A CCELERATION : A P OWERFUL L EVER FOR I NCREASING C OMPLETION AND C LOSING E QUITY G APS A PPLICATION W ORKSHOP – C OMMUNITY C OLLEGES B ASIC S KILLS AND STUDENT OUTCOMES TRANSFORMATION PROGRAM Jason Kalchik Professor of English San Diego Mesa College Accelerated Basic English at San Diego Mesa College

T HE C ALIFORNIA A CCELERATION P ROJECT CAP supports colleges to increase student completion of transfer- level English and math through evidence-based practices that reduce or eliminate students’ time in remediation. High-Leverage Practices: Transforming placement policies to broaden access to transfer-level courses and enable all students to begin higher in the sequence Contextualizing math remediation to students’ program of study -- algebra for math-intensive pathways, statistics & quantitative reasoning for others Redesigning curricula to accelerate students through remediation, including co-requisite models at the transfer-level and single-semester remedial courses aligned with the transfer-level courses in students’ program of study

A CCELERATED R EMEDIATION : S TATE - WIDE RESULTS The Research and Planning Group for the California Community Colleges examined outcomes at 16 community colleges piloting accelerated remediation models in They found odds of completing a college-level course were 2.3 times greater in “high acceleration” models than traditional remedial pathways “Low acceleration” models tended to show little or no acceleration effect Students saw significant gains regardless of whether they were assessed as one, two, three, or four levels below college; students in the lowest levels saw the largest relative increases in their completion “The implication is that students from an array of skill ranges can be prepared for success in transfer–level English. No specific placement level was associated with negative outcomes, indicating that these accelerated pilots adhered to a ‘do no harm’ principle.” - Craig Hayward & Terrence Willett (“ Curricular Redesign and Gateway Completion: A Multi-College Evaluation of the California Acceleration Project”)

A CCELERATED R EADING, W RITING AND R EASONING Fall 2010: 2 of 3 colleges in the San Diego Community College District piloted Accelerated Basic Writing: Open-access One-semester 4-unit course Integrates reading and writing (based on Chabot College model) Since 2010, San Diego Mesa has offered 95 sections.

C URRENT E NGLISH A CCELERATION AT M ESA

P ERCENTAGE OF S TUDENTS WHO MAKE IT THROUGH THE T RADITIONAL PATHWAY Enrolled in English 43 Completed English 43 Enrolled in English 49 Completed English 49 Enrolled in English 101/105 Completed English 101/105 Source: CCCCO Basic Skills Cohort Tracker, Fall 2010 –Fall 2012 cohorts; students tracked for 3 primary terms after their initial course enrollment

Enrolled in English 47A Completed English 47A Enrolled in English 101/105 Completed English 101/105 P ERCENTAGE OF S TUDENTS WHO MAKE IT THROUGH THE A CCELERATED PATHWAY Source: CCCCO Basic Skills Cohort Tracker, Fall 2010 –Fall 2012 cohorts; students tracked for 3 primary terms after their initial course enrollment

M ESA ’ S A CCELERATED S TUDENTS … place at the lowest levels of writing (far more than those enrolling in the traditional sequence) and represent disproportionate numbers of African-American and Latino students…. Bri Hays: “Examining Mesa College English Pathways”

T HE DIFFERENCE ? P ERCENTAGE OF S UCCESSFUL OUTCOMES IN DIFFERENT PATHWAYS AT S AN D IEGO M ESA COLLEGE Lowest placement in the traditional pathway: 21% Placement in an accelerated pathway: 41% Assessed as “1 below” in traditional pathway: 32%

N AYSAYER NUMBER 1: “Y OU ’ RE JUST DUMBING DOWN CURRICULUM AND PUSHING STUDENTS THROUGH ” Actually, those putting the core principles of accelerated pedagogy into practice believe that the opposite is true Principle 1: Backwards Design: More Rigorous, Collegiate Experiences “Look at what students are asked to do in college English, then have them work on exactly those tasks. If they’re going to have to read books and write essays at the college level, that’s what they should be doing in their preparatory experiences. If college-level courses are not going to ask them to complete grammar workbooks, or write personal essays about their friendships, then developmental courses shouldn’t either” – “Toward a Vision of Accelerated Curriculum & Pedagogy”

Principle 2: Relevant, Thinking-Oriented Curriculum: Re-envisioning What We Ask Students To Do, and How We Use Class Time  Increases student motivation  Demonstrates skill/degree utility  Unites class in shared focus  Increases agency and inclusion in conversations that matter to students  Can model and instruct composition and reading skills more effectively (and more interestingly) within this shared context  Wrestle with open-ended problems  Reach and defend their own conclusions “Class readings, assignments, and lectures should provide opportunities for students to make explicit linkages between what they are learning in class and their lives. This approach will better enable students to interrogate misinformation and to recognize how the information they are learning can lead to a better life for themselves and their families.” - Teaching Men of Color in the Community College

N AYSAYER NUMBER 2: “Y OU ’ RE COVERING THE SAME MATERIAL IN FAR LESS TIME. S OME STUDENTS WILL INEVITABLY BE LEFT BEHIND ” This is a real concern which requires “targeted support designed to address class-wide deficiency as well as provide differentiated support to help each student learn Principle 3: Just-in-time remediation “Students’ writing shows us that each individual tends to make just a handful of errors, and that patterns of mistakes vary from one student to the next. Students have enough intuitive grasp of the language that they don’t need to be taught all of English grammar, including its opaque and alienating terminology. With an individualized, just-in-time approach, our focus is not to ‘teach grammar,’ but to help students recognize and correct their own mistakes.” – “Toward a Vision of Accelerated Curriculum & Pedagogy”

Principle 4: Intentional Support for Students’ Affective Needs: Mitigating the Disadvantages Presented by Non-cognitive Issues  Keep students coming back and submitting work  Understanding self-sabotaging behaviors  Being flexible and understanding when appropriate while maintaining high expectations  Building in incentives and accountability  Intrusive interventions  Structure grading with revision in mind, emphasizing a “growth mindset” “Those who are the least conversant with the norms of higher education are at a distinct disadvantage; they are more likely to feel like outsiders and to doubt their ability to fit in. Indeed, for fearful students, every interaction in the classroom and with their professors outside class holds the potential to confirm their feelings of inadequacy.” – The College Fear Factor

Principle 5: Low-Stakes, Collaborative Practice  Help students develop mastery of ideas and skills  Student-centered, student-directed  Expect errors, withhold corrections, allow space for productive struggle and self-correction  Direct with guiding questions  Praise demonstration of thoughtfulness or skillfulness  Note patterns of errors and provide instruction after group work as a follow up (invert the traditional model: “just-in-time” remediation)  Keep a running metacognitive conversation going “We’re focusing on pair work with a product, not just large group discussion where students who haven’t read, or didn’t understand, can hide. We are really challenging the students to come prepared and be ready to do something in class and not just to sit there and wait for other, prepared students to do the work.” – Melissa Reeve, Solano College

E QUITY I MPLICATIONS FOR OUR C URRENT O NE -B ELOW A CCELERATED COURSE Completion rates are greater for accelerated students than comparison groups across all ethnicities. Since we know that Latino and African-American students are generally more likely to enroll in accelerated English than other students, we know we’re doing a good job of getting them into the accelerated pipeline. Assuming our course mirrors statewide trends, we are improving overall transfer English completion rates for these groups Source: Bri Hays, San Diego Mesa College Campus-Based Researcher

“E VERY SYSTEM IS PERFECTLY DESIGNED TO ACHIEVE THE RESULTS IT GETS.” –P AUL B ATALDEN, M.D. “ This is no small task. The approach advocated here represents a significant break from traditional models of developmental reading, writing, and math, which UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus Norton Grubb observed have been dominated by ‘remedial pedagogy: drill and practice on sub-skills, usually devoid of any references to how these skills are used in subsequent courses or in adult roles.’ Making change even more difficult is the fact that most of the products on the developmental education market—textbooks, online programs, tests—also are geared toward decontextualized sub-skills. ” – “Toward a Vision of Accelerated Curriculum & Pedagogy”