Preparing students for college-level reading and writing. Developmental Redesign and Institutional Vision

Front Range Community College Two-year institution with four campuses (Denver/Metro, Brighton, Longmont/Boulder County, Fort Collins) and an online FTE equal to our Boulder county campus. We are the largest 2-year school in the state. We serve over 20,000 students each semester. Semester-to-semester retention rates in 2012 hovered around 57%. 19% of our students are not white. 26.6% of our students are 18-22, and 43.4% of our students are

FRCC’s redesigned developmental reading/writing— Imagine that Chabot College and Community College of Baltimore County had a baby…it looks like this: Reading is no longer taught as a separate discipline. Reading process is incorporated into all of our developmental coursework. Redesigned courses have a “CCR” (College Composition and Reading) designation. All CCR courses matriculate to a college-level composition course—students have no more than one semester of remediation. Reading and writing is highly contextualized within disciplines; academic arguments are the focus. The sequence is dead. Fewer exit points where students can stop or drop out.

CCR 092 Serves students who place two levels below college composition. One semester, 5 credits. Embedded support to address affective needs. Integrated reading/writing. Students testing at this level must be enrolled in CCR 092 if they also want to take Guaranteed Transfer ( level) courses in the same semester. Students who successfully complete 092 matriculate to ENG 121 (Comp 1) the following semester.

CCR 093—”Studio D” (for discipline) Serves students who test one level below college composition. Integrates reading and writing into a particular discipline (Learning Community), or into a range of disciplines (writing for the Social and Behavioral Sciences, for instance). 3 credits. Perfect for students who don’t need ENG 121. Perfect for students who are afraid of writing. Students testing at this level must be enrolled in CCR 093 if they also want to take Guaranteed Transfer ( level) courses in the same semester. Students who successfully complete 093 matriculate to ENG 121 (Comp 1) the following semester.

CCR 094—Studio 121 (mainstreamed) Serves students who test one level below college composition. Allows students to complete College Composition while receiving additional support. CCR 094 “unpacks” the ENG 121 curriculum. 6 credits—3 for CCR 094 and 3 for ENG 121. Perfect for students who want to dive right into their college writing. Students testing at this level must be enrolled in CCR 094 if they also want to take Guaranteed Transfer ( level) courses in the same semester. Students who successfully complete Studio 121 matriculate to ENG 122, Comp 2, the following semester.

Key components of the new model: Ongoing professional development. Paradigm shift—not always comfortable. Embedded support for students. Larger blocks of time devoted to reading and writing = more efficient mastery. Students are challenged at a high level, and our data shows they are succeeding!

Challenges Finding faculty consensus—what do we teach? Is reading subsumed? Are students being served? How do we create curriculum that is consistent but also honors the culture and slightly different populations at each campus? Funding ongoing professional development and embedded support services. Advising students into the right course (093 vs. 094, for instance). Making Banner and scheduling work with the new model. Dev redesign is making us rethink how we teach transfer courses.

Questions? What is working at your college? What are the fears around redesign? How will your culture need to change? Others?