BRINGING ACCELERATED ENGLISH AND MATH TO YOUR CAMPUS

SPRING 2011
REGIONAL WORKSHOPS AT FULLERTON COLLEGE, FRESNO CITY COLLEGE, MIRAMAR COLLEGE, SANTA ROSA JUNIOR COLLEGE, AND CITRUS COLLEGE

 Katie

Hern English Instructor, Chabot College Coordinator, 3CSN Statewide Acceleration Initiative California Community Colleges Success Network khern@chabotcollege.edu Snell Math Professor, Los Medanos College msnell@losmedanos.edu

Myra

 The

more levels of developmental courses a student must go through, the less likely that student is to ever complete college English or Math.
Bailey, Thomas. (February 2009). Rethinking Developmental Education. CCRC Brief. Community College Research Center. Teachers College, Columbia University.

NATIONWIDE DATA

256,672 FIRST-TIME DEGREE-SEEKING STUDENTS FROM 57 COLLEGES PARTICIPATING IN ACHIEVING THE DREAM
% of students who successfully complete collegelevel gatekeeper course in subject 42% 29% 24%

Students initial placement in developmental sequence

Reading 1 Level Below College 2 Levels Below College 3 Levels or More Below College

Referral, Enrollment, and Completion in Developmental Education Sequences in Community Colleges (CCRC Working Paper No. 15). By: Thomas Bailey, Dong Wook Jeong & Sung-Woo Cho. December 2008. New York: Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University. (Revised November 2009).

NATIONWIDE DATA

256,672 FIRST-TIME DEGREE-SEEKING STUDENTS FROM 57 COLLEGES PARTICIPATING IN ACHIEVING THE DREAM
% of students who successfully complete collegelevel gatekeeper course in subject 27% 20% 10%

Students initial placement in developmental sequence

Math 1 Level Below College 2 Levels Below College 3 Levels or More Below College

Referral, Enrollment, and Completion in Developmental Education Sequences in Community Colleges (CCRC Working Paper No. 15). By: Thomas Bailey, Dong Wook Jeong & Sung-Woo Cho. December 2008. New York: Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University. (Revised November 2009).

ACROSS THE CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM:

SIMILARLY BLEAK PROSPECTS FOR STUDENTS

PLACED INTO LOWEST LEVELS OF SEQUENCES

% completing college/degree-applicable course:

3 levels below College Math (Pre-Algebra): 24% 4 levels below College Math (Arithmetic): 13%

3 levels below College English: 21% 4 levels below College English: 17%

Perry, M.; Bahr, P.R.; Rosin, M.; & Woodward, K.M. (2010). Course-taking patterns, policies, and practices in developmental education in the California Community Colleges. Mountain View, CA: EdSource.

AND FURTHER LOWLIGHTS FROM ACROSS CALIFORNIA

Black students are more likely to be placed in the lowest level of remedial English than other ethnic groups. Black students are much less likely to be placed in the highest remedial English course than White students (40% of Black students vs. 64% of White students). Both Black and Latino students are much more likely to be placed into the lowest level of remedial Math than White or Asian students.

Perry, M.; Bahr, P.R.; Rosin, M.; & Woodward, K.M. (2010). Course-taking patterns, policies, and practices in developmental education in the California Community Colleges. Mountain View, CA: EdSource.

WHY HIGH ATTRITION RATES

ARE A STRUCTURAL PROBLEM
For students placing two levels below a college course in English/Math, there are 5 exit points where they fall away:

Do they pass the first course? If they pass, do they enroll in the next course? If they enroll, do they pass the second course? If they pass, do they enroll in the college-level course? If they enroll, do they pass the college-level course?

Students placing three levels down have 7 exit points.

WHY HIGH ATTRITION RATES

ARE A STRUCTURAL PROBLEM
Chabot College pipeline data for students beginning two levels down from college composition:

Do they pass the first course? If they pass, do they enroll in the next course? If they enroll, do they pass the second course? If they pass, do they enroll in the college-level course? If they enroll, do they pass the college-level course?

55% 76% 79% 86% 83%

(0.55)(0.76)(0.79)(0.86)(0.83)= 23%

HOW WOULD INCREASING FIRSTCOURSE SUCCESS IMPACT OVERALL COMPLETION RATE?

(0.55)(0.76)(0.79)(0.86)(0.83)= 23% Try it out

What if we got the first course to 65% success? 75% success? 85% success? (Keep the other numbers the same)

THE INEVITABILITY OF ATTRITION IN

SEQUENCES

Hern, K. & Snell, M. (June/July 2010). Exponential Attrition and the Promise of Acceleration in Developmental English and Math. Perspectives. Berkeley, CA: RP Group.

BOTTOM LINE

We will never significantly increase completion rates of college English and Math unless we reduce the length of our developmental sequences and eliminate the many exit points where students fall away.

ACCELERATED DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION

A Working Definition: Curricular restructuring that reduces sequence length and eliminates exit points. Ideally includes a reconsideration of curricular content: Is what we are teaching what students truly need to succeed in college English or Math? Key Student Outcome to Track: What percentage of students from different starting placements go on to complete college English/Math?

SOME OF THE POSSIBILITIES

Avoidance

models

Programs and policies that provide alternative pathways and/or help students skip levels, such as
Changing cut scores to advance students in sequence Creating easy mechanisms for students to skip levels Allowing students who have passed Algebra II in high school to move directly into college-level Statistics Bridge programs that enable students to move into a higher level of coursework Contextualized reading/writing/math/ESL embedded in Career-Technical programs

SOME OF THE POSSIBILITIES

Compression

Models

Combining levels of a sequence into an intensive format within the same semester, either keeping the total # of units the same or reducing the # of units
Elementary & Intermediate Algebra Developmental English 1 & 2 levels below college 1 Level below plus college English

SOME OF THE POSSIBILITIES

Mainstreaming

Models

Placing developmental students into a transfer-level course with some kind of additional support built in
Supplemental instruction Additional lab hours Student tutors embedded in class Support course paired with transfer-level course

SOME OF THE POSSIBILITIES

Modular

Redesign

Replacing the traditional course sequence with individualized learning modules; more fine-grained diagnostic tests assess students incoming levels of skill/understanding and instruction focuses on these areas, often aided by computer software

SOME OF THE POSSIBILITIES

Sequence

Redesign

Restructuring curricula to engage developmental students in more complex reading, writing, and thinking tasks sooner and prioritize the most essential skills and knowledge needed in college courses

Eliminating levels in sequence and enabling students with lower scores to enroll in more advanced courses One-semester, open-access pre-statistics courses One-semester, open-access reading and writing courses

Chabot College English 102: Reading, Reasoning, and Writing (Accelerated) A one-semester 4-unit developmental English course leading directly to English 1A

An alternative to two-semester, 8-unit sequence No minimum placement score, students self-place in either the accelerated or two-semester path Developed with backwards design from college English: Students engage in the same kinds of reading, thinking, and writing of college English, with more scaffolding and support College has expanded accelerated offerings in last decade: course now constitutes more than 66% of entry-level sections

90% 82% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Non-Accelerated Eng 101A/B, 04-09 Accelerated Eng 102, 04-09 82%

Success in High-Enrollment G.E. Courses Fall 2007-Summer 2009

80% 70% 60% 52% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% No English Courses Passed Accelerated English Course Passed 49% 50% 69% 63% 74% 72% 63% 54% 74% 68% 60% 54% 44% 43% 63% 73% 64% 62% 59%

SEQUENCE REDESIGN: ANOTHER IN-DEPTH EXAMPLE

Statpath, Los Medanos College A new one-semester developmental Math course with no minimum placement score:

Bypasses the standard 4-course sequence leading to Calculus Developed through backwards design from college statistics:

Includes only those elements of algebra and arithmetic sequence that are directly relevant to statistics These are provided with just-in-time remediation as students engage in statistical analysis

Offered as experimental course 2009-2011, recently approved as permanent course

Hern, K. & Snell, M. (June/July 2010). Exponential Attrition and the Promise of Acceleration in Developmental English and Math. Perspectives. Berkeley, CA: RP Group.

(EMERGING) EVIDENCE ACCELERATION WORKS: YEAR ONE OF STATPATH

Hern, K. & Snell, M. (June/July 2010). Exponential Attrition and the Promise of Acceleration in Developmental English and Math. Perspectives. Berkeley, CA: RP Group.

(EMERGING) EVIDENCE ACCELERATION WORKS: STATPATH YEAR TWO

FINAL THOUGHTS ON OPEN-ACCESS, ONE-SEMESTER CLASSES

People often have a hard time with the concept of an open-access class one-level below college English or Math:
One semester? No minimum placement score?! But dont some students need a slower path? The ones with very low skills?

Data from Chabot and Las Positas colleges are useful to consider here

AT FIRST GLANCE, IT LOOKS LIKE SOME STUDENTS MIGHT NOT BE WELL-SERVED BY AN ACCELERATED PATH

AND YET THEY DONT DO BETTER ON THE SLOWER PATH

THE SAME IS TRUE FOR STUDENTS WITH EVEN LOWER SCORES

BOTTOM LINE:

If

we know well lose more students in the longer sequence, and they dont even pass the slower-paced courses at higher rates, can we really keep thinking the longer path is the better choice for low-scoring students?

IMPLICATIONS FOR ACTION: COMMUNITY COLLEGES NEED TO

Shorten developmental sequences and reduce exit points to increase completion of college-level English/Math. Redesign curricula away from front-loading discrete subskills toward giving students practice in the core skills and ways of thinking required at the college-level. Reconsider the assumption that placement score equals number of semesters remediation needed. Consider the model of using placement scores to identify students who might need extra support in an accelerated model, rather than to track them into a longer sequence.

A FINAL CAUTION ABOUT BUZZWORDS

Just

about anything can be called acceleration these days adding a student success course, using culturally relevant pedagogy, linking courses in a learning community

While these interventions may be valuable, without curricular redesign, we will never meaningfully increase the number of students completing college English or Math.

WINDOW INTO AN ACCELERATED CLASSROOM

Video

footage from Myra Snells pre-statistics course, Fall 2009 Medanos students grapple with a problem from the national statistics exam, CAOS filmed and edited by Jose Reynoso, a student co-inquirer working with Snell through a grant from the Faculty Inquiry Network

Los

Video

http://vimeo.com/9055488 (or go to Vimeo and search for Statpath)

WINDOW INTO AN ACCELERATED CLASSROOM

Video

footage from Katie Herns English 102

Students are working collaboratively to understand an excerpt from Paolo Freires Pedagogy of the Oppressed. It is the fourth class session. The discussion builds on earlier readings about education by Malcolm X, Krishnamurti, and Mike Rose, along with a study by Anyon documenting serious differences between schools in different socio-economic communities.

SCAFFOLDING TO SUPPORT STUDENT

ENGAGEMENT WITH THE TEXT Focus questions given with reading assignment: 1) What does Freire mean by the term banking model education? Why does he say it is oppressive or dehumanizing? 2.) What does Freire mean by problem posing education? Why does he say this is liberatory? http://www.vimeo.com/16983253
Produced as part of Faculty Inquiry Network, Fall 2009

TIME FOR LUNCH

This Afternoons focus Building an Action Plan Thinking through what it will take to bring new acceleration to your own campus

WHERE IS YOUR COLLEGE IN IMPLEMENTING ACCELERATION?

Phase

One: Building Awareness Two: Developing Accelerated Pilots Three: Expanding and Refining Accelerated Approaches

Phase

Phase

PHASE ONE: BUILDING AWARENESS

Objective for this part of workshop:
Become

a more skilled idea champion to argue for the urgency of implementing acceleration

PHASE ONE: BUILDING AWARENESS Work in groups of 3-4 at your table

Role

play for a heated meeting on campus take turns raising objections and making an argument for acceleration note of the most important objections you expect to encounter well discuss these as a whole group next

Make

PHASE TWO: DEVELOPING ACCELERATED PILOTS

Small-Group Discussion:
Look at your handout Select Models of Accelerated English and Math. Pick the 1-2 models you are most interested in exploring for your own campus and then discuss them with the other people at your table:

What advantages do you see for the model? What disadvantages do you see for the model? What institutional navigation will be required to implement the model?

PHASE TWO: DEVELOPING ACCELERATED PILOTS

Curriculum

and Pedagogy Structural redesign is only the first step. Once you have decided upon the model(s) to pilot, its time to plan for the what and how of teaching an accelerated course. What does accelerated instruction look like?

ANOTHER WINDOW INTO THE CLASSROOM: SAMPLE STATPATH MATERIALS

College-level

Thinking and Skills

Are cereals marketed to children less healthy than cereals marketed to adults? Do cereals marketed to children appear to be deliberately located on grocery store shelves to attract childrens attention? Data set: 77 cereals, 14 variables (e.g. sugar, fat, sodium, weight, Consumer Report rating, shelf location, target audience, manufacturer)

COLLEGE-LEVEL THINKING WITH EMBEDDED DEVELOPMENTAL CONCEPTS

Excerpt from First Student Paper (6th week)
Statistical Concepts: Distributional reasoning Measures of center and spread Distinction between explanatory and response variables in data analysis Developmental Concepts Unit conversions Percentages Relative vs. absolute difference

SCAFFOLDING AND SUPPORT

Instructional cycle: Introduction to the unit: discussion of motivating question Cycles of investigation and presentation
Group work with a rich data set: preliminary work reasoning with data. Poster presentations with rotating audience: communicating preliminary findings Computer lab: Tinkerplots investigation (same variables, large n). Project student work and discuss preliminary findings to motivate need for statistical techniques

Structured development of statistical/mathematical concepts

Group work, class discussion of group work, mini-lecture

Cycles of investigation and presentation

Computer lab: application of statistical tools to analysis. Speed dating with structured listening and responding routines.

Culminating paper/presentation/exam

SCAFFOLDING AND SUPPORT: ZOOMING IN

Example of structured development of statistical/mathematical concepts for measuring variability
For each set, use your own visual sense to order the distributions from least amount of variability to most amount of variability. For each set of 3 graphs, measure the variability in the 3 distributions in a way that makes sense to you. Your measurement should help us identify which of the 3 distributions has the least amount of variability and which has the most. Give your variability measurement for each graph in the set. When you move to the next set, you may have to devise a new measure. Follow-up: Make up two data sets with same mean and different ADM Make up two data sets with different means and same ADM Multiple choice items from ARTIST

SAMPLE EXAM PROMPTS

Example of data analysis portion of exam: apply concepts to new contexts with a simple data set
Pick ONE of the following questions to answer: Do new drivers pay a higher insurance premium than experienced drivers? Do males pay a higher insurance premium than females? Create a graph(s) to answer the question you chose. Demonstrate your understanding of course concepts through your choice of statistical tools and in your discussion.

SAMPLE EXAM PROMPTS

Example of multiple choice portion of exam: conceptual questions
Which of the classes would you expect to have the largest interquartile range? Class A because it has the highest peak Class B because it has over half of its values toward the ends of its range Class C because there are roughly the same percentage of scores close to the median as far from it Class E because it looks normal.

WINDOW INTO THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM: SAMPLE ESSAY PROMPT

Essay

#3, Option #2:

Were Harry Harlows experiments on monkeys ethical? Harlows research taught us a lot about the nature of attachment and what infants need. But in the process, he did a lot of damage to the monkeys in his experiments. Do you think his research was ethical? Do the benefits (knowledge) outweigh the costs (harm to living creatures)?
Materials from Katie Herns Accelerated English Class, available through 3CSN website: http://3csn.org/completion-initiative/developmentalsequences/

COLLEGE-LEVEL THINKING AND SKILLS

Essay

requires students to synthesize and evaluate conflicting positions from the class text and make a clear, carefully considered argument of their own
Guidelines to Students: Show that you have carefully read [the] chapter and that you have fully digested and considered the different viewpoints and evidence on all sides of the debate. Feel free to also include other sources.... Show you are really thinking about the topic these are complex questions, so dont settle for easy answers. And dont feel that you have to take an either-or position

SCAFFOLDING/SUPPORT:
After

each reading, in-class activities let students process, clarify, and engage with the text. Activities are designed by teacher and/or student teaching teams. Typical activities:

Small groups discussing then reporting back about a particular section or topic from the reading Debates between teams of students representing different positions on an issue Speed-Dating: Students sit in pairs and spend 2 minutes discussing a question from the assigned reading; then they switch partners and discuss another question from the reading; repeat.

SCAFFOLDING/SUPPORT
Before

writing an essay, students take an open-book quiz to show their understanding of key ideas/info from the assigned readings:
In your own words, explain the concept of contact comfort. Then, describe how Harlows experiments with monkeys led him to come up with this idea. What happened to the monkeys raised with the terry-cloth surrogate mother when they grew up? According to Harlow, why did this happen? In your own words, explain the animal rights argument that the use of animals in research delivers very little valid information (Slater 149). Be sure to summarize some of the evidence activists use to support this argument.

JUST-IN-TIME REMEDIATION
While

working on drafts, students receive targeted in-class writing guidance, including:

Activities on brainstorming and outlining their essay 6-8 students write their draft thesis statements on board for discussion; instructor models how to use subordinate clauses to make concessions: Although we learned a lot from these experiments Before final draft is due, instructor briefly reviews strategies for proofreading and reminds students to look for the patterns of mistakes they typically make (instructor used previous papers to alert students to their individual patterns)

JUST-IN-TIME REMEDIATION
After

papers complete: Instructor gives extensive positive feedback, calls attention to specific areas for improvement, and tells students shell be looking for progress on these areas in next essay

Common areas for attention in essay #3:

Parts of student argument could be strengthened with more specific examples/details/quotes from text Unintentional plagiarism specific phrases from original text lifted into essay without quotation (as students write their next essay, well practice paraphrasing in class) Inconsistent proofreading and the presence of errors that are common to class (homophone spelling errors) as well as particular to individuals (fragments, trace ESL errors)

BOTH MODELS: ATTENTION TO THE AFFECTIVE DOMAIN

Instructors

use intentional strategies to foster sustained student engagement (and counteract student tendencies to disengage during difficulty)

Integrating Carol Dwecks education research into how having a growth mindset about intelligence produces learning, while a fixed mindset does not Attendance policies (e.g. firm boundaries limiting missed classes, incentive for perfect attendance) Emails to students who have missed class, reaching out to struggling students for one-on-one conferences Use of re-dos (rewrites on papers, redoing test items)

GENERAL ADVICE FOR PHASE TWO

Think carefully about the front-end: How will students enroll in the pilot? How will they know the option exists and why it will benefit them?
Watch out for anything that could derail the experiment or distort the results
e.g. Sometimes experimental courses fill up only after the regular classes are closed. At Chabot, late arriver students have had some of the lowest success and persistence rates, so you wouldnt want your experiment dominated by this group.

Build good connections with counseling to ensure strong enrollment

GENERAL ADVICE FOR PHASE TWO

Think

carefully about the back-end: Building an Evaluation Plan Key Question for Every Pilot: What percentage of students who start at different levels of our developmental sequences go on to pass the college-level/ degree-applicable course? Compare results from your pilot with results from the traditional sequence

GENERAL ADVICE FOR PHASE TWO

Think

carefully about the back-end: Building an Evaluation Plan

Locally-Specific Measures:
If your department has a portfolio review, common exam, or other assessment process, you might examine how students from the pilot compare with students from the traditional sequence. You might also build illustrations of sample student work, to provide a window into the classroom.

Take care not to burden the pilot with expectations far outside what happens in the traditional sequence.

AND A FEW WORDS ABOUT PHASE THREE

Your main goal here is to increase the number of students in accelerated pathways and continue to raise the rate at which developmental students complete your college-level courses

Phase One continues, as you keep making the case for acceleration Phase Two continues, as you experiment with additional approaches e.g. expanding upon your compressed model by adding a pilot in sequence redesign and you evaluate the impact of pilots on completion rates And Phase Three reflection and refinement occurs e.g. fine-tuning how to provide support to particularly weak students without adding layers

RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO YOU

http://3CSN.org/developmental-sequences

Sample curricular materials and classroom videos Materials to build a case for acceleration on campus Links to established acceleration programs Spotlight features on colleges implementing acceleration across California

The site will be updated regularly as more colleges share their work with the network

RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO YOU

Support from 3CSN Regional Coordinators re: building a case on campus, developing an implementation plan Phone consultations with Katie Hern & Myra Snell: For colleges ready to develop a pilot, help thinking through logistics, politics, curriculum, and pedagogy Contact: khern@chabotcollege.edu National Acceleration Conference June 15-17, 2011 Community College of Baltimore County http://tiny.cc/alpconference2011

END-OF-DAY SHARE OUT

Please

share one important Ah-Hah moment you had today

BEFORE YOU GO
Please

complete two forms and leave them in the center of your table:

The information sheet Bringing Accelerated English and Math to Your Campus The workshop evaluation form

PORTIONS OF THIS PRESENTATION WERE

DEVELOPED AS PART OF THE FACULTY INQUIRY NETWORK, FUNDED BY THE WILLIAM AND FLORA HEWLETT FOUNDATION, THE

WALTER S. JOHNSON FOUNDATION, AND THE BAY AREA WORKFORCE COLLABORATIVE