Annual Update: 2007-09-14
A. Describe the past year's accomplishments and the current status of this Action Project.
Our FY 08 work plan for improving student success in developmental education is
outlined below and is available at http://ncstatecollege.edu/aqip/where%20we%20are.htm
Strategy 1: Strengthen the college advising system Action Timeline Leader(s) Implement
mandatory assessment and placement for mathematics courses. In place MTH Dept B.
Walker Prepare study guides (basic skills sheets) and other tutorial materials for each of
the developmental math courses to be used with COMPASS assessment. In place; now
being revised MTH Dept B. Walker Utilize COMPASS mathematics diagnostics tool In
place B. Walker, SSC Require FYE161 for every student taking one or more
developmental mathematics, reading or writing courses. In place M. Puckett B. Walker
Expand the DIRECTIONS advising program to include every student testing into any
developmental mathematics, reading or writing course(s). In place B. Walker Utilize the
Noel-Levitz College Student Inventory with every student taking one or more
developmental courses. In place B. Walker Student Success Center advisors will share
information with students about the number and frequency of NCSC students starting in
developmental work in an effort to reduce the stigma and increase acceptance by
students. In place B. Walker Create protocols in each developmental course for triggering
the Early Alert process. • Developmental Reading and Writing and FYE • Developmental
mathematics Completed In process R. Birk MTH Dept Strategy 2: Improve curriculum
and instruction Action Timeline Leader(s) Add a computer enhanced tutorial to each of
the developmental math classes In place; being redesigned B. Cyders Mathematics
faculty Convert MTH100, 102 & 103 from lecture format to lecture/lab combination. In
place, being redesigned B. Cyders Mathematics faculty Utilize PLATO software to
enhance developmental curriculum and instructional methods as appropriate. In place;
progress continues R. Birk J. Karbula B.Cyders T. Coleman Analyze student success
rates in Plato-enhanced courses and compare to success rates in other sections of the
same course taught in the traditional fashion By 9-1-07 Data Team R. Birk B. Cyders
Research and develop standard protocol to trigger mandatory, one-on-one tutoring in
developmental writing classes. Based on protocol, implement mandatory tutoring for
writing. In place R. Birk B. Walker Convert RDG115 from a 3-credit, 3 contact hour
course to a 1-credit, 2-contact hour lab course that will be taken concurrently with
RDG116. In place R. Birk Implement a tutor training program for developmental reading,
writing, and mathematics tutors In place S. Luckie B. Walker Provide training to FYE
instructors on best practice techniques for success courses. In place; will be ongoing M.
Puckett Explore modularized developmental mathematics credits First draft completed;
ongoing B. Cyders Provide additional Plato lab coverage for dev. math support. Fall 07
B. Cyders For information on our preliminary results, go to Assessment Results Report
and Assessment Results PowerPoint. We have made much progress. However our work
in improving student success in developmental mathematics has presented some
unforeseen challenges, and for this reason we will refocus our efforts in this area in the
coming year. Many of the proposed changes in developmental math courses were not
implemented in the way that they were conceived in our original work plan. Some were
conceived without sufficient input from the Mathematics faculty. The Plato software
acquisition occurred very late in the planning process and therefore was not addressed
very thoroughly in the original work plan. Use of the software as an instructional tool has
met with mixed reviews from mathematics faculty. A transition to a new department
chair mid-year presented some trust and communication challenges for the Math
department. There is now new leadership in the Mathematics area and a readiness to rethink and re-design our developmental mathematics strategies.
Review (09-27-07):
Improving student success in developmental courses is an ambitious and important
project. Providing underprepared students with opportunities to succeed academically is
consistent with the mission of North Central State College to “provide quality,
responsive, lifelong learning opportunities” and with AQIP principles. You may find that
you will need more time than the two years you have alloted to bring this complex project
to completion, but do not be discouraged. Improving the success of these at-risk students
is worth the extra time and effor. The two “strategies” you have identified (“Strengthen
the college advising system” and “Improve curriculum and instruction”) are broad and
worthwhile goals but they are not helpful to you in identifying specific desireable
outcomes until you have identified areas for improvement in advising, curriculum, and
instruction. This process of identification should be broad-based and should involve
faculty, students, advisors, tutors, and perhaps representatives from the University with
whom you share some resources. You are to be commended for linking this project to the
national “Achieving the Dream” initiative. This reviewer could not find information on
preliminary results from the North Central State College home page.
B. Describe how the institution involved people in work on this Action Project.
From the beginning, our Board of Trustees and our president have kept this work on the
institution’s priority list. This Project is one of the institution’s five strategic initiatives
for FY08. The college has supported this Project with institutional dollars and has added
grant dollars where appropriate. The college community is updated on the Project at
quarterly “President’s Open Forum” meetings as well as fall convocation, the staff inservice day in November and faculty/staff in-service day in April. Our Board of Trustees
receives regular reports on the status of our work. There is a lot of energy behind this
Project. The work is directed by a Core Team that meets twice a month to discuss
progress and next steps for this Project. There is also a Data Team handling data
collection and analysis, and a Communications Team charged with keeping the campus
and extended community aware of this work. One member of each of these teams serves
on the Core Team and acts as a liaison. Our Communications Team prepares a quarterly
publication which can also be viewed via the web at
http://www.ncstatecollege.edu/atd/news-archive.html and is distributed widely on
campus and in the community. This electronic newsletter won the Gold Medallion Award
from the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations (NCMPR) in 2007 (to
view the award electronically, visit www.ncstatecollege.edu/offices/ia/awards). A
presentation regarding our work was made to the Ohio Council of Student Development.
Representatives from North Central State College made multiple presentations at the
2007 Achieving the Dream Strategy Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Review (09-27-07):
It is good to keep the College community informed about work on this project. It would
be even better if more of the stakeholders were involved in designing and implementing
the strategies that will help you improve student success in developmental math, English,
and reading classes. If faculty teaching these courses are not also teaching in college
credit courses, you should involve faculty who are. Remember that a key AQIP principle
seeks broad-based collaboration among faculty, staff and students. A complex project
such as this gives you a good opportunity to begin creating a culture of involvement at
North Central State College.
C. Describe your planned next steps for this Action Project.
Step 1: Redesign our strategies to improve student success in developmental mathematics
with the assistance of a new dean and the Mathematics faculty. Step 2: As we have
measured and reported the outcomes of the changes made in the developmental reading
and writing areas, our results have raised questions that need to be answered by
additional data analysis. In particular, we believe that we need to look more closely at the
age of our students and its relationship to success in developmental courses. Our data
indicate that our median student age is dropping steadily, and that our youngest students
are also those most likely to struggle in developmental courses. We will do more data
analysis and then, if appropriate, design new or different strategies based on promising
practices with younger learners. Step 3: Continue to find linkages and partnerships with
other work going on at the institution or in our community that supports our efforts, or
that our efforts can help to support. For example, our college is part of a regional P-16
initiative which we envision will assist us in developing relationships with our secondary
partners. This in turn will enable us to better serve the needs of our younger learners. The
long term goal is to better align the curriculum in the secondary schools with the
expectations of the colleges so that students graduating from our high schools are
academically ready for college level work.
Review (09-27-07):
As you reconsider the steps you are taking to improve student learning in developmental
math classes, involve as many of the faculty, tutors, and student services staff as is
practical. If you develop a sound approach, you will not need to do it again, should the
leadership in the program change. It is likely that most of your students needing
remediation will test into developmental classes in more than one area, so the faculty
members in developmental mathematics, reading, and English share many of the same
students and encounter many of the same problems in helping these students learn. If you
have not done so, consider creating cross-disciplinary teams with credit and non-credit
faculty to explore particular issues and to develop solutions. In your efforts to find
linkages, do not overlook the AQIP Action Project Directory! Many other institutions are
facing and addressing the issues that are challenging you. You are not alone!
D. Describe any "effective practice(s)" that resulted from your work on this Action
Project.
a. Our developmental reading faculty created a reading course that converted a lowerlevel reading course from a 3-credit, 3 contact hour course to a 1-credit, 2-contact hour
lab course that is taken in conjunction with the upper-level reading course. The reading
course combines computer assisted instruction via Plato software, tutoring, and in-class
learning experiences. Students complete a reading pre-test and post-test. Prior to the
curriculum redesign, student reading levels increased an average of one grade level
during the class. Since the implementation of the redesign, students are improving an
average of two grade levels. b. Developmental education faculty created protocols
(specific to each course) for triggering the Early Alert process. Not only did our number
of Early Alerts to students increase significantly, but the success rate of students
receiving Early Alerts increased as well.
Review (09-27-07):
Your developmental reading faculty are to be commended for working collaboratively to
create a combined reading course, and your initial results are promising. Is the overall
two-grade-level improvement in reading ability greater than the success of students who
took the two courses consecutively, rather than in this new combined format? Does that
improvement hold up when they enter the third course in that sequence? Are students
subsequently able to succeed in reading college-level material? Follow-up studies could
provide useful benchmarks. The Early Alert system appears to be working well.
E. What challenges, if any, are you still facing in regards to this Action Project?
We have some challenges with assuring that we are using the appropriate data to measure
our expected outcomes. We tend to look primarily at student success rates (passing with
grade of C or better) and in some cases there is other data that might better inform us as
to our progress or success with this work. We rely on our faculty who are doing the work
in the classroom to alert us to these other measurements (e.g. a reading faculty member
suggested that we look at Nelson Denny pre and post scores and reading level
improvement for students as another indicator of success, rather than relying so heavily
on course grades).
Review (09-27-07):
As you re-consider your definition of success (completion with a grade of “C” or better),
you may want to consider requiring specific scores on exit tests as criteria for successful
completion. COMPASS can be used as a screening test, a pre-test, and a post-test in all
three disciplines. Other possibilities include Degrees of Reading Power Pre- and Post
testing, software that comes with mathematics programs such as MyMathLab, and many
other products that may be better suited to your students. Whenever possible, involve all
interested faculty, tutors, and student services staff to avoid top-down decisions that have
little stakeholder buy-in. You have made some progress on this ambitious project with
your Early Alert system, mandatory advising, and improvement in reading levels.
Narrowing your scope during this last year may help you in the collection of relevant
data. It could be useful to next year's reviewer if you could summarize your results
(rather than referring to an external document) on the 2008 Action Project Report itself.
F. If you would like to discuss the possibility of AQIP providing you help to stimulate
progress on this action project, explain your need(s) here and tell us who to contact and
when?
Outside assistance with a research design for our future work in improving student
success in developmental education would be most helpful. Please contact Margaret
Moir, Vice President for Learning Support and retention, at pmoir@ncstatecollege.edu or
419.755.4704.
Review (09-27-07):