Replicating Success: Results from a National Study of the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) Susan Gabriel Director, Accelerated Learning Program (ALP)

Replicating Success: Results from a National Study of the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) Susan Gabriel Director, Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) Community College of Baltimore County Dawn Coleman Director, Center for Applied Research Central Piedmont Community College Peter Adams Professor Emeritus

Session Plan Introductions Overview of ALP and the Study
Summary of Year One Findings Year Two Overview and Findings Scaling-Up: Issues and Strategies Final Thoughts and Q & A

81% of students entering CCBC test into one or more developmental
CCBC Demographics Number of credit students: 34,410 Average age: 29 Female/male ratio: 59/41% Students of Color: 48% 57% work 20+ hours per week Full/Part time ratio: 11/89% Three main campuses; 3 extension centers 81% of students entering CCBC test into one or more developmental disciplines 65% Dev. Writing 77% Dev. Mathematics 58% Dev. Reading

ALP at CCBC: A Co-Requisite Model ENG 101 ENG 052 A L P
The Accelerated Learning Program

ALP at CCBC: A Co-Requisite Model Reduces stigma Improves attachment
Provides stronger role models Encourages cohort effect Changes attitude toward the developmental course Allows more individual attention Allows coordination of the ALP and credit courses Allows time for dealing with non-cognitive issues

traditional developmental students:
took ENG 052 Fa07-Fa10 5545 100% passed ENG 052 3604 65% did not pass 1941 35% took ENG 101 2661 48% took no more writing courses 943 17% passed ENG 101 Fa07-Fa10 1829 33% didn’t pass 832 15% traditional developmental students: fall 2007 – fall 2010 ALP students: fall 2007 – fall 2010 took ENG 052 Fa07-Fa10 592 100% passed ENG 052 485 82% didn’t pass 107 18% took ENG 101 592 100% took no more writing courses 0% passed ENG 101 Fa07-Fa10 438 74% didn’t pass 154 26% data from Cho, Kopko, & Jenkins, 2012 (CCRC)

Percent Earning 12 or More Credits within 1 Year
Traditional Dev Writing ALP 40% 39% N=149 34% N=288 33% N=550 38% N=587 35% N=669 30% 20% 20% N=1406 14% N=1328 15% N=1042 16% N=884 13% N=687 10% Fall 2009 Fall 2010 Fall 2011 Fall 2012 Fall 2013

Percentage of Students Who Passed Eng. 052 and Earned
24 Credits Within 2 Years 40% Traditional Dev Writing N = 880 ALP N = 590 30% 28% 27% 25% 20% 14% 14% 13% 10% F2010 F2011 F2012

Critical Features of ALP
Students take their developmental writing course concurrently with the credit-level writing course, rather than as a pre-requisite. The same instructor teaches the ALP course and the credit course. At least half the students in the credit English course are students who placed into credit-level writing. The ALP cohort is no more than 12 students. ALP instructors recognize the importance of paying attention to the non-cognitive issues affecting their students. ALP pedagogy is based on “backward design” from the credit course, emphasizing active learning, improved reasoning skills, engaged reading, and more effective editing skills.

Why an ALP Study? Why Now? Strong student success rates for ALP from its start-up in 2007 National recognition of ALP Adopted/adapted ALP models at an increasing number of schools nationwide Awarding of a grant, “Growing the Accelerated Learning Program,” from The Kresge Foundation in 2012 A L P The Accelerated Learning Program

ALP Study Overview Study objectives from the Kresge ALP grant project:
Conduct inventory of ALP programs nationwide Document their successes and challenges Clarify the most potent elements of the ALP model Determine to what degree fidelity to the ALP model is required to achieve significant improvement in student success outcomes Research conducted by the Center for Applied Research (CFAR). Three-phase structure: inventory, data analysis, and case studies

Summary of Findings from Year One
All colleges in the study experienced success even when the CCBC model was modified. Findings suggest that adopting or adapting an ALP-like model of acceleration will likely benefit students. Faculty development (for full-time and adjunct ALP instructors) should be a high priority, both for existing and newly created ALP programs. Without question, advisors play a key role in the success and scale-up of ALP. The most troubling finding is: “most colleges start small, and scale-up has been minimal.” Without a plan for scale-up, ALP models will not likely become institutionalized. The good news: The Kresge grant project was extended, allowing for an additional year to collect data in all three phases of the current project.

Student Success at Four Colleges Implementing ALP at Full-Scale
The Expansion of ALP Student Success at Four Colleges Implementing ALP at Full-Scale ALP Study Components

We received responses from 137 colleges in 35 states
0 ALPs 1 ALP 2-4 ALPs 5-8 ALPs 10+ ALPs

This is what we learned…

ALPs differ in class size
(5 to 18 students) ALPs differ in contact hours (1 to 5 hours per week) The same instructor usually teachers both classes

ALPs face similar challenges:
Logistics (registration, scheduling) Creating and maintaining buy-in Staffing (credentialing and adjuncts) Need for more structured training (especially when scaling-up)

ALPs address non-cognitive issues formally and informally
ALP leads to a rethinking of the purpose of developmental education and the abilities of developmental students

We looked at student record data from 4 colleges
2 replicated the CCBC ALP model 1 replicated at full scale 1 implemented Triangle Model

Jackson College For every 100 students in ENG 090…

ALP students have higher pass rates in ENG 090

In the traditional path, many students never enroll in ENG 101

ALP eliminates that potential exit point

Only 35% of the traditional path students pass ENG 101

ALP students are twice as likely to pass ENG 101

The other colleges had similar success with ALP

At 3 of the 4 colleges, ALP students had a higher rate of success in the developmental course

But the critical indicator is success in the college-level course

At all four colleges, ALP students had a much higher rate of success in the first college-level course

Other Findings ALP students of all demographic groups were more successful. ALP students also had a higher rate of success in the second college-level course.

Colleges can adopt and adapt the CCBC ALP model and produce similar levels of success.

Qualitative Study of ALP at Northark
“We have a history of trying something…and the process of trying a pilot can be pretty resource heavy…then we see some problems, but we never get them tweaked…so we just have a history of trying things on a smaller scale and not bringing them up to scale.” “I’m tired of pilots. Let’s do it or don’t.”

Qualitative Study of ALP at Northark
Classroom observations Student focus groups Faculty focus groups Semi-structured interviews Five themes emerged

Full-scale implementation introduces new challenges
Recruiting students wasn’t an issue… but higher enrollment in ENG 101 was “We had an awful lot of students who had been floating through the system for years. They were in their 28th retake, or so it seemed, of Fundamentals of Composition. So when we first started, we had very high enrollment taking ALP…all these students who’d been trying to get through the upper level writing course…in addition to new freshmen showing up, we needed to schedule them, not only for the ALP section but for the Comp 1 section.”

Full-scale implementation introduces new challenges
Staffing (need more instructors able to teach 101) Attendance/motivation (class not seen as special) Need for more instructor training

Creating buy-in is still important at full-scale
Advisors “I think the advisors were more resistant to it at first than the students. They assumed the students were going to say no…they thought they would resist more than they actually have.” Faculty (aren’t self-selecting) Administration (small class size)

Small classes  individual attention & engagement
Faculty have more time to spend with each student (both ALP and college- level) and they can be more intrusive “As long as we fight to keep it small, it can be successful.”

Students are more “relaxed” “In our class, the smaller class, there’s more joking around and in the big class it’s more serious.” “Actually, joking around sounds like we don’t go to school. It’s relaxed or a fun class.” “Yes, relaxed. I didn’t mean making fun of the class.” “It’s more chill, which for me is more helpful to learn.”

Students also feel like the instructors are more relaxed “I noticed this frown line she gets when she’s in the big class. When she’s with us she’s smiling but when she’s with them she’s like ‘Class do your work!’”

ALP  questions about the importance of grammar
Some faculty are concerned students don’t get enough grammar instruction “We’ve had to readjust our thinking and decide what’s important, what’s really important. Is it important that they can identify an adverb clause? Well, you know what? No. What’s the most important thing, what can we do to get these students through this class to give them the skills they need to be successful through the rest of their college career?”

ALP can look very different based on the instructor
ALP as grammar support ALP as more time on task and one-on- one attention ALP as a “deeper version” of 101 “I don’t even really feel like I’m taking two classes. I feel like I’m taking one class, but we get the deeper version.”

Let’s look again at the critical features of ALP

Critical features? Students take the developmental writing course concurrently with the credit-level writing course, rather than as a pre-requisite.

Critical features? Pedagogy in the ALP course is based on “backward design” from the credit course.

Critical features? The same instructor teaches the ALP course and the credit course.

Critical features? ALP instructors recognize the importance of paying attention to the non-cognitive issues affecting their students.

Critical features? The ALP cohort is no more than 12 students.

Critical features? The ALP cohort is no more than 12 students. ?

Critical features? At least half the students in the credit English course are college-level writing students.

Critical features? At least half the students in the credit English course are college-level writing students. ?

Number Taking ALP or Traditional Each Fall at CCBC
966 1142 1406 1328 1042 884 687 590 1400 traditional dev writing ALP 1200 1000 800 149 34 68 288 550 587 669 700 600 400 200 Fall 2007 Fall 2008 Fall 2009 Fall 2010 Fall 2011 Fall 2012 Fall 2013 Fall 2014

= 10 credits CCBC’s Developmental Education Courses: MATH 083 3cr RDG
052 4cr ENGL 052 3cr = 10 credits A L P The Accelerated Learning Program

= 13 credits CCBC’s Developmental Education Courses: MATH 083 3cr RDG
052 4cr ALP 052/101 6cr = 13 credits A L P The Accelerated Learning Program

= 14 credits CCBC’s Developmental Education Courses: STDT SUCCESS 1cr
MATH 083 3cr RDG 052 4cr ALP 052/101 6cr = 14 credits A L P The Accelerated Learning Program

MATH AMP 81-2 6cr RDG 052 4cr ALP 052/101 6cr = 17 credits A L P The Accelerated Learning Program

RDG 052 4cr ALP 052/101 6cr = 11 credits A L P The Accelerated Learning Program

RDG 052 4cr ENGL 052 3cr = 8 credits A L P The Accelerated Learning Program

traditional developmental students:
took ENG 052 Fa07-Fa10 5545 100% passed ENG 052 3604 65% did not pass 1941 35% took ENG 101 2661 48% took no more writing courses 943 17% passed ENG 101 Fa07-Fa10 1829 33% didn’t pass 832 15% traditional developmental students: fall 2007 – fall 2010 ALP students: fall 2007 – fall 2010 took ENG 052 Fa07-Fa10 592 100% passed ENG 052 485 82% didn’t pass 107 18% took ENG 101 592 100% took no more writing courses 0% passed ENG 101 Fa07-Fa10 438 74% didn’t pass 154 26% data from Cho, Kopko, & Jenkins, 2012 (CCRC)

Number of Students Who Pass ENG 101
800 0 in dev ed 1000 in ALP 774 200 in dev ed 800 in ALP 658 600 400 in dev ed 600 in ALP 576 600 in dev ed 400 in ALP 494 800 in dev ed 200 in ALP 412 400 1000 in dev ed 0 in ALP 330 200

Number of Students Who Fail to Pass ENG 101
800 1000 in dev ed 0 in ALP 670 600 800 in dev ed 200 in ALP 588 600 in dev ed 400 in ALP 506 400 in dev ed 600 in ALP 424 400 200 in dev ed 800 in ALP 342 0 in dev ed 1000 in ALP 260 200

Advantages of Going “Whole Hog”
Only possible where there is enough support to do it. Avoids all the energy expended on recruiting students. Advisors’ role changes from filling sections to reassuring students that ALP is something they can do. A much simpler system to coordinate, explain, and advise about. Allows a lot of faculty development to be done in one concentrated time.

Challenges in Scaling ALP
classrooms credentials professional development increasing number of 101s; reducing the number of 052s explaining the course to advisors which students should be in ALP? data

Replicating Success: The National Study of the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) Contact Us: Peter Adams Dawn Coleman Susan Gabriel ALP Website:

Replicating Success: Results from a National Study of the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) Susan Gabriel Director, Accelerated Learning Program (ALP)

Similar presentations

Presentation on theme: "Replicating Success: Results from a National Study of the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) Susan Gabriel Director, Accelerated Learning Program (ALP)"— Presentation transcript:

Similar presentations

About project

Feedback

Log in

Auth with social network:

Replicating Success: Results from a National Study of the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) Susan Gabriel Director, Accelerated Learning Program (ALP)

Similar presentations

Presentation on theme: "Replicating Success: Results from a National Study of the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) Susan Gabriel Director, Accelerated Learning Program (ALP)"— Presentation transcript:

Similar presentations

About project

Feedback