AGENDA ITEM BACKGROUND
TO: GOVERNING BOARD DATE
FROM: PRESIDENT
SUBJECT:
February 7, 2011
ENCLOSURE(S)
STARS Title V Project Update
REASON FOR BOARD CONSIDERATION
INFORMATION
ITEM NUMBER
Page 1 of 2
E.9
BACKGROUND
The college was awarded a Title V grant through the Strengthening Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI)
Program under the U.S. Department of Education for October 2009 – September 2014. The purpose of the grant is to increase success for students assessing at basic skills levels in math, English and reading.
The Cabrillo program is named STARS, Students Transitioning in Academics and Reaching Success, with a website at www.cabrillostars.org
. The grant funds five staff positions, with the fifth in the process of being hired this year. All of the funded activities are on schedule and fall under two primary branches: increased student engagement and faculty development to support student achievement.
Increased Student Engagement
The First Year Experience (FYE) program for the first year of the grant focused on students interested in careers in Allied Health, Public Safety and Human Services. STARS FYE was successfully launched in
July, 2010 with a Summer Bridge program that prepared students in math, reading and an orientation to college resources. The Summer Bridge program included activities to build cohesion within the cohort, information on learning disabilities and screening upon request, and study skills workshops. The retention rate was 96% (55 of 57 finished), the average success rate was 95%, and persistence was 93% (53 enrolled in the fall semester). These rates far exceeded the 75% benchmark set as a goal.
For fall 2010, 58 students enrolled in STARS FYE math, reading, English and career exploration classes.
53 have enrolled for the spring semester, a cohort persistence rate of 91%. They will be joined by 18 students who took fall classes in the Digital Bridge Academy, for a total of 71 STARS students in spring
2011. Success and persistence rates for the fall are currently being analyzed by the Planning and Research
Office and will be part of the first year summary report on STARS FYE.
Several procedural changes which will benefit Learning Communities (LC) as a whole at the college were put into place, including beginning the LC scheduling process a year prior to the start of a semester, activating new functions in Datatel to facilitate LC registration, and using an integrated approach for LC outreach to inform students of all the options available.
Administrator Initiating Item:
Rachel Mayo, Dean, Ed Centers/Title V
Renée M. Kilmer, Vice President, Instruction
Academic and Professional Matter  Yes X No Final Disposition
If yes, Faculty Senate Agreement

Yes

No
Senate President Signature

Other goals related to increasing student engagement have been met or exceeded to date. Technology upgrades were provided for six classrooms in the fall, doubling the goal of three for the first year.
Curriculum development was completed for new courses in ESL, math, Allied Health, Human Services,
Public Safety, reading and library science. A Welcome Center information kiosk to give students easy access to first contact information was equipped, and a second one was set up at the Watsonville Center.
In addition, the website for the kiosk ( http://cabrillo.edu/internal/onestop/titlev/ )
was adopted for the registration computers near Admissions and Records. A leisure reading collection to encourage basic skills students to expand their reading activities was set up in the college library, and a second collection was added to the Integrated Learning Center in Watsonville.
Faculty Development
The grant funds the development of a Faculty Inquiry System to increase the use of data to improve teaching and thereby increase the level of success for basic skills students, while contributing to the college-wide goal of building a "culture of inquiry." This system will be known as SOFIA, Student
Outcomes for Faculty Inquiry and Analysis. The Faculty Inquiry Network (CabrilloFIN) has been set up as the first step in this process, an online Cabrillo community for faculty and staff to engage in discussion groups, post information and research regarding excellent teaching and student success, and pose questions to their peers about best practices. The CabrilloFIN gathered over one hundred members during the first year of the grant, and many are actively communicating online. The grant also provides funds for professional development for conferences and training related to basic skills instruction, First Year
Experience programs, learning communities, and other topics related to themes in the STARS FYE model.
Future Planning
During this second year of the grant which started in October of 2010, SOFIA will enter a more accelerated development phase and other grant initiatives will develop more fully. After this year there are three more years of FYE pilots, which will each have a different focus since Title V grants fund development rather than operations. The 2011-12 FYE program will start in Summer 2011 and have three cohorts: students interested in Health or Wellness careers who assess into English 255, Early Childhood
Education (ECE) students who are also taking English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, and ESL students who will take ESL 204 in the fall and English 100 in the spring. The ECE and one of the ESL groups will be evening cohorts. The 2012-13 FYE program will focus on basic skills students interested in
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields, and 2013-14 will have a general focus on basic skills students who plan to transfer.
Matching federal funds support a Title V endowment that is intended to support grant activities beyond the funding period, and $49,442 were matched the first year. Response to the endowment has been favorable, and the Cabrillo College Foundation anticipates matching the full amount of $451,115 in federal funds designated for the 5-year grant period.
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