Completion of Educational Pathways Craig Rutan, Curriculum and Instruction Council Chair 2013 Fall Academic Senate Retreat

Student Completion One of the primary challenges facing community colleges is increasing the number of students completing their educational goals. Currently an educational goal is defined as completing a degree, certificate, or transferring to a university but that definition may broaden with education plans.

Prerequisites A prerequisite is a required criteria (completion of a course, minimum GPA, etc) that a student MUST satisfy to enroll. Prerequisites should only be added to courses if the student MUST complete the prerequisite to be successful. This does not mean that you every student that took your course without completing the prerequisite would fail. Prerequisites are established upon approval by the Curriculum and Instruction Council and the Board of Trustees

Content Review Does your class require a lot of writing or specific math skills to be successful? Currently, the only way to add a prerequisite writing, reading, or computation is through statistical data validation. Title 5 was changed in 2011 to allow districts to use content review instead of statistical validation. This would require a change to board policy and the administrative regulation!

Won’t My Enrollment Drop? Adding a prerequisite could cause your enrollment to drop but we shouldn’t make curricular decisions based on enrollment fears. If students will be more successful having completed the prerequisite, doesn’t it make sense to add it? Students get very frustrated when they enroll in a course and then find out that they aren’t really ready for it.

Aren’t Prerequisites An Unnecessary Burden? We should never add a prerequisite just because we think it is a good idea. Students already have to take many classes and forcing them to take additional ones should only happen when it is absolutely necessary.

Major Preparation Freshman and Sophomore level coursework for baccalaureate degrees Equivalent / Acceptable coursework at the CC and CSU or UC Designates foundation for upper-level study in a discipline

Isn’t That Just for STEM? While STEM majors have been dealing with major preparation for years, many other majors are beginning to look at major preparation as well. How many of you have looked at the major preparation options in your major at your local CSUs and UCs?

What Our Students Need to Know! Student preparation for transfer is now more important than ever. All UC campuses are selective admission Nearly all CSU campuses are impacted Many have designated completion of sets of coursework for admission Completion of GE may be secondary focus for admission selection

ASSIST to the Rescue For faculty to be open to changing their curriculum, they need to know what gaps exist, where to start. Show them how they can look at your articulation agreements on ASSIST. They will be able to see lower division courses their students get credit for and those that they don’t. Course-to-Course vs Course-to-Requirement Knowledge is power!

Does Your Area Have a Complete Pathway? We have several areas where the student can begin their path but not complete it at SCC. We need to determine if these pathways should be built to completion or if we take those areas out of our catalog.

Degree/Certificate Completion We are being asked to increase the number of students completing degrees and certificates. Does your department ensure that all of the required courses are being offered on a regular basis? If your program has multiple degrees, are students earning all of them? What does one degree offer that the other does not? Transfer degrees are not going anywhere!

Summary One way to improve student success could be through adding prerequisites. Content review could be used but we would need to change policy. Major preparation is becoming increasing important for all majors. Make sure that you have a complete pathway for students. Required courses for degrees and certificates need to be scheduled regularly.