More News About Community and Technical Colleges

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Not Just Math and English...Obstacles to Completion

Community College Research Center, November 2012

 

Not Just Math and English:

Courses That Pose Obstacles to Community College Completion
Matthew Zeidenberg
Davis Jenkins
Community College Research Center

Marc A. Scott
New York University
 

Discussions of the barriers to completion in community colleges have largely focused on student success in introductory college-level math and English courses, and rightfully so, since these courses are typically required for degrees. However, there is a much broader range of courses that also serve as “gatekeepers” in the sense that they are obstacles to completion.

Read the full report...

Core to College: Common Core and Smarter Balanced

Bill Moore, Director of the Washington State Core to College project, provided the following information about the Common Core State Standards and SMARTER Balanced.

Washington Core to College

Project Goals

Ø  Build faculty ownership and understanding of the CCSS as meaningful and useful college-readiness standards

Ø  Develop statewide agreement on the use of the CCSS in defining Washington college-readiness standards and the role of the SMARTER Balanced assessment instrument in assessing that readiness

Ø  Promote local use of CCSS framework and Smarter Balanced assessment within higher education in ways that improve student transitions between high school and college

You can see more info about the work as it develops at ttps://sites.google.com/site/wacoretocollege/

 For more information about the Common Core State Standards, see http://www.corestandards.org For additional Common Core resources specifically for teachers, see

http://successatthecore.com/

http://www.achievethecore.org/
 
http://www.illustrativemathematics.org

 http://www.insidemathematics.org

For more information about the Smarter Balanced assessment consortium (and to view the web-based released preview items from the assessment), see http://smarterbalanced.org

ACE Webinars

From Diego Novarro:

Last week, the Academy for College Excellence's
webinar on the Affective Domain: Precursors to Academic Performance had a record turnout.  This was the first webinar in our series on the affective domain, and we had many requests for a more in-depth exploration of this topic. After hearing your comments, we are excited to announce that we will be holding a two-part webinar on Precursors to Academic Performance beginning later this month!

To give you a sense of participants' feedback from Friday's webinar, the following
are results from those who responded to several of our polls:
99% Strongly Agreed or Agreed (68% said Strongly Agreed) that the academic semester can be used to strengthen the affective precursors to academic performance,

• 67% said the webinar described between 50-100% of their students; and 92% said between 25-100% of their students when asked: what percentage of students at your college have we described (when describing student needs),
• 90% chose one of the ACE Solutions or All of the Above (66% chose All of the Above) when asked: what ACE Solutions most likely will help my college strengthen students' affective precursors to academic performance (ACE solutions included: ACE Professional Development, ACE Affective-Oriented Curriculum and Materials, and ACE Affective Measurement Tool).

For those of you who didn't get a chance to attend last week, logged in late, would like a refresher, or know of someone else who would be interested in learning more about this topic, this Precursors to Academic Performance webinar will be split into two 1-hour sessions, allowing us to delve deeper into the subject of precursors. You can learn more and register here or at the links below:  1. Precursors to Academic Performance Part 1: Why Affective Learning is Important & How to Measure Affective Precursors Friday, November 30, 2012 from 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM PST
Part 2: Who Benefits from Affective Learning, Friday, December 7, 2012 from 9 AM - 10 AM PST

In this FREE two-part webinar, ACE founder Diego Navarro will discuss the role of the affective or non-cognitive domain in meeting the needs of developmental education students in higher education and why it is an important precursor to academic performance. Diego will discuss ACE's measurement approach and the evidence collected over two years from six colleges. Register now (for Part 1)! Register now (for Part 2)!

If you haven't yet had a chance to sign up for the last two webinars in our Affective Domain Webinar Series, you can learn more and register here or at the links below:

2. Teaching to the Affective Domain  Friday, December 7, 2012 from 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM PST

In this FREE webinar, Navarro will talk about teaching to the affective domain and what you can do in the classroom to meet the needs of your students. Diego will also outline the professional development workshops and curriculum ACE has developed that prepares community college faculty to meet the affective / non-cognitive needs of community college students. Register now!

3. Rethinking Orientation to Community College Friday, February 1, 2013 from 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM PST

In this FREE webinar, Navarro will discuss the need for an intensive introduction to community college that shifts the students' mindsets and behaviors towards improved academic performance. He will discuss curriculum that addresses and evidence that shows shifts in student's affective factors. Register now!

Cultural Attitudes and Productive Persistence

Here's an NPR story focused on cultural attitudes with respect what matters in terms of learning: "Struggle For Smarts? How Eastern And Western Cultures Tackle Learning" While the term isn't used in the story, in other settings--including last year's math conference here in Washington--Stigler and his colleagues talk about the critical role of "productive persistence" in student learning, and it's been a particular area of focus for the Re-Thinking Precollege Math project, and in particular a small working group focused on Student Attributes for Math Success; this group has developed some classroom resources that math faculty can use to address issues like productive persistence through the design of classroom activities and environments.

Recent U.W. Study Finds Lecture-Capture Use Contributes to Learning

Use of Tegrity: UW Lecture Capture Tool Report

A large majority of UW students feel that reviewing Tegrity lecture capture recordings contributes to their learning, according to the findings in UW-IT’s just released report. An assessment, undertaken in Winter and Spring Quarters, aimed to learn how Tegrity was being used in courses on all three campuses, identify best practices, uncover any unmet support needs or obstacles, and find out how instructors and students would like to use Tegrity in the future. Read more.

Mining Data to Help Students

From Campus Technology:

MiningData to Help Students
In the second installment of a two-part series, CT examines how pioneering schools are mining Big Data in hopes of uncovering the ultimate riches: improved student learning and performance.

• VIDEO: Jeff Borden, VP of instruction and academic strategies at Pearson eCollege, advises institutions not to worry about perfection in Big Data collection and analysis—just get started.