but all activities relying on the Basic Skill
Committee (provide many invitations and opportunities to participate)
Overview of Charge:
Engage in sustained, inter-disciplinary,
data-driven conversation about the meaning of “basic skills,” who “basic skills
students” are, what helps them succeed and what obstacles get in their way.
Develop and adopt a philosophy and framework for addressing basic skills
students’ needs, one that incorporates
and integrates assessment, orientation, counseling, placement, classroom
strategies, and student services. From this conversation, set student outcome
goals for basic skills (e.g. goals re: retention or engagement rates,
persistence, and/or success).
2)
Carefully study issues involved in adoption of mandatory orientation,
assessment, and/or placement at Chabot. Develop policy recommendations. (BSI
effective practices, Area A)
Participants:
Members of Basic Skills Committee including Counseling and
Instructional faculty in English, Math, transfer-level G.E. disciplines.
Support from Institutional Research office. Other members as interested.
Overview of Charge:
Faculty Inquiry Group (FIG) to analyze institutional data and
external literature on feasibility and impact of such policies, and develop
recommendations, lead college-wide conversation and engagement on the
recommendations (and research) leading to adoption of new policies and
practices. Investigation should include (but not be limited to):
Attention to discipline-specific concerns with
assessment/placement
processes, such as questions in English about cut scores for
English 102
and for directing students to ESL/Learning Skills, questions in
math about expanding assessment process to include guidance on student
weaknesses/strengths (instead of using placement simply to “get them in the
right course”)
Attention to the question of pre-requisites in transfer level
g.e. courses
Attention to student equity & access issues involved in
such policies
Examination of data on success rates of developmental-level
students enrolled in college-level courses
Attention to financial implications, such as the impact on
enrollments and the resources needed to support these policies
Consideration of the mixed findings about mandatory placement
in community college settings (described in BSI Literature Review)
1) Increase
Professional Development Opportunities re: Effective Practices in Developmental
Education (BSI Areas C2-C4 & D)
Participants:
Faculty/staff from across the college – in traditional
developmental disciplines (English, Math, ESL, Learning Skills, tutorials,
counseling) as well as in transfer-level disciplines that serve large numbers
of basic skills-level students. Staff/faculty/administration involved in
Chabot’s emerging Center for Teaching and Learning. Members of Staff
Development Committee.
Sample Activities:
·
“Grounds up” proposals submitted from
across college to fund developmental education activities in their areas (e.g.
Workshops on Active Learning pedagogies for Social Science, professional
development activities to train additional faculty in Mastery Learning
approaches piloted in Math under first round of Basic Skills funds).
·
Opportunities organized by the Center for
Teaching and Learning, especially cross-disciplinary activities, such as
trainings in Reading Apprenticeship pedagogy and participation in an ongoing
Faculty Inquiry Group of instructors trying these approaches in their classes.
·
Faculty Inquiry Groups of faculty who
commit to trying new instructional practices from Basic Skills Lit Review (Area
D), then come together regularly to share results from their classes, get
feedback & support
·
Staff-development committee funding for
attendance at conferences specifically devoted to developmental education
Guidelines & criteria for implementing these activities to
be developed in early 2008-2009 by Basic Skills Committee
2) Expand
& Strengthen Supplemental Academic & Counseling Support in Basic Skills
(Effective Practice Areas B…D…)
Participants:
Collaborations between Basic Skills Committee, Learning Connection,
Counseling, and Faculty from Relevant Disciplines (whether serving on committee
or not)
Sample Activities highlighted in committee members’ bsi
assessments:
·
Further expand tutorial support in
Learning Connection to include disciplines/areas/skills not currently
represented
·
Create new peer-tutoring support for
reading across the curriculum
This need has been widely stressed across the campus, by both
students and faculty from different areas (the video Reading Between the
Lives, self-assessment by Science area, recognition by English faculty that the WRAC Center --
Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum – has become primarily a writing center
over time).
·
Assess effectiveness of pilot projects in Learning
Connection, share results with Basic Skills Committee & other parts of
college
·
Investigate effective models for better
integrating counseling and academic instruction at the developmental levels,
develop recommendations for new policies/practices at Chabot.
4) Curriculum Review and Change
Several members of the Committee raised specific ideas about
curricular changes to strengthen basic skills education in English and Math, as
well as other disciplines (Social Science, the Sciences). There was interest in
using Basic Skills funding to support extensive assessment and review of the
elements of the current curriculum, to develop curricular changes that would
improve student outcomes. The literature review on Effective Practices in Basic
Skills would be a primary source guiding this work.
Planning
Matrix for Section A-D Combined
Long-Term Goals (5 yrs.)
Strengthen the performance outcomes of basic skills students by
creating and implementing a campus-wide basic skills philosophy and framework
that effectively integrate assessment, orientation, counseling, placement,
pedagogy, curriculum, and student services.
|
Action Plan for Section A-D: |
District: Chabot-Las Positas Community College
District College: Chabot
College |
|
Section |
Planned
Action |
Effective
Practice and Strategy |
Target
Date for Completion |
Responsible
Person(s)/ |
|
A, B, C,
D |
Develop and adopt an institution-wide, integrated basic skills
philosophy and unifying framework. Will involve:
|
A, B, C, D |
May 31, 2009 |
President, V.P. Academic Services,
Student Services, Basic Skill Subcommittee |
|
A, B, C,
D |
Increase Professional Development
Opportunities. Use several vehicles to
do so. “Grounds up” proposals to fund
developmental education activities inside disciplines/areas. Guidelines & criteria for implementing these
activities to be developed in early 2008-2009 by Basic Skills Committee.
|
A, B, C, D |
May 31, 2009 |
President,
V.P. Academic Services, Student Services, Basic
Skill Subcommittee, Center
for Teaching and Learning. Staff Development Committee. |
|
C, D |
Expand & Strengthen Supplemental Academic & Counseling
Support in Basic Skills
|
C, D |
May 31,
2009 |
President,
V.P. Academic Services, Student Services, Basic
Skill Subcommittee, Counselors and Instructional Faculty Across Curriculum, Learning
Connection. |
|
D |
Carefully review data on student performance &
literature on effective practices in developmental education. Develop and
implement curricular changes to improve student outcomes. |
D |
May 31,
2009 |
President,
V.P. Academic Services, Student Services, Basic
Skill Subcommittee, Faculty
Across Curriculum, Curriculum Committee |