BASIC SKILLS ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING (BSAC)
MINUTES
FRIDAY February 19, 2010
1.
Attendees: Len Schreibstein, LeAnn McGinley, Susan Sherrill, Irene Serna, Whitney Clay, Linda
Gibson, Celine Pinet, Michelle Francis, Susan Schulter, Anniqua Rana (Canada College), Cheryl
Miller, Inge Bond, Tiina Keller, Gretchen Ehlers, Katheryn Moore-Wines, Rebecca Wong
2.
Len introduced Anniqua Rana to the committee. Anniqua is an ESL instructor involved with basic skills at Canada College. She also has been charged with developing a BSI network in the Bay
3.
Area, especially coordinating some professional development activities across campuses.
Next week Friday Feb. 26, there will be a workshop titled Scaffolding Assignments Across
Disciplines offered at Berkeley City College. Last summer, representatives from local community colleges participated in a leadership conference. This summer there will be an intensive one week leadership workshop at Lake Arrowhead. There is also a need to connect resources across campuses; for example, connecting ESL at the Adult Education and community college levels.
Len stated a need for an information repository at our college for these training opportunities;
Anniqua talked about a Basic Skills listserve; web site: baln. edulounge.net.
Also, there would be a plan to create two networks geographically in the Bay Area, each one with a separate coordinator. Our Staff Development sub-committee, Michelle, Cheryl and
Rebecca will meet to discuss professional development ideas and relay these to Anniqua.
On March 12 th there will be a professional development event—related to millennial tools to help retention. This will be put on by Pearson Publishing; lunch will be offered. Celine will distribute a flyer by e-mail.
At Canada, faculty are working on connecting ESL w/ content courses. They noticed that students who took any another course outside ESL tended to persist. Now ESL students are taking the math placement before they finish the ESL series. There was further discussion of what support do we need/want from a Bay Area consortium
4.
Update from sub-committees a.
Data and Recoding (Inge/Len/Gretchen) updated the committee on the recoding project.
The state changed TOPS codes for basic skills areas and subdivided some areas; the
Academic Senate and the Chancellor’s Office wants consistency across all campuses for levels of basic skills courses. The problem at WVC and Mission has been that many basic skills courses were coded at the same level, particularly in ESL. Student progression will be measured by movement to a subsequent level within three years. Len met with basic skills departments to get their input and concurrence with coding changes. This re-coding will result in much improved data for ARCC report. Inge is looking at additional local indicators to measure basic skills students’ success and retention rates. Inge will also be publishing a brief about ways to improve retention; however, she won’t be publishing comparative retention data. Inge and Gretchen met to talk about how BSI grants are evaluated. Each

grantee is evaluating themselves by criteria outlined in the initial grant request. We discussed the need to publish this information. The ARCC 2008-2009 report results for
WVC looks good with improvment in 5 out of 7 measures. b.
Staff Development (Cheryl/Michelle/Rebecca)-Michelle and Rebecca gave a very successful
Professional Development workshop. We are committed to a presence at each professional development day. The sub-committee has designed a logo (BEST). They want to publish a teaching tip each month along with grant information. They also want to develop mini workshops for in learning strategies for content areas. c.
Career Programs Liaison Group (Susan Sherrill/Katherine Moore-Wines, Tiina Keller) worked on a campus questionnaire to assess faculty needs for study skill workshops and to assess faculty knowledge of recommend preparations; they are proposing a pilot study in the spring with the Fashion Design and Child Studies departments. Committee members talked about hiring someone to input recommended preparations from Curricunet into
Datatel. Len and Cheryl will follow up on this. d.
The question was raised whether we need an Information Dissemination sub-committee.
We need to determine the best method to disseminate training and conference information in a timely manner? We decided to obtain a basic skills e-mail address. Also we need to update our web site. There was a consensus that there be more publicity and that BSAC should establish more visibility. There should also be a mechanism to publicize results of grants funded by BSI/BSAC; Susan and Gretchen are willing to work on this
5.
Proposals: Irene indicated that she would request funds for the PAL program. She was directed to present the proposal at the 3/12/10 meeting.
6.
Len discussed the Governor’s proposed 2010-2011 Budget. We then had a discussion about
2010-11 BSAC Spending Strategies and Priorities.
7.
Spring Spending Priorities/Proposed Projects a.
Linda updated us on the proposed Assessment Center (the cost will be approx. $15,000-
$20,000); there are plans to use Tu23 (in Tutorial) if DESP can be provided another designated classroom on a permanent basis. b.
BSI funds pay for 21% of the Institutional Researcher Position and 25% of the Educational
Testing Assistant position. c.
The Math Department has requested an increase in funding for the Developmental Math
Teaching Community. It has been quite a successful effort; the majority of part-time instructors in the Math Department are participating. Additional money is requested for adjunct faculty stipends and for Alyson Butcher to prepare a standardized PowerPoint presentation that any math instructor can use in Math 103. d.
Funding for study of ESL/Basic Skills related counseling needs and some provision of services
(NTE $2,000) e.
Purchase of Basic Skills related publications (already funded); 50% has already been spent.
Instructors should place orders through Yang-hee Kim in the Library.

f.
Adjunct Program/Supplemental Instruction: Susan Sherrill reported that they are supporting four sets of classes: all Bio 10 classes and specific Bio 11, Acct 10, and Math 106 classes. This semester the groups are all adjunct groups; there are no supplemental instruction groups. g.
RP Group Conference Attendance: Inge Bond requests BSI funds to attend (NTE $500); It is a
2-day state-wide research conference. h.
Peer Advisor (1) Educational Transition Program (NTE $2,500) i.
Discussion of whether we should sponsor some speakers on campus? (See list of
Recommended Speakers) The staff development committee will meet and research speakers. j.
Committee members discussed the possible update of recommended preparation info in the schedule and/or the catalog. (There is a willingness to hire additional assistance to accomplish this.)
8.
There was a discussion about whether BSI money could be used to fund instruction. Len will contact Juan Cruz to clarify whether or not this is possible? (Subsequent note: it is NOT.)
9.
Pearson training: This is scheduled after the next meeting on Friday March 12 th . (lunch at noon followed by workshop until 3:30-4:00)
10.
Future Meeting Schedule: Friday March 12, April 9 and May 14 (all in the Baltic Room) 9 a.m.-11 a.m.