student success conference october 3, 2012 a. kuehner, ohlone college

Student Success Conference October 3, 2012 A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Embracing and Leading Change Preparing Students for Success in Transfer-level Composition: Faculty Beliefs and Student Experiences A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Data Institutional Data - Program review and assessment Student Surveys - Classroom based research Student Interviews - Outside classroom research Grades A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Overview Ohlone College and English program Data and hypothesis Reading Requirement Data collection and analysis Conclusions Further Research A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Ohlone College Community SF Bay area (Fremont)-Silicon Valley ethnic groups in community: Asian (35.3%) White (29.2%) Hispanics (19.4%) residents age 25 or over: 26.5% BA; 16.7% grad./prof. degrees employed residents: 49.8% management or professionals A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Ohlone Students by Ethnicity A. Kuehner, Ohlone College Fall 2006CountPercentage African-American5385% American Indian/ Alaskan Native 550% Asian4,10635% Filipino8467% Hispanic1,46812% Two or more races1972% Pacific Islander1561% Unknown1,0859% White non-Hispanic3,40829% TOTAL11,859100%

Ohlone College Transfer Rates A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Ohlone College Transfer Students Ohlone transfer students do as well as or better than students who begin at a UC or CSU Ohlone CSU transfer students earn a GPA that is higher than other transfer students A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

English Sequence at Ohlone A. Kuehner, Ohlone College Dev. 1Dev. 2Transfer- Level ReadingEnglish 162 Dev. Reading (4 units) English 163 College Reading (4 units) WritingEnglish 151A Fund. of Comp. (4 units) English 151B Fund. of Comp. (4 units) Reading & Writing English 101A Reading and Written Comp. (4 units)

How are students doing in English? CourseFall 2004 Success Rate Spring 2005 Success Rate English 162 (Dev. Reading 1) 67%53% English 163 (Dev. Reading 2) 79%66% English 151A (Dev. Writing 1) 51%46% English 151B (Dev. Writing 2) 63%57% A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

How are students doing in English? CourseFall 2004 Success Rate Spring 2005 Success Rate English 101A (Transfer-level Comp.) 55%57% English 101B (2 nd semester Transfer Comp.) 71%68% English 101C (2 nd semester Transfer Comp.) 70%65% A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

English Faculty: Hypothesis Possible explanations for poor or falling success rates, especially for 101A, may be that students are not retaining information and skills from course to course. From 151B to 101A there particularly seems to be a gap in retention of information and skills, and students seem to be arriving in 101A unprepared for college-level reading and writing Program Review, 2006 A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

English Faculty: Solution Reading Requirement, Fall 2007 - Placement test: clear reading or place into developmental reading - 163 prerequisite to English 101A Rationale - Common sensestudents need college-level reading skills for a college transfer-level class - Consistencydevelopmental writing required; developmental reading required A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Reading Requirement: Implementation Placement Testing Data: Summer/Fall 2009 Total test records: 2530 A. Kuehner, Ohlone College Writing CourseN of Students% of Students ESL/English 151A26910.63% English 151A65525.89% English 151B75629.88% English 101A85033.60%

Reading Requirement: Implementation Placement Testing Data: Summer/Fall 2009 Total test records: 2741 A. Kuehner, Ohlone College Reading CourseN of Students% of Students ESL/English 16228710.47% English 16260121.93% English 16367824.74% Reading Clear117542.86%

Reading Requirement: Results Dev. Reading Enrollment Increased A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Reading Requirement: Results 101A Success Rates Improved A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Reading Requirement: Results 101A Retention Rates Improved A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Reading Requirement: Results Developmental Writing Success Improved A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Reading Requirement: Results Concurrent Enrollment Improves Success A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Reading Requirement: Conclusions Reading requirement helps students succeed at higher rates in English 101A. Reading requirement helps students at the lowest level of developmental writing succeed in their classes. Students in developmental writing classes benefit from enrolling concurrently in a developmental reading class at the same level. A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

More data Kuehners sections (May 2011) 162 to 101A Success Rate: 60% 163 to 101A Success Rate: 82% A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

More data Basic Skills Cohort Tracker (Spring 2011) 162 to 101A Success Rate: 58.8% 163 to 101A Success Rate: 67.5% A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

More data Fall 2008: Kuehner grades in 162 A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Student Surveys ESL students in English 101A (N=28) Question: Did you find the reading in 101A difficult? Student Answers: No (N=15) Yes (N=7) Ambiguous (N=4) A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Student Surveys Question: Did you find the reading in 101A difficult? Student Answers: - Reading in 101A is not that difficult - I think the reading in 101A is easier than writing - English 101A focus on writing more than reading - I found that the reading in 101A was difficult for me A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Student Surveys Question: Did the reading classes you have taken prepare you for the reading material in 101A? Student Answers: Yes (N = 9) No (N = 4) Ambiguous (N = 6) A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Student Surveys Question: Did the reading classes you have taken prepare you for the reading material in 101A? Student Answers: - since I took 162 and 163 before and I am ok with reading selection. - The class I have taken had improved my reading skill a great deal, but I found that the reading material in 101A is much harder than pervious classes. - Compare to the articles that I read in the ENGL 163, the articles in ENGL 101A are longer and harder. The ENGL 163 did not prepare me a lot for the reading material in 101A. A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Student Interviews Why are some students successful in English 101A and what do they do to help themselves succeed? What challenges do basic skills students encounter when they enter English 101A and how do they successfully meet those challenges? A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Student Interviews Interviewed four basic skills students taking English 101A - not a random sample - interviews not standardized - two native speakers; two non-native - two males, two females - one learning disabled - one older A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Student Experiences Chen, second-language learner - struggling in 101A - problems with constructing clear sentences - not enough guidance on papers - We dont do anything in classjust discuss the readings. - homework, but no feedback on writing before a paper is due A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Student Experiences Chens advice - get more feedback on writing - do more writing, less discussing, in class - go step by step, give examples, and break it down for students - handouts, especially with examples of sentences and sample essays, guidance, and feedback A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Student Experiences Hanh, older second-language learner - enjoyed reading and writing assignments in English 101A - teacher has high expectations for class - teacher doesnt help students with writing during class; mostly discuss the readings - able to apply skills from 163 in 101A - husband helps her proofread her papers A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Student Experiences Hanh: Lessons and advice - students benefit from having support at home - students can apply strategies learned in previous classes - Hanhs advice: students should receive more writing instruction in class A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Student Experiences Kristin, native-speaker, high school grad. - lots of articles and readings, not sure how they all connected - didnt always know what was being talked about in the articles - in-class essays count more than out of class papers - lots of work in 101A A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Student Experiences Kristins advice - work in previous class helped: summaries, cite, quote, rules about plagiarism - previous classes should include more writing - should be rules for how long papers should be - students should write down words they dont know - students should also be required to read a book on their own and do a class presentation - teachers should also not accept late homework A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Student Experiences Mark, learning disabled student - struggled in 101A: first writing D- - readings are long and complicated; lots of big words and doesnt always get main point - teacher lectures nonstop - lots of handouts - confusing when teacher disagrees with the book - does not like seeing model essays or peer editing A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Student Experiences Mark: Lessons and advice - help from DSPS tutors - help from former English prof. - visited English prof. during office hours - persisted; studied 6-7 hours/day A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Student Experiences: Success Four students were successful - passed English 101A in one semester - Hanh A, Mark & Kristin B - Hanh, Mark, & Kristin successfully completed English 101B next semester - Fall 2011, Chen transferred to UC Berkeley - Mark has selected a major and completed his application to transfer to a CSU. A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Conclusions Focus on writing in transfer-level composition - write sentences - look at model sentences, paragraphs, essays Students benefit from support - family, tutors, instructors to help with writing - friends & friendly teachers in class Persist despite challenges - Stick with class, do all the work, get help Benefit from direct, explicit instruction A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Data Summary Institutional data (success, retention rates) Individual section data (success rates) Student surveys Student interviews Student grades A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Reading Requirement: Research Is developmental reading effective? YES = Developmental reading course seems to improve student success as measured by persistence (Pinkerton 2010) YES = Taking and passing a developmental reading class helps student success as measured by GPA (Cox, Friesner, & Khayum 2003) A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Reading Requirement: Research Is developmental reading effective? NO: Remedial reading class does not help students succeed in transfer-level composition (Calcagno & Long 2008) A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Reading Requirement: Research Is developmental reading effective? NO & YES: Remedial reading lowers the probability of obtaining a degree for four-year students but raises the probability for community college students (Attewell, Lavin, Domina, & Levey 2006) NOT CLEAR: Students who took a developmental reading course did as well as students who did not in the gatekeeper English course (Jenkins, Jaggars, & Roksa 2009) A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Further Research Number of students in 101A: prerequisite vs. placed Success of students in 101A: prerequisite vs. placed Success of developmental students in 101A before/after reading requirement More student success interviews A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Faculty Beliefs Faculty beliefs may change programs and courses Reading requirement Faculty beliefs influence data collection and analysis Reading requirement improves student success in transfer-level class Developmental classes help students A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Student Experiences Student experiences may not be fully reflected in the data Students struggle in transfer-level composition Student experiences may change the way faculty teach and curriculum Students benefit from direct instruction Student experiences may extend beyond the classroom Students benefit from support Students benefit from persistence A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

What questions do you have about your students? - Success of students? - Progress of students? - Challenges of students? - Learning of students? A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

What data would help you answer those questions? - Institutional data http://datamart.cccco.edu http://datamart.cccco.edu - Cohort tracking data http://datamart.cccco.edu/Outcomes/Basi cSkills_Cohort_Tracker.aspx http://datamart.cccco.edu/Outcomes/Basi cSkills_Cohort_Tracker.aspx - Student surveys - Students interviews - Grades - Other... A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

What are the advantages of using certain data? Institutional Data: - Understand which groups of students succeed or fail - Track changes to programs - Compare your classes to larger cohort Interviews, surveys, or grades - Understand why students succeed or fail - Understand students experiences - Understand your own classes A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

What are the disadvantages of using certain data? Institutional Data - May mask interesting effects - Difficult to assign cause-effect Interviews or surveys - Subjective or biased - Time consuming - Small sample size A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

Any Questions or Comments? [email protected] A. Kuehner, Ohlone College

student success conference october 3, 2012 a. kuehner, ohlone college

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