Engaging Multiple Voices: The Expectations, Risks, and Rewards of Collaboration

What Would You Do? Good news: Partnership opportunity with a local high school! The school wants a senior year course that would prepare students for college writing and prepare them to pass the placement test Pick one of the following to freewrite about for a few minutes (or discuss with a colleague):

How would you… Design the course so that it meets both parts of the goal (preparation for college writing and the placement test)? Partner with local high schools to help students meet the above goals? Measure success? Give advice to high school teachers about how to meet the above goals? Give administrators advice about the selection of teachers and students?

Challenges for High School Instructors New class material in the face of multiple preps Need to completely re-imagine existing course Average student GPA 1.8 (in September 2013) Unprepared and unmotivated students placed in the class who didn’t understand the purpose of the course or the importance of the COMPASS Lack of compensation

More Challenges for High School Instructors  Time Commitment  Two meetings with college instructors  Two meetings with colleagues  Two grade norming sessions  One new prep  One observation

Even More Challenges for High School Instructors “The biggest challenge for me at the onset of this partnership was the content. I felt as though I was told that I had to teach CSCC curriculum. However, being bound by Common Core State Standards, I couldn't teach CSCC’s curriculum.”

Challenges for CSCC Instructors Lack of understanding of existing high school courses Different schedule-semesters versus quarters Need to blend two different levels of Developmental Education writing and reading courses into one year-long HS course

Reading Assignments Some high school instructors reluctant to shift from British Literature to non-fiction Some high school instructors thought students found college textbooks dry

Common Core?

Common Core: Key Changes Regular practice with complex texts and their academic language. Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from texts, both literary and informational. Building knowledge through content- rich non-fiction. SOURCE: language-arts/

More Challenges for CSCC Instructors Lack of time with high school instructors Lack of requirements for high school instructors to use CSCC material Lack of clearly defined roles Lack of compensation

Even More Challenges for CSCC Instructors Communication and scheduling issues Staffing shifts Differences in expectations

Percentage of Students Who Tested Below College-Level Writing After Year One CCHS = 56% not college ready in writing FHHS = 48% not college ready in writing GCHS = 83% not college ready in writing SWCA= 60% not college ready in writing

Grade Norming Session I Different definitions of voice Different definitions of the writing process Different ideas about privileging effort and motivation over the qualify of the final product in high school classes

Grade Norming Session II College Instructors’ Areas of Concern  Introductions/Conclusions  Thesis statements  Use of textual evidence  Proper citations  Voice  Style  Development of body paragraphs  Lack of engagement with the text High School Teachers’ Areas of Concern Students’ lack of motivation Students’ refusal to revise Administrative pressure to pass the students

Rewards “I spend much more time on writing skills than I did before, and I believe that our partnership has given me freedom to do that! I am seeing growth in my students’ writing skills - all due to our conversations of what’s truly important for kids to know. I don't use many of the reading assignments suggested, but I have been able to discern what reading and writing skills students need so they can enter credit-bearing classes at CSCC. We've had such rich discussion of what skills our kids lack, and I feel that discussion has made me a better teacher.” --one high school instructor who was in the program for two years

More Rewards End of year ( ) general discussion found that some students thought the shift from literature to non-fiction encouraged by the college was more applicable to real life Grade norming sessions provided fruitful conversations about college expectations and the high school experience High school instructors re-evaluated curriculum somewhat to reflect college standards/processes College instructors created the College Readiness Conference

Directions for the Future: Reflecting Back on the Risks, Rewards, and Where We Go From Here

First Step: Invite Local High School Teachers to a Symposium We share our curriculum/strateg ies with HS teachers HS teachers make changes where possible in their curriculum HS students transition more smoothly to college courses

Our Marketing Plan…

Our Symposium Agenda

Challenges: from Conference Reflections How to convey what we do more quickly so that we can include productive discussion sessions How to help everyone to stay on task; lots of frustrations and emotions come up with these issues; what’s the desired outcome for us and for them How to advocate for change without administrator buy-in (HS teachers wished we would have invited guidance counselors and high school administrators to whom they were accountable)

Challenges: the Future Should we hold a conference annually? How can we meet the needs of returning and new teachers? Should we just continue to focus on building local partnerships to meet the goals of individual schools? (We’re moving into yr. 3 of our project with SWCS; what is our end goal?) Should we broaden our outreach program: visiting local high school classes, making videos on college expectations, etc.?

What Would You Do? Good news: Partnership opportunity with a local high school! The school wants a senior year course that would prepare students for college writing and prepare them to pass the placement test Pick one of the following to freewrite about for a few minutes (or discuss with a colleague):

How would you… Design the course so that it meets both parts of the goal (preparation for college writing and the placement test)? Partner with local high schools to help students meet the above goals? Measure success? Give advice to high school teachers about how to meet the above goals? Give administrators advice about the selection of teachers and students?