Increasing Student Completion through Accelerated English & Math

Transcription

1 Increasing Student Completion through Accelerated English & Math CCLC Regional Trustees Workshop Yuba College May 30, 2014 Katie Hern CAP Director English Instructor Chabot College

2 The Problem In California, over 70% of first-time community college students who take an assessment test are determined unprepared for college in English, math, or both. Student Success Scorecards show that these students have significantly lower completion rates than those classified as college prepared.

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4 Community Colleges Traditional Approach to Students Considered Unprepared Community colleges have typically required students classified as unprepared to complete 1-4 semesters of basic skills courses before enrolling in college-level English and math. These courses don t count toward credential or transfer.

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

6 Weeding Students Out of College: English-Writing in California Students Starting Placement English-Writing % Completing Transfer-Level English in 3 Years One Level Below 48% Two Levels Below 34% Three or more Levels Below 19% Statewide data, Basic Skills Cohort Tracker, Fall 2009-Spring 2012

7 Weeding Students Out of College: Mathematics in California Students Starting Placement Mathematics % Completing Transfer-Level Math in 3 Years One Level Below 35% Two Levels Below 15% Three or more Levels Below 6% Statewide data, Basic Skills Cohort Tracker, Fall 2009-Spring 2012

8 Basic Skills Cohort Tracker

9 DISPROPORTIONATE IMPACT Across California Black and Latino students are much more likely to be placed 3-4 levels below college math: Black students: 61% Latino students: 53% White students: 34% Asian students: 32% Students of color are much more likely to be placed 3-4 levels below college English: Black students: 25% Asian students: 19% Hispanic students: 18% White students: 8% Perry, M.; Bahr, P.R.; Rosin, M.; & Woodward, K.M. (2010). Course-taking patterns, policies, and practices in developmental education in the California Community Colleges. Mountain View, CA: EdSource.

10 Toward Solutions Questioning the premise that over 70% of students need remediation A 2012 study by the Community College Research Center found that up to 60% of students placed into remediation could have earned a C or better if they enrolled directly into a college-level English or math course

11 Sample Placement Test Item Writing a best seller had earned the author a sum of money and had freed him from the necessity of selling his pen for the political purposes of others. Rewrite, beginning with The author was not obliged The new sentence will include A) consequently he earned B) because he had earned C) by earning D) as a means of earning

12 More Test Items: Are You College-Ready?

13 Problems with Placement Testing Colleges generally place students into remedial classes based primarily on a single score on a standardized test. Yet the evidence on the predictive validity of these tests is not as strong as many might assume, and research fails to find evidence that the resulting placements into remediation improve student outcomes. Core Principles for Transforming Remedial Education: A Joint Statement The Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas, Austin Complete College America The Education Commission of the States Jobs for the Future

14 Toward Solutions Rethinking Multi-Level Remedial Sequences

15 Attrition in Remedial Sequences: A Structural Problem Students placed 2 levels below college English/Math face 6 exit points where they fall away: Do they enroll in the first course? If they enroll, do they pass the first course? If they pass, do they enroll in the next course? If they enroll, do they pass the second course? If they pass, do they enroll in the college-level course? If they enroll, do they pass the college-level course? Students placed 3 levels down face 8 exit points.

16 Illustration: Chabot College Students beginning two levels below College English: Do they enroll in the first course???% If they enroll, do they pass the first course? 66% If they pass, do they enroll in the next course? 93% If they enroll, do they pass the second course? 75% If they pass, do they enroll in the college-level course? 91% If they enroll, do they pass the college-level course? 78% (0.66)(0.93)(0.75)(0.91)(0.78)= 33% Fall 2006 Cohort. Students tracked from their first developmental English enrollment and followed for all subsequent English enrollments for 3 years. Pass rates includes students passing on first or repeated attempts within timeframe. Basic Skills Cohort Tracker, DataMart.

17 A Thought experiment: What if more students passed the first course? How many would complete the college level course? (0.66)(0.93)(0.75)(0.91)(0.78 ) = 33% If 75% passed the first course If 80% passed the first course If 90% passed the first course 37% 40% 45% What if 90% passed and persisted at each point? (0.90)(0.90)(0.90)(0.90)(0.90) = 59%

18 BOTTOM LINE Improving our results within the existing multi-level system will never be enough we must restructure curricula to eliminate the exit points where we lose students.

19 The California Acceleration Project: Increasing Completion among Underprepared Students Nearly all 112 California colleges have participated in CAP workshops 47 colleges have piloted English and Statistics pathways that Reduce students time in remediation by at least a semester Align remediation with college-level requirements Use high-challenge, high-support pedagogy Make no changes to rigorous, transfer-level course (only remediation is changed)

20 Evaluation by the Research and Planning Group A new quasi-experimental study examined student outcomes at 16 community colleges piloting accelerated remediation with CAP in , focusing on: Completion of transferable math & English requirements Accelerated students compared with students in traditional remediation Students tracked for 2-3 semesters after intervention (depending on cohort) Accelerated group included 2,489 students (1,836 in English, 653 in math)

21 Results Using statistical methods to control for pre-existing differences in student characteristics, they found: In English, students odds of completing a college-level course were 2.3 times greater in high-impact models of acceleration than students in traditional remediation In math, students odds of completing a college-level math course were 4.5 times greater than students in traditional remediation

22 Results Significant completion gains among all student subgroups studied, including: all ethnic groups low-income students students who had taken ESL courses students who had not graduated from high school students with low GPAs students with disabilities

23 Results At different placement levels of English & Math: Students saw significant gains, whether they were designated one, two, three, or four levels below college Students in the lowest levels saw the largest relative increases in their completion No specific placement level was associated with negative outcomes, indicating that these accelerated pilots adhered to a do no harm principle. - RP Group Researchers Hayward and Willet

24 Fiscal Analysis of Accelerated Math Pathways A study of 7 CAP pilot colleges by the National Center for Inquiry and Improvement found that, if offered at full scale, accelerated statistics pathways would Reduce the cost of remediation Enable colleges to reallocate existing resources from remedial to transferable course offerings Significantly lower colleges cost-per-completer Lower students tuition/book costs and bring significant wage gains through expedited completion

25 How are these impressive results being achieved across colleges? What s happening in CAP classrooms?

26 Window into CAP Classrooms: Math & English Intentional support for students affective needs Student fears and fixed mindsets are two of the biggest issues to overcome in challenging accelerated classrooms. The College Fear Factor by Rebecca Cox Many community college students fear that they re not cut out for college and cope with this fear by withdrawing and/or avoiding assessment (e.g., not take tests, not turn in papers) Brainology by Carol Dweck Whether students have a fixed or growth mindset about their own intelligence strongly influences their academic performance, especially their response to challenging tasks

27 CAP Faculty Reflection I kind of started getting into this mindset, Well, if they don t care, I can t make them care I really just thought it was laziness. Now I realize it s just that students are intimidated. They don t want to act like they care because then they would be failures if they didn t succeed. -Evelyn Ngo, Math Instructor, College of the Canyons

28 Window into CAP Classrooms: English Away from Traditional remediation front-loads sub-skills, on the assumption that before students can do a more complex task, they must have mastery of its component parts: In reading: workbook exercises on recognizing main ideas, building vocabulary In writing: grammar exercises before paragraph writing, personal essays before text-based essays

29 Window into CAP Classrooms: English Toward Accelerated pedagogy gives under-prepared students experience with college-level reading, reasoning, and writing, with more in-class support than in a regular college course. Sub-skills in reading and writing are addressed as needed in the context of the more challenging work.

30 Before and After Irvine Valley College assignment in traditional remedial course In her essay Friends, Good Friends, and Very Good Friends, Judith Viorst categorizes the various types of friends she has For this assignment you will write 3 paragraphs. The first paragraph will be a summary of Viorst s essay. This paragraph will serve as an introduction and should end with a thesis statement in which you mention the two types of friends you plan to discuss in your subsequent paragraphs. The next two paragraphs should each describe one type of friend and provide an example from your experience. You must choose one of Viorst s categories and create one of your own. Irvine Valley College assignment in accelerated course after CAP In this essay, you will argue whether Angie Bachmann, whose story is described in Chapter 9 The Neurology of Free Will: Are We Responsible for Our Habits? should be held accountable for her gambling debts based on what you know about addictions from Rat Park: the Radical Addiction Experiment by Lauren Slater and habits from the The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.

31 Insights from CAP faculty With the right support, students are capable of doing great academic work! They don t need to start with a simple paragraph. They can write complex essays from the start. -Anonymous faculty reflection Teaching accelerated courses has changed my outlook on student capacity. I learned to trust in students ability to handle challenges and tackle meaningful academic work. - Caroline Minkowski, City College SF

32 Alternative to Multi-Semester Remediation: Accelerated Math Pathways Remediation is not a repeat of K-12 math through Algebra II. Instead, support is tailored to the student s intended program of study or meta-major. Intensive algebra preparation for students pursuing STEM, other calculus-based majors Students in other majors enroll in college-level Statistics or Liberal Arts Math, with co-requisite or accelerated pre-requisite support Redesigned accelerated course replaces 2-3 semesters of traditional sequence; some models offer a single semester of developmental preparation to students with any placement score

33 Why Pathway Redesign: Misalignment between Algebra & Statistics

34 Path2Stats: Los Medanos College Single-semester pre-statistics course open to all students (or go to Vimeo and search for Statpath )

35 Window into CAP Classrooms: Math Away from Decontextualized algebra, mimicry of symbolic procedures and template word problems A passenger train leaves the train depot 2 hours after a freight train left the same depot. The freight train is traveling 20 mph slower than the passenger train. Find the rate of each train, if the passenger train overtakes the freight train in three hours.

36 Window into CAP Classrooms: Math Toward data analysis and decision-making in the face of uncertainty What factors correlate with low birth weights? Use graphs and conditional percentages to investigate the relationship between one of the factors in the data set and low birth weight. Present your results in 500 words or less, include relevant graphs and calculations. Data set: Birth weights and 6 qualitative factors from a Massachusetts study of 189 pregnant women.

37 Window into CAP Classrooms: Math

38 Student Reflections It was developing my critical thinking. Not just looking at a formula and learning how to solve it you know, where does this go, what are the rules.it s more about evaluating, it s more about the analysis It s more about understanding how to make a conclusion about the data set. Describing her instructor s approach to the class: It s kind of like You dig in and get your hands dirty, however you feel you need to, and I m here for you to help clarify, to help understand, help get you along better. I like that. It s more like the instructor is a facilitator, as opposed to, I m spewing out all this information that I need you to regurgitate on an exam. -Accelerated Pre-Statistics Students at College of the Canyons

39 Is Your College Part of CAP? English/ESL Allan Hancock College Gavilan College Palomar College (ESL) Butte College Imperial Valley College Pasadena City College Cerritos College Irvine Valley College Porterville College Chabot College Lake Tahoe College San Diego Mesa College City College of San Francisco LA Trade Tech Santa Monica College College of Marin LA Valley College Santa Rosa College College of the Canyons Laney College (ESL) Southwestern College College of the Redwoods Lassen College Skyline College Cuyamaca College Los Medanos College West Los Angeles College Feather River College Moreno Valley College West Valley College El Camino College Compton Mt San Jacinto College Yuba College Fullerton College Ohlone College

40 Is Your College Part of CAP? Math Berkeley City College Cañada College Chabot College City College of San Francisco College of Alameda College of the Canyons College of the Redwoods Contra Costa College Cuesta College Cuyamaca College Diablo Valley College LA Harbor College LA Mission College Los Medanos College Moreno Valley College Palomar College Pasadena City College Riverside City College San Diego City College San Diego Miramar College Shasta College Skyline College West Valley College

41 Scaling Up across California At the 47 CAP pilot colleges, accelerated pathways are generally offered at a small scale, and most students don t have access. What can Trustees do to establish and/or expand these approaches locally? What are your levers for change?

42 Implementation Challenges for Accelerated Remediation Separate reading and writing curricula taught by faculty with separate minimum qualifications Emerging solution: Colleges are creating integrated courses, with course outlines that recognize the minimum qualifications of either discipline; peer-to-peer professional development activities are organized so that both groups of teachers are equipped to support students as readers and writers

43 Implementation Challenges for Accelerated Remediation Policies at CSU and UC have required that all transferable math courses have a pre-requisite of Intermediate Algebra (regardless of relevance) Emerging solution: Title 5 mandates that colleges provide pre-requisite challenge mechanisms to students who demonstrate they can be successful in a higher-level course without the prerequisite. Colleges piloting redesigned statistics pathways are keeping Intermediate Algebra as the official pre-requisite for Statistics but using expedited pre-req challenge process to qualify successful pre-stats students for the higher course.

44 Implementation Challenges for Accelerated Remediation Accelerated remediation in English and math involves significant changes to what and how faculty are teaching. And most textbooks/other resources are geared toward traditional, decelerated approaches. Emerging solution: Free collaborative faculty development through 3CSN, funded by the state chancellor s office.

45 Moving the Completion Needle: Tips for Trustees Change is hard and inertia is powerful. Trustees can help by 1.Monitoring the proportion of students placed into remedial courses, pressing for more students to begin directly in college-level courses 2.Monitoring the number of unprepared students who complete transferable courses in English and Math, as measured by Basic Skills Cohort Tracker 3.Pressing for the creation of accelerated pathways in English and math and for these pathways to be scaled up after initial pilots 4.Not accepting claims that accelerated curricula are illegal or otherwise not possible to implement