Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
DEPARTMENT: Academic Literacy
June 2013
YEAR: 2012-2013
A. DEPARTMENT SERVICES/ACTIVITIES REPORT IN 2012-13
1.
Department-sponsored services (fall and spring semesters combined)
Area of Service
Adjunct Supervision and Development
The department began the 2012/2013 academic year with 38 adjunct faculty members, and The department’s
adjunct faculty had five central improvement goals for the 2012/2013 academic year:
1. incorporate high-impact teaching practices in every classroom;
2. apply and integrate new departmental course learning outcomes, objectives and approved texts in their
courses;
3. integrate thematic reading and writing in all courses;
4. use new departmental assessments tools such as the TABE, TerraNova and CATW rubrics and
corresponding norming data and prescription forms to improve outcomes, placement and grading;
5. communicate the above improvements through organized and clear course syllabi which also conform to
CUNY and QCC protocol.
Cary Lane, the department’s new adjunct supervisor, met with each adjunct faculty member for a 30-40 minute,
one-on-one development session to help effectively execute these five initiatives. Implementing the department’s
100% high-impact teaching requirement took priority at these meetings, as most adjunct faculty members were
unfamiliar with this instructional method. . With hard work and support, most adjunct faculty had positive
experiences and evidenced improvement as they refined each aspect of the five major improvement initiatives.
The semester culminated with a high-impact practices show-and-tell where the department’s adjunct and fulltime faculty were able to present their initial high-impact teaching endeavors and receive feedback from
colleagues, administrators, and high-impact practices experts from the college, as well as the Association of
American Colleges and Universities.
Through the assistance of our adjunct supervisor, Cary Lane, nine members of the department’s adjunct faculty
collaborated with full-time faculty for high-impact teaching projects;
The Best Practices Committee provided the following faculty development presentations:
1. Part II: Chinese ESL Students’ Four Major Writing Issues: Ideas for Helping Them
Cross the “Bridge” In Part I, Professor Weier Ye discussed dialectical thinking vs.
Number
Served
38
1. 38
2. 38
3. 38
4. 38
5. 38
12
9
10
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Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
linear thinking; logical thinking vs. intuitive thinking, meaning-oriented vs. formoriented; and topic prominent vs. subject prominent. In Part II, he addressed
faculty questions and classroom concerns related to working with their Chinese
students.
2. The Weary 3's: A CATW Workshop: On the CATW exam, Are half of your students stuck in
the ‘weary 3’s’ zone (33333)?. To guide these students toward CATW success David
Rothman and Susan Hock discussed what pedagogical tools may prove most effective in
bringing up students’ scores across the five domains; and which editing strategies
provide students the lift they need to pass. They also examined three failing CATW
essays (all with scores of 3 across) and shared some thoughts both on the kinds of
feedback faculty might offer students and the types of CATW-prep activities that may
speak to the needs of students stuck in the ‘weary 3’s’.
3. Teacher Coordination in Service Learning: After a Marissa Berman’s discussion of
Holocaust Center service-learning opportunities at the departmental meeting, two
service-learning projects were presented in terms of their purpose, scope, and
teacher coordination. First, Professors Regina Rochford and Susan Hock presented
their Queens Historical Society project in which a brochure was created to raise
funds for a rundown Revolutionary War era cemetery in Woodside, Queens. Second,
Professors David Rothman and Julia Carroll presented their Bayside Senior Center
project in which students produced a booklet based on the oral histories of senior
citizens who frequented the center. There was a Q & A period so faculty members could
ask specific questions about each project.
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22
Area of service (for example): a department-run learning laboratory (not laboratories for which students register as part of their courses), the reference desk or reserve area of the
Library, department tutoring program, etc. (Note: Do not report courses or laboratories for which students register.)
2.
Department-sponsored faculty/staff development activities
Type of Activity and Topic
Adjunct Supervision
Under Cary Lane’s leadership, the department’s adjunct faculty developed five central
improvement goals for the 2012/2013 academic year:
1. incorporate high-impact teaching practices in every classroom;
2. apply and integrate new departmental course learning outcomes, objectives and
approved texts in their courses;
3. integrate thematic reading and writing in all courses;
Date
Number
Attending
9/2012
5/2013
33 adjuncts
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Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
4. use new departmental reading assessments and corresponding norming data and
prescription forms to improve outcomes, placement and grading;
5. communicate the above improvements through organized and clear course syllabi which
also conform to CUNY and QCC protocol.
Cary Lane met with each adjunct faculty member for 30-40 minute, one-on-one
development sessions to help effectively execute these five initiatives. Implementing the
department’s 100% high-impact teaching requirement took priority at these meetings, as most
adjunct faculty members were unfamiliar with this instructional method. With hard work and
support, most adjunct faculty had positive experiences and show evidence of improvement and
refinement for each aspect of the five major improvement initiatives.
The semester culminated with high-impact practices show-and-tell where the department’s
adjunct and full-time faculty were able to present their initial high-impact teaching endeavors
and receive feedback from colleagues, administrators, and high-impact practices experts from
the college, as well as the Association of American Colleges and Universities.
Other adjunct notes and highlights include:
 three adjunct faculty members have applied for adjunct development grants through
PSC-CUNY (approval pending);
 nine members of the department’s adjunct faculty collaborated with full-time faculty to
implement high-impact teaching projects;
 one member of our adjunct faculty authored his own CATW writing workbook for use
in the advanced writing courses;
 one of our adjunct faculty became the first clicker-certified instructor in the department;
 several adjunct faculty members served on the departmental curriculum committee.
The Textbook committee revised the existing textbook list: evaluating and adding books requested
in the last year.
The next wave of revisions to be undertaken in Fall 2013, will continue to
add texts, but also to potentially delete some texts and/or change the
courses for which they are recommended. Faculty will be asked to submit
suggestions for these additions or changes, and the committee will use the
first half of the Fall semester to evaluate and act on their
recommendations.
12 adjuncts and 8
full time faculty
12/12
Fall
and
Spring
20122013
5-7
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Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
Faculty have already been asked to think about suggesting texts for AL201,
which has no officially recommended texts, and to expand the lists of
recommended supplemental texts for our reading courses to include some short
nonfiction, non-narrative works.
In addition, by using templates for the recommendations, the committee hopes
to be able to set up a file with details on the books that have been vetted
in the hopes of reducing duplicate work in succeeding semesters.
The Curriculum Committee: In the 2012-2013 academic year, the Academic Literacy
curriculum committee engaged in three major projects.
1. This committee revised the Course Objectives for BE201 (the lowest level of ESL
composition) so that the students are required to write compositions. This was the only
class that did not have its objectives revised in the 2011-2012 academic year.
Professors Warsi and Ye initiated the rewrite, and the committee made slight changes to
ensure they were consistent with the revise objectives from last year.
The new course objectives are as follows:
Upon completing the course, students should be able to demonstrate the ability to:
a) recognize main idea of assigned reading selections.
b) use the word order of the English language correctly.
c) compose sentence structure: simple sentence, compound sentence, complex sentence,
and interrogative questions.
d) identify and write topic sentences.
e) support the topic sentence with sufficient details while avoiding digression and
repetition.
f) use heuristic devices such as brainstorming, clustering, free writing, outlining, and
revising.
g) summarize and paraphrase original written texts by identifying the thesis and some of its
support.
h) write one or two pages, including an introduction, body, and conclusion, on an assigned
topic in response to a reading.
This revision was incorporated because the instructors have indicated that when ESL
students arrive in the advanced ESL composition course, they are frequently unable to
summarize an article and compose a basic composition. Thus, these revisions were
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Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
implemented in an attempt to ascertain that our ESL students are prepared for the
demands of BE205.
2.
First, the committee worked with College Now to gain approval for CN73 as a
permanent course so that all of the appropriate documents were ready to be presented to
college’s curriculum committee and the Academic Senate. This required substantial
rewrites to align objectives and outcomes with departmental standards, as well as
significant development for CN73’s assessment discussion.
3.
Finally, the committee developed multiple possible models for an accelerated learning
program (ALP) for upper-level students. These models were developed by Professors
Shahar and Maloy. Further development and implementation of one or more of these
models awaits the outcome of what is learned when a group of Academic Literacy
professors and English department professors go to the ALP conference this June.
Accelerated Immersion Program
The goal of this program is to give students access to a hybrid course that emphasizes embedded and
individual tutoring, along with additional lab hours outside of an intensive course as a means of helping
them (1) improve their ACT Compass scores ,and (2) successfully advance beyond remediation.
In order to recruit students for the program, the Coordinator asked professors in the Department of
Academic Literacy to recommend students who met the following criteria:

Scored at least a grade of 82% on the Terra Nova midterm exam;

Scored at least a three (3) on the midterm summary;

Scored between 58-63 on the ACT Compass exam

Exemplary attendance records; and

Demonstrated a strong commitment to course materials and are motivated to exit
remediation.
Jan.
2013
18
The recommendations of 11 members of the faculty in the Department of Academic Literacy yielded 25
applications to the program. Of the 25, 20 students were accepted based on their interviews with the
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Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
Coordinator, their test scores, recommendation from their professors, and overall trajectory for success
in the program. Of the 20 students, 18 participated in the program.
Results
The final list of students accepted to the AIP consisted of students from mixed backgrounds (both ESL
and Advanced English-speaking classes) and skill levels, along with three students who had already
taken the ACT two or more times.
The following is the breakdown of the scores for the participants in the program:
Entering Score
63
61
66
63
63
60
56
69
66
64
62
60
58
63
62
67
63
66
Jan-13
77
67
60
92
66
40
42
63
74
49
80
69
87
83
75
67
65
57
Differenc
e
+14
+6
-6
+29
+3
-20
-14
-4
+8
-15
+18
+9
+29
+20
+13
0
+2
-9
Findings
The test scores reflect that while only 38% of participants passed the ACT, 61% of the participants
showed improvement in their test scores. Score increases ranged from +2 to +29 points. The student
with the 29-point increase, however, had already successfully completed both ENG 101 and 102. Of
note are the 7 students whose scores improved by 10 or more points.
The results of the program demonstrate that while the program was helpful for some students, others did
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Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
not reap the benefits of passing the course and thus exiting remediation. The program did not fully
realize its goal of helping all student participants advance beyond remediation. The program was
successful at helping students improve their test scores.
Limitations
The faculty and staff who participated in the program noted several behavioral and logistical obstacles
that may or may not have contributed to lower test scores for some students. The instructor cited
interpersonal conflicts between groups of students and individual students that potentially affected
students’ ability to concentrate and focus on the daily goals set by both the instructor and tutors.
Students noted, however, that they were able to glean much information from participating in the
program and those who failed are hopeful that they have gained enough tools to help them pass the ACT
Compass next time.
Overall, the program was a useful attempt at helping students work collaboratively towards the
completion of their requirements for exiting remedial writing.
Recommendations:
As with accelerated programs, the intensity of entire-day sessions may yield varied results depending on
the work habits and motivation of the student participants. For future programs, perhaps a larger pool of
students would help to provide us with more useful data. Additionally, students were able to interact
with others who only had to do workshop hours and were often disconcerted about their long hours in
class and tutoring, although they were made aware of the differences during their interviews.
Following up with the scores of participants in the program after re-taking the course this semester
would be a helpful way to see if students whose scores increased will now pass after an entire semester
of remediation.
Additional tutors would be helpful in lab hours. The tutor was unable to provide the one-on-one
assistance that all of the students needed.
Reading Writing Seminars JULY USIP 2013
Along with the Director of USIP, the AL Department negotiated a new unique July USIP 2013
program that will offer combined reading and writing classes. The results of this program will
be included in the 2013-2014 report.
a. All teachers will use a common text and a high impact strategy. The following
course configurations will be offered: 111/121; 112/122; 203/225; 205/226.
BE201 will not be offered. We will admit students that require reading and/or
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Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
writing in accordance with the Basic Skills Placement Grid. Placement level will
be determined by the reading score on the ACT exam and if necessary the
CATW writing score will be considered, too.
b. This summer session will run for six weeks. It will commence on Monday July
1st and end on Thursday August 8th when the students take the ACT Reading
and/or the CATW writing exams.
c. The first five weeks or nineteen (19) sessions will be taught by adjunct faculty.
They will be paid as teaching adjuncts for a total of 57 hours, which translates
into three hours for each class meeting. The students will also be required to
complete twelve (12) hours in the Basic Skills Learning Center.
d. The sixth week will consist of 12 hours of test preparation for the ACT Reading
and the CATW exams. These sessions will take place at the same time as the
class; however the class time will be divided in half. For example, during the
sixth week if a combined 112/122 class meets from 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM, the
students will participate in CATW test-prep from 8:00 AM until 9:30 AM. Then,
from 9:30 until 11:00 AM, they will receive ACT Reading test preparation.
Since the test prep will be conducted by tutors, a master teacher will supervise
and guide the tutors. The teacher will be paid at the adjunct teaching rate.
e. On Thursday August 8th after the last tutoring session, all the students will retake
the CATW and ACT Reading exams 1. If students do not attend and engage
appropriately in test prep, they will not take the CATW or ACT Reading exams.
1. In all of these proposed intersessions and summer sessions, in-class tutors will work
in the classroom with the instructors and then outside of the class to reinforce skills.
At present, we are scheduling 22 sections of these courses. Additionally, we will
1
If students have already passed either the CATW or the ACT Reading exam, they will not have to participate in the test preparation for the exam that
they have passed.
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Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
need tutors to staff the Basic Skills Learning Center labs to cover the 12 additional
lab hours to be done during the course of the 6 week session.
2. Grading: since this program will run as a message course, no grades will be posted.
All students will retake the ACT Reading and CATW writing. If students pass the
ACT Reading and/or CATW exams, they will be exempt from taking that Basic
Skills course. If they fail, USIP advisors will use their new scores to place them in
Basic Skills in the Fall 2013 so that these learners can enroll in courses
commensurate with their recent scores.
3. No NC grades will be awarded in the summer term or the proposed intersessions.
4. The course title is: Integrated Advanced Reading and Writing Immersion Program.
Instructors who teach in these programs will be paid an adjunct teaching hourly
salary and for ten hours of faculty development.
5. Potential instructors will apply for these positions by outlining a brief plan of action
that includes a high impact strategy such as service learning, team teaching, clickers
in the classroom, etc. They will be required to participate in faculty development to
familiarize them with the new format; review the new textbook; develop lesson
plans, and receive an overview of college policies, advisement opportunities,
collaborative learning techniques, etc. Time for faculty to meet with one another
during the four week term would be built into their schedules either before or after
class. Faculty development would be paid at a non-teaching adjunct salary rate. The
faculty will meet for five hours prior to the execution of the program, and for two
hours a week during the five weeks of the program.
6. This model would benefit students by allowing them to attempt to complete reading,
writing and mathematics remedial needs in the summer. It would also mirror the
experience they would have upon entering an English 101 course.
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Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
Early Exit from Remediation December 2012
In each low level reading or writing course, the teachers identified students who might have the ability
to pass the ACT Reading exam or the CATW writing exam. After approval was granted, these students
were provided an intensive 12 hour workshop and passed at the following rates:
 67% (18 of 27) of BE 121 reading students passed the exit exam
 43% ( 3 of 7) of BE 225 reading students passed the exit exam
 86% (19 of 22) of BE 111 writing students passed the exit exam
 60% ( 3 of 5) of BE 201 writing students passed the exit exam
 44% ( 4 of 9) of BE 203 writing students passed the exit exam
Early Exit from Reading Remediation May 2013

65.4% of the BE121 and BE225 students passed the ACT Compass reading exam. (17 out of 26
students) Prior to begin tested, each student was required to take a three-day twelve hour
workshop in the ALLC in order to prepare them for the demands of this standardized exam.
17 of the subjects were ESL students and 9 passed.
10 of the subjects were native speakers of English and 9 passed.
12/12
70
5/23
27
5/23
19
Three other students were granted permission to take the preparation workshop and the test, but
they did not.
Early Exit from Writing Remediation May 2013

19 students from BE201/203 and BE111 took the early exit CATW preparation workshop, and
then were permitted to take the CATW exam. 16 students or 84.2 % passed.
passed
111 Early Exits
201/203 Early Exits
Total
72.73%
100.00%
84.2 %
failed
8
3
8
16
0
3
Note: Faculty and staff development activities (grants, presentations, exhibitions, performances, publications, instructional improvement activities, laboratory development,
curriculum development, etc.)
INSTRUCTIONS:
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Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
For each activity, please indicate
1. whether department members organized the activities or gave presentations or both
2. the topic and type of activity and name of organizer/presenter, if applicable
3. the date (if not the exact date, indicate the month)
4. the number attending the event
B. COURSE CHANGES IN 2012-13
INSTRUCTIONS: For each course that changed, indicate:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
whether the course is new, revised, or deleted
the course number
the course title
the semester the change was approved at the Academic Senate
for revised courses, in the Comments section, describe the type of change(s)—i.e., course title, description, pre/corequisites, credits, hours, designation
New, revised, or
deleted
CN73
Course
number
CN73
Course title
Semester approved
Comments
CN073 Reading and Writing
Spring 2013
This is a College Now course
for Native Speakers of
English
C. PROGRAM CHANGES IN 2012-13
Program
Program change*
Summer USIP Program
Initiated This year instead of
offering the traditional
courses, the Department will
offer combined reading and
writing classes for incoming
new freshmen. All teachers
Effective Date (Semester
and year)
Six-week USIP summer
session in July 2013
(Five weeks or 57 hours with
an instructor and one week
with tutors for exit exam
preparation.)
Comments
Since this is the first time this
type of program has been
offered, the effectiveness will
be evaluated by examining
how many students exited out
of remediation or how many
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Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
students were able to advance
to higher levels of
remediation. This data will be
available in the 2013/2014
report.
will use a common text in all
sections, and a high impact
strategy. Thus, we will not
offer the traditional summer
program. We will admit
students required to take
reading, writing or both
subjects in these classes. This
session will run for six
weeks. The first five weeks
will be taught by adjuncts for
57 hours. It will include the
traditional three hour/four
day a week format for the
first five weeks of the six
week summer session. The
last week will consist of 12
hours of test prep courses.
*Key: (a)=initiated, (b)=closed, (c)=renamed, (d)=modified
INSTRUCTIONS:



Use the full title of the program, i.e. A.A. in Visual and Performing Arts.
Indicate whether the program change is initiated, closed, renamed, or modified. (If a new program has been approved by
the CUNY Board (or is expected to be approved by June 2013), use fall 2013 as the effective date.)
Describe the exact status (i.e., proposal submitted to CUNY Board; approved by CUNY Board; etc.) in the Comments.
D. DEPARTMENT CHANGES IN 2012-13
Type (see menu below)
Description of
Change
Reason for Change
Date/Semester
Evaluation of Change*
Personnell
12
Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
Nancy-Laurel Pettersen
On Travia
Retirement
Spring 2013
Helene Dunkelblau
On Travia
Retirement
Spring 2013
Kerri-Ann Smith
Promotion to
Assistant Professor
Earned doctoral
degree
Earned doctoral
degree
Completed
doctorate
Completed
doctorate
Spring 2013
Weir Ye
Cheryl Comeau-Kirschner
April 2013
May 2013
June 2013
Fewer full time faculty
members teaching AL
courses
Fewer full time faculty
members teaching AL
courses
Receipt of transcript from
college
Awaiting official
transcript in August 2013
Awaiting official
transcript in August 2013
Change of Department’s name from Basic Educational Skills to the Department of Academic Literacy
Change of Department’s
To bring the
By renaming the
Spring 2013
n/a
name from Basic
Department’s role
department the
Educational Skills to the
and image into the
“Department of
Department of Academic
new millennium
Academic
Literacy
Literacy,” we are
defining and
communicating
what we actually do,
which is prepare
students for collegelevel academics
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Queensborough Community College
Equipment
Voice recorders
Printer
Computer Lab Classroom
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
Recorders used to
permit students to
read aloud from
their writing or a
text book
New laser printer
installed
Students need to
self-evaluate their
writing and
presentations
Existing printer is
over eight years old
and frequently stops
working
The AL Dept has
In order to
agreed to give up
implement
H232 and will now innovations the
use H339 as a
faculty need access
computer literacy
to computer
classroom that will
classrooms so that
contain 26 dedicated students can use the
computers.
computers to
complete
assignments.
Spring 2013
Spring 2013
Spring 2013 (work on
the lab will be
completed during the
Summer of 2013)
June 2013
Students were able to hear
and correct mistakes that
they had missed because
they were reading silently
and rapidly. Teachers
were able to hear a student
struggling with basic
words so that the
instructor could better
detect reading issues so
that the student could be
further evaluated for
learning and diction
issues.
Faculty members are able
to print out documents
needed for teaching and
reports without delay.
The agreement was
reached this semester so
that H339 will be
renovated this summer. It
is hoped the lab will be
operational for the Fall
2013 term.
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Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
New computers for adjunct Three new
networked
faculty area
computers were
installed in the
adjunct office of
H324. This was the
first new
instructional
technology acquired
and dedicated for
adjunct use in four
years
Other
Modification of ALLC
Tech Committee
website
assisted the content
design of the new
ALLC website
June 2013
The adjunct faculty Fall 2012
members were
unable to use
computers in the
Department’s office
because so few were
available.
Adjuncts are able to
access QCC email, CUNY
First in our department’s
office with more facility.
To keep students
and faculty up-todate on services
available.
More clarity for students
and faculty about the
services and programs
offered in the ALLC
Fall- spring
2012/2013
*Please note that, if change has been too recent to evaluate, you may indicate NA.
MENU
Type of change
Personnel or organizational change
Facilities/space
Equipment
Other
Description
New hires, retirees, resignations, promotions, department name changes, etc.
Renovations or development of office space or new facilities (i.e., computer laboratories)
Acquisition of new or disposition of old equipment
Other changes affecting the department not included above and including interactions
with other departments
E. DEPARTMENT ASSESSMENT IN 2012-13
1.
Departmental procedures for conducting assessment
The fundamental elements of standard 14 (assessment of student learning) of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education
include: clearly articulated statements of expected student learning outcomes…at all levels (institution, degree/program, course)
and for all programs that aim to foster student learning and development; a documented, organized, and sustained assessment
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Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
process to evaluate and improve student learning; evidence that student learning assessment information is shared and discussed
with appropriate constituents and is used to improve teaching and learning.
Describe below the department’s ongoing procedures for assessing student learning and using assessment results to
improve teaching and learning. In your description, please explain how the department fulfills each of the Middle
States fundamental elements above.
Each semester, the AL Department selects one course and assesses it. This academic year two courses were assessed.
They were BE225 and BE203.
Assessment of BE225 Fall 2012
Last semester, Fall 2012, our committee assessed BE225, Beginning Reading and Study Skills for Non-Native
Speakers. The Department’s Assessment Committee met several times to discuss the chosen lesson, materials, and
assessment. As the students are required to take a summary test as part of their mid-term, as well as know this skill
for the CATW in the future, our committee chose to assess the skill of writing effective summaries. Professor Cary
gathered the necessary materials together for the lesson, homework assignment, and assessment. These materials
include the following:
 Reference on writing an effective summary (Santa Monica, College,2012)
 What does summary and summarizing mean? (Comeau-Kirschner, 2011)
 Components of an effective summary (University of Texas El Paso, 2012)
 In-class, cooperative summary exercise (Comeau-Kirschner, 2011)
 Summary homework exercises (Rothman, 2012)
 Assessment rubric for final assessment summary ( University of Massachusetts)
Once these materials were compiled, we informed the BE225 instructors that they would be responsible for
teaching a lesson on summaries, providing a homework assignment, and then assessing them on this skill for their
mid-term. To ensure reliability, the Assessment committee assessed the summaries instead of the individual
instructors. We also conducted a norming session prior to assessing the summaries. Then, we divided up the
summaries and each summary was read at least twice by two different readers. When readers disagreed by an entire
point, then the summary was read by another reader. However, there was strong reliability amongst readers, and only
7% of the summaries required a third reading. After all of the summaries been assessed, Dr. Jed Shahar analyzed the
results and I, Julia Carroll, wrote the final assessment report on those results. In the future, it is recommended that a
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Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
second assessment be done at the end of the semester to be able to compare pre- and post test scores.
A. Results: more than 50% of the students were “almost passing” or “passing” after the assessment’s lesson. When
including “starting to pass,” the data show that 2 out of every 3 students had begun to show evidence of writing
satisfactory summaries. It’s also worth noting that scoring between was consistent, less than 7% of papers needed a
third reader2. Note that in all seven sections there were more “almost passing” and “passing” summaries.
B. Evaluation of the assessment process:
This lesson was designed in early October directly preceding the mid-part of the semester, which is relatively early on
in the semester. It was conducted early in order to obtain results in a timely manner as to comply with the timetable
given to this committee. Taking this into consideration, the fact that more than 50% of the students were “almost
passing” or “passing” after such a short period of time demonstrates that the students did well. They were at least
beginning to show evidence of writing satisfactory summaries. However, in order to obtain a more complete picture of
the students’ overall ability to write a well-written summary before entering the next level, BE226, it is strongly
recommended that the timetable be extended to the end of the semester. This would allow the Assessment Committee
to reassess the students when they write their final summaries, which is part of the final Departmental exit criteria test.
This would allow the committee to use the first assessment done as part of the mid-term as a bench mark, providing a
pre-score and then compare it to how well the students perform on the final, which would provide a post-score.
C. Resulting action plan: The next assessment of this kind needs to contain a second component, which is the reassessment at the end of the semester to see how much progress was made between the mid-term and the final
whereby pre- and post scores can be compared. At this point, if the students have not made considerable progress by
the end of the semester, BE225 instructors should strongly be advised to not allow weak students who have NOT
obtained the ability to write a well-written summary to advance to the next level, BE226.
Assessment of BE203 Spring 2013
This semester, spring 2013, our committee assessed BE203, Intermediate Composition for Non-Native
Speaking Students. We chose to employ the same assessment/lesson that was used to assess BE111 in the spring of
2012 because these two courses have parallel curricular objectives, and we wanted to ascertain which population fared
2
When the third reader’s score was needed it and the score it coincided with were used for classification. If the third reader scored a paper a 2.5 after
the first two readers gave it a 2 and a 3, the paper was classified as “almost passing.”
17
Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
better on an identical assessment. We made the decision to use these results to assist us in improving the future
pedagogical methodology that we employ in both courses. Overall, the BE203 ESL students slightly outperformed
BE111 in learning to identify and correct subject-verb agreement errors. However, both classes performed well,
which is a direct indication of the success of the lesson and the assessment.
Overall, the posttest analysis demonstrates that the lesson was effective in helping students identify main
verbs. The overall performance increased from 59.6% to 67.5%, an approximate 13% improvement (see Table 1).
There was, however, variability in how much improvement occurred. For example, on the pretest, Section A
identified 77% of the main verbs accurately, but their overall performance decreased to 74%. However, when Section
A was analyzed to determine the percentage who answered all or all but one question correctly, they evidenced a
higher degree of mastery because in the pretest, only 28% fell into this category. In contrast on the posttest, 45%
earned this distinction (see Table 2). In Section E, the same 45% level was observed on the posttest for mastery, but
that percentage increased from the 4% in the pretest (see Table 2). Overall, the number of students who had mastered
the skill of identifying the main verb nearly doubled from 18% to 32% (See Table 2). (Note: Dr. Regina Rochford is
to be credited with assisting me with putting the data into an easily readable APA style table.)
Table 1
BE203
Section
Pretest
n
Pretest
score
%
correct
Posttest n Post-test
A
B
C
D
E
18
21
13
23
24
138
122
73
143
114
77
58
56
62
48
20
24
15
26
25
Total
99
590 59.60%
110
134
132
71
171
160
%
correct
74
61
53
73
71
668 67.47%
18
Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
Table 2
BE203
Section
A
B
C
D
E
n students
who got all
or all but
Pretest
one right
n on pretest
18
21
13
23
24
%
correct
n students
who got all
or all but one
right on
posttest
%
correct
28
24
23
17
4
9
7
1
9
9
45
29
7
35
45
5
5
3
4
1
99
18 18.18%
35
31.82%
Total
This assessment also allows a comparison between BE 111 and BE 203 sections, classes with identical
objectives that are meant to prepare students for the upper-level writing sections. The primary difference between the
two sections is that BE111 is for native speakers and 203 for English Language Learners (ELL). Interestingly, BE
111 students who participated the same assessment in 2012, earned lower scores on the pretest which ranged from
49% to 60%. However, in the end, both populations improved their overall performance by about 15%. It should be
noted that the ELLs demonstrated greater mastery of this skill than the native-speaking population, which was 32% to
25% respectively, although hardly any native speakers who took the pretest displayed mastery of the skill.
Evaluation of the assessment process:
The choice of subject-verb agreement as the target skill for the assessment was the result of the committee’s belief
that mastery of this subject can provide a foundation for other important skills covered in BE203: writing complete
sentences (with subjects and verbs), punctuating to signal sentence boundaries, thoughtful choice of verb tense.
Additionally, teaching such attention to detail early in the semester can facilitate students’ increased attention to
grammar as a whole and to careful word choice. Both of these clusters of skills enhance a writer’s ability to clearly
19
Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
transmit his/her ideas, a central goal of Educational Objective 1.
The assignment does suggest increased mastery of the target skill. The assessment process allowed for
unambiguous, easily tabulated results.
Resulting action plan:
The strong showing on the retest suggests the lesson is an effective way to teach subject-verb agreement although
this skill is an introductory level task that should lead to greater sentence structure development. It appears that
explicit teaching of grammar in the context of engaging professional models does lead to enhanced ability to edit for
subject-verb agreement. BE203 faculty can be encouraged to use both this method and the early timing of the unit as
they fine tune their courses and advance their students’ skills throughout the term.
Future assessments using this lesson may enrich this data by including both subject-verb agreement and sentence
boundary questions in the pre- and post-tests. As the assumption is that better verb identification skills will lead to
improved subject-verb agreement and sentence boundary sensitivity, this theory could be tested with and without
explicit connections between verb identification with these skills.
However, even though this lesson was successful in teaching students to improve their editing skills in the
area of subject-verb agreement, it is recommended that this assessment be expanded to include additional grammatical
areas to ensure that this population is indeed ready to advance to the next level of instruction.
It is crucial that ESL students who are taking Intermediate Composition have a solid understanding and control over
grammar before they advance to the last level of ESL writing, BE205. In our most advanced level of ESL writing,
BE205 students are required to pass the CUNY-wide writing test- the CUNY Assessment Test for Writing (CATW)
exam. If students who have an inadequate control over grammar are prematurely passed from BE203 to BE205, the
BE205 instructor will be forced to dedicate an inordinate amount of time teaching basic grammar instead of preparing
students for the crucial task of passing the CATW test, which requires them to write a long composition in a brief
amount of time. This type of situation can have dire consequences. Therefore, it is vital for our Department to
ascertain which students are fully prepared and ready to be promoted to BE205 so that the students who enroll in
BE205 will be successful in both their coursework as well as passing the CATW. This approach will also reduce the
number of BE205 students who must repeat the course after they fail the CATW exam.
Closing the Loop
Although this assessment addressed a very specific area of grammar, it can be used as a starting point in the process of
beginning to close the assessment loop of BE203. In order to ensure that our assessment is meaningful, it is critical
20
Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
that we make strides to “close the loop.” As was previously mentioned, it is vital that BE203 students are fully
prepared to move onto the next level of instruction, which is BE205. One way to further promote this goal is by using
the assessment results as part of a new CATW based rubric for evaluating essays, which will be designed over the
coming summer to help determine which students are allowed to advance and which are not. This new rubric would
integrate the CATW rubric but would clarify the measurement of grammar issues since the existing CATW rubric is
vague in the area of grammar. Over the summer, a group of experienced writing instructors will create a rubric that
contains the course’s objectives, including the current assessment which details what each student must score in a
given criteria area to be ready to pass the class. The rubric will then be revisited by the Assessment Committee in
early September 2013 to make revisions. Then, one member who is part of the Assessment Committee and who is
teaching the course (BE203) will train BE203 teachers in how to conduct a norming session whereby the rubric will
be used both at mid-term and then again at finals as a basis to help instructors formally decide which students are
ready to be promoted to the next level. In addition, this Committee will select model essays from a collection of
sample essays that are ranked as “high” passing, “passing”, “weak passing”, and “failing”. These papers will be used
to help instructors fully understand the criteria of a “passing mid-term” and “passing final.”
Fall 2013 Assessment Plans
This coming semester, fall 2013, our committee will assess BE201 our introductory composition course for non-native
speakers. We will meet at the beginning of the semester to discuss an appropriate assessment and lesson.
2a.
Departmental participation in self-study/program review during 2012-2013, if applicable
Program(s) reviewed: (GIVE FULL TITLE, i.e., A.A.S. in Digital Art and Design)
External Agency or Reviewers: (GIVE NAME OF AGENCY OR NAME OF REVIEWER[S])
Date of site visit
Major conclusions of self-study
Major conclusions of external reviewers
Resulting action plan
2b.
Program review follow-up
Action item from program review
Timeline for completion
Accomplishments during current year
21
Queensborough Community College
4.
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
Course assessment
Courses
assessed (list
individually)
Relevant QCC Educational
Objectives
Relevant Curricular
Objectives (cite both
curriculum and objectives)
Evaluation of Assessment
Results
Action plan
22
Queensborough Community College
BE225
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
Write, read, listen and
speak clearly and effectively. In
this course, students practice all
four language skills by reading,
writing and talking about
current issues. They discuss the
issues, read about topics in
newspaper and magazine
articles, essays, stories or on the
internet, listen to various
viewpoints and write responses
which clearly state their own
point of view.
(2.)
Use personal and
collaborative skills for personal
growth and to establish
constructive relationships in a
diverse society. In this course,
students from a wide range of
cultural backgrounds read about
diverse customs and cultures.
They collaborate in groups to
share knowledge, learn the
traditions of different peoples,
and develop academic and
personal relationships.
(1.)
Reading :
a. Students will comprehend stated ideas in a short reading. b. Students will distinguish between major and supporting ideas in a short passage. Writing:
a. Students will accurately paraphrase ideas from the text. b. Students will write summaries as part of a group and individually. c. Students will write appropriate transitions where needed. Listening and Speaking:
a. Students will listen to
a short lecture on the
components of an
effective summary
and take notes.
b. Students will speak
and listen to each
other as they work in
a group to produce a
summary.
June 2013
This lesson was designed in
early October directly
preceding the mid-part of the
semester, which is relatively
early on in the semester. It was
conducted early in order to
obtain results in a timely
manner as to comply with the
timetable given to this
committee. Taking this into
consideration, the fact that
more than 50% of the students
were “almost passing” or
“passing” after such a short
period of time demonstrates
that the students did well.
They were at least beginning
to show evidence of writing
satisfactory summaries.
However, in order to obtain a
more complete picture of the
students’ overall ability to
write a well-written summary
before entering the next level,
BE226, it is strongly
recommended that the
timetable be extended to the
end of the semester. This
would allow the Assessment
Committee to reassess the
students when they write their
final summaries, which is part
of the final Departmental exit
criteria test. This would allow
the committee to use the first
assessment done as part of the
mid-term as a bench mark,
providing a pre-score and then
compare it to how well the
students perform on the final,
which would provide a postscore.
The next assessment
of this kind needs to
contain a second
component, which is
the re-assessment at
the end of the semester
to see how much
progress was made
between the mid-term
and the final whereby
pre- and post scores
can be compared. At
this point, if the
students have not
made considerable
progress by the end of
the semester, BE225
instructors should
strongly be advised to
not allow weak
students who have
NOT obtained the
ability to write a wellwritten summary to
advance to the next
level, BE226.
23
Queensborough Community College
BE203
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
Write, read, listen and
speak clearly and effectively. In
this course, students practice all
four language skills by reading,
writing and talking about
current issues. They discuss the
issues, read about topics in
newspaper and magazine
articles, essays, stories or on the
internet, listen to various
viewpoints and write responses
which clearly state their own
point of view.
(2.)
Use personal and
collaborative skills for personal
growth and to establish
constructive relationships in a
diverse society. In this course,
students from a wide range of
cultural backgrounds read about
diverse customs and cultures.
They collaborate in groups to
share knowledge, learn the
traditions of different peoples,
and develop academic and
personal relationships.
(1.)
1. Students will write The choice of subjectusing a basic verb agreement as the
command of target skill for the
grammar. assessment was the result
of the committee’s belief
2. Students will that mastery of this
proofread effectively. subject can provide a
foundation for other
important skills covered
in BE203: writing
complete sentences (with
subjects and verbs),
punctuating to signal
sentence boundaries,
thoughtful choice of verb
tense. Additionally,
teaching such attention to
detail early in the
semester can facilitate
students’ increased
attention to grammar as a
whole and to careful
word choice. Both of
these clusters of skills
enhance a writer’s ability
to clearly transmit his/her
ideas, a central goal of
Educational Objective 1.
The assignment does
suggest increased
mastery of the target
skill. The assessment
process allowed for
unambiguous, easily
tabulated results.
June 2013
The strong showing on the retest
suggests the lesson is an effective way
to teach subject-verb agreement
although this skill is an introductory
level task that should lead to greater
sentence structure development. It
appears that explicit teaching of
grammar in the context of engaging
professional models does lead to
enhanced ability to edit for subjectverb agreement. BE203 faculty can be
encouraged to use both this method
and the early timing of the unit as they
fine tune their courses and advance
their students’ skills throughout the
term. Future assessments using this
lesson may enrich this data by
including both subject-verb agreement
and sentence boundary questions in the
pre- and post-tests. As the assumption
is that better verb identification skills
will lead to improved subject-verb
agreement and sentence boundary
sensitivity, this theory could be tested
with and without explicit connections
between verb identification with these
skills. However, even though this
lesson was successful in teaching
students to improve their editing skills
in the area of subject-verb agreement,
it is recommended that this assessment
be expanded to include additional
grammatical areas to ensure that this
population is indeed ready to advance
to the next level of instruction. It is
crucial that ESL students who are
taking Intermediate Composition have
a solid understanding and control over
grammar before they advance to the
last level of ESL writing, BE205. In
our most advanced level of ESL
writing, BE205 students are required to
pass the CUNY-wide writing test- the
CUNY Assessment Test for Writing
(CATW) exam. If students who have
an inadequate control over grammar
are prematurely passed from BE203 to
BE205, the BE205 instructor will be
forced to dedicate an inordinate
amount of time teaching basic
grammar instead of preparing students
for the crucial task of passing the
CATW test, which requires them to
write a long composition in a brief
amount of time. This type of situation
can have dire consequences. Therefore,
it is vital for our Department to
ascertain which students are fully
prepared and ready to be promoted to
BE205 so that the students who enroll
in BE205 will be successful in both
their coursework as well as passing the
24
CATW. This approach will also reduce
the number of BE205 students who
must repeat the course after they fail
the CATW exam.
Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
Closing the Loop
Although this assessment addressed a
very specific area of grammar, it can
be used as a starting point in the
process of beginning to close the
assessment loop of BE203. In order to
ensure that our assessment is
meaningful, it is critical that we make
strides to “close the loop.” As was
previously mentioned, it is vital that
BE203 students are fully prepared to
move onto the next level of instruction,
which is BE205. One way to further
promote this goal is by using the
assessment results as part of a new
CATW based rubric for evaluating
essays, which will be designed over the
coming summer to help determine
which students are allowed to advance
and which are not. This new rubric
would integrate the CATW rubric but
would clarify the measurement of
grammar issues since the existing
CATW rubric is vague in the area of
grammar. Over the summer, a group
of experienced writing instructors will
create a rubric that contains the
course’s objectives, including the
current assessment which details what
each student must score in a given
criteria area to be ready to pass the
class. The rubric will then be revisited
by the Assessment Committee in early
September 2013 to make revisions.
Then, one member who is part of the
Assessment Committee and who is
teaching the course (BE203) will train
BE203 teachers in how to conduct a
norming session whereby the rubric
will be used both at mid-term and then
again at finals as a basis to help
instructors formally decide which
students are ready to be promoted to
the next level. In addition, this
Committee will select model essays
from a collection of sample essays that
are ranked as “high” passing,
“passing”, “weak passing”, and
“failing”. These papers will be used to
help instructors fully understand the
criteria of a “passing mid-term” and
“passing final.”
25
Queensborough Community College
4.
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
June 2013
Results of certification exams, employer and alumni surveys, student surveys, advisory board recommendations
(if applicable, please use the table below)
Data Source
Results
Action plan
Certification exams
Employer/alumni surveys, including
graduation and placement survey
Student surveys (current students)
Advisory Board recommendations
5.
Other assessment activity
F. DEPARTMENT GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
1.
Goals/objectives for 2012-2013
(Please indicate [Yes or No] if the objectives were part of the College’s Strategic Plan for 2011-2012.)
Departmental goals/objectives 2011/2012
Improve CATW writing pass scores
Improve ACT Reading pass scores
Strategic
Plan Y/N
Increase exit
from
remediation
Increase exit
from
Evaluation of achievement
Resulting action plan
Attempt to raise the
percentage of passing
students to a higher
number by ensuring that
certain that students in
the lower level courses
not get promoted if they
In the spring 2013, 67 % of the
are not prepared.
BE112 students passed in contrast Draft a proposal for a
to 48.6 % in 2012, and in BE205
BE206 course for
31.05 % passed in contrast to 29 % students who have failed
the previous year.
more than three times.
In Spring 2013, 57.6% of the
Enhance reading
BE122 students passed the ACT
programs, and faculty
26
Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
remediation
June 2013
Reading exam in contrast to 51.9% development to improve
in 2012, and 37.5% of the BE226
scores.
students passed in contrast to 36.2%
in 2012.
Design and develop the CATW materials to
prepare faculty and students to prepare
students for the new CUNY writing test.
Increase exit
from
remediation
Apply for grants
Increase exit
from
remediation
Increase exit
from
remediation
Mentor Adjunct Faculty
Mentor new full time faculty
2.
Increase exit
from
remediation
The Department offered several
faculty development sessions to
assist writing faculty in preparing
their students for the demands of
the CATW.
Jennifer Maloy and W. Ye applied
for grants.
During the next year,
additional faculty
development sessions
will be offered.
Encourage other faculty
members to apply for
similar grants.
Cary Lane and the
Chairperson will
continue to meet with
each faculty member to
ensure compliance with
Departmental strategies.
Cary Lane the new adjunct
supervisor implemented high
impact strategies among all
adjuncts and he met individually
with each person to ensure that
he/she is meeting the learning
outcomes for each course.
The chairperson and several senior Continue to work with
faculty members have met with
and develop new
and assisted all of the new faculty faculty.
to help them understand
departmental and college programs
and the requirements for tenure
and/or CCE.
Goals/objectives for 2013-2014
(Explain how these goals/objectives align with the College’s goals and Strategic Plan for 2013-2014)
Departmental goals/objectives 2012-2013
Work with English Department to propose an
Accelerated learning program (ALP) that meets the
Mission/Strategic Plan
Increase exit from
remediation
Planned method of evaluation
Agreement between both departments
to implement an experimental program
27
Queensborough Community College
Year-end Report – Teaching Department
needs of both departments.
Increase use of Service Learning, especially in the
KHRCA
Provide enhanced services to BE205 students who are
multiple repeaters.
Work with architect to design and implement hardware
and software in room H339 (the new academic literacy
smart room);
The Department Tech Committee will work with the
Best Practices Committee to develop effective
pedagogical uses of the new ALLC website, as well as
other instructional technologies;
Procure software and hardware which will specifically
assist English language learners’ academic literacy
needs;
Pursue the procurement of instructional technology in
each and every classroom in the Department of
Academic Literacy.
Increase the use of technology in the classroom
June 2013
and the implementation of an
experimental class.
Increase faculty and
Determine the number of classes that
student participation and have used the KHRCA for Service
engagement in KHRCA Learning activities.
& QCC Art Gallery by
10% & with QPAC by
5%.
Increase exit from
Draft proposal for BE206 course that
remediation
would better address the needs of
multiple repeaters.
Improve exit from
Determine how many teachers use the
remediation by
new AL smart room and examine how
permitting more
they use it.
remedial faculty to use
technology in their
classes.
Improve exit from
Query faculty as to how much they
remediation
have used ALLC website.
Improve exit from
remediation
Determine if the software been
purchased and used by faculty.
Improve exit from
remediation
Examine if the Department of
Academic Literacy has continued to
receive more technology in its
classrooms.
Query faculty as to how much they
have used ALLC website.
Improve exit from
remediation
28