BSSOT News A newsletter about the activities of the Basic Skills Student Outcomes Transformation Grant at

CULTIVATING SUCCESS THROUGH INQUIRY, COLLABORATION, AND BEST PRACTICES IN THIS ISSUE:

Office of Student Equity Report Learn how implementing Multiple Measures for Welcome to Spring 2017! placement on campus has helped students succeed and review data about student placement. by Jessica Moran Page 2 FIG Updates The spring semester is well underway. Los Banos. He also provides weekly Keep up to date about our four FIGs and what you can On behalf of the whole BSSOT Team, we updates to the BSSOT Team. We do to become a part of one. want to thank you for your continual appreciate the strong collaboration Pages 2-3 support as we reach out to various and open communication the grant departments on campus. has fostered so far. Spotlight on Students As a brief update to the work done, in In February 2017, the Board of Hear from our newly hired Embedded Peer Mentors (EPMs) who are excited to start training this semester. December 2016, we were happy to Directors invited us to present on Page 4 announce that the Basic Skills and the BSSOT Grant at their monthly Student Outcomes Transformation meeting. Future plans include Program launched its Merced College web attending department area page. On this page, you can find links to meetings to conduct similar the BSSOT newsletter; events and presentations and create campus activities, including a video and wide awareness of BSSOT goals. presentation from our December 1st grant Lastly, we encourage everyone forum; and descriptions of our many to join our Faculty Inquiry Groups programs, such as Habits of Mind, English (FIGs). More information can be acceleration, embedded peer mentors, found on page 2-3 of our newsletter. and the Interdisciplinary Literacy Center. In addition, our program office is We hope that the site can help you stay always interested in your comments. up-to-date on the many changes taking place around campus. Visit the BSSOT Please reach out to me for any web page at http://www.mccd.edu/ questions or concerns at resources/bssot/index.html. [email protected] or (209) 381 – 6477. In January, the BSSOT Team realized there was a need for a liaison between our main campus and our Los Banos campus. We appointed John Jason Long as faculty Emily and Houston discussing during liaison at the Los Banos campus. He has the Reading Apprenticeship event worked diligently throughout the quarter held at the Business Resource to recruit Embedded Peer Mentors at Center on Friday, February 24, 2017 BSSOT News Issue #2 February 2017 Student Equity Report Our FIGs by Dr. Regina Coletto Don’t forget…our Faculty Inquiry Groups (FIGs) are open to all Merced College faculty and interested Traditionally, Merced College has utilized staff. Take a moment to review our meeting Accuplacer test scores and counselor intervention as minutes and take part of this exciting journey! the multiple measures criteria to place students into English courses. However, recent studies show that utilizing high school Habits of Mind—The HoM FIG centers on grade point average and course grades as multiple helping students to produce knowledge and develop measures criteria are more accurate for course placement than critical perspectives on their own thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, and work product. test scores alone. FIG Leader: Pam Huntington In fall 2016 the Merced College English department finalized [email protected] a Multiple Measures Decision Tree that takes into account Meeting Minutes: the various methods for placement into ENGL-01A. Many of https://www.dropbox.com/sh/uxadamhosiybe5k/A the methods, such as the use of EAP scores and ADXLmMp3S0iLAGTlqTt5AMQa?dl=0 AP test scores have already been used on a small scale basis by the counselors in conjunction with the students' test scores. The Embedded Peer Mentors and Reading main change, based on the above mentioned studies, uses self- Apprenticeship—The EMP/RA FIG has been reported high school cumulative GPA information and designed to help faculty, staff, and students re- grades in specific high school English classes to place envision students’ capabilities. Rather than focusing on students into ENGL-01A. The studies show this self-reported data students’ under preparedness, RA helps faculty find is accurate up to ten years post-high school and report ways to leverage students’ strengths and capabilities to create ‘apprentice’ students capable of that students underestimate their GPAs and course grades. discipline-specific academic literacies. Beginning in December 2016 all students who take FIG Leader: Shirley Kahlert the Accuplacer test will answer a series of background [email protected] questions in order to assess their readiness for ENGL-01A. Meeting Minutes: The questions ensure the student is an active high school senior or https://docs.google.com/document/d/143uk has already left the K-12 system, has graduated from high school YIhMankdZWSx7uU4Jb6bDfByqTuS-d4FA9EkBqA/ within the past 10 years, and then meets the GPA and edit?usp=sharing English course grade criteria. If a student meets all the criteria they can be placed directly into ENGL-01A based solely on the Interdisciplinary Learning Center—The background questions related to the Multiple Measures ILC FIG is centered on design, pedagogy, and curriculum for our new ILC. The ILC will promote Decision Tree. If they do not meet this criteria they will cooperative and collaborative learning be placed into an English course based on their Accuplacer environments where faculty, staff, and peer mentors test scores and counselor intervention. work with students to create environments where students take ownership of their learning and course To date approximately 70% of the students content thereby making learning more meaningful. answering the new questions are placing directly into ENGL-01A. The English department has worked to alter their course FIG Leader: Candace Hull-Taylor [email protected] scheduling to allow for more students to enroll in ENGL-01A in the spring 2017 and the fall 2017 semesters due to this new Meeting Minutes: placement process. The BSSOT grant will be https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vew19bj87gfwoxc/AA BgjZ2_c7wFvh6zeeUrMat8a?dl=0 providing academic support to students, in addition to professional development opportunities to our English faculty. Acceleration Project—The CAP Everyone involved in this project is excited to see the FIG focuses on ways to increase basic skills course results of the spring 2017 ENGL-01A enrollees. completion in English and math through a variety of best practices and operates under the belief that ‘we can do better’ to help students complete remedial courses. FIG Leader: Denise Rempel [email protected] Meeting Minutes: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/5qag0z4j2losvco/AAA wmqGeU6bmfyjvUu73SUHoa?dl=0 BSSOT News Issue #2 February 2017 CAP FIG Designs Accelerated Curriculum by Denise Rempel The focus of the CAP FIG this spring has been to design curriculum for the ENGL 85AC course that will begin in Fall 2017. ENGL 85AC, a one- level below transfer composition course, relies on "backwards design" principles, which hold that lower courses in a sequence should mirror upper courses in a sequence but with greater student support and time for practice. FIG members have specifically designed the course to give students practice with the skills, content, and ways of thinking required in college-level courses in their program of study. CAP FIG members have also committed to norming, a process of calibrating scoring criteria among instructors, to promote best practices in the classroom and our discipline. Finally, we have committed to data collection and review to gauge the efficacy of the ENGL 85AC course and curriculum. If you are interested in learning more about ENGL 85AC, or acceleration, and the many ways it will promote equity, retention, and completion of college courses, we invite you to join the CAP FIG. Please contact Denise Rempel at [email protected] for meeting times and locations. HoM FIG Members Find Their "Why" by Pam Huntington The Habits of Mind (HoM) Training Team is in place: Keri Ortiz, Will Baker, Sonja Downing, Suzanne Kobzeff, Kristin Rigby, Dee Near, Brandon Tenn, Lee Anne Hobbs, and Pam Huntington. The team attended their first training session on February 10th at in Pittsburg, CA, where 3CSN staff presented many innovative ideas regarding appreciative inquiry and recognizing the strengths of our current college climate. Several Los Medanos College faculty and staff shared their five year journey in bringing the Habits of Mind Initiative to their campus where HoM practices are now an integral part of all campus life. In one particularly rewarding group activity, team members discovered the individual and collective "why" motivating their work. The team hopes to bring a similar activity to Merced College, holding a drive where faculty and staff can find their "why." The team will be attending their second training session on March 17th at . In the meantime, members of the training team and others have been attending the monthly HoM FIG (Faculty Inquiry Group) to learn more about the integration of the Habits of Mind principles into the classroom and our own personal lives. The next HoM FIGs will be held from 1-2pm on Friday 03/24, 04/28, and 05/19 in IAC-256C. All are welcome to attend. Some current readings the group has been engaging with include excerpts from Grit by Angela Duckworth, The Growth Mindset by Annie Brock and Heather Hundley, and the article “Faculty—Administrator Relationships and Responsive Decisionmaking Systems: New Frameworks for Study” by Marietta Del Favero, Louisiana State University. ILC FIG Conceptualizes Literacy Center by Dr. Candace Taylor Plans for the new ILC are proceeding apace. The ILC will be housed in Comm 2 and 5 and Darden Architects, Inc. have been contracted. The space will be renovated during summer 2017, and the ILC will open fall 2017. The ILC will provide individualized academic support and just-in-time remediation for students. It will serve as a campus community hub where students can receive academic support, study for their courses, and relax in an academically supportive atmosphere. We aim to make the campus “stickier” via the ILC: we predict that the more students have a place where they can receive academic support services in an attractive setting (computers and printers, phone charging stations, reading cubbies, group and individual study carrels), the better they will perform in their classes and, as a by-product, the less they will require remediation. Beginning in fall 2017, all students enrolled in English courses will be co-enrolled in EDU 112D, providing them with access to the ILC. We envision that the ILC will have 100+ students utilizing the facility at any one time. On average, we predict that 540+ students will use the ILC regularly during any given term. EPM/RA FIG Members Hire Student Workers by Dr. Shirley Kahlert As Embedded Peer Mentors (EPMs), ten Merced College students are traveling forward in their journey to become educators. Funded by BSSOT, these peer mentors will work in both the classroom and the new ILC helping students write stronger papers in our new accelerated English 85AC courses and across the disciplines. EPMs will attend the Tutor Expo in Stockton and receive extensive training in Reading Apprenticeship and other strategies, which support student learning, both on campus and in students' lives away from school. A hearty welcome to our ten EPMs! BSSOT News Issue #2 February 2017 Meet Our Embedded Peer Mentors by Jessica Moran Meet our newly hired EPMs. Our EPMs will start training this spring 2017 semester in order to be prepared to start assisting our students in the accelerated English 85AC classes as well as in our Interdisciplinary Literacy Center (ILC) in fall 2017.

Houston Dowen Aysia James Cynthia Bravo “This job puts me on Anore Barrera “I want to be an EPM “…I want to help track to remain in “I’ve been tutoring in because students can others. During high good academic various ways for nearly feel intimidated by school, I was a part standing.” 3 years and it brings professors….” of a similar program me a lot of joy.” and I really loved it.”

Stephanie Emily Lagomarsino Raul Mendoza Stephanie Oliveira Armendariz “I would like to help “I am grateful for “I love teaching study “I believe being able to others with their the opportunity to groups and especially help others succeed is education and their grow.” grammar…” academic goals.” a unique gift.”

Kody Huntington Nicholas Rharbi “I would like to be “I am patient and an EPM because I empathetic, and enjoy being in a have a passion for learning helping others.” environment.