Executive Summary
The Basic Skills Initiative (BSI) is a collaborative statewide effort to address the needs of
Community College students who begin their postsecondary education academically under
prepared to successfully complete their coursework. Current research clearly indicates that
issues of equity, particularly as they relate to students of color must be addressed in order to
ensure that all community college students can achieve their academic goals.
This Self-Assessment Tool has given De Anza College an opportunity to review and analyze
which of the effective practices are currently employed at the college and to determine areas
where there are gaps or redundancies in such practices. The information contained in this
document was obtained through interviews, survey responses, and a review of the major
documents that exist across the campus pertaining to the campus’ developmental education
programs and student services.
Organizational Administrative Practices
At De Anza College, developmental education is not a clearly stated priority as a component of
the institutional mission and its importance is stated more implicitly than explicitly. The mission,
goals and expectations for the developmental education program are also not clearly defined or
articulated throughout the campus community at large. Consequently, many members of the
DAC campus community need a clearer understanding of the various aspects of developmental
education. Faculty who work in LinC, the Student Success Center and other student success
programs demonstrate a clear understanding of the mission, goals, and desired outcomes of their
work with students in their areas, but those efforts are not integrated or institutionalized
consistently across the campus.
While there are many stand-alone programs and individuals who successfully use comprehensive
support systems in working with students at the developmental level-- which includes assessment
monitoring and follow-up-- there is an overall need for greater integration and coordination
between these programs and departments. To address this need, there must be greater
institutional stakeholder involvement to support a structural shift as well as a cultural shift to
arrange and leverage the existing and future institutional resources to serve students at the
developmental level. Additional institutional commitment is needed in the form of dedicated and
adequate funding for developmental education programs, continued hiring of highly qualified
basic skills faculty, and support for training programs specifically designed for developmental
educators.
Program Components
To make major strides in improving the achievement rates of developmental students, there must
be a wider dialog amongst the various stakeholders across the institution to create consistent
enforcement of assessment, placement, and orientation policies, as well as establish a clear
relationship between assessment instruments and student outcomes. Students enrolled in
retention programs such as EOPS, SSRS, Summer Bridge and Puente are required to participate
in pre-enrollment activities, however, mandatory assessment, orientation and placement for
students not involved in such programs do not exist consistently institution-wide due to various
factors. As a result, many students that come to De Anza needing developmental education do
not take the correct courses geared towards their level of preparedness.
Proactive counseling services exist in stand-alone programs and in the main counseling division.
There have also been initial efforts in programs such as Early Alert and Title III, to incorporate
counseling faculty into developmental courses, but these efforts are still in their infancy. More
established programs such as MPS, EDC/DSS, Enable Math, LinC, and SSRS have successfully
utilized this practice on an ongoing basis.
Research has shown that outreach and financial aid are instrumental elements in helping to
students to successfully matriculate into the college environment. Fortunately, these departments
have been very proactive in providing information to new students and assisting them with
completing financial aid applications to obtain financial assistance on the campus. The
institution also conducts numerous funding drives and activities to solicit additional funding
sources through the district foundation. Unfortunately, many of the funding sources such as
federal and state financial aid are not available to undocumented students. The numbers of
students attending De Anza without legal residency is increasing significantly and ineligibility
for financial aid creates a tremendous barrier to college attendance for this population.
Summative and formative evaluation of developmental programs and courses occurs in various
programs and departments including, MPS, SSRS, Puente, LinC, however, there are no
consistent indices to evaluate the efficacy of developmental education programs institution wide.
Moreover, there has not been a consistent application of data analysis and evaluation to
determine future plans and program improvement. In addition, course content and evaluation of
entry and exit skills of students enrolled in basic skills courses are reviewed infrequently and
sporadically.
Staff Development
De Anza currently employs dedicated faculty and staff whose core responsibility is to coordinate
staff development programs and overall, staff development activities have had some support
from senior administration. New faculty members are provided with an ongoing orientation to
assist their transition into the college environment and assists in becoming acquainted with the
college’s policies, procedures and culture. However, there has not been a specific focus on staff
development programs for developmental education faculty and there have not been adequate
resources (such as funding and staffing) to offer comprehensive, ongoing staff development
programs designed for developmental educators and content area faculty who teach students
enrolled in developmental courses. In addition, there is very little correlation between
developmental education goals and staff development offerings.
Currently, developmental education faculty are not formally involved in designing, planning,
implementing or evaluating staff development activities for the general campus. The
developmental task force that once took on this responsibility disbanded due to insufficient
resources and support. On a smaller scale in individual departments and programs (such as
LinC, SSRC, DSS, and SSC) faculty work together on an informal basis to develop staff
development activities to meet the specific needs of their areas with little institutional support.
Although, there is a structure for the campus to provide extrinsic reward for professional growth,
there are few opportunities of faculty across disciplines to communicate and collaborate to
develop a community of scholars.
Instructional Practices
Sound principles of learning are utilized in developmental education courses particularly in the
LinC, ESL, Enable Math and the MPS program, but it is difficult to determine how consistently
or frequently this practice occurs in individual class sections and throughout the campus. The
same is true for the integration of problem solving, critical thinking skills and curriculum, which
emphasizes the cognitive development of students. Specialized programs in Language Arts
(such as LinC, ESL and Portfolio sessions) and Math (MPS and Enable Math), implement
effective curricula for their particular disciplines and tutoring and learning labs are an integral
part of such their success in serving students. Counseling 100 classes focus primarily on the
development of study skills and helping students to become more familiar with the campus
environment.
There are many mechanisms campus wide to meet the holistic development and well being of
students enrolled at the developmental level. Student cognitive and emotional needs are met
both in and outside of the classroom through various avenues of support. Programs such as The
First Year Experience, Puente program, MPS, Educational Diagnostic Center and Student
Success Center enhance student motivation and engagement to promote learning; assist students
in developing a positive self-concept and an appreciation of their innate intellectual capabilities;
as well as promote student’s social integration into the college environment. In Addition,
programs such as EOPS/CARE and OTI/Cal Works, DSS, EDC and LEAD assist students as
they face obstacles that may hinder their success so they can be retained. EOPS/CARE and
OTI/Cal Works also provide financial and other resources such as grants, book vouchers, child
care and transportation assistance to the developmental students enrolled in their programs.
In the English department, specifically ESL, Writing Reading Center (WRC), Student Success
Center, MPS and learning communities (LinC, Puente) culturally responsive theory and
pedagogies are utilized liberally as means of meeting students’ socio-cultural needs to promote
learning. An essential application of cultural competence in the classroom engages students in
discussions about cultural respect, sensitivity and conflict as they relate to their life and
educational experiences. It also incorporates student-centered and active learning principles,
including collaborative learning strategies, student engagement, and learning communities to
create a sense of connectedness to enhance student learning. Unfortunately, these practices are
not used institution-wide because most faculty have no training in this area and some are
resistant to using Culturally Responsive teaching methodologies because they fail to recognize
their relationship to teaching effectiveness. This academic year, cultural competence was
recognized as an important part of the campus strategic planning efforts and voluntary training
opportunities were offered to support this goal. The next step will involve college administration
to work with campus constituency groups to develop and institute mandatory training for all
faculty and staff in the areas of culturally competent teaching and responsive pedagogy during
opening day and throughout the academic year in each division.
Students in developmental courses are inconsistently provided with feedback to because the
mechanisms designed fulfill this purpose are either marginally effective or not sufficiently
integrated with other efforts across the campus to have a greater impact. Student tracking and
feedback efforts have been more effective within limited areas such as MPS, WRC, LinC, EOPS,
SSRS where counseling faculty provide direct support and utilize intervention strategies with
students enrolled in these programs.
Within the developmental education program, there needs to be a much more coherent structure
and sequence of courses and learning experiences that create a framework for students to
progressively build their skills and knowledge (It is most effective when coupled with an
academic support component such as learning labs). This practice currently exists within
learning communities, Puente, Catalyst and within individual basic skills classes. There also
needs to be a way to align and create uniformity in individual course outlines, entry and exit
standards, as well as ensure that students move through the developmental sequence and are
adequately prepared for transfer level coursework. The English/ESL portfolio process currently
in use and the proposed standardized math department final are feasible ways to address these
concerns. Broad avenues for communication to facilitate the exchange of effective instructional
strategies between faculty within and across disciplines at all levels is also key to ensuring
consistency in the classroom. Math Performance Success (MPS), The Teaching and Learning
Conference, LinC, Diversity training, and conferences sponsored by various departments and
divisions are also effective methods for dialog and dissemination of information. Basic skills
instruction would greatly benefit from exchanges between developmental educators and faculty
members who teach general education courses.
One of the most critical aspects of providing support to students enrolled in developmental
education programs are academic support services. These services must be highly visibly,
centrally located and provide diverse learning opportunities including workshops, tutoring, study
groups, multi-media instruction, and self-paced instruction. These components exist at De anza
in the Writing Reading Center (WRC), Tutoring Center, College Readiness (all part of the
Student Success Center) and the Educational Diagnostic Center. Highly qualified faculty, student
tutors and casual employees--all of whom are well trained and highly competent-- staff the
campuses’ academic services and programs.