REDESIGNING DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION

BITSY COHNCOORDINATOR, DEVELOPMENTAL EDUCATION

DIRECTOR, CREDIT FOR PRIOR LEARNING

EFFECTIVE FALL 2014, ALL COLORADO COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS WILL HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO COMPLETE THEIR DEV ED REQUIREMENTS IN NO

MORE THAN TWO SEMESTERS. MOST WILL COMPLETE IN ONE SEMESTER OR LESS.

THE LAST TIME WE REVISED OUR DEV ED CURRICULUM, WE ADDED PRE-HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL COURSES IN MATH, READING AND ENGLISH. THIS MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR STUDENTS TO HAVE TO SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE AS MANY

AS 9 DEV ED COURSES (IN TYPICALLY NO LESS THAN TWO YEARS) BEFORE THEY ENTERED A COLLEGE LEVEL COURSE.

WHAT HAPPENED???

A CONFLUENCE OF EVENTS▪ President Obama’s Completion Challenge

▪ National Governor’s Association Commitment

▪ Legislating completion: Performance Funding

▪ Thomas Bailey – Students placed into remedial coursework who do not take remedial courses pass college-level courses and graduate at a higher level than those who enroll in, and pass, remedial courses.

▪ Complete College America – Time is the Enemy 2011

▪ Achieving the Dream

▪ CCHE, CDHE, CCCS

COLORADO MIRRORS THE NATION

SAVED BY THE BELLE▪ State leaders wanted to take legislative action; it was just a matter of time

▪ Advocacy at the CCCS leadership level allowed us to take the time to plan

▪ DETF

Broad representation

18 month charge

Resources to support the process

Ability to compel change

▪ Policy

▪ Implementation

CORE OPERATING PRINCIPLES

▪ Key metric – success in college courses

▪ Time, not student learning, is the greatest barrier to success

▪ Use evidence based practice

▪ Continuous improvement is essential to long-term success

THE DESIGN: 5 PRINCIPLES▪ Use reverse curriculum design to redesign courses

▪ Design courses for what students need to know for success in college

▪ Encourage active learning by including active and/or experiential learning experiences with each lesson

▪ Make curriculum design and assessment of student learning and success a continuous process

▪ Provide students with individualized assistance through embedded affective skills, professionalism, and support services as much as possible in the process

THE DESIGN:

COLLEGE COMPOSITIONAND READING (CCR)

METHODS

▪ Co-requisite courses

▪ Contextualization

▪ Emphasis on rigorous reading and writing

▪ College level materials

▪ Significant interaction with instructor and peers

THE DESIGN:

MATH

▪ Integration and acceleration, not compression

▪ Pre-enrollment advising

▪ Secondary assessment

▪ Contextualization

▪ Modularization

▪ Flipped Classroom

METHODS

▪ Innovative lab designs

▪ Soft landing

▪ Instructor identification and training

ASSESSMENT ▪ A CCCS specific assessment

▪ Uniform, weighted, multiple measures

▪ Reading and writing combined

▪ Non-cognitive factors

▪ Test scores to be validated every three to five years

▪ Calculators allowed to appear on the elementary algebra exam

ADDITIONAL ELEMENTS

STUDENT SERVICES PLAN

▪ Expanded advising

▪ Connections to non-cognitive supports

▪ Ongoing light touch case management

▪ Evaluation

FACULTY PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

▪ Colleges determine plan

▪ System facilitates training to share resources

▪ Open source materials

▪ Webinars

▪ Archives

THE PICTURE SO FAR…

Fall 2008 compared to Fall 2013

▪ The number of developmental students registering in college level courses increased from 56,699 to 76,177

▪ The percentage of all students who passed a college level course remained constant over all subject areas

MORE REMEDIAL STUDENTS ARE TAKING AND PASSING COLLEGE LEVEL COURSES

One year retention▪ Students entering at the remedial level

have historically been retained through the first year of enrollment at a lower rate than non-remedial students

▪ As reported in the 2013 Legislative Report on Remedial Education, for the first time in the 12 years that the report has been produced, students who entered at the remedial level were retained through the first year of enrollment at a higher rate than non-remedial students

LESSONS LEARNED

▪ Advocacy at the highest level of leadership allowed us to do this well

▪ DETF

Broad representation

Ample time - 18 month charge

Resources to support the process

Ability to significantly impact policy making

▪ A flexible policy allows the experts to do their jobs while protecting the interests of the students

▪ Implementation: Significant engagement is a more productive (and possible) goal than majority consensus

▪ From the first day you field a redesigned course - Evaluate, iterate, repeat

Questions?

Bitsy Cohn

bitsy.cohn@cccs.edu

(720)858-2883

DEV ED IN COLORADO: WWW.CCCS.EDU/DE

CC BY AND ATTRIBUTION▪ This Workforce Solution, ” Redesigning Developmental Education” presentation by

Bitsy Cohn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Based on a work created under the Department of Labor, TAACCCT3 grant, permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at https://www.cccs.edu/partnering-for-success/trade-adjustment-assistance/taa-coetc/