Wake Tech Community College 6600 Louisburg Road Raleigh, NC 27616 ABSTRACT: As part of the Community College Research Center’s (CCRC) Analysis of Statewide Developmental Education Reform Learning Assessment Study, Wake Technical Community College’s partner team believes the recommendation and implications in the CCRC’s Developmental Reading and English Assessment in a ResearcherPractitioner Partnership. Working Paper No. 85 (Perin, Raufman, & Kalamkarian, 2015) are biased as a direct result of an imbalanced researcherpractitioner partnership. In this first-hand account, we provide insight into how valuable a mutually respectful researcher-practitioner partnership is to the design of research methodologies and subsequently the authenticity of a study’s data.
Skill and drill remediation in developmental reading courses do not prepare students for reading tasks in future college-level courses. When a skill and drill model is replaced with a model that utilizes contextualization, students engage in relevant activities with authentic texts to prepare students for college-level activities. The reading department at Chandler-Gilbert Community College (CGCC) eliminated the skill and drill textbook from its courses and teamed with library faculty to create a curriculum integrated with information literacy. Reading and library faculty provided students contextualized project-based activities that integrated reading and information literacy strategies. The development, redesign, and implementation of CGCC's reading program that eliminated textbooks and contextualized information literacy and reading strategies through project-based activities are described in the present study. This study further addresses gaps in the literature regarding a fully contextualized reading course that can be implemented for no more cost than the cost of a traditional curriculum.
Sim Barhoum Professor of English Writing Center Coordinator San Diego Mesa College 7250 Mesa College Drive San Diego, CA 92111 sbarhoum@sdccd.edu Abstract: Structural practices used by community colleges to assess, place, and teach students are undergoing transformation. Many recent changes have been shaped by the idea that barriers to success, combined with traditional policies, work against helping students pass through the developmental writing pathway. This article’s purpose was to investigate the most promising structural practices by community college developmental writing programs. The article first looks at the challenges faced by developmental writing students. Then, a synthesis of relevant literature takes place, followed by a nationwide study of 42 successful developmental writing faculty. From this survey, an empirical framework emerged and is presented for the structural domain. Finally, this article offers specific and practical practices that administrators and educators can use to improve their developmental writing programs.
California State University, Fresno 5200 North Barton Ave M/S ML 44 Fresno, CA 93740 Abstract: This study examined how Supplemental Instruction (SI) visits help traditionally disadvantaged students reduce the performance gap in their courses. A student is defined as holding a “disadvantaged” status when he or she can identify with the following factors: underrepresented minority status, f irst-generation status, Federal Pell Grant eligible status, and English/ mathematics remedial status. This study revealed that students including both disadvantaged and nondisadvantaged would benefit from an increase of SI participation. The more disadvantaged students gained larger performance improvement than less disadvantaged students with more SI visits, indicating the importance of regular SI participation for disadvantaged students to close the performance gap with nondisadvantaged students. At a glance, the educational system within the United States seems to be making strong strides to improve student access, retention, and persistence (Engle & Tinto, 2008). Upon closer examination, however, one sees wide gaps in equality of degree attainment in higher education. Many gaps in degree attainment are among students considered as disadvantaged due to characteristics such as being a first-generation college student, requiring English and math remediation, from a low-income household, and identifying with an underrepresented minority (URM) ethnic group. This particular student population has encountered numerous academic challenges resulting in a much lower performance and achievement rate than their counterparts. The U.S. Department of Education (2013) has collected graduation rates among various ethnic groups. Data reveals 10% of African-American students and 9% of Hispanic students earned a bachelor’s degree, which is only slightly up from the 1999-2000 figures of 9% and 6% respectively. This stands in sharp contrast to the 72.9% of Caucasian students who have earned a four-year degree. In other words, Caucasian students are roughly seven times more likely to graduate with a bachelor’s degree than their URM peers. A similar situation is found with respect to socioeconomic status: the gap in achieving a four-year degree between lowand high-income students nearly doubled in the last 35 years (Engle & Tinto, 2008). Generally, then, major and widening gaps exist across ethnic and income lines. Engle and Tinto (2008) described the path to successful completion of a bachelor’s degree for most of the 4.5 million low-income, first-generation students enrolled in postsecondary education as “long, indirect, and uncertain” (p. 2). Across all institution types, low-income, first-generation students were nearly four times more likely to leave higher education after the first year when compared to students who did not have similar risk factors (Engle & Tinto, 2008). Such statistical evidence demonstrates the importance for postsecondary institutions to understand the needs of their disadvantaged student population and to implement successful interventions to reduce the existing performance and achievement gaps.
Mike Rose is a professor in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. He has taught in a wide range of educational settings-from elementary school to adult literacy and job training programs-and has directed an EOP tutorial center. He is a member of the National Academy of Education and a Founding Fellow of the Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Associations. His books include Lives on the Boundary: The Struggles and Achievements of America's Educationally Underprepared, Possible Lives: The Promise of Public Education in America, The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker, Why School?: Reclaiming Education for All of Us, and Back to School: Why Everyone Deserves a Second Chance at Education.Peter Adams (P.A.): Your own background mirrors the backgrounds of many students in develop - mental education. Your parents were immigrants, you grew up working class, and you were a firstgeneration college-goer. What have you learned from your own experience that might carry over to the work of the developmental educator?Mike Rose (M.R.): Well, I certainly understand the feeling of not belonging, of being a stranger in a strange land. This feeling is intensified if you're going to a school where many of your peers don't look and sound like you.I have a sense of what it's like to not know much about how college works: from lacking knowledge and strategies for selecting courses to being overwhelmed by the intricacies of financial aid. And I understand the unfamiliarity with resources and, maybe more to the point, the reluctance to use them. A lot of people who come from backgrounds like mine aren't savvy about the need to connect with instructors, to go to office hours if they're available, and to utilize tutorial and learning centers. Such behaviors, even if you're familiar with them, can feel like an admission of stupidity or a sign of weakness.A more complicated wrinkle here is that seeking academic help can clash with the common belief in western society that learning is an individual process, that we've got to bear down harder, discipline ourselves better; and if we still can't get the material, well, then, there's the proof of what we always suspected.. .were not smart enough for college. Getting students to see that learning is both an individual and social act can be a huge breakthrough.Perhaps because of my background, I've always seen the developmental course as being more than a skill-building course. Yes, absolutely, the developmental educator is helping students read or write better or be more mathematically competent. But I also think that the developmental program, when it's well-executed, is one of the few places where people learn how to be students, how to use resources, and how to study and manage time. The good developmental instructor also helps students explore some of their counter-productive ideas and feelings about literacy; mathematics; or about themselves, their ability, and what might be possible for them.P. A.: In the 27 years since you published Lives on the Boundary, you've written or edited 12 more books. How does Back to School, fit into your body of work? What have been the major themes that have tied your work together?M.R.: Let me start by summing up Back to School and working backwards. This is a book about the huge and growing number of students who are coming to school these days, from those in their early 20s to people who haven't been in a classroom in decades. These folks include students pursuing a GED, an occupational certificate, an Associate's degree, or who are preparing to transfer to a fouryear college. A number of people graciously let me into their lives, so readers of Back to School meet and come to know students with a wide range of backgrounds and goals, from young people who are for the first time seeing purpose in school; to people with a history in the criminal justice system; to 30-and 40-year-olds seeking substantial employment through a skilled trade; to women who have raised families and are setting out on the next phase of their lives; to burgeoning physicists, psychologists, and teachers. …
Although research had documented that developmental education was not as effective as it should be, current studies and experimentation by institutions in the 2011-2012 practicum time period continued to center upon various methods of acceleration. Within this focus, however, principles of instructional design sometimes moved away from best practices related to adult learning theory. The best-designed course cannot be effective without instructional strategies that address student learning needs.
Reich College of Education Appalachian State University Boone NC 28608 In a higher education c a re e r t h a t h a s spanned over four d e c a d e s Hu nt e r Boylan has served as a gang control work e r, a T R IO Program Director, a community college a n d u n i v e r s i t y instructor, a learning center director, an academic advisor and counselor, Director of the Kellogg Institute, Director of the National Center for Developmental Education, Director of the Doctoral Program in Developmental Education at Grambling State University, President of the National Association for Developmental Education, Chair of the Council of Learning Assistance and Developmental Education Associations, and professor and coordinator of Appalachian State University’s graduate program in adult and developmental education. He is the author of 7 books and over 100 articles, book chapters, and monographs on developmental instruction, evaluation, administration, professional development, and best practices. He has delivered over 100 keynote speeches at regional, national, and international conferences and has presented over 250 conference workshops and sessions. He is widely known as a speaker and consultant—including service for the Community College Research Center, the Lumina Achieving the Dream project, and the Gates Completion by Design Project--and is regularly quoted in the media for his views on adult and developmental education. Recently the National College Learning Center Association honored him by naming their research scholarship the “Hunter R. Boylan Research Award,” in recognition of his contributions to research in the field and the Association for the Tutoring Profession accorded him a similar honor. His favorite saying is “Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment.”
media (such as FB) was perceived as having no guarantees. A “Survey of Ed Tech Needs” was administered in 2010 and out of the 60 surveyed, social networking (FB, Myspace, Twitter) was rated at a low importance. Both skill level and level of importance for social networking (FB, Myspace, Twitter, etc.) were assessed: 18 of the 60 surveyed felt that social networking had a low importance and 15 felt that they had a low skill level.
a sense of community, and positive interaction with faculty (Duranczyk & Higbee, 2006). Another program aspect that has been shown to be a level one best practice for developmental mathematics is supplemental instruction (Wright, Wright & Lamb, 2002). Collaborative learning helps to reduce math anxiety among developmental students (Galbraith & Jones, 2006) and is a major component of Supplemental Instruction and a Structured Learning Assistance (SLA) program. SLA has the potential to address each of the factors outlined as it helps students to delve deeper into the subject matter with support from their SLA leader as well as their peers. Prior to my Kellogg Institute Practicum project, the Department of Academic Enrichment did not have any out of class support program to assist
