Break-Out Sessions
In each of the breakout sessions, participants will engage in discussion about a panel presentation topic with an additional expert on the topic and have the opportunity to ask questions about the panelist’s research paper. Some sessions present related topics that could not be included in the panel sessions.
Session 2: Discrete Reforms of Developmental Education
2A: Learning Communities—Garden Room 1
Evan Weissman (MDRC), Donna McKusick (Community College of Baltimore County), and Rachel Singer (Achieving the Dream) will dig deeper into the findings from NCPR’s Learning Communities Demonstration. The session will examine both the theory and the real-world implementation of learning communities and generate a discussion about the benefits and limitations of developmental education learning communities as a tool for student success. The presenters will work with the audience to consider the implications of the research for future programs and practice.
2B: Acceleration/Compression Models—Seminar Room 2
Math Redesign at Broward College in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has implemented a compression model with a standardized curriculum that uses instructional videos during class and Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces (ALEKS), a software package with similar features to MyMathLab, which is based on frequent assessments for creating a more individualized set of practice problems. The session will also highlight a compressed developmental math strategy developed in 2005 as part of Community College of Denver's acceleration initiative, FastStart@CCD, including a discussion of student outcomes, logistical challenges, and the cultural shift that accompanies institutionalization. With Mary Visher (MDRC), Hank Martel (Broward College), and Elaine Baker (Community College of Denver).
2C: Statistics-Based Approaches to Math Developmental Education—Garden Room 2
This session presents two new models of developmental math course redesign, Path2Stats and Statway. Myra Snell (Los Medanos College) and Lucy Michal (El Paso Community College) will facilitate a discussion about shortening and redesigning the developmental math course sequence from a pathway into college-level algebra to a pathway to and thru college-level statistics. They will discuss implementation challenges and promising consequences of creating a statistics pathway with an emphasis on the pivotal role of faculty in both the California Acceleration Project and the multistate Statway initiative.
2D: Modularized Math with Software—Seminar Room 1
ModMath at Tarrant County College in Fort Worth, Texas, is a modularized math program with a competency-based curriculum delivered through MyMathLab, an instructional software package produced by Pearson that offers unlimited practice problems and built-in help features. An initial diagnostic test places students precisely based on their skill levels in the competencies covered in the modules. With Greta Harris-Hardland (Tarrant County College) and Karen Wyrick (Cleveland State Community College).
2E: Accelerated Learning Program (English Acceleration)—Seminar Room 3/4
Katie Hern (Chabot College) and Peter Adams (Community College of Baltimore County) will discuss the problem that acceleration is intended to address and describe the models of accelerated English in place at their institutions. For the remainder of the hour, they will lead a discussion on such topics as why acceleration works, what an accelerated classroom looks like, and the successes and challenges of spreading accelerated models to other colleges.
Session 3: Strengthening the Academic Skills of Community College Students Through Reforming the Relationship Between High School and College
3A: Dual Enrollment—Garden Room 1
Evidence is accumulating that dual enrollment likely has positive benefits for students. However, there are many different program models and approaches to dual enrollment. Presenters from two colleges that participated in the California Concurrent Courses Initiative, which was evaluated by NCPR, will share their program designs and describe how they work with their high school partners to provide college opportunities to students who would otherwise not have those experiences. Discussion will focus on whether particular program aspects are more or less important to positive student outcomes. With Suzanne Korey (City College of San Francisco) and Diane Hollems (Santa Barbara City College).
3B: Early Assessment: Preparing Students for College in High School—Seminar Room 2
In this session, Julie Alexander (Florida Department of Education) will share Florida’s efforts to align high school exit requirements with college entry expectations to reduce the need for remediation after high school graduation. Florida’s multifaceted college readiness initiative includes expanding college placement testing to high schools and offering postsecondary preparatory instruction prior to high school graduation, establishing a definition of college readiness and common college-ready competencies, and developing a customized placement assessment based on the college-ready competencies. Alexander will also discuss statewide implementation of common developmental education competencies and courses aligned with the placement test and associated diagnostic assessment.
3C: Summer Bridge—Garden Room 2
In this session, Irma Camacho (El Paso Community College) will lead a conversation to explore the findings of the NCPR research on summer bridge programs. The session will identify the most important aspects of the student experience and implications for improving academic, psychological, and emotional factors in the preparation of incoming students. Finally, the session will explore future revisions to policy and programming practices that are suggested by the research findings.
3D: College Readiness Partnerships—Seminar Room 1
College readiness partnership programs are co-sponsored by a college and a high school and focus on making sure that students enter college well prepared. Of the many program models employed by college readiness partnerships, which hold the most promise? In this session, Elisabeth Barnett (Community College Research Center) and Becky Rodriguez (G-Force) will lead a discussion of the elements of these programs that are most likely to result in good student outcomes—and which are most likely to be sustainable in the current economy.
3E: Alternative Approaches to Assessment and Placement—Seminar Room 3/4
Given the limitations of the most commonly used commercial assessments, Ed Bowling (Guilford Technical Community College) will facilitate a discussion of alternative approaches to assessing income students, including the use of multiple measures, noncognitive assessments, and self-placement.
Session 4: Improving Developmental Education Through More Comprehensive Reform
4A: Achieving the Dream/Developmental Education Initiative—Garden Room 1
In this session Kathleen Cleary (Sinclair Community College) will discuss Sinclair’s work to accelerate developmental education in math, English, and reading. Cleary will provide an overview of developmental education initiatives, including boot camps, placing developmental students in college-level English with supplemental instruction, and modularizing the developmental math curriculum. The conversation will center on the process used to build the models, success data for each of the initiatives, and lessons learned.
4B: Accelerated Study in Associate Programs—Garden Room 2
The City University of New York (CUNY) Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP) was created in fall 2007 with funding from the New York City Center for Economic Opportunity. ASAP, designed to significantly improve the degree attainment rates of participants, is found at all six existing CUNY community colleges. Donna Linderman (CUNY ASAP), Michael Weiss (MDRC), and Sue Scrivener (MDRC) will lead a discussion on ASAP program components that have substantially improved outcomes for students with developmental needs, an implementation overview, and the recently announced expansion of CUNY ASAP.
4C: New Community College, CUNY—Seminar Room 2
Stuart Cochran (CUNY) and Nicola Blake (CUNY) will provide an overview of the New Community College at CUNY, a new model for associate degree education. They will discuss the first year curriculum—a City Seminar focused on one or two critical issues, with integrated reading/writing and quantitative literacy workshops and a group work space with peer mentors; an ethnography of work course; and a year-long statistics course—as well as their proposed approach to helping students stay on track with a 12 week/6 week semester structure that allows recovery during 6-week sessions. Audience members are encouraged to participate in the conversation.
4D: Completion by Design—Seminar Room 3/4
This session will examine ideas for increasing student success that are being tested by community colleges involved in the Gates Foundation–funded Completion by Design (CBD) initiative. Davis Jenkins (Community College Research Center) and Terri Manning (Central Piedmont Community College) will discuss key findings from the extensive analysis of student pathways that the CBD colleges have conducted in concert with the Community College Research Center and strategies the colleges are implementing based on this analysis to increase on a substantial scale the rates at which students enter and complete a program of study.
4E: Virginia Development Education Reforms—Seminar Room 1
Developmental mathematics in the Virginia Community College System has radically changed. The implementation of the redesign began in January 2012 in each of Virginia’s 23 community colleges. During the spring 2012 semester, the Developmental Math Implementation Support Team visited each college to provide support for colleges in the midst of redesign, to gather preliminary information about college implementation, and to hear questions and concerns so they can be addressed to strengthen the success of the implementation. This session, led by Jane Serbousek (Northern Virginia Community College), will include a discussion of preliminary feedback from colleges and mechanisms for providing support in an environment of change.