Chabot College Basic Skills Committee
April 14, 2015
Minutes - Approved
Attendees : Anita Wah (Math), Hisako Hintz (ESL), Michael Thompson (AL/SS), Mike
Hodsdon (Engl), Jeremy Wilson (IR), Rachael Tupper-Eoff (Learning Connection), Katie Hern
(Engl), Jennifer Lange (Sci/Math), Kristin Land (Engl), Carolyn Arnold (IR), Carmen Johnson
(Engl)
Called to Order at 12:05pm
1) Minutes of March 24th were approved. Jeremy moved, Mike H. seconded, 3 absentions
2) Summary of Gov. changes
- Goes to / will be discussed at PRBC 4/15
Katie -> on reason b
- however there is an overlap in areas of assmt & placement
- this is an area we should work together
- research shows we are underplacing students
Carolyn
- SSSP doesn’t have an assessment group
- but they do vet proposals from other groups
- so this may be a good place for conversation
Michael T
- do we have authority to do this?
Carolyn
- we can make proposals in conjunction w/ the depts..
- one that is missing from list -> we are a mandated committee
- merging might take away from our charge
Michael T
- everyone needs to be talking about these issues so we need to work together on
many topics
Carolyn
- we also haven’t really talked about acceleration
- maybe this committee should be a forum for the issues instead of just for indiv.
projects
Michael T
- maybe the conversation needs to be more basic such as “what do we mean by
basic skills student”
- the assumption is that students are “fixed” in Eng/Mth, they learn skills in all
classes
-> example – critical analysis from historical perspective
- students have lots of skills they need to learn that aren’t necessarily addressed in
Eng/Mth
Jenn
- there are other skills that they need to learn that they in classes outside Eng/Mth
Anita
- a “C” in a class doesn’t tell us anything about what they know; we have no
common agreement about skills gained
- if we had a group that looked at student work so we can see what effect what we
do has on student skill, not just basic memorization; facts
- if you don’t talk about examples you can’t discuss out scores etc.
Carolyn
- tomorrow in PRBC will tell them about overlaps & mandate
3) Announcements
Basic skills St. plan will be presented to senate this week. It will also be included in the
Educational Master Plan
4) Eng Equity FIG – Kristin Land
-Goal is to see potential biases/assumptions as they relate to students of color
-Did writing prompt activity
See participant guidelines handout
- each faculty member brought in their own issue to investigate
- currently everyone has created inquiry and is gathering class data and working
with students
- plans are posted on wiki
- teaching what inquiry is has been taking longer than they thought it would; also
figuring out what data is appropriate for each project
- very profess. Dev oriented
Mike H – these plans seem very subjective in nature
Kristin – teacher research can be, so we try to look at multiple sources for evidence
Carmen – a lot of us don’t know how to look at data, so we are working on training
Michael T – are you finding overlap in the individual inquiries?
Carmen – we all have the same students with the same life issues
Carolyn – do you compare what you are gathering to other groups of students?
Kristin – it is more about techniques for a particular student
Carolyn – are there any techniques that you will find that arise from black / latino
students that might apply to broader groups or student skills?
- Discussion on what could be captured and compared
Carolyn – would other disciplines be able to be in the group and be effective?
Meeting ended at 12:57