15+ YEARS OF ACCELERATED READING AND WRITING: CHABOT AND LAS POSITAS COMMUNITY COLLEGES Catherine Eagan, Las Positas College Katie Hern, Chabot College (In absentia: Elena Cole, Las Positas College)

CALIFORNIA ACCELERATION PROJECT Supporting California’s 112 Community Colleges To Redesign Developmental English and Math Curricula And Increase Student Completion An initiative of the California Community Colleges’ Success Network (3CSN), funded through the Basic Skills Initiative of the state Chancellor’s Office. Additional support from the Walter S. Johnson Foundation, LearningWorks, and “Scaling Innovation,” a project of the Community College Research Center funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Katie Hern, Director Myra Snell, Math Lead

Accelerated English at 2 colleges Reading & writing integrated at all levels (no separate courses or faculty) Two paths for students who don’t qualify for college-level English: One-semester accelerated course OR Two-semester course sequence Most developmental students begin in accelerated course one-level-below college Chabot: 70% of entry-level developmental enrollment Las Positas: 80% of entry-level developmental enrollment

Placement: Accelerated or not? Chabot: Accuplacer determines only college- level English eligibility; below that line, students self-place into either accelerated or two- semester paths Las Positas: Since Spring 2010, students scoring below 63 on both Accuplacer tests (5% of students) take non-accelerated path, all other developmental students placed into accelerated.

Completion of College English Over the last decade, accelerated students have gone on to complete college English at much higher rates Non- Accelerated Accelerated Chabot28%-34%52%-57% Las Positas35%-48%67%-68% 3-year completion data from the Basic Skills Cohort Tracker. Student cohorts beginning in Fall 2000, 2003, 2006, and Repeats included. Available through

Pass Rates inside College English Among those who do enroll in college English, accelerated students pass the course at rates equal to or higher than students from the longer path. Non- Accelerated Accelerated Chabot76%-84%80-87% Las Positas81%-89%87-89% 3-year completion data from the Basic Skills Cohort Tracker. Student cohorts beginning in Fall 2000, 2003, 2006, and Repeats included. Available through

Chabot College See sample course materials - handout, also available at Accelerated-Classroom-revised.pdf Accelerated-Classroom-revised.pdf English Department shared teaching principles: ophy.asp ophy.asp

Las Positas College Current Program Structure Non- Accelerated Course (100A) Accelerated Course (104/105) Transfer-Level Course (1A)

Las Positas College’s Accelerated Class 4 units 6 hours a week 1 level below transfer Integrates reading and writing Pass/No Pass Placement: Students have an Accuplacer score of 63 or higher on either the reading or writing.*

*Note about Placement We began piloting placement in our accelerated course three years ago. This led to more students enrolling in the accelerated course. For example, in Fall 2012, of 1,333 first-time college students who took the assessment test at LPC, 32 % (429) assessed into transfer-level 58% (773) assessed into the accelerated course 5% (67) assessed into the non-accelerated course 3% assessed into Learning Skills 1% assessed as needing ESL Data from LPC’s Office of Institutional Research. Includes students who registered for classes but did not enroll, about 45 students.

Features of the Program Highly collaborative faculty, teaching a shared curriculum that focuses on integrated reading and writing skills. Support from instructional assistants who work closely with faculty and students. Holistically graded final. Non-accelerated students who earn 90% may take the final, and, if they pass, skip to transfer-level English. Five faculty piloted sentence-combining this past semester. This fall, program will shift away from error-focused text to Altman et. al.’s Sentence Combining Workbook (4 th ed.)

Challenge and Insight # 1 Challenge: Helping students with a diversity of skills, needs, and talents reach their potential in one semester. Insight: Students and teachers must begin with a “growth mindset.”

Challenge and Insight #1: Continued Carol Dweck defines the growth mindset as “the belief that intelligence is a potential that can be realized through learning.”

Challenge and Insight # 1: Continued Even as our accelerated courses are rigorous and challenging environments, they work with students’ “zone of proximal development” to provide additional support, or scaffolding, to help students master complex tasks.

Challenge and Insight # 1: Continued Lev Vygotsky defines this “zone” as “the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under... guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers.”

Challenge and Insight # 2 Challenge: Students in an accelerated class are impeded by social and emotional challenges Insight: Students benefit from support for affective issues.

Challenge and Insight # 3 Challenge: Basic Skills students can feel overwhelmed by the thought of what they can’t do. Insight: Students benefit from instruction focused on what they can do rather than what they can’t.

Challenge and Insight #4 Challenge: Students sometimes struggle initially when they are challenged. Their writing might regress somewhat as they try something new. Insight: Teachers also benefit from focusing on what they can do rather than what they can’t. They should not shy away from challenging assignments or blame themselves, but provide more scaffolding, make students feel safe as they develop.

Contact Information: Elena Cole, Las Positas English Instructor and former department coordinator (spearheaded the development of our curriculum to address reading more thoroughly, using Expository Reading and Writing Curriculum (ERWC) developed by the California State University ( Elena is also the author of “Group Think” and “Hero’s Journey” units) Catherine Eagan, Las Positas English Instructor and current department coordinator (author of “Racial Profiling” unit Lead Instructor on upcoming pilot to integrate the lowest-scoring 5% of students into an accelerated course one-level-below, with additional support.) Katie Hern, Chabot English Instructor and Director of the California Acceleration Project.

Bibliography Berrett, Dan. “Habits of Mind: Lessons for the Long Term.” The Chronicle of Higher Education 8 Oct Web. 23 Oct Dweck, Carol. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House, Vygotsky, L. S. Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1978.