Lehigh Carbon Community College
Developmental Education Ad Hoc Committee
November 4, 2009 Committee Meeting Minutes
Attendance: John Callahan, Ron Blue, Ann Turoczy, Diana DiCosmo, Jeannette Polizzi, Gloria Lowell,
Patrick Kane, Michelle Carlino (co-chair), Scott Keim, Linda Novak, Joanne Gerken, Alison Jameson, Ellen
Zimmerli, Suzie Martinez, Barbara Kistler, Glynis Daniels, Larissa Verta, Jenna Duke, Ruth Munilla,
Bethany Zornek, Julie Labbiento, Pam Weldon, Sue McCracken (Note: some attendees are not part of
the regular developmental education committee. Today’s committee meetings were open to anyone
interested in attending and learning more about the issues being addressed by this committee. All
welcomed and thanked for attending!
Nils – passed around data on colleges in various states in regard to placement tests and the
developmental courses and sequencing of developmental courses in PA community colleges. Not all
schools moved developmental courses to 4 credits.
Developmental Committee Year End Report can be given to Curriculum Committee in regard to this
committee’s recommendations.
John – subcommittee on placement and assessment met last week – reviewed discussion points
Focused on retesting by students who placed into dev ed courses – various reasons to support retesting
– beneficial to retest those who fall into RSS 99 level because compass does not adequately place
students at the lower levels – this may also be something to do for all lower level developmental courses
to make certain that the students really placed into these are retested so that we may have more
accurate placements. We may want to scrutinize those who place into regular levels in English and then
reading 99 – to retest those who fall into lower levels and for those with disparate scores in English,
Math, and Reading. For reading, instead of retaking the compass, they would then take the Nelson
Denny reading test.
Second issue – current compass tests – English finds that it places accurately, but would like something
else for assessing student writing. Reading not satisfied. Research finding that compass and accuplacer
not up to par with assessing critical thinking in comparison to SAT . Math is ok with the placement of
students with compass.
Third issue – what are our goals in developmental education – how can we find a test when we don’t
know what we are really assessing – need to identify goals in dev reading, writing, and math. Is it
remediation or teaching what students should have learned (basic skills) or is it focused on the skills for
college level work? What outcomes do we want to assess with the placement tests? We may need to
design our own tests to determine what LCCC students need for our courses.
Alison – gave review from the Delaware Valley Community College Developmental Education Summit –
focused on First Year Experience – beneficial to all students in 2 year and 4 year and not just
developmental students. RSS 102 we had and was successful but not given a fair shake or treated as
significant. John gave a report that a student in his current RSS 104 course was told that he did not have
to take it because it is for “stupid people”.
Barbara Kistler – all students need to be “developed” into college level thinking and performance. We
need to look at how we can meet the students develop. Joanne reported that the honors programs has
a study skills component to their program.
Jeanette – if we redefine dev ed, we need to give it another title to reduce the stigma attached to it.
College transitional studies – committee formed to work on the encompassed deve ed program – math,
English, reading, advisors, learning assistance – had one course release to work on the program – it was
dropped when college went to a new structure. The committee took all of the syllabi from all of the dev
courses – can we pull out the material again to revisit the practice used, the process used – the best
practices subcommittee could take a look at this.
Michelle – our committee can establish a package for dev ed that includes RSS 102.
Chad Luke charged with the development of student development course – we need to bring him to this
committee but he is the co-chair of retention committee that meets at the same time as this committee.
Michelle will talk with Chad next week at leadership Transforming the Learning Environment.
Ron Blue – talk about student learning and spreading out learning so that students are more effective
learners.
John – students need to complete all developmental courses before getting into other courses.
All students complete rss and eng up through 100 level before going into anything else except if in a
learning community or taking other courses identified on an approved list (developmental co curricular
list) appropriate for a developmental semester. Math students – need to start their sequence in their
first semester at LCCC. ESL probably should not be part of dev ed because they are not developmental.
Ruth stated that students advised by their department are placed into classes appropriate for them
based on their knowledge with the student and student abilities.
Diana DiCosmo – incoming freshman studies skills workshop – before the semester started – Jeanette
did this with Act 101 – Jeannette talk with divisions to do a mini lc in summer incorporating study skills
with these students during the summer.
Larissa – on the co-curricular list we could identify all instructors teaching those courses and develop
professional development workshops for those instructors on teaching developmental students.
Learning specialists can aid in these workshops.
Alison – 12 credit semester developmental semester – build in study skills into the semester – Jeannette
reported that she did this once with Steve Seyer with sociology courses
Barbara Kistler and Julie Labbiento - reviewed proposal for spring 2009 math 99 4 credit course being
reviewed this afternoon by President Snyder. Barbara would teach the Math 99 and then Julie would
give them one credit of SIS (supplementary instructional support) which would be one day per week – it
is not a lab, but a one credit course. The math 99 instructor will provide Julie with a progress report
every other week and would tailor supplemental instruction to student individual needs. Students
would also be encouraged to also attend the math lab. Barbara reported that the online math study lab
will be used during this 4 credit math experience. Barbara and Julie will be reviewing this today at the
faculty meeting. Linda Novak would like to have this reviewed with the English division to see how
something like this could be used in their classes.
Glynis – how will students be advised into this? Barbara has been working with Susan Fread on student
appropriateness for this course. Susan looking to purchase calculators for the students who would
participate in this to be used as an incentive for participating in this pilot program. Nils will be reviewing
this with President Snyder and looking for some money to fund this. Barbara and Julie will be doing
some assessment to identify outcomes of this pilot program.
PA PADE – inviting proposals on cutting edge strategies for developmental education in Hershey, PA.
Abstracts due beginning of December.
Student Success forum – Friday, November 6, 2009 – focus on achieving the dream data, etc on
developmental education.
Today’s meeting ended with committee members breaking out into three subcommittees. Need to
establish meeting times for Nov and Dec so that when our next main dev ed meeting is held we will have
input to give to the entire committee.
Next meeting: January 2010
Minutes respectfully submitted by Larissa M. Verta