Eureka Area Regional Focus Workgroups 1 & 2
College of the Redwoods, Eureka Main Campus
September 4, 2014, 11:00 AM
Room SS 104
Workgroups 1 & 2: Adult Basic Elementary and Adult Basic Skills, Adult Learners with
Disabilities, ESL and Immigrant Education
Attendees: Julia Peterson, David Lonn, John Lee (Teleconference), Elsie McLaughlinFeliz, Sheila Hall, Liz Carlyle
Actions:
1. Data Collection and Reporting Deadline: Due October 3: Second set of data
2. Julia will diagram some further examples of potential pathways based on a broad
common core curriculum with multiple branches.
3. We will develop a narrative template for Objectives 3, 5, 6, and 7.
Discussion:
Review of Hoopa Workgroups meeting. What are the merits and disadvantages of
general career pathways vs. community-based interest pathways? (Pathways diagram)
Do adult learners in the Eureka area want to pursue careers unique to this region and
its communities, or careers which will sustain them in other parts of the state and
beyond? There is a need to help students understand that career pathways require
long-term planning and commitment, and to design skill-based pathways with multiple
branches and educational options, which integrate skill-based and classroom instruction
with living wage employment opportunities.
Objective 3: What current programs are working well? What’s working well in K-12?
For example, how can we align the Kuder Navigator (http://www.kudernavigator.com/)
career planning system with career planning at CR? What other programs are in place
and working well? How can we strengthen and better utilize existing articulation
agreement partnerships with the high schools? Julia will diagram some further
examples of potential pathways based on a broad common core curriculum with
multiple branches.
How do we attract and transition adult learners who have left the traditional educational
route, at any point, back onto a pathway with extensive options? How do we establish
“learning communities” which participate in cohesive projects around social issues or
community development? How can we relate education to those things adult learners
value and want to understand or accomplish, as opposed to teaching discrete skills
which seem disconnected from any real outcome? How do we galvanize students’ initial
motivation to improve their lives through education, and build on that momentum
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through more contextualized instruction, in order to connect learning with life and work
experience? Problem solving, critical thinking, time management, and other soft skills
are universal, and are essential components of any educational pathway.
Interdisciplinary education encourages students to connect these universal concepts
with a variety of specific tasks, skills, and academic subjects, and challenges them to
continually enlarge their experience and ambition. Commuting is an overwhelming
barrier in many of our local communities, both financially and emotionally, so there is a
need to bring adult education directly to potential students. Offering supportive learning
environments, including childcare and transportation, within a flexible time frame
(through Noncredit classes), has greatly expanded adult learner access and improved
overall success in our current ESL offerings. Adult education has to happen on the
learner’s terms, and not the institution’s. CR’s current WIA grant can cover food,
childcare, and transportation expenses to reinforce and expand the current effort.
Objective 5: How do we accelerate student progress? One approach is through
contextualized Basic Skills. Students who enter CR with basic skills deficiencies
graduate at an extremely low rate (less than 10%). Accelerating these students’
progress is of great value, both to the student and to the college. Compression, putting
more learning into a shorter period of time, is one possibility. CR is currently
experimenting with several compressed classes which combine 2 semesters of Credit
Basic Skills English or Math into 1 semester. More assessment is needed, but
compression has been successful for some students in other districts. We will have
data, probably late this academic year, on whether students who have taken
compressed classes are more or less successful in the next class. We need to wait until
students who have completed the compressed class have completed the subsequent
class in order to study the outcome. Do we think acceleration will work as well for adult
learners reentering the workforce through education and training as for college-bound
students? The accelerated program for English, which combines English 350 and
English 150, is a definite improvement, at least from a time standpoint. Accelerated
classes could be supplemented with ongoing Noncredit context-based support classes
within an academic discipline or training program. Developing supportive instructional
materials, connected with the main content of a compressed class or certificate
program, might help students who are struggling to practice their basic skills in context.
Many students are struggling with Math, and continue to struggle in subsequent
courses, after having taken remedial Math classes. Some colleges are piloting more
hands-on, accelerated application types of Math classes, which relate to real life. The
focus is on how a student understands concrete examples of a specific concept, such
as fractions, functionally, as it applies to everyday activities such as downloading music
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or purchasing food. The emphasis is on visual displays and concrete examples of
mathematical concepts.
Objective 6: As we discover what we would like to see in the way of future curriculum
innovations, we need to develop new pathways for professional development. Projectbased learning, collaboration, and thinking through problems in groups, with texts as a
means of supplementing the ways students think about problem solving, are possible
avenues of innovation. Presenting Math as a social learning activity redefines the roles
of teacher and text, and presents the challenge of aligning professional development
with new models of adult learning. Under AB86, funds may become available for
programs of joint professional development among consortium members, partners, and
stakeholders. How can we as a consortium, across the Redwoods District, collaborate
with teachers, staff, and administrators to conceptualize the ways that we, as a group,
see adult education developing? We have to assume that our teachers, for the most
part, will continue doing what they have been doing if we don’t organize to stimulate and
extend the process of collaborative innovation through opportunities for ongoing
professional development. Teachers at all levels want new tools to teach, and new ways
to motivate students and help them to succeed, so how do we introduce them to proven
strategies and more effective methods? How do we help teachers to become detectives
in thinking about how students think about questions, and why they give the answers
they do, as opposed to just teaching answers to questions? These are not short-term
objectives, and will require extensive planning, generous funding, and consistent
implementation in order to bring about deep structural change. What professional
development events or processes do we need to fund in the Consortium region in order
to bring about systemic change? One suggestion is a symposium with an initial 2 to 5
day kickoff (perhaps as a Summer Institute) of intensive exposure, combined with
several months of regular follow-up, either evenings or weekends, with stipends for
travel, childcare, and other associated expenses. These regular “check-ins,” hosted
every few weeks, can coincide with regularly scheduled professional development days.
All of this requires a great deal of coordination and planning, so that teachers have the
opportunity, outside of their daily teaching responsibilities and professional priorities, to
incorporate and integrate their new strategies and insights into the common core
curriculum. We need consultants to facilitate faculty buy-in, and experienced presenters
to implement the roll-out of this type of extended training and development. Buy-in is
crucial to this effort, and should be “organic,” not imposed from the top down. An initial
late-Spring orientation session could be organized to present the symposium concept
and the values behind it in order attract a willing commitment from the greatest number
of participants. To be effective, this effort will require the full cooperation and
participation of members, partners, and stakeholders across the consortium. On a
smaller scale, one-hour facilitated webinars, which can be recorded and replayed
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anytime, are effective, economical, and convenient. Topics could include case studies,
successful instructional models, and classroom demonstrations. Webinars could stand
alone, or support other materials and activities. Another approach is to create a Social
Media Learning Community for Noncredit teachers and tutors. We may want to partner
with other AB86 consortia and larger community college districts, such as LA Unified, to
develop “snappy,” Youtube-style online video resources by topic and subject area for
ongoing professional development. With adequate resources, we can start developing
the training and support materials immediately.
Objective 7: How do we leverage existing resources? This Objective needs further
input and discussion. We should develop a work plan with specific “look fors” as we
develop the Narrative Template for Objectives 3, 5, 6, and 7.
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