Schedule for the 2016 Conference on Acceleration in Developmental Education. Please check back for the updates.

Tuesday, June 14th

Time Event Location
5:00-7:00 PM Early Check-In Chesapeake I Gallery

Wednesday, June 15th

Time Event Location
8:30 –9:30 Conference Check-In Chesapeake I Gallery
8:30 –10:30 Continental breakfast Chesapeake II Gallery
PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS
9:00-12:00 The Nuts and Bolts of ALP Start-Up
A half-day workshop for anyone contemplating adapting the ALP model at their school. We’ll talk about how ALP works, about practical issues in establishing ALP at your school, and about how ALP helps push pedagogy in positive directions.
Camden Room
Jamey Gallagher, English Faculty, Assistant Director or ALP, CCBC
Robert Miller, English Faculty, CCBC
9:00-12:00 Acceleration in Mathematics: Showcasing a Replicable Model
The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) developed the Accelerated Mathematics Program (AMP) in 2010 to tackle dismal success and retention rates in developmental mathematics courses. Longitudinal data analysis indicates students are twice as likely to succeed in mathematics when electing an accelerated path. Presenters will highlight the evolution of AMP at CCBC and discuss course structure, faculty training, scaling up, future planning, and instructional strategies. Participants will be provided with resources to facilitate construction of an accelerated model at their institution.
Loch Raven I
Kate Abromaitis, Math Faculty, CCBC
Jesse Kiefner, Math Faculty, CCBC
Danielle Truszkowski, Math Faculty, CCBC
9:00-12:00 The Economic and Political Realities of Implementing Acceleration at Scale
Scaling up acceleration means facing a number of real or imagined problems. These include financial concerns, buy-in from many parties, training needs, and organizational coordination. What are the actual dimensions of these problems, and what specific strategies have been used to address them, in the process of scale-up? This session will examine the experiences at the Community College of Baltimore County, (an institution that considers itself to be the Mothership of Accelerated Developmental Education), as we carried out the multi-year process of conceptualizing, implementing and scaling-up Acceleration. Since our Acceleration experiences are uniquely mature, our insights, struggles and successes, may be of value to others, especially VPs, Deans and Chairs, who are considering these issues, or to individual faculty and staff who will need to win the cooperation of the former officials.
Loch Raven II
Mark McColloch, Vice President of Instruction, CCBC
Donna McKusick, Dean, Developmental Education/ Special Academic Programs, CCBC
9:00-12:00 Inside an Accelerated Reading and Writing Classroom
As Director of the California Acceleration Project, Katie Hern supports faculty from across California during their first year of teaching an accelerated course in academic literacy. In high-impact CAP English pathways, students’ odds of completing college English are 2.3 times higher than in traditional remediation, and all students benefit, including those often believed “not appropriate” for acceleration (e.g., students with low scores, low GPAs, disabilities, ESL backgrounds). This interactive half-day session will feature an instructional framework for integrating reading and writing, guidelines for choosing texts, and strategies for making sure that affective issues don’t derail students. Participants will experience accelerated pedagogy through classroom video, activities, texts, and assignments from Hern’s own classroom, along with online materials developed by other California teachers.
Harborview I
Katie Hern, Director of the California Acceleration Project
9:00-12:00 Non-cognitive Issues in the Accelerated Classroom
We know that the main reason students drop out of developmental programs is because of issues either in their lives or in their heads. In their lives, they sometimes lose their jobs, their children get sick, they are evicted from their apartments, they have legal troubles, or something equally traumatic occurs. In their heads, they fear they don’t belong in college, they cope with enormous stress, they lack confidence, or they don’t understand how to “do” college. Even though these issues–often referred to as “non-cognitive” issues–constitute the primary reason students are unsuccessful, they are also an area that most English faculty have little preparation to address. In this workshop we’ll attempt to map out the range of non-cognitive issues that our students are confronted with, and we’ll discuss a variety of strategies for dealing with these. Participants will leave with a better sense of what the issues are and with a collection of materials to address them.
Harborview II
Linda De La Ysla, Writing Faculty, CCBC
Fawcett Dunstan, Writing Faculty, CCBC
Jackie Scott, Writing Faculty, CCBC
12-1:00 PM Lunch Chesapeake Ballroom
1:00-4:00 PM ALP Pedagogy: “What Will I Do in My ALP Class?”
Student success in a co-requisite model for developmental writing, such as ALP, depends on what happens in the linked developmental course (ALP class). This workshop will focus on strategies for aligning the syllabi of the credit-level and developmental classes; developing classroom activities that support accelerated learning; strengthening essential skills in writing, reading and thinking; as well as addressing the non-cognitive issues that can derail developmental students. Attendees will have the opportunity to consider these topics within the context of their own classes.
Camden Room
Susan Gabriel, ALP Director, CCBC
Elsbeth Mantler, ALP Instructor, CCBC
1:00-4:00 PM Using Your Head: Thinking in a Writing Classroom
This workshop is based on a simple principle: the most important ingredient in effective writing is effective thinking. However, it will also be conducted with an awareness that perhaps the hardest thing to teach is how to think. We’ll begin by trying to answer the question why many students are not aware of the crucial importance of thinking to writing. The bulk of the workshop will explore a variety of approaches to encouraging our students to be more engaged thinkers. We’ll share ideas with each other for classroom activities, short writing assignments, and longer writing projects.
Loch Raven I
Peter Adams, Professor Emeritus, CCBC
1:00-4:00 PM Rethinking Placement and Math Remediation: High Leverage Strategies for Increasing Completion and Closing Achievement Gaps for non-STEM Students
In California 26 colleges are redesigning placement and remediation with the support of the California Acceleration Project. In redesigned pathways at the first 8 CAP colleges, the odds of students completing college math were 4.5 times the odds of students in traditional remediation. For African American remedial math students, completion of college math quadrupled (from 10% to 41%), and the achievement gap between African American and Asian American students in remediation was eliminated. Learn about CAP design principles and instructional strategies in this session.
Loch Raven II
Myra Snell, Los Medanos College
1:00-4:00 PM The Nuts and Bolts of Teaching Integrated Reading and Writing
This workshop introduces a current practice which accelerates developmental reading and writing students to credit eligibility in one course. Academic Literacy reduces students’ reading and writing course requirements, which vary from 7 to 16 semester hours, to 5 semester hours. Student success rates support this innovation as a viable option in developmental education. Participants will learn the course guiding principles, experience pedagogical practices, and analyze samples of student work. Furthermore, while research and student success rates support this innovation as a viable acceleration option, executing an integrated course can be fraught with challenges. During this workshop, participants will also examine some of the challenges in teaching such a course, along with innovative strategies for addressing these challenges.
Harborview II
Jeanine L. Williams, ACLT Director, CCBC
Sharon Moran Hayes, Reading Faculty, CCBC
Denise Parker, Reading Faculty, CCBC
Nancy Parker, Reading Faculty, CCBC
Avery Williams, Reading Faculty, CCBC
6:00 PM Dinner
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Thursday, June 16th

Time Event Location
8:30–10:00 Conference Check-In Chesapeake I Gallery
8:00–9:00 Continental breakfast Chesapeake II Gallery
9:00-9:15 Welcome Chesapeake Ballroom
9:15-10:15 Plenary Speaker: Peter Adams
“Original Sin and Redemption: Developmental Education in the 21st Century”
Chesapeake Ballroom
10:15-10:20 Overview Chesapeake Ballroom
10:30-12:40 Breakout Sessions 1 and 2 See detailed agenda
12:45-1:45 Lunch Chesapeake Ballroom
2:00-3:00 Panel Session: Equity and Acceleration
Nikki Edgecombe, Community College Research Center
Katie Hern, California Acceleration Project
Mark Williams, Community College of Baltimore County
Student Representatives TBA
Chesapeake Ballroom
3:15-4:15 Breakout Session 3 See detailed agenda

Friday, June 18th

Time Event Location
8:30–9:30 Conference Check-In Chesapeake I Gallery
8:00–9:00 Continental breakfast Chesapeake II Gallery
9:00-10:00 Plenary Speaker: Shanna Smith Jaggars
“Acceleration in the Context of Whole-College Redesign”
Chesapeake Ballroom
10:30-12:40 Breakout Sessions 4 and 5 See detailed agenda
12:45-1:45 Lunch Chesapeake Ballroom
1:15-2:00 Poster Sessions Chesapeake Gallery
See detailed agenda
2:00-3:00 Breakout Sessions 6 See detailed agenda