If you arrive on Wednesday, you will be able to register from 5:00 to 7:00 in the 2nd floor lobby of the Tremont Plaza. Otherwise resgistration will be Thursday morning, 7:30 to 8:30 in Edinburgh Hall, Tremont Grand, 5th Floor.
Thursday, June 24th
7:30-8:30 registration and continental breakfast (Edinburgh Hall, Tremont Grand, 5th Floor)
8:30-9:30 welcome (Edinburgh Hall, Tremont Grand, 5th Floor)
Sandra Kurtinitis, president, CCBC
8:30-8:40 plenary session #1 (Edinburgh Hall, Tremont Grand, 5th Floor)
“The State of Developmental Education Today”
Thomas Bailey (Community College Research Center, Columbia U) and Donna McKusick (Community College Baltimore County, MD)
9:45-11:00 breakout session A
Presentation A1: “Our Lives in the Fast Lane: Coaching and Acceleration at Howard Community College” (Tuscan Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Andrea Dardello and Jeremy O’ Roark (Howard Community College, MD)
With pictures, music, games, anecdotes, and both student and teacher testimony, this session demonstrates the nature of the accelerated college-level writing course we developed at Howard Community College. This presentation will explain how coaching principles and strategies impacted both student and instructor motivation as well as student retention and success.
Presentation A2: “In Their Own Voices: ALP Students Speak Out” (Composite Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Anne Roberts, Andy Rusnak, Fawcett Dunstan, & Tim Nelson (Community College Baltimore County, MD)
Do you wonder if ALP really invigorates students? Beyond the charts, beyond the numbers, there are those whose lives have been empowered by their involvement with ALP—living breathing people who, now, thanks to ALP, can say it better in their own voices. Come to hear them for yourself! The numbers indicate the success of our students, including the original cohort of around seventy ALP students at CCBC, but we want you to see the many faces of ALP across the nation.
A short video will be followed by a live and, likely, quirky panel of students undressing ALP, telling you in their own true voices what it was like for them and what changes ALP helped them fashion in their lives. From campus engagement to career advancement to more inspired citizens and inspiring parents, ALP students, present and past, discuss the ways they are moving forward thanks to their accomplishments in ALP.
Presentation A3: “Navigating Developmental Math Using the Express Lane” (Veterans’ Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Barbara Lontz, Linda Rehfuss (Montgomery County Community College, PA)
Montgomery County Community College has developed two initiatives for improving proper placement and, ultimately leading to completion of the College’s two developmental math courses in an accelerated format. The strategies include: an accelerated arithmetic course (2-week summer/winter bridge course) and a hybrid arithmetic/beginning algebra course (arithmetic review embedded into the algebra).
Presentation A4: “FastStart @ CCD – Accelerating English, Math and Reading, from Pilot Innovation to Scale” (Ionic Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Elaine Baker, Lisa Silverstein, Linda Sue Hoops (Community College of Denver)
This presentation will detail the rationale, mechanics, pedagogy, outcomes, impact, and the “long march” from pilot program to scale for FastStart@CCD, an accelerated developmental education program centered on compressed courses and paired developmental/college level courses. Attention will be given to the challenges of startup and expansion.
11:00-11:15 Break (Hallway, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
11:15-12:20 breakout session B
Presentation B1: “Ripple Effects: Eliminating a Developmental Writing Course” (Tuscan Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Ann C. Dean (U of Southern Maine)
By eliminating developmental writing, my regional comprehensive university created ripple effects on the university’s schedule, placement processes, adjunct and full-time faculty workloads, budgeting, and office staffing. I will share strategies for predicting and negotiating these changes.
Presentation B2: “Introduction to ALP” (Composite Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Peter Adams (Community College Baltimore County, MD)
The accronym ALP appears over and over in the materials for this conference. This presentation will provide an overview of ALP, the Accelerated Learning Program, the Community College of Baltimore County’s version of acceleration. It will explain the reasons why ALP we developed, discuss how it works, present four years worth of data, and speculate about why it works.
Presentation B3: “Accelerated Learning Program in Mathematics: First Steps” (Veterans’ Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Kristin Duckworth and Tejan Tingling (Community College Baltimore County, MD)
The Community College of Baltimore County is piloting several different accelerated learning mathematics combinations to determine which are the most effective and which will most easily “scale up”. We will share the pros and cons of each of the methods we’ve tried and describe where we plan to go from here.
Presentation B4: “A Model of Seamless Support:The Supplemental Writing Program at SUNY New Paltz” (Ionic Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Penny Freel and Rachel Rigolino (SUNY New Paltz)
At the State University of New York at New Paltz, we have successfully used what we call the seamless support model of basic writing instruction for the past ten years. In our SWW (Supplemental Writing Workshop) Program, classroom instruction, workshop time, and individual tutoring are integral parts of our composition courses. My presentation will include the evolution of the program, the structure, format, student placement and the success rate.
12:30-2:00 lunch (Edinburgh Hall, 5th Floor)
2:00-3:15 breakout session C
Presentation C1 (Tuscan Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor):
“Formative Assessment: Checkpoints for ALP Students”
Susan Gabriel (Community College Baltimore County, MD)
One obvious pedagogical advantage in ALP classes is providing more individualized instruction for each student. Formative assessment uses periodic checkpoints as a means of determining student comprehension and attitudes which makes it a useful tool for adapting the course to meet each students’ needs.
“Closeted Accelerators Unite! Standing up for Accelerated Pedagogies Despite Threats from Above and Below”
Kathleen DeVore (Minneapolis Community and Technical College”
Pressures from Boards of Trustees as well as from pre-college programs can force Basic Writing teachers to keep accelerated pedagogies quietly to themselves for fear of colleges losing BW students. Hear about one model of acceleration, and help strategize breaking the silence that often surrounds accelerated pedagogies.
“Academic Recovery: A Developmental Math Stimulus Package”
Cathy Craig & John Falls (North Central State College, OH)
North Central State College offers Math Boot Camp to help students “brush up” on their math skills in hopes that they will successfully “test” into the next higher math course. Testing out of two developmental math courses would save the student about $825 and six months worth of time.
Presentation C2: “Results of an Accelerated Reading Course” (Composite Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Beverly S. Reed & Mirian Torain (Prince George’s Community College, MD)
The Maryland Department of Higher Education mandated that all community colleges use a common assessment instrument for student placement. The Accuplacer was the top selection. This session will highlight the results of an intensive accelerated reading course for developmental students who missed the state adopted cut score of 79.
Presentation C3: “Innovations and Oxymorons: Lessons Learned from Accelerated Remediation Pilots” (Veterans’ Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Rod Brown (Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana—Central Indiana)
To what extent can a statewide community college system implement scalable practices in remedial education? This presentation details the results of a two-year grant-funded pilot aimed at compressing the amount of time students spend in remediation. Implications for state and institutional policy will be discussed
Presentation C4: “Evaluating Innovative Developmental Programs: Exploring Possibilties for a Demonstration Project” (Ionic Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Thomas Bailey and Mary Visher “National Center for Postsecondary Research (NCPR)”
Thomas Bailey and Mary Visher from the National Center for Postsecondary Research (NCPR) will conduct a conversation with colleges to assess interest in participation in a coordinated program of rigorous evaluation of accelerated developmental education programs.
3:15-3:30 Break (Hallway, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
3:30-4:45 plenary session #2 (Edinburgh Hall, Tremont Grand, 5th Floor)
“Accelerating Achievement: The Developmental Education Initiative”
Maggie Shelton (MDC and DEI), Gretchen Schmidt (Virginia Community College System), & Carolyn Byrd (Patrick Henry Community College)
With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Lumina Foundation for Education, 15 leading Achieving the Dream (ATD) colleges and 6 states are participating in the Developmental Education Initiative (DEI). Building on successful pilots conducted during Achieving the Dream, these institutions and states are working to scale up promising practices and policies for students needing developmental education. In a panel led by Maggie Shelton of MDC, the managing partner of ATD and DEI, a representative from Patrick Henry Community College will share PHCC’s DEI experience and how they are implementing the Accelerated Learning Program. A representative from the Virginia Community College System will outline the state’s role in supporting such institutional innovation and developmental education redesign.
5:00-6:00 reception (Mirror Room, Tremont Grand, 5th Floor)
Friday, June 25th
7:30-8:30 continental breakfast (Edinburgh Hall, Tremont Grand, 5th Floor)
8:30-9:30 plenary session #3 (Edinburgh Hall, Tremont Grand, 5th Floor)
“Recharging Our Commitment in Challenging Times”
Lynn Troyka (CUNY)
9:45-11:00 breakout session E
Presentation E1: “Redefining Developmental English by Offering a Self-Paced Option ” (Tuscan Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Christine Ruggiero (Middlesex Community College, CT)
Developmental English with the Self-Paced Option can provide students a more flexible home than the traditional fifteen week semester. Students move at their own pace, some knowing they might need to repeat the course, and others aiming to accelerate into English Composition, completing two courses in one semester.
Presentation E2: “The Most Vulnerable Students in ALP and the Ways in Which CCBC Instructors Try to Help Them” (Composite Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Bob Miller & Fawcett Dunstan (Community College Baltimore County, MD)
This presentation will discuss the ways in which some of the instructors at CCBC have tried to help the ALP students they have decided were the most vulnerable at the start of the semester by tracking the students’ progress and deliberately trying to intervene before these students failed the course.
Presentation E3: “Providing Acceleration While Addressing Diverse Student Needs” (Veterans’ Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Sheila Otto, Marva Lucas, & Bill Badley (Middle Tennessee State University)
In 2006, Middle Tennessee State University implemented a program to mainstream students with developmental requirements into college-level courses. Different models of acceleration were designed to meet the diverse needs of students. The presenters will describe the redesign processes for English and mathematics, summarize assessment data, and facilitate discussion.
Presentation E4: “Multivariate Analysis of the Community College of Baltimore County’s Accelerated Learning Project (ALP)” (Ionic Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Davis Jenkins & Nikki Edgecombe (Community College Research Center, Columbia U)
CCRC researchers will present findings from a new quantitative analysis of Community College of Baltimore County’s Accelerated Learning Project (ALP). The presenters will also provide practical guidelines on collecting and analyzing data to evaluate accelerated developmental education programs.
11:00-11:15 Break (Hallway, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
11:15-12:20 breakout session F
Presentation F1: “Can They Really Develop Skills in One Semester? An Innovative Approach to Accelerated Learning in Math and English” (Tuscan Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Melissa P. Read, Dawn Poirier, Marsha Nourse, & Dawn Mendoza, (Dean College, MA)
Dean College eliminated its developmental courses in English and Math so that all students take transferable, credit bearing courses starting in their first semester. We will report on first year composition classes and standard college algebra, statistics and finite math classes that increased the contact hours in order to embed explicitly extra support and skill development.
Presentation F2: “English Faculty Perceptions on the Impact of the Accelerated Learning Project (ALP) on their Pedagogy” (Composite Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Monica Walker (Community College Baltimore County, MD)
In this session, participants will discover the findings of a recent study on faculty perceptions of ALP and engage in dialogue with colleagues about their own ALP experiences. Altogether, this session will provide opportunities for conversation and collaboration to advance the discourse on accelerated learning and developmental writing.
Presentation F3: “Freshman Composition with Lab: A Viable Alternative” (Veterans’ Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Nancy Hoagland & Dianne Daily (Northern Virginia Community College)
At NOVA, students can earn transfer credit in a three-hour freshman writing course while enrolled in a three-hour developmental course. The presentation will describe how students are enrolled, various models for teaching the courses, and success rates for the courses, now in operation for over 10 years.
12:30-2:00 lunch (Edinburgh Hall, 5th Floor)
2:00-3:15 breakout session G
Presentation G1: “How Many Levels of Developmental Math & English Do Students Really Need?” (Tuscan Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Katie Hern (Chabot Col, CA) & Myra Snell (Los Medanos College, CA)
A pervasive problem across community colleges is the high rate of attrition among students placing into pre-collegiate coursework. The more levels of these courses a student must go through, the less likely that student is to ever complete college English or Math. This issue is at the center of several projects underway in the Faculty Inquiry Network, funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. This session is intended for developmental educators, who will learn about how two California colleges are addressing this problem by reducing the length of developmental sequences and “designing backwards” from college-level learning goals. Participants will engage in interactive exercises and view video footage from accelerated Math and English classrooms at Chabot and Los Medanos colleges, both of which provide open-access courses that enable successful students to move to transfer-level English and Math in one semester.
Presentation G2: “The Creation of an Accelerated Program involving First Semester English Composition Students and Advanced ESOL Students” (Tuscan Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor) (Composite Room, 3rd floor)
Robert Miller (Community College Baltimore County, MD)
This presentation will discuss results of the first semester of a new course which includes advanced ESOL students who take a first semester composition class with first language students. They take the composition class together, and then the ESOL students meet with the same instructor immediately after for a supportive class.
Presentation G3: ““Knee-to-Knee”: Conferencing to Empower Students in the Developmental Writing Class” (Veterans’ Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Linda De La Ysla (Community College Baltimore County, MD)
One of the chief attributes of Accelerated Learning Program classrooms at CCBC is small class size. Fewer students makes it possible for writing professors to 1) get well-acquainted with the strengths and weaknesses of individual writers; and 2) conference intensively with each one over time. What do students say about their experiences during “knee-to-knee” writing conferences? What helps them? What might be improved?
Presentation G4: “Reading and Writing Connections for Acceleration” (Ionic Room, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
Cheryl Scott, Charlyn Cassady, & SandyJones (Community College Baltimore County, MD)
Learn how The Community College of Baltimore County uses developmental learning communities to accelerate student learning and academic progress by offering students placed in developmental courses the opportunity to enroll in general education courses such as Psychology, Health, and Speech. Enrollment in developmental learning communities allows students to earn college credits while completing their developmental courses.
3:15-3:30 Break (Hallway, Tremont Grand, 3rd floor)
3:30-4:00 plenary session #4 (Edinburgh Hall, Tremont Grand, 5th Floor)
“Wrap-Up and Final Comments”
Peter Adams (Community College Baltimore County, MD)