The Case for Acceleration in Developmental English and Math
Exponential Attrition and the Promise of Acceleration
Katie Hern and Myra Snell recently collaborated to create an article for the RP Group’s statewide newsletter Perspectives. The article argues that high rates of student attrition are structurally guaranteed in long developmental sequences and presents evidence from Chabot and Los Medanos colleges that one-semester, open-access courses are a promising way to increase student completion rates in college-level English and Math. The full article is linked above.
FIN goes to Achieving the Dream!
The Faculty Inquiry Network was well represented at the recent Achieving The Dream Conference held February 2nd through the 4th in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tom deWit, Katie Hern, and Sean McFarland presented at 4 breakout sessions:
- Engaging Faculty and Staff in Student‐Centered Inquiry about Teaching,
- Learning and Student Success, Accelerating Students’ Progress to College‐Level English and Math,
- Listening to the Room: The Promise of Integrating Student Voices into Basic Skills Initiatives,
- Equity as the Practice of Love and Liberation.
deWit and Hern also served as panel members in two Strategy Institute’s Focus Area Networking Sessions: Developmental English and Success Initiatives for Men of Color.
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
FIN Co-Directors hold all the secrets to successful Inquiry in the Red Suitcase.
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Below are documents passed out in Charlotte, North Carolina:
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Engaging Faculty and Staff in Student‐Centered Inquiry about Teaching,Learning and Student Success:
FIN’S Guide to Faculty Inquiry
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Accelerating Students’ Progress to College‐Level English and Math:
Accelerating Student’s Progress Through College-Level English and Math PDF
Chabot College’s acceleration data
Paulo Freire excerpt from Ways of Reading: an Anthology for Writers
Stat Path Handout from Los Medanos College
Link to LMC Puente Math’s StatPath Video
Instructor Myra Snell’s Observations about this Video
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Listening to the Room: The Promise of Integrating Student Voices into Basic Skills Initiatives:
Summaries of all 778 Films Movies
Link to the movie “Listening to the Room”
Student Voices Across California Brochure
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Equity as the Practice of Love and Liberation:
Equity as the Practice of Love and Liberation PDF
The Umoja Community’s Brochure
Link to the Umoja Community’s Website
__________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Models of Acceleration/Learning Communities
For those of you interested in various models of basic skills acceleration, I just posted several PowerPoints, PDFs, and docs to the media library. Most of these programs were ones I learned about at the CCCC in SF this past March. Front Range Community College in CO has had great luck pairing basic skills courses with content courses (and reading with writing courses) in learning communities [front range 1; front range 2); Baltimore Community College has an Accelerated Learning Program that pairs a basic skills discussion section with transfer-level English [ALP Conference Website]. Arizona State and Fresno Pacific have “stretch” models of transfer-level English, giving students two semesters to complete their transfer-level course instead of one and getting it counted for college credit in the process. [narizunivstretch_2009; fresno-pac-stretch] My FIN teammate Michelle Gonzales shared a report on the success of the Digital Bridge Academy at Cabrillo, which LPC’s College Foundation Semester is based on. Digital Bridge Academy Summary
The upshot? More and more colleges are interested in acceleration, however it looks–they are interested in improving student success by reducing the number of levels of English they have to take.
About FIN
The Faculty Inquiry Network’s (FIN) purpose is to support professional development which includes: conducting faculty inquiry; revisiting basic skills assumptions; interpreting and integrating data; accessing student voices; developing students as co-inquirers; making visible; using technology for teaching and learning; creating and supporting new initiatives, curriculum and program development; constructing educational tools using digital media; and hosting dialogue around student and faculty learning.
Recent Post
-
FIN Conference Celebration March 4-5, 2011
by Monique Williams with No Comments
Registration for the conference is open, please register asap http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CQ2NQTQ. Conference registration cost is $50.00 for no... -
Student Run Conference Supported by FIN
by Monique Williams with No Comments
I hope that all of you can attend the Umoja VI student run conference that is being assisted by FIN. The students have come up with many creative appr... -
Parachutes and Ladders X: Celebrating Student Engagement Save the Date for Spring 2011
by Jamie Chandler with No Comments
-
FIN goes to Student Success 2010
by Jamie Chandler with No Comments
Click here to view:
FIN Leadership's Pre Conference Session, Exploring Inquiry: Ideas and Innovations from the Faculty Inquiry Network
Click here ... -
Exploring Routines for Instruction
by Jan Connal with No Comments
Exploring Routines for Instruction
-
Train-the-trainer: Industry2Classroom Teacher Preperation Pipeline
by Jamie Chandler with No Comments
One thing great teachers have in common, no matter what they teach, is skill. They make accommodating 30 or more different learning styles and mul...