RETHINKING REMEDIATION:
Increasing Student Completion
through Acceleration
Katie Hern & Myra Snell
Leaders of the California Acceleration Project
http://cap.3csn.org
October 11, 2013
USC’s Center for Urban Education
Institute for Equity, Effectiveness, and Excellence
at Hispanic Serving Institutions
SPREADING ACCELERATED
REMEDIATION
The California Acceleration Project supports California’s 112
community colleges to redesign their English and Math curricula to
increase student completion:
• Workshops and presentations to 100+ CA colleges
• Professional development for faculty from 42 colleges to offer
new accelerated English & math courses
• CAP web resources supporting colleges to redesign remedial
curricula – more than 10,000 unique hits in 18 months
http://cap.3csn.org
Funding provided by the state Chancellor’s Office Basic Skills Initiative,
Walter S. Johnson Foundation, LearningWorks, and CCRC
HIGH ATTRITION IN REMEDIATION:
CALIFORNIA-WIDE DATA
The lower a student begins in remedial sequences,
the lower their completion of college-level courses:
• Just 16% of students who begin 3 or more levels below college
English complete college English in 3 years.
• Just 6% of students who begin 3 or more levels below college
math complete college math in 3 years.
• Students of color are disproportionately placed into these
lower levels. More than 50% of Black and Latino community
college students are placed 3+ levels below college math.
Illustration from the
Basic Skills Cohort Tracker
REMEDIAL ATTRITION:
A STRUCTURAL PROBLEM
Students placed 2 levels below college English/Math
face 6 “exit points” where they fall away:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Do they enroll in the first course?
If they enroll, do they pass the first course?
If they pass, do they enroll in the next course?
If they enroll, do they pass the second course?
If they pass, do they enroll in the college-level course?
If they enroll, do they pass the college-level course?
Students placed 3 levels down face 8 exit points.
ILLUSTRATION:
CHABOT COLLEGE
Students beginning two levels below College English:
• Do they enroll in the first course?
??%
• If they enroll, do they pass the first course?
• If they pass, do they enroll in the next course?
• If they enroll, do they pass the second course?
• If they pass, do they enroll in the college-level course?
• If they enroll, do they pass the college-level course?
(0.66)(0.93)(0.75)(0.91)(0.78)= 33%
66%
93%
75%
91%
78%
Fall 2006 Cohort. Students tracked from their first developmental English enrollment and
followed for all subsequent English enrollments for 3 years. Pass rates includes students
passing on first or repeated attempts within timeframe. Basic Skills Cohort Tracker, DataMart.
A THOUGHT EXPERIMENT…
IF MORE STUDENTS PASSED THE FIRST COURSE,
How many would complete college level?
(0.66)(0.93)(0.75)(0.91)(0.78)= 33%
If 75% passed the first course…
37%
If 80% passed the first course…
40%
If 90% passed the first course…
45%
What if 90% passed and persisted at each point?
59%
BOTTOM LINE
Improving our results within the existing multi-level
system will never be enough.
We need to fundamentally restructure our approach
to under-prepared students and eliminate the exit
points where we lose them.
ALTERNATIVES TO
MULTI-SEMESTER REMEDIATION IN
READING/WRITING
Student completion of college English is significantly higher in
accelerated models of remediation:
• Co-requisite models enroll “remedial” students into collegelevel courses and provide additional time and support to help
them succeed.
• One-semester pre-requisite models provide a single welldesigned semester of preparation to students with any
placement score.
Shortening the remedial pathway by a semester is correlated
with 20+ percentage points higher completion of college English
in established models.
CO-REQUISITE MODEL
Community College of Baltimore County
Upper-level remedial students enroll in a regular college English
course, plus a small support class with the same teacher.
Completion of College English
CCBC
Traditional
remedial
sequence
Accelerated
Learning
Program
40%
75%
Jenkins, D. et al (Sept. 2010). A Model for Accelerating Academic Success of Community College
Remedial English Students: Is the Accelerated Learning Program (ALP) Effective and
Affordable?(CCRC Working Paper No. 21). New York: Community College Research Center,
Teachers College,
Columbia University.
ONE-SEMESTER ACCELERATED
PRE-REQUISITE TO COLLEGE ENGLISH
Chabot Las Positas Community College District
Integrated reading and writing course open to students with
any placement score below college-level; alternative to twosemester remedial sequence.
Completion of College English
2-semester
Accelerated
remedial path course
Chabot College
28%-34%
52%-57%
Las Positas College 35%-48%
67%-68%
3-year completion data from the Basic Skills Cohort Tracker. Student cohorts
beginning in Fall 2000, 2003, 2006, and 2008. Repeats included.
http://datamart.cccco.edu/Outcomes/BasicSkills_Cohort_Tracker.aspx
ACCELERATED
REMEDIATION IN MATH
Paradigm Shift: Math Pathways
Remediation not a repeat of K-12 mathematics through
Algebra II. Instead, support tailored to the student’s
intended program of study or meta-major.
• Intensive algebra preparation for students pursuing STEM,
other calculus-based majors
• Students in other majors enroll in college-level Statistics or
Liberal Arts Math, with co-requisite or accelerated prerequisite support
• Redesigned accelerated course replaces 2-3 semesters
of traditional sequence; some models offer a single
semester of developmental preparation to students with
any placement score
WHY PATHWAY REDESIGN:
MISALIGNMENT BETWEEN ALGEBRA & STATISTICS
PROMISING PRELIMINARY RESULTS
FROM SOME COLLEGES
Completion rate: percent of students enrolled at first census in a
developmental math course that complete a transfer-level math course.
Statistics Pathway
(1 year)
Traditional Pathway
(3 years)
Cuyamaca
50% (171)
23% (2315)
Los Medanos
60% (119)
21%(1756)
At both colleges most students enrolled in the Statistics pathway had a
placement level of 2 to 3 levels below transfer-level math (65% at
Cuyamaca and 73% at LMC). At both colleges the majority of students
were non-Asian students of color (58% Cuyamaca,
~ 75% LMC).
Third-party evaluation of the first year of implementation
for 8 colleges in CAP’s first cohort due out in December.
A CASE STUDY: CLOSING THE EQUITY GAP
Cuyamaca Completion Rates by Ethnicity
Statistics Pathway
(1 year)
Traditional Pathway
(3 years)
Black nonHispanic
42% (24)
10% (185)
HIspanic
45% (60)
22%(630)
Two or
More
73% (11)
29% (93)
White nonHispanic
52%(68)
26%(1028)
CAP Principles for Curricular Redesign
• Increasing completion of college-level English and Math
requires shorter developmental pathways and broader
access to college-level courses.
• We must reduce our reliance on high-stakes placement
tests, which are poor predictors of student capacity.
• Streamlined developmental curricula should reflect five
key principles:
–
–
–
–
–
Backward design from college-level courses
Relevant, thinking-oriented curriculum
Just-in-time remediation
Low-stakes, collaborative practice
Intentional support for students’ affective needs
Reading/Writing
Away from…
Traditional remediation front-loads sub-skills, on
the assumption that before students can do a more
complex task, they must have mastery of its
component parts:
• In reading: workbook exercises on recognizing main
ideas, building vocabulary
• In writing: grammar exercises before paragraph writing,
personal essays before text-based essays
Toward…
In English, accelerated pedagogy gives
under-prepared students experience with
college-level reading, reasoning, and writing,
with more in-class scaffolding and support
than in a regular college course. Sub-skills
in reading and writing are addressed as
needed in the context of the more
challenging work.
From Deceleration to
Acceleration: An Illustration
Typical Changes
to Pedagogy
• More reading assigned, more challenging texts
• More class time spent discussing and writing
about readings, less on grammar instruction
• Readings used not just as “models” of writing,
but as content for students’ own papers
• Writing assignments not simply about personal
experience – students write academic essays;
paraphrase, quote, synthesize texts; and use
critical thinking to answer higher-order questions
Insights from CAP faculty
“In the non-accelerated classroom, I think I focused more on
teaching students to eliminate the superficial errors, so students
in that class ended up producing a ‘prettier’ assignment; however,
their writing did not illustrate complexity of thought….This was
partly due to the formulaic nature of the assignments I used to
give (topic sentence should look like this and be placed here,
supporting details should go here, etc.) and mostly due to the
lack of opportunity for critical thinking in my previous
assignments.”
Summer Serpas, Irvine Valley College
Insights from CAP faculty
“With the right support, students are capable of doing
great academic work! They don’t need to start with a
simple paragraph. They can write complex essays from
the start.”
-Anonymous faculty reflection
“Teaching accelerated courses has changed my outlook
on student capacity. I learned to trust in students’ ability
to handle challenges and tackle meaningful academic
work.
- Caroline Minkowski, City College SF
Window into
the Classroom
• Video footage from Myra Snell’s pre-statistics course,
Fall 2009
• Los Medanos students grapple with a problem from the
national statistics exam, CAOS
• Video filmed and edited by Jose Reynoso, a student coinquirer working with Snell through a grant from the
Faculty Inquiry Network
http://vimeo.com/9055488 (or go to Vimeo and search
for “Statpath”)
Math Pedagogy
• Away from…decontextualized algebra, mimicry of
symbolic procedures and template word problems
An apple falling from a tree is h feet above the ground t seconds after it
begins to fall, where h=64-16t^2. How long does it take the apple to hit the
ground?
• Toward… data analysis and decision-making in the face of
uncertainty
What factors correlate with low birth weights? Use graphs and conditional
percentages to investigate the relationship between one of the factors in
the data set and low birth weight. Present your results in 500 words or less,
include relevant graphs and calculations.
Data set: Birth weights and 6 qualitative factors from a Massachusetts
study of 189 pregnant women.
Changes to Math Pedagogy:
An Illustration
Student Reflections
“It was developing my critical thinking. Not just looking at a formula and
learning how to solve it – you know, where does this go, what are the
rules….It’s more about evaluating, it’s more about the analysis…It’s more about
understanding how to make a conclusion about the data set.”
Describing her instructor’s approach to the class: “It’s kind of like…You dig in
and get your hands dirty, however you feel you need to, and I’m here for you to
help clarify, to help understand, help get you along better. I like that. It’s more
like the instructor is a facilitator, as opposed to, I’m spewing out all this
information that I need you to regurgitate on an exam.”
-Accelerated Pre-Statistics Students at College of the Canyons
Faculty Reflections
“I go to the board, and I start to lecture, and it kills the magic in the
room….They’re not enthusiastic, they’re not paying attention, they’re looking at
their cell phones….I figure, If I just explain at bit more, it’ll be ok. But the more I
tried to front-load, the worse it got. And then this kid in the class comes up
after….and he goes, ‘Now Terrie, I’ve noticed that your pedagogical practices
have been about us discovering what we need, and I think what happened
today is that you failed to trust the process.’”
-Terrie Nichols, Math Instructor, Cuyamaca
“I kind of started getting into this mindset, Well, if they don’t care, I can’t make
them care…I really just thought it was laziness. Now I realize…it’s just that
students are intimidated. They don’t want to act like they care because then
they would be failures if they didn’t succeed.”
-Evelyn Ngo, Math Instructor, College of the Canyons
Intentional Support for
Students’ Affective Needs
Student fears and fixed mindsets are two of the
biggest challenges to overcome in highchallenge accelerated classes.
– The College Fear Factor by Rebecca Cox
Many community college students fear that they’re not cut out
for college and cope with this fear by withdrawing and/or
“avoiding assessment” (e.g., not take tests, not turn in papers)
– “Brainology” by Carol Dweck
Whether students have a “fixed” or “growth” mindset about their
own intelligence strongly influences their academic
performance, especially their response to challenging tasks
The California Acceleration
Project: Using a Cost Efficiency
Model to Investigate Key
Outcomes and Fiscal
Considerations
Dr. Rob Johnstone
Strengthening Student Success Conference
Burlingame, CA
October 10, 2013
www.inquiry2improvement.com
30
Summary of Findings
 When the model was applied to real-world data
from the seven initial CAP colleges, we found that:
 CAP significantly increases student completion of
transferable math courses
CAP significantly lowers cost per completer
 CAP reduces the cost of remediation and allows dollars
to be reallocated to transferable courses
 CAP results in a significant decrease in student tuition /
books costs and an increase in wage gains by helping
students complete sooner
National Center for Inquiry & Improvement
www.inquiry2improvement.com
31
College-based Outcomes,
Cuyamaca College
Outcome
Traditional
CAP
Improvement
22%
50%
127%
2. Total cost of Pathway, Including Transfer Course
$264,766
$289,796
-9%
3. Cost of Pre-Transfer Math Courses in Pathway
$193,710
$149,426
23%
$1,934
$831
57%
73%
52%
30%
1. Blended Entering Cohort Completion Rate of
Transfer-Level Math Course
4. Cost per Completer of Transfer-Level Math Course
5. Percentage of Cost in Pre-Transfer Math Courses
National Center for Inquiry & Improvement
www.inquiry2improvement.com
Join us!
• One-day regional workshops:
– November 15, Clovis Center (Central Valley)
– February 7, Chabot College (Bay Area)
– March 7, West LA College (Greater LA)
• More information on all of today’s session will be
available through the CAP website in the coming
months: http://cap.3csn.org
khern@chabotcollege.edu, msnell@losmedanos.edu