Strengthening Student Success 2009

Preconference | Keynotes | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday

Keynotes

LifeMap: Improving Student Success through Systemic Change
Dr. Joyce Romano, Vice President for Student Affairs, Valencia Community College

Dr. Joyce C. Romano is Vice President for Student Affairs at Valencia Community
College. She has 30 years experience in residence life, student activities and
student services at community colleges and four year colleges and universities.
Her work at Valencia has focused on the design and implementation of LifeMap,
a developmental advising model and system; of Atlas, an online portal learning
community; and of the redesign of student services with a focus on student learning of educational processes to support their success. She is currently co-leading the Achieving the Dream initiative at Valencia which focuses on strategies to close the achievement gaps among students of color, under-prepared students and students from low-income families. She has experience with diverse student populations and has designed and implemented programs for students from middle school through college graduation. Dr. Romano has a B.A. in Psychology from State University of New York-College at Cortland, an M.S. in Counseling Psychology from Central Washington University, and an Ed.D. in Higher Education from the University of Kansas.
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Using Critical Pedagogy to Engage Low-Income Urban Students
Jeff Duncan-Andrade PhD, Educational Equity Initiative at San Francisco State University's Cesar Chavez Institute

Jeffrey Michael Reies Duncan-Andrade, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Raza Studies and Education Administration and Interdisciplinary Studies, and Co-Director of the Educational Equity Initiative at San Francisco State University’s Cesar Chavez Institute. Duncan-Andrade has lectured around the world about the elements of effective teaching in schools serving poor and working class children. He works closely with teachers, school site leaders, and school district officials nationally and as far abroad as Brazil and New Zealand to help them develop classroom practices and school cultures that foster self-confidence, esteem, and academic success among all students. His research interests and publications span the areas of urban schooling and curriculum change, urban teacher development and retention, critical pedagogy, and cultural and ethnic studies. He has authored numerous journal articles and book chapters on the conditions of urban education, urban teacher support and development, and effective pedagogy in urban settings. He recently completed The Art of Critical Pedagogy: Possibilities for Moving from Theory to Practice in Urban Schools with Peter Lang Publishing, a co-authored book on effective pedagogical strategies. He is currently completing a second book on the core competencies of highly effective urban educators with Routledge Press.
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Preconference

Assessing Ourselves: How Far We Have Come, Practical Application of Effective Methods, and Where We Go From Here...
SLO Coordinators Workshop
In 2002, the focus in higher education shifted from teaching to learning. Four years ago, the SLO coordinator emerged as the faculty navigator for learning assessment at the community college. Where are we now? This session will report our achievements and recognize exemplary processes that have worked in the CCCs. As we head to 2012, let’s take a moment to applaud and learn from
SLO assessment processes that work. Rested and with provisions refilled, we can begin the next leg of the journey in learning assessment. Bring a sketch of your assessment plans for your college and be prepared to discuss them in small groups.

Robert Pacheco, Janet Fulks, Marcy Alancraig, Linda Umbdenstock, Lesley Kawaguchi, Gary William& Priyadarshini Chaplot, RP Group/ASCCC SLO Collaboration
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Designing an Evidence Based Basic Skills Program: A Systematic Approach
BSI Leaders Workshop
Many colleges have implemented a variety of programs, resources, and services intended to improve the success of basic skills students. While these activities may be innovative, and even successful in the short term, can they be sustained? Can they and should they be “scaled up”? Is there a coherent
thread that ties disparate activities together into a programmatic approach? Join BSI coordinators from the inaugural Summer Leadership Institute in exploring a tool for systematic program planning and evaluation: logic modeling. You will learn how you can use this tool in your program, and how other colleges have used it to clarify their goals and systematically provide evidence that their
activities and programs are leading to greater student success.

Deborah Harrington, Brock Klein & Nancy Ybarra, the Basic Skills Initiative
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Faculty Inquiry and Developing Professionally
Faculty Inquiry Workshop
Faculty Inquiry is taking hold in California community colleges. As a form of professional development, Inquiry engages faculty in looking closely at their own students and then making changes based upon what they learn. Why, for example, do so few students make it through the long sequence of developmental courses in English and Math? Do the sequences themselves need
to change? How can attention to students’ basic skill development be embedded in the context of general education classes, or inside career-technical programs? In this workshop, members of the Faculty Inquiry Network, eighteen college teams across the state, will share moments from their own Inquiries into student learning and engage participants in “trying on” Inquiry themselves. Participants
will leave with a sense of the spirit and texture of Inquiry, ideas for integrating it on their own campuses, and approaches to guide this work, such as: student voices, lesson study, using classroom and institutional data, and “making visible” what we learn about students.

Tom deWit, Katie Hern, Myra Snell, Anne Connell & Lin Marelick, Faculty Inquiry Network
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Tools for Data Driven Decisionmaking
Data Analysis Workshop
As an educator, would you like web-based access to your institution’s data to assist with program review including student success, retention, graduation and load? Would you like the ability to aggregate by demographics and institutional variables? The California Partnership for Achieving Student Success (Cal-PASS) has been working on Business Intelligence (BI) applications and technologies to provide our members answers to the questions above. Business Intelligence is the gathering, storing, analyzing and displaying of data to assist with decision-making and has been used in other industries for a number of years but has not been applied extensively to education. This three-hour workshop will train users on technology that is available to all Cal-PASS members in the community colleges.

Nathan Pellegrin & Terrence Willett, Cal-PASS
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Wednesday, October 7th

Teaching Students Effective Learning Strategies for Different Disciplines
Strand: Teaching, Learning & Assessment in the Classroom
Increasing student retention demands coaching on academic study strategies that enable students to be more effective; further, it provides the how-to of self-regulation methods required to be successful in different disciplines. Following research by Bandura and Zimmerman, this session introduces basic self-regulatory study processes with 40 specific skills or learning methods. The learning methods have been placed on individual cards and rated by each student as to frequency of use by the card-sort research method. With such a tool-kit, students increase their options in how to integrate education and develop feelings of competence. Without such feelings, students may self-handicap and drop out, especially if they are first generation college students. This research of study strategies won the USA Funds retention award in 2007.

Joann Jelly, Barstow College
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Assessing College-Wide Student Learning Outcomes Using a Student
Perception Survey: A Tale of Two SLOs
Strand: College & Program Level Assessment/Closing the Assessment Loop
This presentation will describe the results of a research project that assessed college-wide student learning outcomes using college-level data, and how the findings have been disseminated across our campus. A student perception survey that assessed certain college-wide student learning outcomes (SLOs) was administered to more than 1,700 students representing all of the major college divisions. More than 1,500 students included their student IDs, which allowed for the addition of demographic and academic outcome data acquired through the institutional database. The results suggest very different success levels for individual SLOs. For example, our campus is successful in supporting student learning for developing a foundation for cultural pluralism, with less than 5% reporting they were not comfortable interacting with those not like me. However, we are less successful supporting active involvement in campus life, with less than 20% reporting involvement in campus activities or clubs. Lastly, we will describe the dialogue with campus groups concerning our success in attaining certain college-wide SLOs.

Jeanne Edman & Brad Brazil, Cosumnes River College
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What to Do with Assessment Data
Strand: Closing the Assessment Loop
Now that you have planned and assessed, what do you do with the assessment data? This session focuses on how to analyze different kinds of assessment data and make meaning from them. Using concrete examples, including licensing exams, pre- and post-test instruments, standardized exams, and portfolio data, you will learn how research staff and faculty can collaborate to plan, analyze, and use data; shape questions for continual inquiry and assessment; and use dialogue among faculty when analyzing data. You will also find out about prompting questions that can stimulate the use of the insights developed
from the analysis and sense-making process to guide improvements in the instructional program.

Gary Williams, Crafton Hills College & Fred Trapp, Retired Administrative Dean
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Improving Practice: How a Collaborative Online System Can Facilitate Effective Assessment Processes
Strand: Closing the Assessment Loop/ College & Program Level Assessment
In an effort to promote greater collaboration and communication regarding the assessment of student learning outcomes and institutional effectiveness overall, the Peralta Community College District selected a technology system (TaskStream) to streamline these processes and support faculty and staff efforts. Berkeley City College, one of the four colleges in the district, led the way in using the new technology to manage assessment initiatives. Project leaders at the college will share their experiences with customizing TaskStream’s flexible and easy-to-use online systems to fit institutional requirements and culture for meeting both district and college-specific goals. They will demonstrate how the system is being used to encourage faculty participation and facilitate collaborative inquiry into teaching and learning at the college. Although the session focuses on the use of a particular system, the topics and strategies discussed may be applied regardless of the support mechanisms being used.

Hannah Chauvet & Jenny Lowood, Berkeley City College; Courtney Peagler, TaskStream
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What We Learned from the Hewlett Leaders in Student Success Program
Strand: Leadership & Sustainability/Basic Skills
The Hewlett Leaders in Student Success Program has identified structures, processes, and practices that build basic skills success in a variety of California community college settings. This panel of experienced practitioners will present the data, criteria, and site visit findings that indicate student success and discuss how advances were structured, scaled up, and sustained over time. We will also show how attention to equity, distributed leadership across the college, and intentionally taking on hard issues lead to demonstrable success. The group will describe the value of metrics in basic skills plans so participants can see what is working at their own colleges.

Linda Umbdenstock, Wade Ellis Jr., Elaine Baker, Janet Martinez-Bernal, Susan Obler & Julie Slark, the RP Group
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Overcoming the Teacher’s Dilemma (Breadth vs. Depth): The American River College Model of College-Wide Course-Level SLO Assessment
Strand: Accreditation/ College & Program Level Assessment
In Fall of 2007, with nearly 100% of SLOs defined for courses, American River College developed and approved an ambitious college-wide program of course-level assessment. Using the existing program review schedule, the college’s 60 academic departments (teaching over 2,200 individual courses) were divided into three cohorts, with each cohort undergoing assessment on a rotating three-year cycle. During the first year, assessment data is gathered in a two-part process that includes a student self-assessment and a faculty-designed assessment. Utilizing these assessment data, departments then develop and submit a Departmental Action Plan outlining planned changes intended to improve student learning. This session will describe the successes and challenges incurred during planning and initial implementation, discuss implications for accreditation, and highlight how the process has addressed faculty workload, academic freedom, integration with existing processes, and institutionalizing a recurring cycle of assessment and continuous improvement.

John Aubert & Yuj Shimizu, American River College
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The Basic Skills Initiative: 2009 and Beyond
Strand: Basic Skills
This session gives an overview of the statewide 2009 Basic Skills Initiative Inaugural Professional Learning Network. BSI 2009 will integrate what has already been accomplished with a new pilot, growing into a self-sustaining, statewide, professional learning network intended to promote overall increased student success. This will allow faculty, staff, and administrators to share and build upon existing knowledge while at the same time creating opportunities for transformation. Foundational to this network are evidence-based knowledge building, inquiry, capacity building, direct training, and resource development. To build the pilot network, coordinators have been assigned to four specific locations (Bay Area, Los Angeles, Sacramento/Central Valley, and San Diego). These coordinators will facilitate efforts in the local regions, while at the same time providing connections with the greater statewide network. Also discussed will be the inaugural BSI Leadership Institute, which is an integral part of the network.

Anniqua Rana, Nancy Cook, Daryl Kinney, Deborah Harrington & Lisa Brewster, the Basic Skills Initiative
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Career Technical Education Transfer: Findings from a Statewide Study of Two-to-Four Year Transfer for CTE Students
Strand: CTE
Launched in 2007 and extending through 2010, the Career & Technical Education (CTE ) Transfer Research Project documents and assesses the current state of CTE transfer; investigates the need and opportunities for increased transfer for CTE students; and identifies approaches and strategies that can contribute to increase CTE transfer. The briefing will report findings from the following quantitative and qualitative research activities: analysis of MI S data on CTE transfer (by sub-discipline, college, and student profile), statewide survey of and interviews with CTE stakeholders on major opportunities for and factors compromising transfer for CTE students, information about how other states support CTE transfer, student voices on CTE transfer, and examples of strategies used by CTE programs with high transfer rates. The CTE Transfer Research Project is supported by the Chancellor’s Office of the California Community Colleges and by the James Irvine Foundation.

Eva Schiorring & Darla Cooper, the RP Group
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Assessing and Improving Student Learning throughout Student Services
Strand: Student Services/Accreditation
Sacramento City College’s Student Services Division is comprised of 19 different service units, all of which have created their student learning outcomes, and are currently assessing them. Three student service areas--Transfer Center, DSP&S, and Student Leadership & Development--have successfully completed the improvement cycle where they identified, assessed, and implemented improvement strategies. Each presenter will demonstrate unique assessment strategies, including rubric development, survey development, and qualitative interviews. Collaboration across student services on common student learning outcomes will also be discussed.

Richard Erlich, Gwyn Tracy & Kimberlee Beyrer, Sacramento City College
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Effective Practices for Promoting the Transition of High School Students to College: A Review of Literature
Strand: Transition to College & Transfer/Basic Skills
As a part of Phase II of the Basic Skills Initiative, a report was commissioned to review relevant literature to identify effective and promising practices to assist in the successful transition of students from high school into postsecondary education. This session reviews the findings recently published in this follow-up report to the Poppy Copy, including implications for community college practitioners at all levels of the institution. Topics include: rigor and relevance of high school programs, alignment of content and placement between high school and college, establishing realistic expectations for college readiness, elements of transition support programs, and developing articulated pathways to support transitions.

Laura Hope & Bob Gabriner, the RP Group
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Using Reading Labs to Teach ESL Reading
Strand: Teaching, Learning & Assessment in the Classroom/Basic Skills
Research has shown that independent reading is even more important than guided reading in the development of reading skills. In the classroom, there can be no independence without student choice. A portable, mini-library of level-appropriate books has served to provide students with this kind of choice at
Cuyamaca College. This Mini-Reading Laboratory is now a component in Cuyamaca’s ESL reading classes, and the presenters will share very encouraging results from two years of teaching with this new element in the reading classroom. Presenters will also show how to create a reading lab, select appropriate materials, and seek funding. Included is a PowerPoint Presentation of the mini-lab’s history and examples of student work based on special worksheets designed for the reading lab.

Alicia Munoz & Guillermo Colls, Cuyamaca College
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Interactive Data Analysis for Program Review
Strand: College & Program Level Assessment
Program review gives educators a picture of who is being served by a program and what outcomes students are experiencing. Yet there is often a need to dig deeper into program review data beyond what is contained in reports. Drilling down to look at the section level or across time can reveal differential achievement patterns between subgroups. However, due to financial constraints, many colleges cannot afford the technology or human resources needed for this. The California Partnership for Achieving Student Success (Cal-PASS) offers to its member institutions quick and secure access to the data used in program review, such as FTES (full time equivalent student), student demographics, grades, course and section level attributes. This presentation will demonstrate the functionality and the value of interactive data analysis. Participants will review a sample program review report and identify questions that require further analysis, learn how to extract information related to these questions from the Cal-PASS tool, and create graphs and charts with these data.

Nathan Pellegrin & Terrence Willett, Cal-PASS
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Using Data Tools and Analysis to Achieve Equity in Student Outcomes
Strand: Closing the Assessment Loop/Basic Skills
The Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California used action research in a structured process designed to improve educational outcomes for traditionally under-represented students. This approach was implemented with two campus teams of the San Jose/Evergreen Community College District to examine and interpret their basic skills student outcomes data to assess their institutional progress toward achieving objectives pertaining to equitable educational outcomes. This process develops a culture of evidence in institutions of higher education to improve institutional effectiveness and assess
the state of equity on their campus. The presenters will discuss the implementation of practitioner-driven inquiry activities to assess institutional data, instructional practices, and support services and to determine benchmarks for improving a college’s effectiveness at improving equity and excellence. The session provides an opportunity for participants to consider how to incorporate evidence-based findings into practice to effect change and improve effectiveness on their campus, especially in increasing institutional accountability for improving student outcomes for racial/ethnic basic skills students.

Elsa Macias, University of Southern California; Phuong Emily Banh, Evergreen Valley College; Fabio Gonzalez, San Jose City College
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Basic Skills, Outcomes, and Fostering a Culture of Evidence and Inquiry
Strand: Closing the Assessment Loop/Basic Skills
This session will offer an interactive discussion of the three segments of the recently completed Basic Skills Outcomes & Capacity grant, conducted by the RP Group’s Center for Student Success and funded by the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation. First, a team of nine faculty, administrators, and researchers reviewed the multitude of developmental education measures that have been utilized or proposed by projects and initiatives in California and throughout the rest of the country, selecting a set of core and supplemental outcomes that are recommended for statewide use. Second, the team conducted a major statewide research project designed to assess the current capacity of the California community colleges to produce, digest, and understand this and other forms of data, analyses, and evidence--with the ultimate goal of translating this evidence into action by implementing campus-level changes. Finally, the team formulated a roadmap for how to improve this capacity for creating cultures of evidence and inquiry moving forward.

Robert Johnstone, Skyline College; Janet Fulks, Bakersfield College; Cathy Hasson, San Diego Community College District; Ken Meehan, Fullerton College
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High Expectation and High Support: How Colleges Are Changing the Formula for Student Engagement and Success
Strand: Leadership & Sustainability/College & Program Level Assessment/Closing the Assessment Loop
Seven years of Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) research reveal two key factors college leaders can use to improve student engagement and success: high expectations and high support. What are these factors and how are they inextricably linked? How can college leaders at all levels make sure these factors are present, visible, accessible, and unavoidable within their institutions? What does it take to build a student-centered culture in which every aspect of college life reflects and reinforces these factors? Attendees will receive copies of the 2008 CCSSE National Report High Expectations and High Support: Essential Elements of Engagement, discuss key data points from the 2008 national survey administration, and learn about promising practices, policies, and programs from colleges in California and across the US that are using high expectations and high support to help more students reach their educational goals.

Christine McLean, Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCSSE), the University of Texas at Austin
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Sustaining Pilot Programs: Lessons from the Field
Strand: Leadership & Sustainability
Colleges often receive special funding to design and implement programs geared towards increasing student success, but what happens when this funding ends? How can colleges structure their pilot programs so that when foundation, government, or other temporary funding ends, the most promising programs and practices continue? Even when an explicit goal of these programs is their sustainability, achieving it can prove challenging. This session will draw upon findings from several MD RC evaluations, including those of the Student Support Partnership Integrating Resources and Education (SSPIRE) initiative, the Dreamkeepers and Angel Fund Emergency Financial Aid programs, the Opening Doors demonstration, and the Achieving the Dream initiative. MD RC researchers will present strategies for sustaining pilot programs, drawing on examples of successful and unsuccessful efforts by colleges participating in the above mentioned studies. The audience will consider and share their own experiences, and presenters will lead the audience through exercises to define questions and approaches they can apply to improve the chances of sustaining successful programs and practices on their own campuses.

Evan Weissman & Christian Geckeler, MDRC
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Teaching Basic Skills Mathematics: Two Approaches
Strand: Basic Skills/Teaching Learning & Assessment in the Classroom
This session explores two approaches to teaching basic skills mathematics--the Rasch Model and collaborative teaching communities. Participants will learn how San Diego City College implemented a test to assess student knowledge of specific content in a math basic skills course and how results gave diagnostic information regarding students’ grasp of the specified content knowledge. Then participants will learn how Cuyamaca College implemented collaborative teaching communities where faculty and tutors who work with basic skills students worked together to develop curriculum; discuss and determine best teaching practices for the core topics in each of the basic skills courses; and formulate standards for learning assessments.

Xi Zhang & Jenny Kimm, San Deigo City College; Terrie Nichols & Tammi Marshall, Cuyamaca College
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Contextualized Teaching & Learning: A Faculty Primer
Strand: CTE/ Teaching Learning & Assessment in the Classroom/Basic Skills
This session will introduce you to a faculty primer on contextualized teaching and learning (CTL) developed as part of the Basic Skills Initiative through the RP Group’s Center for Student Success. This document offers an introduction to CTL and a launchpad for further discussion, planning, implementation, and professional development that can lead to students’ improved success in basic skills coursework. The presentation will include a review of key learning theories that support CTL, a discussion of eleven practices as told from the perspective of faculty and program directors implementing these courses/programs, and an exchange about key considerations for implementing CTL as part of the Basic Skills Initiative. The presenters will highlight common elements found in these examples, which can be used as a benchmark for practitioners who are considering or currently implementing their own CTL practice.

Kelley Karandjeff, Elaine Baker & Laura Hope, the RP Group
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Instructional and Student Services Synergy in Student Learning
Strand: Student Services/College & Program Level Assessment
This session will describe the successful implementation of student learning outcome assessment at San Diego City College in both instruction and student services, with an emphasis on results in student support services. The process and model utilized at City College, in place since 2003, emphasizes clear definition of the outcome, a measurement tool, data collection, and then most importantly, using the results to effect incremental program improvement. The session will include a description of the theoretical framework utilized by the college and successes to date. A summary of various programs and departmental data/results and programmatic improvement will be shared, including examples from DSPS, EO PS, Tutoring, Mental Health Counseling, Veterans Affairs, Student Health, Counseling, Financial Aid, and Admissions and Records. The session will also describe the beginning steps in planning for and implementing an online assessment framework.

Dotti Cordell & Julianna Barnes, San Diego City College
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Facts, Findings, and Tools from a Comprehensive Study of Two-to-Four Year Transfer in California
Strand: Transition to College & Transfer
RP Group’s Center for Student Success researchers will brief participants on findings generated by the Transfer Leadership Center (TLC), the most comprehensive study to date of two-to-four-year transfer in California, which was funded by the Chancellor’s Office. Participants will learn about a tool they can use to investigate their own transfer rates by selecting different time spans and various sub-populations of students (ethnicity, gender, age, and participation in different programs); information they can use to place their own transfer outcomes into a statewide perspective; approaches and strategies that high performing transfer colleges are using that they can consider adopting to increase their transfer rate; and a deeper understanding of the transfer pathway and how certain behaviors and services can facilitate successful transfer.

Craig Hayward, Eva Schiorring & Pamela Mery, the RP Group
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Thursday, October 8th

Assessing Creative Thinking
Strand: Teaching, Learning & Assessment in the Classroom
If assessments of outcomes--especially the outcome of creative thinking--are going to be worthwhile for our students, they have to become teaching materials in and of themselves: students should be able to learn from the way we (and, eventually, they) evaluate and assess their work. So it would seem incumbent upon us to develop not only creative assignments, but creative ways of assessing those assignments. How is it possible, for example, to assess an ability called creative thinking with the numbers in boxes that characterize most rubrics? Simply replacing numbers with concepts like beginning, emergent, or competent isn’t enough--for some outcomes, like this one, we might have to explode the entire frame of a rubric, while still, of course, maintaining a way to set criteria and make the results of the assessment comprehensible to outsiders. That’s what this workshop is about. We’re going to present some of the things we’ve tried recently that involve going public--making the process of education visible to everyone inside and outside the classroom, both in online and face-to-face classes.

Joe Safdie, Tracey Walker & Chris Sullivan, San Diego Mesa College
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View Video of Presentation (part II)

Creating an Accurate Picture of Student Success in ESL and Basic Skills
Strand: College & Program Level Assessment/Basic Skills
How do we track student success and progress in basic skills? What features influence the data as we collect and analyze it? This interactive session will involve a review of the CB 21 coding work that has been going on around the state and a look at other interesting issues around coding. Participants will have an opportunity to examine miscoded data and determine the resulting effect. We will then discuss the work on CB 21 coding and the creation of the CB 21 rubrics based upon curricular definitions to define student progress through the basic skills disciplines. Finally the participants will look at current issues related to CB04 and CB08 coding, which identifies basic skills and degree applicable courses to analyze the effect of these coding features and the influence of these labels with regard to student success. The session will also review the student pathways created by the CB 21 rubrics and the process of identifying sequential courses in mathematics, ESL, English, and reading.

Janet Fulks, Bakersfield College, Jennifer Finton, Academic Senate for California Community Colleges & Rob Johnstone, Skyline College
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Lesson Study: A Tool for Collaborative Inquiry into Student Learning
Strand: Closing the Assessment Loop/ Teaching, Learning & Assessment in the
Classroom/Basic Skills
Lesson study is a form of professional development that turns lesson planning and classroom observation into a collaborative inquiry focused on student learning. The Faculty Inquiry Network is using lesson study as a tool for thin-slicing through the complexity of issues that influence teaching and learning. By documenting their lesson study, each faculty inquiry team is taking a snapshot of the instructional process and using the resulting picture to reflect on their assumptions about learning and to deepen their understanding of student experience. The process not only makes learning visible, it also opens instruction to scrutiny and data-based discussion. In this session, faculty teams from the Faculty Inquiry Network will highlight how they used data gathered through lesson study to reflect on student experience, inform pedagogical changes, and deepen their inquiry. During this session, participants will experience the data collection and analysis portions of the lesson study process. The audience will view video footage and examine student work from basic skills classrooms, then discuss the pedagogical implications of these observations.

Myra Snell, Katalina Wethington, Jan Connal & Sandy Wood, Faculty Inquiry Network
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Doing Small Well: Building Community among Teachers and Learners
Strand: Leadership & Sustainability/Basic Skills
This presentation will describe the development of the Foundation Skills Teaching and Learning Community at Mendocino College, one of the smaller colleges in the state. Born out of our participation in the Basic Skills Initiative (BSI), we have engaged in a process of collaboration, program development and planning, leadership, and assessment that involves the institution as a whole and has built new partnerships across disciplines, between faculty and administrators, and among teachers and students. By closely examining the historical work of the college with basic skills students, the Community prioritized tasks with a major focus on professional development and student engagement. Highlights of this process and key principles for developing a planning group will also be shared, which may be useful for other campuses, both large and small, in the development of their own basic skills programs.

Virginia Guleff & Debra Polak, Mendocino College (Hewlett Leaders in Student Success Recipient)
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Using Program Review Data for Integrated Planning
Strand: Accreditation/College & Program Level Assessment
Program review and analysis of data provide the basis for identifying strategies for continuous improvement and ensuring results of all program reviews are integrated into institution-wide planning for improvement and informed decision-making. This session will present two institutional models and explain how the results of program review are used to continually refine and improve program practices, resulting in appropriate improvements in student achievement and learning. It will also address implications for resource allocation decisions, how this process contributes to meeting accreditation standards, and how institutions integrate program review and planning as on-going activities rather than activities for accreditation only.

Norval Wellsfry, Consumnes River College & David Bolt, West Hills College
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From Many Silos to One Community: Coordinating Policies and Practices to Transform the Institution and Increase Student Success
Strand: Basic Skills
This session will explore the research and development role that the Teaching and Learning Center has played at Pasadena City College. In addition to faculty development, the TLC offers comprehensive programs that integrate academics with support services, employing ongoing inquiry and action research that is captured through internal and external evaluation in order to be responsive to student and faculty needs. Using tools like visioning, logic modeling sessions, and cross-disciplinary activities, the college has developed a model for breaking down silos and integrating people, programs, and resources across the campus to achieve the broad yet highly coordinated college-wide objectives of the Basic Skills Initiative. Participants will learn how to apply this structural approach to their own colleges through a program webbing exercise, which is a precursor to logic modeling.

Lynn Wright & Brock Klein, Pasadena City College
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Lights, Camera, Inquiry: The Promise of Video in Basic Skills Contexts
Strand: Basic Skills/Teaching, Learning & Assessment in the Classroom
All 18 teams in the Faculty Inquiry Network have developed inquiry processes that put student voices at the center of their research. This same inquiry process is also in part student-driven, by their student research assistants. A central data gathering tool used in these inquiries is video. For this presentation we will offer a brief overview of how the use of video came to be integrated into the fabric of Chabot College and share strategies used to scale-up the Chabot experience for implementation in the Faculty Inquiry Network, including: choosing and training student teams, getting comfortable using technology, and developing rubrics for analyzing video data. We will then provide and analyze examples of some of the many different kinds of video footage that can be shot, including: think-alouds, roundtables, self-interviews, and collaborative problem solving. Finally, we will offer guidance and practical advice for those interested in using video on their own campuses as a means to capture and learn from student voices.

Sean McFarland, Chabot College
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Using Environmental Scanning to Understand Green Occupations and Skill Requirements
Strand: Career Technical Education/College & Program Level Assessment
What are “green jobs” and where should colleges invest resources to meet training needs? What occupations require new programs, and what ones may only require revisions to existing offerings? Is the labor force equipped with the basic skills employers need? These are the types of questions that frame Center of Excellence (COE ) research projects. In situations where traditional labor market data may be unavailable or insufficient, the COEOE research process reaches out to employers and integrates their perspectives on skill requirements and the skill and preparation gaps that they are experiencing. In this session, the presenters will profile two recent COE studies: “Understanding the Green Economy - A Community College Perspective” and “Basic Skills in California - Workforce Readiness from an Employer Perspective.” Using COE ’s recent green economy research, this session will showcase how 10 regional Centers of Excellence approach emerging industries and occupations to quantify labor market need, employment concentrations, and skill requirements. This session will also profile COE ’s basic skills study that asked employers to evaluate the workforce readiness of California’s labor force.

Elaine Gaertner, John Carrese & Laura Coleman, Centers of Excellence
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The ABCs of Transitioning to College: Assessment, Basic Skills, and Collaboration
Strand: Student Services/Basic Skills/Transition to College & Transfer
This interactive, problem-solving session is designed to help participants discuss the key elements of addressing the basic skills needs of entering freshmen as they transition to college. Participants will be presented with a case study in which state policy has changed to allow mandatory placement criteria to be posted as entrance requirements to 85% of the curriculum. Presenters will review the various initiatives at Mt San Antonio College related to preparing students to enter college and the specific programs instituted to address student success including: high school outreach and matriculation, summer bridge, English/math/health careers learning communities, and new efforts designed to address the specific needs of African American and Latino students. Measures of student success (first time pass rates, successful pass rates, retention rates, student satisfaction surveys, faculty surveys, disproportionate impact studies, and student equity research) along with recommendations on gaining campus-wide support and involvement will be shared. Participants will come away with ideas, approaches, and strategies to integrate student services and instruction to meet the basic skills needs of students transitioning to college.

Audrey Yamagata-Noji, Anabel Perez, Gary Enke, Art Nitta & Dyrell Foster, Mt San Antonio College
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Promising Practices in Developmental Summer Bridges
Strand: Transition to College & Transfer/Basic Skills
Summer bridge programs are an increasingly popular strategy to help basic skills students prepare for college and reduce the need for developmental classes in their first year. A set of new summer programs are being implemented in Texas, offering incoming students four to eight weeks of accelerated remedial coursework, contextualized learning, college knowledge, and stipends for
participating in and completing the program. The National Center for postsecondary Research (NCPR) is conducting a multi-college study of these programs to learn how they can best prepare students for college, reduce the need for developmental education, increase students’ comfort with the
college environment, strengthen linkages between colleges and high schools, and ultimately lead to increased student success. Representatives from a few of the participating Texas colleges and MDRC (a research partner in NCPR) will present lessons from the summer of 2009, describe how the colleges
and NCPR are assessing the programs and student progress, and provide examples of how data are being used to develop stronger programs for next summer and beyond.

Evan Weissman, MDRC
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Equity as the Practice of Liberation and Love
Strand: Teaching, Learning & Assessment in the Classroom/Basic Skills
Faculty from the Umoja Community, in the context of the Faculty Inquiry Network, are testing the premise that deliberately engaging the affective and communal dimension in the classroom improves learning, success, and persistence for African American students. This session will invoke research from the field as well as the many kinds of data--interviews, think alouds, student work, videos of classroom sessions, and journals--collected by the Umoja instructors. In the spirit of inquiry, participants will use a rubric to interpret this data in an effort to unearth the problem(s) around student learning and identify what is happening with students as they are attempting to learn. We will also share what students
are reporting and demonstrating as they experience successes in their basic skills math classes. Beyond working out the connections between the affective and cognitive dimensions of learning, this session will engage the faculty in the evolution of inquiry as a methodology for improving teaching, particularly the creative and strategic nature of this approach to professional development.

Tom deWit, A’kilah Moore & Jah’Shams Abdul-Mu’min, Faculty Inquiry Network
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Assessing Student Learning: What Kapi’olani Community College is Doing
Strand: College & Program Level Assessment/Accreditation
The session is an introduction to Kapi’olani Community College’s (KCC) student learning outcomes (SLOs) assessment framework, which addresses the idea that assessment is a transparent, clearly documented process that supports a culture of inquiry and leads to a stronger and more effective learning institution. The framework provides a format for faculty to discuss what the results of learning assessment mean, to identify ways of improving learning, and to implement strategies for improvement. The framework also provides a format for academic support and student services units to assess their effectiveness, and to engage in discussion on the use of results that lead to improvements in services and support of student learning. The presenters will discuss KCC’s implementation of a four step assessment cycle that provides a systematic approach to assessment throughout all areas of the college. They will also share lessons learned thus far.

Louise Pagotto & Kristine Korey-Smith, Kapi’olani Community College
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Using Assessment Findings to Close the Loop: Moving from Research to Results
Strand: Closing the Assessment Loop/Accreditation
How do we know if our efforts to improve student learning have made a difference? What do the findings tell us? Is the connection between assessment, results, and improvement clear and reliable? What conclusions can we reasonably draw from the data? Using the ACCJC Rubrics, participants will dive into assessment projects from individual institutions and develop effective strategies to use data to directly improve student learning at the course, program, and degree levels. Participants will also work through assessment plans to generate sample reports that increase purpose-driven dialogue about improving student learning, align institution-wide practices, and connect budget and resource allocations.

Bob Pacheco, Barstow College & Keith Wurtz, Chaffey College
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Exploring Mt SAC’s Developmental Education Faculty Certification Program
Strand: Leadership & Sustainability/Basic Skills
This session will look at Mt San Antonio College’s developmental education program, which recently was honored with the Board of Governor’s exemplary program award. Participants will learn about the theory of developmental education, how it differs from remedial education, and how that definition was used in the creation of the developmental modules offered at Mt San Antonio College. After a brief overview of the three eight-week modules, participants will engage in discussions about the most current findings in brain-based research including an overview of the historical, biological, and pedagogical implications of Triune Brain Theory focusing on practical applications in the classroom.

Eric Stepp-Bolling, Mt San Antonio College
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Making Learning Visible with eLumen
Strand: Accreditation/ College & Program Level Assessment
The primary use of eLumen among California community colleges is to produce, directly out of any college’s regular activities, the comprehensive data required by accreditors. Kirkwood Community College (Iowa) has pioneered other creative uses of eLumen, including direct feedback of rubric scores and comments to students and focusing student support services on precisely those students whose class activity or non-activity indicates the need for intervention or other assistance. The opportunity exists to combine these approaches and enable a college to simultaneously reduce extra work associated with assessment and alerts and integrate instructional assessment and student support services in a way that improves, and not just documents, student success. Pasadena City College has also chosen eLumen to store assessment data. This session will demonstrate how using the data captured in eLumen has helped faculty identify what students are and are not learning and fostered dialogue among faculty on learning outcomes and instructional strategies.

David Shupe, eLumen Collaborative; Richard Edwards, Kirkwood Community College; Linda Hintzman & Crystal Kollross, Pasadena City College
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Administrative Unit Outcomes (AUOs): the New Frontier
Strand: Accreditation
Colleges have three interdependent branches: instruction, student services, and administration. So far the primary focus for Student Learning Outcomes on most campuses has been in instruction: course-level and program-level; and student services programs and departments. But what work has been done on administration? What about the elusive AUOUOs: Administrative Unit Outcomes? This session will describe how Barstow College applied the concept of customer service satisfaction to assess Administrative departments and developed support for the AUO process. You will learn how developing mission statements and a college-wide effectiveness survey led to changes in college practices, as well as what lessons were learned along the way.

Heather Porter & Penny Shreve, Barstow Community College
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Acceleration: Approaches to Managing the Basic Skills Sequence
Strand: Basic Skills/ Transition to College & Transfer
The majority of students entering California community colleges place into basic skills classes when they first enroll. Depending on where the student places and the number of levels of basic skills classes, a student may face one, two, or more years of courses before they reach a college-level class in English or mathematics. Colleges are experimenting with different formats and sequences to accelerate this path. Should we define basic skills by the level of the class (the curricular and pedagogical approach) or the skill level of the student? If we define basic skills by the skill level of the student, then can we innovate on different curricular and pedagogical approaches to accelerate the student to transfer-level performance?

Rose Asera, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; Diego Navarro, Cabrillo College; Katie Hern, Chabot College; Brock Klein, Pasadena City College; Myra Snell, Los Medanos College
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Bilingual Intensive Training Program Model
Strand: CTE
The Bilingual Intensive Training Program Model offered by Southwestern College has been successful in training limited-English proficient students for more than 20 years. Students train for employment as office professionals in the general business, legal, and medical specialty areas. They must enroll in a work experience component which serves as a reality check in determining their readiness for the job market. Instruction begins bilingually with an emphasis on Spanish and then moves to more use of English. However, these programs encourage students to develop their Spanish language skills to work in bilingual office settings. The model has also been extended to English-only training in other industry areas as well. It provides students with a foundation for success and a career ladder approach to gaining employment at the entry level. Students have the option to continue their education and training toward the completion of an advanced certificate or degree.

Sandra Corona, Marisa Soler-McElwain, Michelle Dawson & Irma Alvarez, Southwestern College (Hewlett Leaders in Student Success Recipient)
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Don’t Be Afraid…Student Learning Outcomes Will Only Make You Stronger! (Five Easy Steps to Building Collaborative SLOs)
Strand: Student Services/College & Program Level Assessment
In this session, one college enrolling over 100,000 students will describe their process for building student services SLOs, from theory to practice. Presented in five easy steps, information on staff buy-in, SLO history, group workshops, linking program missions and objectives to SLOs, and division-wide meetings will be discussed in relation to SLO development. The end result of the college’s work is a functional SLO format for a student development division with eleven individual units and dozens of departments. Following this discussion, the presenters will give three practical examples of how student services SLOs are currently being used to directly promote student success within the division. In the three examples, connections to WASC accreditation and sustainability of SLOs will be identified. Further, the link between divisional and department objectives, institutional success, and the incorporation of SLOs will be presented. Each of the three examples will present information from units that fully developed SLOs, assessed outcomes, evaluated data, and implemented changes to support student success in less than one year.

Elizabeth Rockstroh & Mark Robinson, City College of San Francisco
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Science-A-Go-Go: Using Experiential Learning to Engage Students in Science
Strand: Transition to College & Transfer
Science-A-Go-Go is a Cal-PASS sponsored collaborative project between science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM ) educators at North Bay Area high schools, Sonoma State University, and UC Davis’ Bodega Marine Laboratory to bring high school students into experiential learning environments. A cohort of 9th and 10th grade students from two high schools participated in real-world research activities as geologists for a day, engineers for a day, and marine biologists for a day with the expectation that experiential learning of this type will increase interest in science courses and careers and improve student performance in STEM classes. This project demonstrates a successful collaboration of science faculty from three different segments of education and provides an exemplary model for engaging students in science interest and success through experiential learning.

Victor Chow & Mark Niemann, Cal-PASS
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Preparing Faculty for Under-Prepared Students: A Cross-Disciplinary Professional Development Program
Strand: Teaching, Learning & Assessment in the Classroom/Basic Skills
How many new teachers come to the community college classroom with strong pedagogical training? How many are familiar with the characteristics and needs of developmental education students, specifically? The reality is not enough. Most new adjuncts begin their careers with little training in or experience with developmental education. To address this situation, Fullerton College developed an innovative way to assist adjunct instructors in becoming more effective basic skills teachers. This session will present an overview of Fullerton College’s Basic Skills Adjunct Training Program, a semester-long series of interactive workshops and activities that provides participants with ways to promote active learning in the classroom and tools to assess their own teaching effectiveness. Presenters will demonstrate some of the interactive activities used in the professional
development program, share reflections from past participants, and discuss the challenge of assessing the program’s success.

Jeanne Costello, Janna Anderson & Dani McLean, Fullerton College
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Putting Together the General Education (GE) Package
Strand: College & Program Level Assessment
This session will provide an overview of MiraCosta College’s general education outcomes and assessment. We will recount how MiraCosta developed its definition of programs and how we engineered a roadmap to maximize alignment among GE, disciplines, and courses. We will demonstrate the utility of a GE matrix to forge links between course-level and GE-level student learning outcomes (SLOs), to emphasize the complementarity of disciplines within GE, and to identify weaknesses in the GE package. Finally, we will address closing the loop of GE assessment within the program review and accreditation cycles. By starting with a cohesive GE package, MiraCosta faculty have generated course-level SLOs with clearly defined program-level significance. We hope that sharing our approach to developing and implementing outcomes assessment at MiraCosta will generate dialogue among participants and offer useful models for other community colleges.

Bob Turner & Lynne Miller, MiraCosta College
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Using Assessment Findings to Close the Loop: Moving from Research
to Results
Strand: Closing the Assessment Loop/Accreditation
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Exploring Mt SAC’s Developmental Education Faculty Certification
Program
Strand: Leadership & Sustainability/Basic Skills
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Homegrown Systems for Student Learning Outcome and Assessment Cycle (SLOAC) Documentation: Tapping Our Expertise and Reflecting Our Culture
Strand: Accreditation/ Leadership, Structures, and Sustainability for Assessment
Mindful of early advice to “think like an anthropologist” and create a SLOAC process that taps into the skills, knowledge, and abilities of faculty and staff, Foothill College designed a process that first engaged the community in critical inquiry about student learning by hosting a series of convocations on outcomes, assessment, reflection, and sustaining curricular change. Next, as our SLOAC design process accelerated, we created division, department, and cohort workshops where faculty and staff were trained in SLOAC design and robust discussions led to the design of outcomes within the workshop. PIE Wednesdays, SLO FAQ office hours fueled by homemade pie, offered opportunities for questions and feedback on SLOs as well. Finally, our talented webmaster developed an online database linked to our own course management system that enabled faculty to use a familiar interface, drop-down menus, course catalog descriptions, and help buttons to complete the SLOA cycles. As a result faculty and staff could focus energy on collaboration and research rather than on navigating new systems.

Lee Collings, Katie Townsend-Merino & Rosemary Arca, Foothill College
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Partnership for Student Success
Strand: Basic Skills
This session will highlight components of the Partnership for Student Success, a campus-wide initiative created to increase the academic success of Santa Barbara Community College students. These components include the Gateway Program, Writing Lab, Math Lab, and the Athletic Achievement Zone. Our session will include the following: best practices on how to put into action a campus-wide student success initiative; institutional research that measured our past performances and identified areas we have targeted for improvement; and interactive activities that demonstrate the ease of implementing a similar program on other campuses. As a 2008 winner of the Hewlett Leaders in Student Success Program, our goal in this session is to assist colleagues from other California community colleges to increase the success of their basic skills population.

Sheila Wiley, Jerry Pike, Pam Guenther, Paula Congleton, Darla Cooper, Kathy Molloy & Alice Scharper, Santa Barbara City College (Hewlett Leaders in Student Success Recipient)
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Acceleration: Approaches to Managing the Basic Skills Sequence
Strand: Basic Skills/ Transition to College & Transfer

R. Asera, D. Navarro, K. Hern, B. Klein, M. Snell
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What Assumptions Have We Made About Student Literacy in Career Technical Education?
Strand: CTE/Basic Skills/Closing the Assessment Loop
What assumptions are we making about student literacy that inform the direction our career technical education (CTE ) practices take? This is one of the questions being explored in the Faculty Inquiry Network, a coalition of 18 faculty teams from colleges across the state, each investigating ways to help more students learn and be successful. This presentation explores CTE faculty groups who have engaged in inquiries about student literacy. The instructors from the Faculty Inquiry Network have looked at the reading assignments and lessons they use and dissected them in an effort to better understand the students’ experiences. The CTE inquiry groups will share evidence they’ve gathered about their strategies for improving literacy and the questions they had about their own teaching practices. They will also engage the audience in a discussion about common assumptions made about CTE student learning.

Lin Marelick, Academic Senate for California Community Colleges; Maryanne Gallindo & Ju’Shams Abdul, LA Trade Tech; Sonja Franeta & Myron Franklin, Laney College
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Enhancing Student Services: Results from the Opening Doors Demonstration in California and Ohio
Strand: Student Services
This interactive breakout session will discuss two innovative enhanced student services programs tested as part of the multi-site Opening Doors demonstration. Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga ran a program to help students on academic and progress probation retain good academic standing. The program offered a college success course, linked with expected visits to the college’s success centers, where students could receive instruction in math, reading, or writing. Lorain County Community College and Owens Community College in Ohio operated a program that provided enhanced student services and a small stipend to new students and students who had experienced some academic difficulties. Participating students at the Ohio colleges were expected to meet
frequently with their Opening Doors counselor to discuss academic progress and resolve any issues that might affect their schooling. Each counselor worked with far fewer students than the regular college counselors, which allowed for more frequent, intensive contact. During this session, panelists will describe the implementation of the Chaffey and Ohio programs and the programs’ effects on
student academic outcomes.

Susan Scrivener & Michael Weiss, MDRC; Ricardo Diaz, Chaffey College
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Will This Be On the Test? Creating a Campaign to Build Students’ Habits of Mind
Strand: Transition to College & Transfer
What separates our successful students from those who don’t reach their potential? Why aren’t all students better focused and organized, both in their current courses and their long-term goals? Cerritos College launched its Habits of Mind campaign in spring 2009, asking the question, “Do you FALCON?” Appropriating the college mascot, we designed a web-based academic program around six skills that college students need, but frequently lack, to achieve success: Focus, Advance, Link Up, Comprehend, Organize, and New Ideas. This interactive presentation will introduce participants to the campus-wide campaign to introduce and reinforce academic skills. We will share insights into the planning and development process, program objectives, the iFALCON website as educational tool and portal, pre- and post-program survey data on perceived study skills and practices, evidence collected from faculty inquiry groups, and directions for future development. In the interactive phase, attendees will begin to define the gaps faced by their own students and to explore models to help
their diverse student communities define and practice effective academic skills.

Steve Clifford & Bryan Reece, Cerritos College
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Friday, October 9th

Brain-Based Learning and the Art of Teaching
Strand: Teaching, Learning & Assessment in the Classroom
This interactive session will discuss the most current findings in brain-based research including an overview of the historical, biological, and pedagogical implications of Triune Brain Theory focusing on practical applications in the classroom. Background on the reptilian, limbic, and neocortex regions of
the brain will be discussed with implications involving student learning. Then, practical applications of active learning approaches will be introduced to participants including interactive strategies. Finally, to close the loop, participants will be asked to come up with ways they could change their own classrooms based upon the information from the presentation.

Rick Stepp-Bolling, Mt San Antonio College
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An Integrated Model for Measuring the Impact of Course, Program, and Institutional Learning Outcomes
Strand: College & Program Level Assessment
What kind of impact do student learning outcomes (SLOs) really have on learning anyway? What is the point of measuring learning outcomes? How can we tell if learning outcomes are really having an impact on student learning? The Institutional Research Office at Chaffey College has developed a method to answer these questions. The method is based on the setting of a criterion in the Nichols Five Column Model and uses meta-analysis to assess the impact of the learning outcomes (i.e. student learning outcomes and administrative unit outcomes) process on student learning. Meta-analysis is a process of quantifying and combining multiple studies (i.e. multiple learning outcomes assessments).
This presentation will provide the methodology used to conduct the meta-analysis, the limitations, the impact of student learning outcomes on student learning at Chaffey for the last four years, and links to free meta-analysis software.

Keith Wurtz, Jim Fillpot & Giovanni Sosa, Chaffey College
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From the Margins to the Center: Understanding Identity, Engagement, and Learning
Strand: Closing the Assessment Loop/Teaching, Learning & Assessment in the
Classroom/Basic Skills
Too often students seem to be sitting in the margins, around the edges of the space occupied by the college community of learners. This is particularly true of many developmental learners who have yet to fully engage and identify with the academic community. This interactive session explores the premise that identity, formed through belonging, determines engagement and success in learning.
Several faculty inquiry groups in the Faculty Inquiry Network have been studying learner identity and its relationship to student engagement, agency, self-efficacy, motivation, academic habits of mind, and performance. They will share strategies for moving developmental learners from the margins to the center of their learning, including metacognition, personal narratives, teambuilding, teacherstudent relationships, leadership activities around social justice, group collaboration, and intrinsic motivation. Attendees will engage in an inquiry case study to highlight learner identity issues that impede participation in learning and generate responsive ideas for improving practice.

Janice Connal, Scott Hoshida, Sandy Wood & A’kilah Moore, Faculty Inquiry Network
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Classroom Assessment Tools: Next Steps after Student Learning Outcome Development
Strand: Closing the Assessment Loop/ Teaching, Learning & Assessment in the Classroom
This session will demonstrate the use of Angelo and Cross formative assessment techniques (one minute papers, etc.) at Mt. San Antonio College. We will discuss how faculty are using these techniques in their classrooms, including their successes and failures. The audience will leave with concrete examples to take back to their colleges and share with faculty about how different assessment techniques might work in their classrooms. How do we make this meaningful for our faculty? The assessment piece is the next step for most of us. We now need to develop assessment techniques and evaluation criteria that work without taking too much classroom time or too much faculty time. How do we do this? How do we incorporate part-time faculty in the process? Developing rubrics that work in different areas and subjects would be ideal—we will look at generic rubrics that can be easily revised to meet the needs of your classroom.

Joan Sholars & Priyadarshini Chaplot, Mt San Antonio College
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Running in the Right Circles: Ensuring High Quality Models for Practice to Support Systematic Inquiry
Strand: Leadership & Sustainability
This session describes a stakeholder-based evaluation approach to outcomes assessment in California community colleges. Santa Monica College created a process to support all stakeholders--faculty, staff, students, and the institution--in conducting high caliber systematic inquiry related to outcomes assessment. Faculty-determined methods and structures of assessment will be described and mechanisms for supporting these structures will be outlined, including moving toward institutional-level evaluation of the quality of assessment efforts and processes. The session will also feature workshop materials, an outline of assessment plan expectations, and four rubrics to build evaluation and assessment capacity. Finally, linkages between other faculty-determined structures, such as curriculum, program review, planning, budget, and institutional expectations for outcomes assessment implementation and reporting, will be described.

Caroline Q. Sheldon & Lesley Kawaguchi, Santa Monica College
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Walking the Walk: Foregrounding Collaborative Learning in Professional Development
Strand: Leadership & Sustainability
Although designing highly structured and sustainable professional development programs can be challenging, the connection of a specific staff development activity to a data-based assessment of improvements in student learning is even more difficult to accomplish. To address both of these concerns, the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) has created an assessment driven, innovative approach to professional development--the Faculty Teaching Learning Academy (FT LA). In this interactive session, we will explore technologies that facilitate the design of new classroom approaches to student success as well as analyze the inherent challenges these technologies present in terms of training, privacy matters, and ongoing support. We will also share the assessment tool we have developed for the FT LA as part of the pilot for the California Virtual Campus ePortfolio Project.

Scott Weigand, Los Angeles Valley College; Deborah L Harrington, Los Angeles Community College District; Bradley Vaden, Los Angeles Trade Technical College
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Implementing a Department Final in Developmental Math
Strand: Accreditation/Teaching Learning & Assessment in the Classroom/Basic Skills/Closing the Assessment Loop
The Southwestern College Mathematics Department implemented departmental finals in all developmental math courses in order to increase the cohesiveness of its instructional program and to improve the consistency of students’ skill level upon their successful completion of the course. This session will explain how the exam has evolved over its eight year existence through a process of research, deliberation, consensus, implementation, analysis, evaluation, and revision. In order to meet the WASC accreditation standards, studies have been underway to minimize cultural bias and to validate the effectiveness of the departmental final in measuring student learning. The exams are entirely faculty-written and managed, except for the analysis of student data. The data analysis is utilized by the Department to assess student achievement related to specific measurable learning objectives and is provided to instructors to self-evaluate and improve their teaching effectiveness. The ultimate goals of this effort are the development of effective curricula and instructional resources, implementation of professional development activities, and improvement of student learning.

Kathy Tyner, Alex Juden, Peter Herrera & Shannon Gracey, Southwestern College (Hewlett Leaders in Student Success Recipient)
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Academic Wellness Educators (AWE): More than Just Basic Skills
Strand: Basic Skills/CTE/Student Services
The Academic Wellness Educators (AWE) will introduce their holistic approach to skill development and describe how they have instigated a campus wide movement to increase success for all students. Workshop participants will explore strategies to embed basic skills in all interactions with students from courses to contacts with any student support such as financial aid or health services. Participants will interact with other replicable models including a problem solving module, side cars, house calls, and embedded tutors. The AWE team will share resources and invite participants to extend their learning in an online course designed for staff and faculty titled “Embedding Basic Skills throughout Programs and Services”.

Anne Cavagnaro, Adrienne Seegers & Patricia Harrelson, Columbia College (Hewlett Leaders in Student Success Recipient)
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Integrating Study Skills into Basic Skills Math Classes
Strand: Basic Skills/ Transition to College & Transfer
This presentation will focus on a strategy for helping community college students develop the study skills they need to succeed in college. The project focuses on the basic skills mathematics classroom, but the strategies can be applied to most other disciplines. At this session, a class-tested set of worksheets will be introduced and guidelines for their implementation will be discussed. Data comparing results from pre-test and post-test study skills inventories will also be presented. Each worksheet is accompanied by an instructor page that gives the philosophy behind the activity along with suggestions for the teacher. Attendees can sign up to receive an electronic file with the worksheets and then print and use them upon return to their colleges. During the presentation, interaction among participants will be encouraged.

Lynn Marecek & MaryAnne Anthony, Santa Ana College
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Strengthening Student Success by Implementing an Online Tutoring Program
Strand: Student Services
Research shows that individualized tutoring is one of the most effective ways of increasing student achievement and improving retention. At Orange Coast College, the Student Success Center chose to integrate online tutoring provided by Smarthinking into their existing services, offering as a strategy to improve student achievement, persistence, and retention rates. This session will provide a demonstration of the online tutoring service used at Orange Coast College and a discussion of the service from a student, faculty, and administrator perspective. Presenters will review the research-based learning strategy that enables students to get the help they need when they need it, as a natural extension to one-on-one tutoring service. Presenters will also demonstrate evidence that engaging students in individualized online tutoring expands academic support and tutoring services and increases student success.

Melissa Berta, Orange Coast College, Bruce Wilcox & John Huber, Smarthinking
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