ACCELERATE

P A T H W A Y S T O S U C C E S S A T G A V I L A N C O L L E G E

PRESENTERS

• Scott Sandler, English 250P-260P: Accelerated English (no prereq, one level below transfer) • Karen Warren, English 250P-260P, English Supplemental Instruction coordinator • Elena Dachkova, Math 235: Integrated Algebra (one level below transfer); Math 411: Integrated Pre Algebra; Math boot camps • Marla Dresch, STEM accelerated math

WHY ACCELERATE?

THE LEAKY PIPELINE

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

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 Students’ initial enrollment in developmental sequence % of students who Successfully complete college level gatekeeper course in subject Reading 1 Level Below College 2 Levels Below College 42% 29% 3 Levels or More Below College 24%

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).

EXPONENTIAL ATTRITION: ILLUSTRATION OF THE MULTIPLICATION PRINCIPLE HOW MANY STUDENTS WILL PASS THE COLLEGE-LEVEL COURSE?

If this was the student’s initial placement… And these were the rates at which they passed each class and persisted to the next class in the sequence…

70% 80% 90% 1 level below transfer 2 levels below 34% 17% 51% 33% 73% 59% 3 levels below 8% 21% 48% Source: Exponential Attrition and the Promise of Acceleration In Developmental English and Math By Katie Hern, English Instructor, Chabot College, with contributions from Myra Snell, Professor of Mathematics, Los Medanos College, June 2010

A WORKING DEFINITION:

Accelerated developmental education involves curricular restructuring that reduces sequence length and eliminates exit points .

Ideally, it also includes a reconsideration of curricular content : Is what we are teaching in developmental courses what students truly need to succeed in college English or math?

ENGLISH 250P-260P N O P R E R E Q U I S I T E , O N E L E V E L B E L O W T R A N S F E R

SPRING 2012 : ENGLISH ACCELERATED MODEL COMPARISON

Accelerated NonAccelerated Accelerated NonAccelerated

Success 66.7% 57.6% Retention 88.1% 80.3% Overall, the accelerated course students were retained and succeeded at substantially higher levels. These differences are surprising since this course moved at faster pace and included students who were eligible to take a 400 level course. These findings, however, are preliminary since this was the first term the accelerated model was offered.

Source: Accelerated English 11/12, Gavilan College Institutional Research

ACCELERATION IN MATH I N T E G R A T E D C O U R S E S , B O O T C A M P S , S T E M

ACCELERATION MODELS F R O M 3 C S N ’ S C A L I F O R N I A A C C E L E R A T I O N P R O J E C T

AVOIDANCE MODELS

Programs and policies that provide alternative pathways and/or help students skip levels, such as Bridge and/or review programs that enable students to move into a higher level of coursework: Chaffey College’s 3-week review course for arithmetic students – see “Spotlight” feature at http://3csn.org/developmental-sequences Contextualized reading/writing/math/ESL embedded in Career-Technical programs. See Career Ladders Project http://www.careerladdersproject.org

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 (e.g.: Elem. & Intermed. Algebra): Gavilan’s JumpStart classes: integrated reading and writing or integrated algebra Chaffey College’s Fast-Track to Success, compressed courses in multiple disciplines

M

AINSTREAMING

M

ODELS

Placing developmental students into a transfer-level course with some kind of additional support built in, such as supplemental instruction, additional lab hours, or student tutors embedded in class: Most well-known example: The Accelerated Learning Project at the Community College of Baltimore County http://faculty.ccbcmd.edu/~padams/ALP/indexa.html

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: e.g.: self-paced instruction with ALEKs software

STRETCH-AND-SKIP MODELS

Teaching a lower course to the outcomes of higher course, then providing an easy skip mechanism to advance high-achieving students past level(s) of the sequence, eg.

1-level below college English taught as college English, with credit by examination providing course credit to students who successfully stretched (Berkeley City College) Developmental English courses 2-3 levels below transfer taught like 1-level below, with successful students advanced through pre-requisite challenge process

SEQUENCE REDESIGN

Restructuring curricula to engage developmental students more complex reading, writing, and thinking tasks sooner a prioritize the most essential skills and knowledge needed college courses: Eliminating levels in sequence and enabling students with lower score to enroll in more advanced courses One-semester, open-access pre-statistics courses One-semester, open-access reading and writing c ourses

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

A C C E L E R A T I O N T A S K F O R C E ?

RESOURCES

• California Acceleration Project http://3csn.org/developmental-sequences/ • 2012 Strengthening Student Success Conference, see Rethinking the Developmental Sequence and Creating Pathways for students http://www.rpgroup.org/events/2012-student success-conference • Chaffey College’s Fast-Track to Success, with compressed courses in multiple disciplines http://www.chaffey.edu/fasttrack/index.shtml