PRESENTATION

1. Identify an area where your college excels in supporting students with basic skills needs.
2. Identify an area where your college is challenged regarding supporting students with basic skills needs.

Basic Skills Regional Meeting at Cañada College April 23 and April 24

CONTACTS:

Cindy Lates, City College of San Francisco, cslates@ccsf.edu

Nathan Rice, City College of San Franciisco, nrice@ccsf.edu

http://www.ccsf.edu/Catalog/Admin/lrnrstus.html

Basic Skills Regional Meeting at Cañada College April 23 and April 24

CONTACT:

Cynthia Hicks, Chabot College, chicks@chabotcollege.edu

Presentations

http://www.chabotcollege.edu/learningconnection/wrac/

Basic Skills Regional Meeting at Cañada College April 23 and April 24

CONTACTS:

Basic Skills Regional Meeting at Cañada College April 23 and April 24

CONTACT:

Lynn Wright, Pasadena City College, lmwright@pasadena.edu

Watch video

Site :http://www.pasadena.edu/externalrelations/TLC/xl.cfm

Basic Skills Regional Meeting at Cañada College April 23 and April 24

CONTACT:

Diego Navarro, Cabrillo College, diego@cabrillo.edu

video

The Digital Bridge Academy
For a large and growing population of disadvantaged young adults, the path to higher education seems impossibly steep. Far too many emerge from high school academically and personally unprepared for college work. For low income and under-prepared students community colleges represent the only realistic avenue to higher education. Unfortunately, these students have not been well served by our community colleges. We need to find new ways to approach these students with a transformative educational
experience that will enable them to overcome their history of low academic achievement.
At the same time, with the world’s economy increasingly driven by digital technologies and a growing demand for knowledge workers with college degrees, the United States can no longer afford to let significant numbers of students drift away from community colleges without the
essential knowledge, technical skills, and credentials employers seek.
The Digital Bridge Academy (DBA) targets the needs of under-prepared and at-risk students while equipping them to succeed in the technology-driven 21st century economy. With higher retention rates than the average community college student population and improved academic success for students, the DBA has been remarkably successful. A highly collaborative enterprise that teaches teamwork and personal responsibility, DBA’s approach also promotes individuals’ self-exploration, self-improvement, and persistence. The result is a transformational learning
experience unlike any its students have previously known.
The DBA’s curriculum includes an array of proven and innovative strategies that give at-risk students the best chance to move successfully into regular community college academic programs. DBA’s semester of college-credit courses lights the fire of intellectual curiosity in students and
accelerates the acquisition of skills essential for academic success. Most importantly, the DBA helps students take charge of their learning through innovative teaching methods that create conditions supportive of learning in their minds, bodies, and lives. The DBA semester lets students reclaim the educational experience as their own and gives them a secure foothold on pathways to knowledge-based careers.

Basic Skills Regional Meeting at Cañada College April 23 and April 24

First Year Experience (Cañada College)

http://canadacollege.edu/fye/

Presentation

CONTACTS:
Kathy Sammut – Counselor – sammut@smccd.edu
(650) 306-3447

Byron Ramey – Counselor – rameyb@smccd.edu
(650) 306-3419

Jenny Castello – Interim Dean – castello@smccd.edu
(650) 306-3350

Basic Skills Regional Meeting at Cañada College April 23 and April 24

CONTACTS:

Salumeh Eslamieh   (English/Reading) eslamiehs@smccd.edu

Carla Stoner-Brito  (Counselor)

http://canadacollege.edu/crossingborders/

Basic Skills Regional Meeting at Cañada College April 23 and April 24

MAPS

CONTACT: Linda Retterath  linda_retterath@wvm.edu    Mission College

PRESENTATION

What is MAPS?
As part of the Title V grant, the Mathematics Department has worked on trying to improve the success of underrepresented students in Basic Skills math classes. Part of that effort has been the creation of the Math Achievement Pathway to Success (MAPS) program (the program has extended class time, a half-time counselor who works with students, dedicated tutors and an office assistant). Math 903M is Elementary Algebra and Math CM is Intermediate Algebra in the MAPS program (M for MAPS).

The results of MAPS
Our traditional Elementary Algebra classes historically have a success rate between 48 and 52% with an occasional success rate at 59%. The average success rate for Elementary Algebra in the MAPS program for the last 3 years has been 79%.

Intermediate Algebra historically has a success rate of less than 50% and the average success rate for the last two years for Intermediate Algebra in the MAPS program has been 92%!

The costs for F08-S09
Extra FTEF: (Math Dept. pays for)
Counselor: $30,250 (Title V)
Tutors: $6,048
Office Assistant: $8,505 (Matriculation has paid for)
Misc (brochures, duplicating, recognition ceremony): $2,000 (Title V)

The students lives it effects
Our MAPS students are a range of ages, for example in Math 903M 24% have been 41 yrs. old or older. These are highly motivated students who have had repeated trouble with math. Some students have told me that their problems with math started when they were in Elementary School. What these students have shown though, is that with the some extra time in math class, with the help of a counselor and extra tutoring help, they can be successful and the Algebra sequence doesn’t have to prevent them from achieving their academic goals. One of the exciting things is that with their success in math, there comes renewed confidence and excitement about other academic areas. Just this week I got an email from a MAPS student from last year who successfully took Statistics after the MAPS classes and is now a Business major at SJSU.

The future of MAPS
The Title V grant ends this September, so the Math Department has been working on trying to institutionalize this program. The Department feels strongly that this program needs to continue. We plan on continuing to offer the class, even if we don’t have a counselor who can work with our students. Matriculation and BSI will continue to help fund the office assistant and hopefully some tutor hours.

Basic Skills Regional Meeting at Cañada College April 23 and April 24

Learning Communities at the College of San Mateo

http://collegeofsanmateo.edu/integrativelearning/learningcommunities/

CONTACTS:

James Carranza       carranzaj@smccd.edu

Lucia Olson         olsonl@smccd.edu

Student perspectives-video

• Writing in the End Zone-Presentation- Document with details
• It’s All Good in Da Hood
• Rising Scholars
• Sports Learning Community

Professional Development Project Proposals

Writing in the End Zone (Football and English Student-Athlete Contract)

Video for English (Writing in the End Zone)

In the Loop: BALN is the first of monthly posts that will be a way to connect with the larger community.  In this post you will find out about events, discussion, and plans to support student success.

Help build this network by providing feedback on how your colleagues can address the challenges below-or add some questions/challenges of your own.

Here are some challenges identified on my visit to various campuses:

• How does the college ensure appropriate placement and pre-requisites?
• The lack of automated reports detailing student backgrounds/placement/basic skills courses taken on department and course level, as well as on the success of basic skills students is a challenge.
• Faculty is resistant to change. How do you address this?
• What are some ways to juggle out-of-the box ideas with budget constraints?
• Students have basic skills needs in all classes, not just official basic skills classes. How can we create an understanding of this?
• How do we allocate funds appropriately? We are doing catch-up without first establishing priorities.
• There is a need to establish Learning Community processes and programs.

Supporting Reading Skills in History Classes (Read the complete report)
Bringing History Texts to Life

These workshops were offered after assessing student needs in History and Social Science classes. They were offered during class time, but were open for all students and faculty on a first-come-first-served basis.

Because the workshops were offered consecutively over two days, students had ample opportunity to attend these workshops. For the first time at Cañada College, these workshops were offered through close collaboration with the History, Reading Departments, Learning Center, and Library.

Some of you have requested information from the Basic Skills Coordinator Trainings in 2008.

http://sites.google.com/site/basicskillscoordinators/Home

This website is a compilation of notes, prsentations and information from the trainings.  Please add to this resource by adding links to other resources.

If you are interested in other resources, please add a comment.

Information Competency and Basic Skills

March 31, 2009

The Basic Skills Committee at Cañada College invited Bonnie Gratch-Lindauer (bgratch@ccsf.edu) from City College of San Francisco to share information regarding information competency support for students with basic skills needs.  Based on her research , she guided faculty, staff and librarians on strategies and concepts that can help support students information competency needs.

Key Findings

• Skills training must be integrated into other college experience (no evidence that generic training works)
• Supplemental instruction that targets high risk students is very effective (e.g., tutoring, workshops, mentoring)
• Learning communities are highly effective
• One library information instruction session is insufficient – has to be multiple sessions
• Homepages featuring resources have to user friendly (reviewed by students). The Cañada College Library ESL Gateway is a good model.

Striking absence of references to library in research on Basic Skills and Developmental Education – need for work in this area. Integrate a discussion of how to integrate library instruction into June Learning Communities planning retreat.

Network of Illinois Learning Resources in Community Colleges: federal grant to improve outreach to High Schools, collaboration with HS Librarians: http://www.nilrc.org/

City College San Francisco Library Basic Skills Activities

• Initially designated one person to focus entirely on basic skills courses & curriculum
• Increased their web presence on every site that reaches basic skills students (EOPS, Learning Center, etc etc.)
• Collections: used Basic Skills and Title V money to buy books (high interest/low reading level books that come with CD or DVD; audio books; Spanish language books; resources for introductory courses across the curriculum),
• Instead of Juvenile (low-level non-fiction), used Basic Skills as a subject heading
• Changed Mission Statement to include Basic Skills
• Outreach: curriculum, programs, exhibits
• Establishing on-going outreach with an assigned person to each department and program (e.g. EOPS), attend their meetings. Targeted ESL, Reading, English
• Orientation not just to library, but to student services on campus
• Courses assign particular workshops, usually 3 for each course. Students get a proof of Have a “new books” section on the webpage. Ability to browse, identify basic skills materials
• For any topic or event on campus: pull out a book truck with materials, be conscious about including materials in Spanish
• Took suggestions from librarians and faculty (their reading lists), created a browsing collection based on readings/assignments for their courses. Purchased a lot of books that come with audio.
• Looked at demographics of the college – culturally and linguistically relevant materials
• Think about e-books & audio books we currently have: who’s using them? How do they work?

So for example, we might purchase multiple copies of Dreams of My Father in large print, audio, and Spanish.

Improving Library Services for Basic Skills Students and Courses: Sabbatical Report, Spring 2007 by Bonnie Gratch Lindauer, Rosenberg Library, City College of San Francisco, 20 August 2007.

http://www.topsy.org/sabbprojreplong.pdf

This report summarizes a literature review, presents the results of a survey of California community college librarians regarding basic skills services, and presents specific recommendations to improve outreach and service.

Students information revision and design

http://www.nilrc.org/IMLS/default.asp

Toolkit of Lesson Plans

students in classroomThe Toolkit for Success is designed to help teachers/faculty and librarians work together to address the information literacy needs of their at-risk high school and community college students.

Teachers, faculty and librarians may use any portion of the toolkit at no charge. In order to make the most effective use of the resources, it is important that the components be integrated into the course curriculum.

While the toolkit targets at-risk students in their first year of community college, we have found that most high school and college students can benefit from assessment and instruction that focuses on basic information literacy skills.

Thanks to Salumeh Eslamieh (BSI Coordinator) and Michelle Morton (Reference Librarian) for organizing this event and sharing notes.