C ALIFORNIA C OMMUNITY C OLLEGES ’ S UCCESS N ETWORK C ALIFORNIA A CCELERATION P ROJECT Coming up to Acceleration: History, Process, and Progress at San Diego Mesa College Pegah Motaleb and Wendy Smith Conference on College Composition and Communication Indianapolis 2014

Who is familiar with accelerated models of developmental writing?

N ON -A CCELERATED E NGLISH S TUDENTS E NROLLED IN B ASIC S KILLS W RITING C OURSE 2 L EVELS B ELOW T RANSFER Note: Students tracked from Fall 2010 through Spring 2013; includes only students who enrolled in English 043. Source: SDCCD Information System

Weeding Students Out of College: English-Writing in California Students’ Starting Placement English-Writing % Completing Transfer-Level English in 3 Years One Level Below48% Two Levels Below34% Three or more Levels Below19% Statewide data, Basic Skills Cohort Tracker, Fall Spring 2012

C ALIFORNIA B ASIC S KILLS S TUDENTS : C OMPLETION Sources: California Community College Student Success Scorecard

DISPROPORTIONATE IMPACT A CROSS C ALIFORNIA 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.

A CCELERATED R EADING, W RITING AND R EASONING Fall 2010: 2 of 3 colleges in the San Diego Community College District piloted Accelerated Basic Writing: Open-access one-semester 4-unit course Integrates reading and writing (based on Chabot College model) Since 2010, San Diego Mesa has offered 24 courses.

P HILOSOPHY Throughout the sequence of developmental and transfer-level English courses, students develop increasing mastery in college-level academic literacy, specifically the ability to: Independently read & understand complex academic texts Critically respond to the ideas and information in those texts Write essays integrating ideas and information from those texts FROM THE CHABOT ACCELERATION REPORT BY KATIE HERN, 2012

P LACING L OWER BUT S UCCEEDING B ETTER Across all five terms of implementation… 49% placed at 2 levels below in writing Compared to just 19% of non-accelerated students 31% placed at 2 levels below in reading Compared to 9% of non-accelerated students Note: Students are unduplicated across five terms

E NROLLMENT AND S UCCESS IN T RANSFER E NGLISH 85 Students 58 Successful in English 047A 51 Enrolled in ENGL 101/ Successful in ENGL 101/105 75% of those enrolled/ 45% of Cohort 1,409 Students 971 Successful in Non-Accel Basic Skills English 684 Enrolled in ENGL 101/ Successful in ENGL 101/105 85% of those enrolled/ 41% of cohort Accelerated English Students - ALL Non-Accelerated English Students - ALL Non-Accelerated Students – 2 Levels Below Writing 270 Students 122 Successful in Non-Accel Basic Skills English 101 Enrolled in ENGL 101/ Successful in ENGL 101/105 78% of those enrolled/ 29 % of cohort

One-Semester Accelerated pre-requisite to college English Chabot Las Positas Community College District Integrated reading and writing course open to students with any placement score below college-level; alternative to two-semester remedial sequence. Completion of College English 3-year completion data from the Basic Skills Cohort Tracker. Student cohorts beginning in Fall 2000, 2003, 2006, and Repeats included.

B UT THERE A RE S OME S KEPTICS Hunter Boylan and Alexandros Goudas “Knee-Jerk Reforms on Remediation” (2012) Some of the voices in our department

H UNTER B OYLAN AND A LEXANDROS G OUDAS Claim 1: Acceleration advocates unfairly portray developmental education as ineffective because it does not lead to outcomes better than those of college-ready students. Claim 2: They neglect the results of studies that find positive outcomes of developmental education. Claim 3: They overgeneralize from results that are only valid for students near the developmental education cutoff scores.

C OMMUNITY C OLLEGE R ESEARCH C ENTER “Characterizing the Effectiveness of Developmental Education: A Response to Recent Criticism” (2013) Thomas Bailey, Shanna Smith Jaggars, Judith Scott-Clayton

R ESPONSE TO B OYLAN AND G OUDAS ’ CLAIMS Claim 1: The best way to measure whether accelerated developmental courses are effective is to compare students who are and are not assigned to accelerated courses. Not the performance of remediated students with those who are non-remediated. Claim 2: The results of such studies are not necessarily positive. Rather, they are null. Claim 3: This claim is a reasonable one, but, keep in mind, the definition of “marginally college-ready” varies widely across institutions and therefore also varies from study to study.

N IKKI E DGECOMBE Senior Research Associate, Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University “Accelerating the Academic Achievement of Students Referred to Developmental Education” (2011)

E DGECOMBE ’ S RECOMMENDATIONS Review assessment and placement Redesign curriculum pathways Recruit students Get faculty buy-in Highlight financial sustainability Negotiate administrative logistics Present actionable research

T HIS I S W HAT AN A CCELERATED C LASSROOM LOOKS LIKE

THE W AYS S TUDENTS IN A CCELERATED C OURSES L EARN TO M ANAGE T EXT student-video/

T HE B UMPY R IDE C ONTINUES … Spring 2014: 6 sections Summer 2014: 5 sections Fall 2014: 5 sections Spring 2014: 6 sections Summer 2014: 5 sections Fall 2014: 5 sections

S TAY S TRONG

Works Cited Bailey, Thomas, Shanna Smith-Jaggars, and Judith Scott-Clayton. Characterizing the Effectiveness of Developmental Education: A Response to Recent Criticism. New York: Community College Research Center, Boylan, Hunter, and Alexandros Goudas. "Knee-Jerk Reforms on Remediation." Inside Higher Ed (2012). California Community Colleges Student Success Scorecard. California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, Web. 20 Mar Edgecombe, Nikki. "Accelerating the Academic Achievement of Students Referred to Developmental Education." Feb TS. Goulding, Carrie. IVC Student Interviews. California Acceleration Project. 3CSN.org, 29 Jan Web. 20 Mar Hern, Katie. Chabot Acceleration Report : 3CSN, Perry, M., et al. "Course-Taking Patterns, Policies, and Practices in Developmental Education in the California Community Colleges." EdSource. EdSource, Web. SDCCD Information System. June Raw data. Statewide Data : California Community College Chancellor's Office, Basic Skills Cohort Tracker. Web. Jan

PARKING LOT

E NGLISH 047A S TUDENTS : S AN D IEGO M ESA Across all five terms of implementation… 456 distinct students enrolled in the accelerated class 5,671 enrolled in non-accelerated courses 21% Asian/Pacific Islander 40% Latino 11% African American 50%/50% Female-Male Ratio 80% between 18 and 24 years old Note: Students are unduplicated across five terms

T HE P ROBLEM : E XPONENTIAL A TTRITION How many students will pass the college-level course? If this was the student’s initial placement… And these were the rates at which they passed each class and persisted to the next class in the sequence… 70% (now)80% (better)90% (pie in sky!) 1 level below transfer 34%51%73% 2 levels below17%33%59% 3 levels below8%21%48% From Hern, “Exponential Attrition and the Promise of Acceleration”