LOS ALTOS HILLS — California’s community colleges will address the critical need for higher success rates among academically under-prepared students in a new initiative funded by the California Community Colleges System Office. The Foothill-De Anza Community College District in Silicon Valley is collaborating with the statewide Academic Senate for California Community Colleges to ensure that faculty from all of the state’s 109 community colleges will receive training and support to improve basic skills instruction. The goal of the Basic Skills Initiative collaboration is to increase success rates among academically under-prepared students who are enrolled in courses offered by the community colleges. It is funded by a $700,000 grant that was recently awarded to the Foothill-De Anza District by the Community College Chancellor’s Office. The grant will be used to fund professional development training in basic skills at community colleges throughout California by the statewide Academic Senate.
All colleges will benefit from training in effective practices for student success in pre-collegiate basic skills classes conducted by specialists in developmental education. The training involves presentations at statewide conferences and regional workshops for faculty, staff and administrators. Teams of educators will then work with the colleges to develop and implement a self-assessment tool to identify strengths and weaknesses in basic skills approaches.
“Colleges are facing an ever increasing number of students who begin their studies academically unprepared to succeed in college-level English and math courses. For California to remain a global economic power, it is critical that training programs such as the Basic Skills Initiative be implemented now. By collaborating and developing effective assessment and teaching strategies, the community colleges will be able to share best practices, and evaluate current methods and levels of success in basic skills programs,” said Rob Johnstone, vice president of instruction at Foothill College, and project administrator of the Basic Skills Initiative.
“Addressing the increasing population of students who require developmental education in order to succeed in college is a top priority for the faculty of the California Community Colleges,” said Ian Walton, president of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges.
The Basic Skills Initiative includes a self-assessment tool that provides an important starting point for colleges to begin analyzing their strengths and weaknesses with respect to basic skills instruction. “With the results in hand, colleges can turn to materials that outline the general principles and processes that work to help ensure student success in basic skills courses,” Walton said.
Community colleges will be provided with a menu-based approach of course sequences and other institutional improvements to address the unique needs of their students, faculty and instructional programming. Regional workshops will provide campuses an opportunity to share experiences and best practices. Each community college campus will be encouraged to create a basic skills task force or similar team, to attend regional workshops and transmit that knowledge to their local campuses.
In addition to Foothill-De Anza and the statewide Academic Senate, other collaboration partners include the statewide organizations of the chief instructional officers, chief student services officers, Center for Student Success, and state chancellor’s office.
The Foothill-De Anza Community College District enjoys a long history of innovation and national leadership in numerous areas ranging from basic skills instruction to technology use. Its two colleges, Foothill College in Los Altos Hills and De Anza College in Cupertino, have developed award-winning instructional programs for students enrolled in basic skills courses, improving success in learning mathematics and incorporating counseling components into developmental courses.
The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges is the official voice of the faculty for the state's community college system as authorized by Title 5, Section 53206. The senate’s mission is to foster the effective participation by community college faculty in all statewide and local academic and professional matters, including curriculum, graduation requirements, grading policies and governance policies. Title 5 and Education Code grant California college faculty the authority to assume responsibility for many of the academic decisions made in colleges.
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February 2007
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