Brief Overview
Basic
Skills Subcommittee Recommendations for a
Collaborative
for Teaching, Learning, and Student Success in Basic Skills
Approved
by the Academic Senate Fall 2005
Recommendation 1
Create and foster a permanent professional development
program
Recommendation
3
Create
the “Collaborative for Teaching, Learning, and Student Success in Basic Skills”
Basic
Skills Subcommittee Recommendations for a
Collaborative
for Teaching, Learning, and Student Success in Basic Skills[1]
Approved
by the Academic Senate Fall 2005
Goals
The Basic Skills Committee seeks to:
·
Improve basic skills student success
rates so that each ethnic, gender, and disability group’s success rates will be
comparably high with no more than a 5% variance between each group.
·
Improve motivation, persistence,
community, and peer involvement of basic skills students.
·
Increase faculty commitment to and
satisfaction from working with basic skills students.
Summary
To achieve these goals, the members of the Basic Skills Committee seek to provide the best possible environment in which to promote student success. After spending almost two years surveying the literature on basic skills students; eliciting ideas and experience from teaching and counseling faculty, students, staff, and administrators; and exploring issues of multiculturalism and alternative pedagogies, the Basic Skills Committee proposes a two-pronged approach:
1) Increase training for our
2) Improve student programs and support services.
These issues are addressed in the first two
recommendations which follow regarding professional development programming and
coordinated programs and services for basic skills students. However, as change occurs it will begin to
reshape our institutional structure, so the third recommendation, the
Collaborative for Teaching, Learning and Student Success in Basic Skills,
addresses the structural issue. Except
where noted, it is the Collaborative which will implement the approved
recommendations.
Background
In 2001, as part of the Title III grant, basic skills faculty and department chairs came together to discuss issues related to basic skills. During October 2003, they decided to invigorate the Basic Skills Committee, an already existing, but inactive, sub-committee of the Academic Policies Committee. Currently, 30-50 instructional and counseling faculty, staff, students, and administrators regularly attend meetings, and more than 150 people are on the Basic Skills Committee listserv. Over the past two years, the members of the Basic Skills Subcommittee have:
Fall
03 Conducted a literature
review of best practices in basis skills
Spring
04 Shared the best practices of
basic skills and counseling departments, retention programs, and student
support services, as well as programs such as the Mentoring Program and
Multicultural Infusion Project.
Fall
04 Explored the
interconnectedness between basic skills and diversity initiatives and issues,
including a California Tomorrow
presentation on student experience in our community colleges.
Spring
05 Explored collaborative
learning, piloted faculty reflective teaching circles and prepared our
recommendations.
Best practices
for Basic Skills[2]
On the basis of the work of the Committee, the following
best practices have been identified:
·
A basic skills program should be
comprehensive and coordinated, providing instruction and support services which
are holistic, integrated among related departments and programs, and well
articulated with a strong institutional commitment, adequate funding, and high
expectations.
·
A basic skills program should include a
systematic, ongoing, cross-disciplinary program of professional development for
faculty and staff within and beyond the basic skills program.
·
A basic skills program should be
positive toward cultural difference, responsive to specific cultural needs, and
empowering to students.
·
Instructional and counseling faculty
who work with basic skills students should self-select based on interest and
enthusiasm.
·
A basic skills program should be
integrated with an array of academic support programs including tutoring,
mentoring, study groups, college success support, linked classes, workshops,
counseling, and tech support.
·
Basic skills classrooms and support
services should employ a variety of pedagogies and instructional methods,
connecting with every student regardless of gender, culture, ability, or
learning style.
·
A basic skills program should have a
well-defined sequence and linkages of courses with identified objectives and
content which connects to students’ life experiences whenever possible.
·
Departments and programs that work with
basic skills students should communicate and coordinate with one another.
·
A basic skills program should have
clearly delineated responsibilities, expectations and outcomes.
·
A basic skills program should have
built-in systems for feedback, evaluation, and improvement.
Guiding principles: Students and
Student Learning at the Core
Students and their success are the focus of our work.
Therefore, we should understand who our basic skills students are and what they
need, using that understanding to guide our decisions.
That said, students and their perspectives should be fundamental to everything we do. Students can contribute in many ways—as members of planning committees, as peer tutors and mentors, and as role models of success—establishing connections with their peers, instructors, and counselors. It is our individual and institutional responsibility to create opportunities for students to share their views about their education and for us to listen to them as we build our program to enhance their learning.
In Fall 2002, 1670 students (43% of those that took the placement test) placed into basic skills courses. As a group, they represent multiple cultures: Asian/Pacific Islander (38%), Latino/a (23%), African-American/Non-Latino/a (13%), Filipino (10%), white/Non-Hispanic (10%), American Indian/Alaskan Native (1%), and various other cultures (4%). In addition, basic skills students represent every gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, ability, and socioeconomic class.
Since basic skills students are so diverse, cultural
competence must be among our primary goals as individuals and as an
institution. Indeed, research shows that cultural competence, including
attention to learning styles and cultural differences, has a direct impact on
student success. Our students’ life experiences may differ radically from each
other and from that of their instructors, counselors, and support staff. We
recognize that each of them comes to
These principles inform and infuse the recommendations of the Basic Skills Committee which follow:
· Create and foster a permanent professional development program
· Create coordinated programs and services for basic skills students
· Create the “Collaborative for Teaching, Learning, and Student Success in Basic Skills”
Recommendation 1: Create and foster a permanent professional development program
A highly trained faculty does the best job teaching and
working with basic skills students.
Moreover, research and common sense reinforce the conclusion that the
“best practice” pedagogies and methodologies that work with basic skills populations
are successful with most students.
While many of our faculty have sought high-quality
professional development programs and activities to help them learn successful
practices and pedagogies, such programs are hard to find, and obtaining
institutional support is challenging given recent budgetary problems.
A broad-based and permanent change in basic skills ideas and
practices requires full-fledged institutional support to improve classroom
practices and increase our long-held commitment to improve the success of our
basic skills students.
All of this means that training and support for basic skills
faculty and staff needs to be:
Current—whenever
possible representing “best” and highly validated practices
Systemic—reflected
in all units and at all levels of the
Continuing—part
of a permanent program for student success
Culturally competent—reflecting
the needs of students to be taught by culturally competent faculty.
While tenured faculty are not compelled to participate in professional
development and retraining regarding basic skills, the hope is that the quality
of the professional development opportunities and their impact on student
success, coupled with incentives, will make training and learning exceptionally
attractive, garnering high levels of faculty participation overall.
To that end, the Committee proposes two components to the professional
development program. The first component is an intensive Institute—especially
focused on new faculty, but open to all—for faculty orientation and development;
the second addresses on-going development and training.
Both full time and part time teaching instructional and
counseling faculty could participate in the Collaborative’s faculty development
institute program. Faculty working intensively with basic skills students will
be especially encouraged to participate in this voluntary program. This
intensive and in-depth program will be a two-semester commitment consisting of
pre-semester trainings, retreats, and monthly seminars that might include a
schedule and topics such as those below:
|
Prior to, or near
the beginning of the first semester: |
|
Prior to, or near the beginning of
the second semester: |
|
||
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1 Pre-Semester
Training and/or a 1-Day Retreat: |
|
1 Pre-Semester Training and/or a
1-Day Retreat: |
||
|
|
The Basic Skills
Student: Myths, Realities, Challenges |
|
Culture and Learning |
||
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Creating &
Sustaining the Positive Learning Environment |
|
Teaching Multilingual Students |
||
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Diversity in the
Classroom |
|
Reinforcing/Enhancing Basic Skills
Across Disciplines |
||
|
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Classroom
Assessment Techniques |
|
Collaborative Learning Strategies |
||
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|
|
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Mid-End of first
semester: |
|
Mid-End of second semester: |
|
||
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2 three-hour
trainings a month apart: |
|
2 three-hour trainings a month apart: |
||
|
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Course and Lesson
organization that works for students |
|
Critical Pedagogy II |
||
|
|
Working with the DSPS
students in the classroom |
|
Building Student Support Services
into Class Design II |
|
|
|
|
Critical Pedagogy I |
|
Measuring
Student Learning |
||
|
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Building Student
Support Services into Class Design I |
|
Tech-based models that support
student learning |
||
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|
Successful Syllabus
Design |
|
|
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On-going professional development activities for both new and continuing teaching and counseling faculty and staff can create a sense of community and support for experimentation and innovation using new pedagogies and problem solving strategies to increase student learning and development. Such activities might take many forms:
·
Intensive semester-long and year-long
in-depth professional development activities modeled on successful programs
such as the Multicultural Infusion Project, SCANS, Reflective Teaching Circles,
·
Short/long-term and one-time only
workshops, reading groups, brown bag lunch programs, panels, social gatherings,
student-story discussions, etc.
·
Topics for both intensive programs and
short term workshops such as: classroom assessment techniques, active and
collaborative learning strategies, learning styles, study and reading skills
integration, lesson planning, student learning outcomes and the course
syllabus, syllabus and lesson plan design, classroom management techniques,
teaching in multilingual and culturally diverse classrooms, integration of
critical thinking strategies, supporting students’ special needs, disabled
students in the classroom, strategies to integrate counseling and other student
support services, technology use for basic skills students, service learning,
etc.
·
Single workshops on the above topics
might be offered in collaboration with the FLEX Professional Development
Program.
·
Off-campus professional development activities,
such as conferences.
· Departmentally-focused programs that address the needs of a single department, or group of departments, perhaps integrating counseling services, reinforcing connections between credit and non-credit offerings, promoting diversity initiatives, intensifying academic support, or increasing academic literacy.
·
A proposal process encouraging faculty
to request small grants for their own professional development initiatives.
These on-going programs should encourage inter- and intra-disciplinary
participation from both credit and non-credit departments and programs; we all
teach the same students and such collaboration will help innovation flourish.
A detailed incentive program developed in consultation with
the Academic Senate, AFT 2121, and the Administration that will work within the
requirements of the language in the new faculty contract is essential to
sustain involvement in the professional development program. Guidelines for
“prior approval” status for other professional development activities
acceptable for salary column advancement as required on the AFT2121
Professional Development Plan Form should be developed in concert with this
effort while similar opportunities are explored with SEIU 790 for classified
staff. Further, additional incentives for successful completion of all seminars
in the program can be considered, some of which might include salary column
advances, stipends, and/or reduced basic skills class sizes.
Recommendation 2: Create coordinated programs and services for basic skills students
Basic skills students frequently
struggle with their courses and for a variety of reasons. They may have
self-doubts and unrealistic expectations, and can be unprepared to succeed in
the very courses they came to college to take. In fact, the necessity of taking
prerequisites may mean that students cannot enroll in the courses related to
their goals for several semesters. For example, a prospective nursing student
must pass at least Basic Math before being officially admitted to the program.
Similarly, a student interested in psychology may be held back from pursuing
those classes until completing one or more English classes. To some extent this
is unavoidable; often college students must complete prerequisites before
taking the courses they really want. However, when faced with multiple
semesters of pre-collegiate work, followed by several more semesters of courses
before receiving a certificate or transferring, it is easy to see why students
lose motivation and drop out. We are seeking
ways of helping basic skills students take and succeed in college-level
courses earlier to provide more tangible, nearer-in-time motivation for
mastering basic skills.
Develop a mission statement that connects directly with goals and student learning outcomes. A sample mission statement might be: “Provide students with a coordinated curriculum for basic skills courses, culturally-competent and enthusiastic instructors and counselors, and comprehensive support services that engage and challenge them as learners.”
Support student-led
study groups and study groups with faculty/staff assistance. Peer groups are
extremely effective at promoting community, improved study habits, increased
retention, and overall success. We will continue to search for models that will
bring students together to support one another. Tutoring, mentoring, and
counseling have proven records of success at
Links between student
development and basic skills courses
Promote a seamless matriculation and enrollment process that links with academic courses, and acclimates new students and students transferring from the noncredit program to the credit course environment up-front so students are prepared for learning.
Explore linking arithmetic and/or algebra courses with introductory science courses, and reading, writing, and ESL courses with, for example, psychology courses. Such links allow students to pursue college-level material while getting the skills support they need. Activities in each class reinforce the material for the other, potentially enriching the experience for students and instructors in both classes while improving students’ motivation and relevant skills. These links can be formal or informal, or they can take the form of organized/facilitated study groups. Counselors can be formally or informally assigned to each set of linked courses. Counselors can give presentations.
Links with college success might take many forms. They can be as simple as having college success instructors from the Learning Assistance Department visit classes a few times per semester to build on and complement the orientation for basic skills students. Other links might promote increased connections between students, counselors, instructors, peer tutors and mentors and other support providers. Long-term, such collaborations between college success instructors and academic content instructors lead to integrating college success skills into content courses. Such integration is the most effective way of teaching college success skills. Content instructors can then reinforce the importance of such skills at all levels, increasing chances for success. Library and technology skills are other potential areas for inclusion in appropriate courses.
Links between credit and non-credit courses
Links among such courses improve the
interface between credit and non-credit courses by increasing collaboration and
communication among relevant instructors and departments. This eases the
transition for students as they enter credit coursework and creates more
satisfying classroom environments for students and faculty, alike. Include
counseling faculty for additional support for transitioning students.
·
First semester planning and goal
setting
·
A comprehensive introduction to
counseling and other student and academic support services
·
A campus tour, emphasizing support
services
·
A “how to use the library” tour with
hands-on exercise
·
A self-assessment tool for students to
know more about how they learn and the kinds of support they may need
·
Explanation and promotion of linked
courses
·
Educational options and career
development
The Basic Skills
Committee is aware that similar efforts are going forward under the auspices of
the New Student Counseling Department and supports those efforts.
A regular, short newsletter updating available basic skills
support services can be published regularly. This can be as simple as a few
extra pages in the course schedule, or it might be more effective as a
stand-alone publication. The Committee supports the effort of the Student
Development Division in publishing the Student Services map.
A website for basic skills instructor support with college
success strategies, collaborative learning strategies, and more is encouraged.
The Basic Skills Committee is aware that such a website is currently being
developed with Title III monies and supports that effort.
Recommendation 3: Create the “Collaborative for Teaching, Learning, and Student Success in Basic Skills”
The size of our institution means that implementing recommendations
1 and 2 requires extensive coordination and leadership. Further, research from
our Fall 03 literature review consistently indicates that colleges with the
most successful basic skills programs and outcomes have exceptionally high
coordination of basic skills courses, faculty training, and student support
services. At
Create a new unit: “Collaborative for Teaching, Learning,
and Student Success in Basic Skills”
Create an office for
the Collaborative with one or more coordinators positioned appropriately in the
institutional structure.
Responsibilities
might include:
·
Bring stakeholders together, keep them
focused on the goals of these recommendations, and, together with all parties,
develop new goals as appropriate
·
Foster student involvement and ensure
that students’ and their learning remain the focus of all basic skills programs
and services
·
Coordinate the Professional Development
Program and maintain listings of approved outside coursework and training
·
Facilitate coordination and
communication among basic skills departments and stakeholders, including
“non-basic skills” departments, counselors, classified staff, administrators,
and students
·
Work closely with deans, directors,
department chairs, designated basic skills coordinators, classroom faculty, the
Office of Research Planning and Grants, and other relevant parties to evaluate
the success of students, courses, programs, and services
·
Provide for links among basic skills
courses, college success courses, and college level courses
·
Coordinate with academic support
services to increase support offerings for basic skills courses
·
Work with the Office of Research,
Planning, and Grants to secure funding to support basic skills initiatives
·
Chair the Advisory Group
The Collaborative’s Advisory Group could provide general direction to the Collaborative and assist in the evaluation of programs and services, maintaining the goals of these recommendations as the measures of success.
Chaired by the head of the Collaborative, the membership on the Advisory Group might include one representative from each of the following areas, along with two administrative representatives (one each from Academic Affairs and Student Development) and two student representatives:
Math, English, ESL,
Transitional Studies and another academic department
The
Diversity Committee and the
New Student
Counseling and Continuing Student Counseling
DSPS and EOPS
AASP, LSN, and APASS
Classified
staff
Through the membership of the Advisory Group, communication,
collaboration, and impact will be assured. Increased
coordination will allow for regular opportunities to analyze student success,
to identify and share best practices, and to distribute support services to the
widest possible Basic Skills student population.
[1]
No
phrase or term is completely satisfactory here. After extensive deliberation
the committee settled on “basic skills”—rather than developmental education,
remedial education, pre-collegiate, or a host of others—because it is the
phrase the college uses to describe the students we are trying to address. The
committee is aware that it is a problematic term and we await the creation of
better language to describe these issues. That said, Basic Skills is defined as
Math E1 and E3, English K, L, 90, and 92, and ESL 110 and 120.
[2] Basic Skills is our focus. It is
not our intention to exclude or include non-Basic Skills students and courses
in these recommendations or in this list of best practices. These best
practices may or may not be effective for a more general population of
students.