Strengthening Student Success 2008

Preconference | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday

Preconference

The Pursuit of Excellence: Using Circuit Training to Maximize Performance
SLO Assessment
The 2008 Summer Olympics are now over, but the training for 2012 has just begun. In fact, the circle of excellence is unending. While full implementation of the ACCJC accreditation standards is now set for 2012, the SLOlympian knows that planning and training now is critical to maximize performance in the future. Arduous, daunting, and sometimes lonely, the training road for SLO Coordinators is long and winding. You are not alone. Come and cross-train with your peers, guided by personal coaches and trainers as we tackle resistance to change, endure in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, foster team spirit, and collectively pursue excellence. Outcomes for this session include: (1) Develop and foster teamwork in the assessment and analysis of learning outcomes at the course, program, and institutional level; (2) Evaluate assessment results and use effective research methods to analyze data; (3) Differentiate between alternative assessment methods and practice applying assessments to outcomes; and (4) Refine SLO skill development and dialogue with peers to identify emerging issues in the field.

Moderator: Robert Pacheco, Barstow College
Presenters: Chaffey College, Laurie Pratt and Keith Wurtz; Crafton Hills College, Gary J. Williams; Cypress College, Ben Izadi and Randy Martinez; El Camino College, Lars Kjeseth and Jenny Simon; Long Beach City College, Fred Trapp; College of the Sequoias, Marla Prochnow; and Solano College, Tracy Schneider.
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Strengthening Student Engagement and Success in California Community Colleges
Student Services
Join the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) as we lead a dynamic workshop on ways to use data to strengthen student engagement and success in California community colleges. Included in this interactive workshop will be opportunities to investigate ways to improve institutional quality in active and collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction, and support for learners. You will be among the first to see the 2008 CCSSE national and California statewide data; learn about examples of effective educational practices and programs across the nation; and join an interactive focus group interview with California community college students. Come ready to engage!

Moderator: Barbara McNeice-Stallard, Mt San Antonio College, President, RP Group
Presenter: CCSSEE, Sam Echevarria and Christine McLean.
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Basic Skills Initiative: Contextual Learning
Successful Teaching and Learning
Many people learn better and faster, and retain information longer, when they learn concepts in a specific career or academic context. Contextualizing basic skills instruction and integrating basic skills with career technical education can help students succeed. This is an exciting arena for faculty collaboration but also a real challenge with limited institutional resources. This session will highlight effective contextual teaching and learning strategies and demonstrated application of the work. The session will include discussion of what tools and resources are needed to support contextualized instruction and consider how participants can further such approaches at their colleges.

Moderator: Barbara Illowsky, De Anza College, Basic Skills Initiative, ASCCC Area B Representative
Presenters: ASCCC, Lin Marelick; Bay Area Workforce Funding Collaborative, Jessica Pitt; Career Ladders Project for California Community Colleges, Linda Collins; Laney College, Sonja Franeta and Ron Mackrodt; Los Angeles Trade Technical College, Allison Tom-Miura; and Los Angeles Valley College, Yogesh Arora.
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Faculty Inquiry
Successful Teaching and Learning
How do my students learn? What are the obstacles to student learning? How can classroom environments increase learning for all students? These questions are more than a passing curiosity for teachers. Understanding the process of student learning and continuing to grow in that understanding is part of the professional responsibility of being a teacher. Faculty inquiry is a form of faculty development where teachers work together to shape questions about student learning and then gather and analyze evidence to address those questions. The answers come back to the classroom in the form of new curriculum, new assessments, and new pedagogies, which in turn become subjects for further inquiry. These faculty inquiry presentations will describe how different campuses have created faculty inquiry groups and how they are using what they have learned to support student learning.

Moderator: Rose Asera, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Presenters: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Molly Breen, Mary Huber, Pat and Hutchings.
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Wednesday, October 1st

An Early Alert System for Remediation Needs of Entering College Students
Cal-PASS
The Hewlett Foundation commissioned the California Partnership for Achieving Student Success (Cal-PASS) to conduct research on whether 11th grade California State Test (CST) scores and course grades serve as effective predictors of placement levels and grades for new students’ first community college mathematics and English courses. Findings from the study show promise for using students’ 11th grade CST scores and grades in English and mathematics as tools for placing students in college. Participants will engage in an interactive discussion of placement systems at community colleges, learn how these findings may or may not relate to your situations, gather ideas for refining placement, and determine future research needs.

Moderator: Beth Smith, Grossmont College, ASCCC South Representative
Presenter: Cabrillo College, Craig Hayward, Director of Research, Planning, and Knowledge Systems; and Cal-PASS, Eden Dahlstrom and Terrence Willett.
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Crossing Borders and Kababayan: Increasing Student Success through Learning Communities
Research on basic skills touts the effectiveness of learning communities. Using a scalable model, Cañada College will highlight five learning communities that constitute “Crossing Borders,” which link developmental reading and writing, developmental writing and ESL with content courses, and accelerate developmental mathematics. Skyline College will showcase “Kababayan,” which pairs English and counseling and assigns culturally relevant curriculum on the Filipino/Filipino-American experience and reinforces the importance of pedagogical strategies, peer mentoring, and assessment as a means to motivate students.

Moderator: Barbara Illowsky, De Anza College, Basic Skills Initiative, ASCCC Area B Representative
Presenters: Cañada College, Salumeh Eslamieh, Anniqua Rana and Katie Townsend-Merino; and Skyline College, Liza Erpelo and Nate Nevado.
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Student Success: Language Tests, Placement Policies, and the Generation 1.5 Student
Efforts to improve student success must consider students’ first interactions with colleges: testing/ placement offices, orientation programs, counselors, and procedures for enrollment. For US-educated language minority students, often called “Generation 1.5,” it may be unclear what constitutes the best starting point for academic success: ESL programs, developmental or regular courses in English departments, or some other option. Participants are invited to share college challenges and successes in this area. Panelists will outline preliminary results from current research on language tests, placement policies, Basic Skills Initiative and the Consultation Council Task Force on Assessment.

Moderator: Jenny Simon, El Camino College
Presenters: ASCCC, Mark Wade Lieu; Cañada College, Anniqua Rana; U.C. Santa Cruz, George C. Bunch and Ann Kimball; New York University, Lorena Llosa; and City College of San Francisco, Kitty Moriwaki.
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Using Assessment to Glue Together Teaching and Learning Reading
Teachers in all disciplines are often asked to implement authentic assessment into already demanding academic schedules. Therefore, it is no surprise that they resist using assessment in their classrooms. However, having students take an active part in the assessment process allows time for authentic learning and collaboration while still gathering needed data about learning. In this interactive session, participants will learn the theory behind student-generated assessment and how one reading instructor discovered and applied this theory to his classroom. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss and experience creating different methods of student-generated assessment.

Moderator: Shaaron Vogel, Butte College, ASCCC Area A Representative
Presenters: Mission College, Michelle Andersen Francis and Aaron Malchow.
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The View from the Top of the Mountain: The Assessment of GE/Institutional SLOs
What kinds of processes help colleges see beyond the particulars of individual departments to look at the big picture -- the achievement of GE and institutional SLOs? How can an entire college close the loop after receiving the results? Hear examples from Santa Rosa Junior College, MiraCosta, and College of the Canyons, all of which have climbed to the top of the mountain to get a wider view of how their students are doing. You will receive strategies and materials to help you make the trek yourself, along with details about sustaining your school along the way.

Moderator: Marybeth Buechner, Cosumnes River College
Presenters: College of the Canyons, Lea Templer and Daylene Meuschke; MiraCosta College, Lynne Miller and Robert Turner; and Santa Rosa Junior College, Wanda Burzyck and KC Greaney.
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Learning Centers: Supporting Progression through Basic Skills and Beyond
At American River College, students who participate in the Reading Across the Disciplines, Science Skills Center, and Writing Across the Curriculum Center show drastically improved success in ALL of their courses. Each center has targeted student success by initiating a dialogue involving both faculty and students. This leads to changes within the classroom, affecting even those students who choose not to participate in one of the centers. We will share the history of the centers, data showing student success, center activities, and student artifacts. Participants will practice modules and brainstorm how these skills could be embedded into different classes.

Moderator: Dan Crump American River College, ASCCC Secretary
Presenters: American River College, Dennis Lee, Sue Rooney, and Kathy Sorensen.
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Building a Statewide Basic Skills Professional Development Resource Network
As the state continues its commitment to supporting effective basic skills instruction and learning, a collaboration of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, the Chief Instructional and Student Service Officers and the Chancellor’s Office, hope to build on and extend the work of the Basic Skills Initiative in supporting campus professional development activities. In light of the programs and services that the network may provide, a panel of campus program directors will talk about the joys, challenges, demands, and dilemmas of designing and running programs that effectively support student equity, access, and success.

Moderator: Jane Patton, Mission College, ASCCC Vice President
Presenters: Cabrillo College, Diego Navarro; Chabot College, Tom DeWit; Los Angeles Valley College, Deborah Harrington; Mt. San Antonio College, John Nixon; and Pasadena City College, Brock Klein.
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Active Learning Strategies for the ESL Classroom
This session will provide participants with ideas about how to apply active learning strategies to help their students acquire the skills needed to advance beyond basic skills. First, participants will learn about the theory behind such strategies by participating in a discussion about research-based active learning strategies. Second, participants will experience a specific active-learning approach, called “A Gramma-Drama.” This will include discussion of the various types of writing assignments generated by each act of the play, and review of student papers that show this strategy’s effectiveness. The session will end with a reflective discussion on applying these strategies to the classroom.

Moderator: Stephanie Kashima, Mission College
Presenters: College of the Canyons, Adam Kempler; and Porterville College, Jacinto Gardea.
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Assessment and Curriculum Design
In this session, Los Medanos College will present a method of using student learning outcomes and criteria-based assessment to give insights into student learning, and El Camino High School will present a program that highlights a collaboration among Algebra II teachers to identify the most difficult topics for students and uses this information to develop a support course for Algebra II students selected using Cal-PASS data. Each presentation will present data on the success of the programs.

Moderator: Wade Ellis, Emeritus Faculty, Mission College
Presenters: El Camino High School (Oceanside Unified School District), Liz Brookins; and Los Medanos College, Myra Snell.
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Navigating the Highways of Change: Two Examples of How Colleges Use Their SLO Work to Make Improvements
We often hear how student learning outcomes are the fad of the day. While they are here to stay, the focus on meaningful work can erode if colleges don’t find ways to integrate them into mainstream processes and new initiatives. This session examines two examples: how student learning outcomes in the basic skills area can enhance both efforts, and how they can be used in conjunction with Accountability Reporting for the Community Colleges (ARCC) data and institutional effectiveness efforts to gain a sense of cohesiveness in the college.

Moderator: Dan Crump, American River College, ASCCC Secretary
Presenters: College of the Canyons, Barry Gribbons and Daylene Meuschke; and MiraCosta College, Lynne Miller and Robert Turner.
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Equity-Minded Assessment: Improving Outcomes
The California Benchmarking Project model of equity-minded, practitioner-driven assessment will be discussed. Participants will be guided through activities that assess campus resources related to basic skills curricula including identifying an “intervention point” by examining institutional data disaggregated by race/ethnicity and creating curricula maps of departmental coursework. Participants will review course syllabi to develop a better understanding of curriculum flow, academic expectations, and pedagogical approaches at the classroom level. The session will provide strategies for increasing successful course completion rates along the curricula pathway from basic skills to transfer credit coursework.

Moderator: Beth Smith, Grossmont College, ASCCC South Representative
Presenters: University of Southern California Center for Urban Education, Elsa Macias and Tara Watford; Los Angeles Southwest College, Linda Larson-Singer; and Long Beach City College, Meena Singhal.
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Strengthening Student Success through a First Year Experience Program
Insights into the genesis of our First Year Experience (FYE) program will be shared: FYE mission statement/objectives; format of the program, consisting of Learning Communities and an FYE Seminar; expansion plan; student and faculty recruitment processes; efforts to collaborate with the Basic Skills Initiative; and data collected on student success/retention. Participants will identify the types and levels of students served by their colleges and determine the resources colleges have to apply to a First Year Experience program. How colleges can implement an FYE program and the success they can achieve will be demonstrated.

Moderator: Lesley Kawaguchi, Santa Monica College, ASCCC Area C Representative
Presenters: College of the Sequoias, Debbie Douglass, Frances Gusman, Stephanie Logan, Don Mast, and Charles Rush.
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Visible Learning
How do teachers understand the complexity of students’ lives and learning? Faculty at two campuses have created ways of actively bringing student perspectives to the classroom and the broader campus. Chabot College’s Sean McFarland, along with faculty and student colleagues, has created videos that bring student voices to the forefront for use in faculty development and with students in the classroom. The work of Craig Baker of California State University (CSU) Fullerton and Adrienne Peek of Modesto Junior College will invite the audience into the Zone of Proximal Learning: an area described by Vygotsky in Social Learning Theory. Their work will demonstrate tools for text-based analysis in a developmental English classroom.

Moderator: Jan Connal, Cerritos College
Presenters: CSU Fullerton, Craig Baker; Chabot College, Sean McFarland and student video crew; and Modesto Junior College, Adrienne Peak.
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Thursday, October 2nd

Keynote Speaker: Hunter Boylan
“What Do We Really Know About Developmental Education Success?”
Hunter R. Boylan is the Director of the National Center for Developmental Education and a Professor of Higher Education at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. He is also the founder of Research in Developmental Education and a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Developmental Education, the Journal of Teaching and Learning, the Center for Research on Developmental Education and Urban Literacy, and the International Journal of Innovation, Research, and Policy in Education. In addition, he serves as the principle investigator for the ongoing National Study of Developmental Education. He has received National Association for Developmental Education (NADE) awards for “Outstanding Leadership” and “Outstanding Research.” An internationally recognized authority on developmental education, Dr. Boylan has authored or co-authored four books and 92 articles, book chapters, and monographs. His favorite saying is “Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment.”
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Algebra: Readiness and Support
Students need to understand Algebra concepts for a smooth transition from one level to the next and into college. Algebra teachers have all experienced students weak in the prerequisite skills to the Algebra concepts, but teachers do not have the time to review old material. This session will present two prongs of Algebra readiness and preparation: a regional Algebra readiness course and a high school Algebra II support course. This presentation will showcase a course description and scope and sequence for Algebra Readiness and will give participants an opportunity to share and discuss effective instructional strategies relative to essential standards.

Moderator: Shelly Valdez, Director of Regional Collaboration, Cal-PASS
Presenters: Victor Valley College, Virginia Rabor Moran; Orange Glen High School (Escondido Union High School District), James Hartman and Laura Wilbanks; and El Camino High School (Oceanside Unified School District), Liz Brookins.
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Strengthening Student Success in Career Technical Education (CTE)
Chaffey College’s Student Success Centers have been a model for effective use of Basic Skills Initiative funding. Current Basic Skills Initiative funding is being used to encourage CTE faculty to refer students to Success Centers as a component of their instructional program. Automotive technology was selected as a pilot CTE discipline to develop Directed Learning Activities (DLAs). Students who have difficulty in completing DLAs will be referred to the appropriate Student Success Center where specially trained faculty and tutors will be to assist them. This presentation is an “in-progress” report on a pilot designed to assist CTE students in strengthening the basic skills needed for employment.

Moderator: Jane Patton, Mission College, ASCCC Vice President
Presenter: Chaffey College, Sid Burks.
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Writing, Community, and Learning Assistance in Action
What do writing, learning assistance, and communities all have in common? This session! Starting with an integrated reading and writing lab functioning as part of a course, this session will explore aspects of community both inside and outside the classroom. The session will then move to the inclusion of a Writing Across the Disciplines Center that fosters community and assists students in writing well for all courses, particularly those in Career and Technical Education. Finally, the session will explore Supplemental Instruction, its success with developmental students, and ability to build and provide community. Participants will have the opportunity to experience an exciting and interactive mock Supplemental Instruction session themselves.

Moderator: Nancy Cook, Sierra College
Presenters: Allan Hancock College, Kelly Underwood; De Anza College, Jill Quigley and Kristin Skager; and Riverside City College, Marilyn Martinez-Flores and Trisha Wilging.
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Using Tutors in the Basic Skills Classroom: Two Models
Successful basic skills programs often include a tutoring component. Two such models are: Merced College’s Supplemental Instruction program and Santa Barbara City College’s Partnership for Student Success. In the Supplemental Instruction model, students who have been successful in a particular course are trained as facilitators to provide students with the tools necessary to succeed in their academic goals. SBCC’s faculty-driven initiative addresses basic skills needs across the curriculum. Two major components of the initiative, Gateway to Student Success and the Writing Center, are presented as portable models for implementing a student success program on your campus. The discussion will include data and “lessons learned.”

Moderator: Jenny Simon, El Camino College
Presenters: Merced College, Robert Bauer and Patricia Baron; and Santa Barbara City College, Sheila Wiley and Jerry Pike.
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Cross Disciplines
The Cross Discipline component in the Mathematics Strand will provide an opportunity to see how the study of mathematics can be associated with the study of other disciplines. The MAP (Mathematics Algebra Project) developed by Los Angeles Pierce College will demonstrate the use of various technologies to link mathematics and reading, as well as sample in-class directed learning activities. Examples from some learning communities will also be shared.

Moderator: Fran Manion, Santa Monica College
Presenter: Los Angeles Pierce College, Bob Martinez.
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Constructing Integrated Courses and Learning Communities in Reading and Beyond
Integrated reading and writing courses and learning communities are successful strategies for engaging students in deeper learning and improving student success rates. In this session, learn how two colleges successfully integrated instruction into a learning community. One approach is highly coordinated and requires greater administrative support, and the other is informal, requiring minimal administrative support. One focuses on developmental reading, writing, and study skills, and the other on college-level English and history. Come and rethink your approach to integration.

Moderator: Shaaron Vogel, Butte College, ASCCC Area A Representative
Presenters: American River College, Jeanne Campanelli and Pauline Fountain; and Foothill College, Rosemary Arca and Bill Ziegenhorn.
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Sustainability: More than the Issue of the Day
Why do some good efforts last and others do not? Three colleges will present strategies they have used to address the challenges of sustainability, the results of these efforts, and their potential for the long-haul. This session emphasizes which real problems SLO work can solve at a college, why presenters use SLO assessment for this work, and how they afford them and make them sustainable. Examples will include a follow-up study of participation in SLO work, change agent strategies using online tools, and concrete approaches to sustaining motivation, meaningfulness, momentum, and progress. Participants will identify choices that have to be made at their own colleges and map possibilities for themselves.

Moderator: Janet Fulks, Bakersfield College, ASCCC North Area Representative
Presenters: Crafton Hills College, Cheryl Marshall and Gary Williams; Mt. San Antonio College, Priyadarshini Chaplot; and Santa Barbara City College, Darla Cooper and Mark Ferrer.
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Partnering Student Services and Academic Instruction
This session will describe approaches that integrate student services with instruction. First, the College Success Factors Index (CSFI), and how students’ scores relate to success, will be described. Participants will then discuss how this information could be used by their faculty and counselors. Next, presenters will discuss new approaches to increasing communication and collaboration between academic instruction and student services faculty. Participants will assess how to integrate these two divisions and learn how to plan structured discussions on their own campuses.

Moderator: Dan Crump, ASCCC Secretary, American River College
Presenters: College of Alameda, Jannett Jackson; Cypress College, Michelle Oja; MDRC, Oscar Cerna; Ombudsman Press, Edmond C. Hallberg; and Taft College, Ruben Arreola.
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Using Learning Outcomes Assessment to Increase Success
The tools shared in this breakout can be utilized in all disciplines. Come join us! This session addresses two important aspects of student success in nursing courses by applying good nursing care practices to students and effective student assessment. We will share ideas and statistics that reflect how different interventions can help our students succeed and get you energized about planning successful strategies to aid your students’ success. And now that you have taught the course, written your SLOs and assessed those SLOs, how do you evaluate your assessment data to determine what changes are needed in your pedagogy? This session will analyze the data collected in an introduction to nursing course and explore suggestions for future changes to this course to assist students with their learning.

Moderator: Sid Burks, Chaffey College
Presenters: Butte College, Shaaron Vogel; and Glendale College, Kathy McNeese and Alice Mecom.
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Creating Partnerships to Foster Community Engagement and Civic Responsibility
Which strategies increase the retention of traditionally underrepresented students? One approach is to have faculty, students, and community partners collaborating to develop authentic contexts for learning. Pasadena City College partnered developmental mathematics with transfer-level English to create a highly integrated learning community focused on civic responsibility, which enabled students to recognize how mathematics can be used as support for essays. De Anza partners with the community to create service learning programs that draw from many disciplines to help students in transfer-level English access community networks and assume leadership positions. Apply their processes to creating your own partnership!

Moderator: Karen Wong, Skyline College
Presenters: De Anza College, Marc Coronado and Rowena Tomaneng; Pasadena City College, Carrie Mortensen; and City College of San Francisco, Amy Lawlor.
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Professional Development for Mathematics
In this session, Pasadena City College will present a process for developing questions for faculty inquiry as a way for faculty to develop their pedagogical skills and to improve student learning. This session will also involve colleges that are working on ways to encourage faculty to engage in active learning methods and activities, and that are encouraging the incremental improvement of these active learning methods and activities through faculty inquiry.

Moderator: Wade Ellis, Emeritus Faculty, Mission College
Presenters: Chabot College, Katie Hern; Los Medanos College, Myra Snell; Pasadena City College, Brock Klein and Lynn Wright; and Skyline College, Liza Erpelo and Nate Nevado.
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Patching Through to 21st Century Students
California community colleges are facing a reading crisis. Larger numbers of students are in college classes who cannot engage text for a variety of reasons. This session highlights the theoretical basis for this lack of engagement and suggests strategies for improvement. Additionally, a student support approach that uses text-to-speech software to improve focus, comprehension, and reading engagement will be demonstrated. Using this software, instructors personalize reading by embedding strategies and delivering them in a multi-sensory, electronic format. This program also includes a student mentor component. This session will demonstrate how to focus on today’s students by delivering reading material in a familiar learning modality and encapsulating it in a student support network.

Moderator: Robert Pacheco, Barstow College
Presenters: Laney College, Stacey Kayden.
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Program SLO Assessment: Designing Processes that Result in Meaningful Dialogue and Data
What kinds of program SLO assessments engender both results and meaningful conversation? Are there differences to consider when designing for student services or career technical education programs compared to transfer or basic skills? What strategies help faculty to deeply engage in this work and see its contributions to student success? Join Irvine Valley, Merritt, and Sierra Colleges as they share how program assessment methods fit the culture of their schools and generate dialogue, as well as serving as early alert indicators for improving student success, mapping the connections between course/degree/institutional learning outcomes, and aligning curriculum from basic skills to transfer.

Moderator: Marcy Alancraig, Cabrillo College
Presenters: Irvine Valley College, Jerry Rudmann and Kari Tucker; Merritt College, Ann Elliott; and Sierra College, Tricia Lord and Andrea Neptune.
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Student Pathways
This session will discuss two complementary models of transitioning basic skills students into further education: one developed at a Washington state community college over a five-year period, and the other in its initial stages of being implemented at 22 community colleges through California. The models emphasize the importance of a comprehensive approach that includes curriculum development, collaboration among multiple areas of a college, career partnerships, learning communities, built-in tracking, and contextualized language development. The presenters will outline the process and institutional data used to develop change aimed at assisting basic skills students to be successful in college level courses.

Moderator: Marybeth Buechner, Cosumnes River College
Presenters: Career Ladders Project, Linda Collins; Central Valley Career Advancement Academy, Michael Caress; Los Angeles Valley College, Doug Marriott; Seattle University, Bob Hughes; and South Seattle Community College, Sara Baldwin.
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Student Services Learning Outcomes: Getting Started, Seeing Results
Research activity in student services is rarely found on community college campuses. With the new emphasis on evidence-based practices, however, many are left wondering about how to collect and use data to improve student services. This informative session will share a clear, overarching research plan that addresses student satisfaction, student performance, and student learning outcomes. By attending, you will receive a practical, replicable model for student services, including examples of online performance outcomes tools, student learning outcomes assessment instruments, and use of assessment results. Participants will engage in interactive activities to experience and better understand the value of meaningful assessment.

Moderator: Angela Cabellero de Cordero, Allan Hancock College
Presenters: Cerritos College, Sylvia Bello-Gardner and Chris Sugiyama; and Chaffey College, Jim Fillpot and Inge Pelzer.
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Developing Cognition and Metacognition
How do we actively support not only student learning, but students learning about learning? Laura Hope will describe what has been learned about different approaches at the Chaffey College Success Centers. Her presentation will compare and contrast the process and outcomes of two different models of learning center pedagogy: traditional behaviorist tutoring and a constructivist interactive approach. Jan Connal and Frank Mixson will present the work of a Cerritos College Faculty Inquiry Group that examined evidence in student work of the relationship between active classroom metacognitive approaches and cognitive development in developmental mathematics and writing classes.

Moderator: Jan Connal, Cerritos College
Presenters: Cerritos College Frank Mixson; and Chaffey College, Susan Guerrero and Laura Hope.
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Reading and Learning in the Disciplines: Reading Apprenticeship as an Instructional Framework
There is wide agreement that the underlying basic skill most needed by today’s students is reading. How do we address this in college classes? The Reading Apprenticeship (RA) Framework involves teachers in orchestrating and integrating four interacting dimensions of classroom life that support reading development: social, personal, cognitive, and knowledge-building. In this session, participants will learn how RA draws on the disciplinary expertise of teachers to help college students become more engaged and effective readers of academic texts. Participants will see RA in action in a college classroom and hear about learning outcomes for students.

Moderator: Mark Wade Lieu, Ohlone College, ASCCC President
Presenters: West Ed, Jane Braunger and Ruth Schoenbach, Strategic Literacy Initiative.
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Working as One: Faculty and Researchers Understanding Each Other
Institutional researchers are often the point people for providing assessment data on how well students are learning and on overall institutional effectiveness. Yet pressure has grown for increased external accountability to accrediting agencies, to the government, and to the public. While researchers have expertise in dealing with data and statistical analysis, the variables measured for student learning and the actual format for the measurement are best understood by an informed faculty member. Join this team of researchers who will model the synergistic effect of institutional research/faculty teams investigating and documenting student learning. You will also discuss what it takes to develop the team work necessary to deal with data and loop the results back into improvement campus-wide.

Moderator: Marcy Alancraig, Cabrillo College
Presenters: Crafton Hills, Gary Williams; and Fullerton College, Sean Chamberlin and Ken Meehan.
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Improving College Readiness Among California Community College Students
A real hot topic this year was the Legislative Analyst’s Office Report on college preparedness. Join us for a presentation by the author who will discuss the Legislature’s interest in improving college preparedness among California community college students, as well as recent budgetary augmentations and policy changes designed to address this issue. The presentation will examine data on how underprepared students currently perform at community colleges including the percent of basic skills students who eventually complete degree- or transfer-applicable coursework and achieve their educational goals. This session will provide an opportunity to engage in the critical analysis of our community college students’ preparation and strategies to improve the situation.

Moderator: Janet Fulks, Bakersfield College, ASCCC North Area Representative
Presenter: Legislative Analyst’s Office, Paul D. Steenhausen.
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The Integration of Counseling into Learning Communities: Lessons from the SSPIRE Initiative
Learning communities are a popular approach taken on many campuses to help students become more engaged in learning and in college life. Three colleges in the Irvine Foundation’s Student Support Partnership Integrating Resources and Education (SSPIRE) Initiative will discuss their approaches to integrating counseling and other student support services into their learning communities. Three colleges will discuss their models, assessments of student outcomes, and lessons learned from an intentional look at this integration. Drawing on these lessons, MDRC has created a planning tool that will be used during the session to engage and assist participants with implementing/refining similar approaches.

Moderator: Angela Caballero de Cordero, Allan Hancock College
Presenters: MDRC, Michelle Ware; and Mt San Antonio College, Lyssette Trejo.
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Helping Community College Students Cope with Financial Emergencies: Lessons from the Dreamkeepers and Angel Fund Emergency Financial Aid Programs
MDRC will discuss the implementation research findings and recommendations presented in its recently released report on emergency financial aid programs. This session will walk audience members through some of the key steps in designing a similar program of their own, using an exercise to illustrate the challenges inherent in such decisions and the lessons learned from the colleges who participated in the project. Audience members will also have ample opportunity to ask questions about the project and the report’s findings.

Moderator: Marybeth Buechner, Cosumnes River College
Presenter: MDRC, Christian Geckeler.
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Bombs and Rockets: Assessment of SLOs for Instructional Improvement
Improvement is touted as the primary purpose for student learning assessment, yet models of student learning have only begun to unpack the complex relationships between instructional programs and student learning. Assessments tend to focus on either instructor competence or student outcomes, with occasional forays into statistical relationships between the two. This breakout will focus on teacher practice through a practitioner action research inspired process that helps us evaluate the learning opportunities created by instructional assignments. Presenters adopt a framework that aims to build the teacher’s capacity to meet challenging standards by providing teachers with the tools they need to monitor their practice and the impact of that practice on their students.

Moderator: Shaaron Vogel, Butte College, ASCCC Area A Representative
Presenters: Los Angeles City College, G. Genevieve Patthey; and Los Angeles Harbor College, Joan Thomas Spiegel.
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Why Don’t Students Ask Questions?
As part of a faculty inquiry group about student metacognition, faculty jointly wondered why students didn’t ask questions when they felt confused or didn’t understand. An instructor engaged students in her basic skills English class as co-inquirers in this question. Students wrote about their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in the classroom. Then, as a class, they conducted a content analysis of the responses. One outcome was that students realized that they weren’t alone, and all students shared the same fears. This approach, which engages students in original research to discover the meaning that underlies their struggles, can be used to understand other classroom behaviors.

Moderator: Rose Asera, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Presenter: Cerritos College, Francie Quaas-Berryman.
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Engaging Students…California and the Nation
What’s all the buzz about student engagement? Join the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) as we share highlights from a national movement to use data to improve institutional quality across America’s community colleges. In this session, you will engage with colleagues on how CCSSE results for California colleges compare to the national results – and what we can learn from each other about effective educational practices and programs. This interactive session also will include opportunities to hear from leaders from California community colleges on ways they have used CCSSE data to improve student engagement, learning, and retention.

Moderator: Barbara McNeice-Stallard, Mt San Antonio College, President, RP Group
Presenter: CCSSE, Sam Echevarria and Christine McLean.
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Friday, October 3rd

Keynote Speaker: Richard Sterling
“The National Writing Project, A Model for Professional Learning”
Richard Sterling, the recently retired executive director of the National Writing Project, is adjunct professor of Language and Literacy, Society and Culture at University of California, Berkeley. Formerly, he was a faculty member at Lehman College, City University of New York (CUNY), where he was founder and director of the Institute for Literacy Studies, a research unit of CUNY. He also founded and directed the New York City Writing Project and the New York City Mathematics Project. As national director of the Urban Sites Network, he worked with teachers and faculty from all regions of the country-rural and urban-to develop a body of practitioner-based research documenting educational practice. He co-authored “The National Writing Project: Scaling Up and Scaling Down,” in Expanding the Reach of Reform: Perspectives from Leaders in the Scale-Up of Educational Reform (RAND, 2004). Since 2003, Mr. Sterling has chaired the advisory group to the College Board’s National Commission on Writing in America’s Families, Schools, and Colleges.
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Weaving Data Into Action
How can we turn data into action? This presentation recapitulates instances where faculty in Cal-PASS Professional Learning Councils have done just that. Topics include posing initial questions, reviewing baseline data, planning evaluations for interventions, and assessing effectiveness. As an example, panelist will describe development of an analytical rubric to assess student writing samples following six traits of effective writing, its relevance to instruction and expectations, and the use of exemplars during norming. Participants will use analytical rubrics developed with the six-traits theory on sample texts followed by discussion of what was learned about the process relative to instruction and assessment practice.

Moderator: Shelly Valdez, Director of Regional Collaboration, Cal-PASS
Presenters: Cal-PASS, Terrence Willett; Silverado High School, Nancy Noyer; and Victor Valley College, Virginia Rabor Moran and Joe Pendleton.
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Toward Contextualized Teaching and Learning in BSI
Contextualizing teaching and learning by integrating basic skills with career technical education (CTE) can help students succeed. The presenters will highlight current examples of effective practices and solicit examples from participants. Through structured discussion of key questions, the participants will consider how they can further such approaches at their colleges, identifying which resources and tools are helpful in supporting work in this arena, with particular attention to the opportunities posed by the statewide basic skills and CTE initiatives. Input from participants will be recorded and shared with interested policy makers and philanthropic partners.

Moderator: Dan Crump, American River College, ASCCC Secretary
Presenters: ASCCC, Lin Marelick; Bay Area Workforce Funding Collaborative, Jessica Pitt; and Career Ladders Project, Linda Collins; Laney College, Sonja Franeta; and Los Angeles Healthcare Careery Advancement Academy, Liz Watier and Devon Werble.
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Assessment as a Way to Inform Best Teaching Practices
This session will provide participants with practical advice on using assessment as a way to improve their teaching. Using a case study approach, the first presenter will describe the assessments that took place in two courses in one college’s ESL program. The discussion will include lessons learned and how-to advice on performing outcomes assessment. Then, in the second part of the session, participants will be taken through an exercise to analyze the most powerful features of the most innovative lesson they currently teach. The session will end with a reflection on the usefulness of assessment in informing effective teaching practices.

Moderator: Stephanie Kashima, Mission College
Presenters: De Anza College, Jane Ostrander; El Camino College, Jenny Simon; and Stanford Research Institute (SRI) International’s Center for Technology in Learning, Louise Yarnall.
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Active Learning
The Active Learning component in the Mathematics Strand will demonstrate some ingenious ideas for engaging students. Workshop sessions include strategies for implementing an in-class mathematics study skills model, the use of inexpensive white boards as a tool for assessing student understanding, and a digital approach to mathematical problem-solving in the context of an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) as a way to engage students in critical thinking.

Moderator: Fran Manion, Santa Monica College
Presenters: Fresno City College, Tiffany Friesen; Riverside City College, Robert Bramucci and Sheila Pisa; and San Diego Mesa College, Alan Bass.
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Blueprints for Higher Level Reading and Thinking Strategies
“Students don’t read” is a common lament of instructors across disciplines. Help is on the way! This interactive session will provide blueprints for strategies instructors can easily teach students that will yield higher levels of comprehension and critical thinking in reading and across disciplines. Proven metacognitive strategies will be demonstrated along with approaches for enhancing the social dimension that allows for richer discussion and reflection on reading. Frameworks for content area literacy instruction will be implemented to engage participants in routines that support reading and thinking in discipline-specific ways. Walk away from this informative and practical session with plenty of tools for your tool belt!

Moderator: Barbara Illowsky, De Anza College, Basic Skills Initiative, ASCCC Area B Representative
Presenters: Ohlone College, Alison Kuehner; and West Hills College, David Reynolds and Tom Winters.
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Politics and Policy: Dealing with the Public’s Right to Know and Healthy Accountability
There are many groups outside our colleges that set expectations for educational quality or define accountability and thus influence our curriculum such as the Legislature, Department of Finance, Chancellor, accrediting agencies, the U.S. Department of Education, federal funding agencies (e.g. Perkins), and Congress. What do we need to provide in order to assure them that we have quality education and are accountable for the public funds we receive? How do the faculty’s professional responsibility and authority intersect with the public’s stake in educational outcomes? Join us as we explore these issues.

Moderator: Janet Fulks, Bakersfield College, ASCCC North Representative
Presenters: ACCJC, Barbara Beno; California Community College Chancellor’s Office, Chuck Wisely; and California Legislative Analyst Office, Paul Steenhausen.
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What is Effective Faculty Development?
Faculty development has an uneven history at community colleges. Professional development funds have most often supported workshops, speakers, or conferences that may or may not have been related to educational content. But a growing pool of evidence in K-12—and growing more slowly in higher education—shows that professional development that is ongoing, directly linked to curriculum and instruction, and undertaken collaboratively makes a difference in professional learning, classroom activity, and student learning. Join our keynote speaker, Richard Sterling and Robert Gabriner in an overview of the research, and faculty members Myra Snell, Katie Hern, and Jan Connal as they share experiences participating in such faculty development activities.

Moderator: Rose Asera, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Presenters: Chabot College, Katie Hern; Cerritos College, Jan Connal; Los Medanos College, Myra Snell; and National Writing Project, Richard Sterling.
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Student Services Student Learning Outcomes Planning and Assessment
Participants will initiate a student learning outcomes plan for student services units and will consider relevant assessment methods. The student services SLO model focuses on a conceptual framework based on the hierarchical relationships between the institution’s mission statement, program mission statement, intended major competencies, and learning outcomes. Small groups will be facilitated by Angela Caballero de Cordero, Joanna Murguia, Robert Pacheco, and Heather Porter. Participants will begin the development of a student services SLO Assessment plan that can be used at their own campus.

Moderator: Linda Umbdenstock, Executive Director, Hewlett Leaders in Student Success Program
Presenters: Allan Hancock College, Angela Caballero de Cordero and Joanna Murguia; and Barstow College, Robert Pacheco and Heather Porter.
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