College Goals The College’s goals support its values and align with district-wide strategic themes. COMMUNITY Goal 1 Provide international and multicultural activities to promote a culture of diversity, inclusiveness and global competence. Goal 2 Maintain relationships and partnerships with local and global businesses, communities, and organizations to foster diversity and workforce development. Goal 3 Foster a participatory, productive and supportive campus climate to ensure collegiality and informed decision making. LEARNING Goal 4 Assure students receive a quality education with academic support to become self-directed and successful lifelong learners. Goal 5 Provide instructional and co-curricular activities to enhance student development. Goal 6 Provide for the growth and development and recognition of employees to create a leading-edge workforce. Orange Coast College Educational Master Plan 2011 - 2015 7 ACCESS Goal 7 Utilize effective outreach, partnerships, and enrollment strategies to enhance the diversity and success of our students. Goal 8 Provide a technologically advanced learning environment to increase student success and access to institutional resources. Goal 9 Recruit a diverse population of students and employees and provide continuous training to create a highly competitive and desirable workplace. STEWARDSHIP Goal 10 Implement comprehensive and deliberate long-term planning to be strategically and financially responsible. Goal 11 Promote a culture of evidence and continuous improvement for the public good. Goal 12 Pursue a variety of resources to augment, expand and maintain programs, personnel, facilities, infrastructure, and services. SUSTAINABILITY Goal 13 Educate the community on environmentally responsible practices to change behavior. Goal 14 Integrate environmentally responsible practices into college operations. Goal 15 Foster and expand relationships with partners to support innovative solutions that reduce resource consumption. 8 Orange Coast College Educational Master Plan 2011 - 2015 Basic Skills as a Foundation for Student Executive Summary Success In California Community Colleges Prepared by The Center for Student Success (CSS), Research JULY 2007 (second edition) and Planning (RP) Group for California Community Colleges Faculty Review Panel Authors Dr. Jan Connal, Counselor, Cerritos College; Ms. Barbara S. Dr. Deborah Boroch, Associate Dean of Natural Sciences, Mt. Illowsky, Professor of Mathematics and Statistics, De Anza San Antonio College; Mr. Jim Fillpot, Director Institutional College; Dr. Richard Mahon, Associate Professor of Humanities, Research, Chaffey College; Ms. Laura Hope, English Professor Riverside Community College; Ms. Nancy Ybarra, Instructor of and Success Center Coordinator, Chaffey College; Dr. Robert English and Co-Coordinator of Developmental Education, Los Johnstone, Vice President of Instruction, Foothill College; Ms. Medanos College. Pamela Mery, Research Analyst, City College of San Francisco; Dr. Andreea Serban, Vice Chancellor of Technology and Project Coordinator Learning Services, South Orange County Community College Dr. Robert S. Gabriner, Vice-Chancellor of Institutional District; Dr. Bruce Smith, Dean of the School of Liberal Arts, Advancement, City College of San Francisco, and Director of City College of San Francisco. the Center for Student Success. Context In 2004, the California Community College System Office began a comprehensive strategic planning process for the purpose of improving student access and suc- cess. On January 17, 2006, the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges unanimously adopted the final draft of the Strategic Plan.1 The plan includes five strategic goal areas: college awareness and access; student success and readiness; partnerships for economic and workforce development; system effectiveness; and resource development. The goal of student success and readiness contains seven areas of focus, one of which is basic skills, as the Strategic Plan describes: Ensure that basic skills development is a major focus and an adequately funded activity of the Community Colleges. To successfully participate in college-level courses, many Community College students need pre- collegiate math and/or English skill development. The goal is to identify model basic skills and English as a Second Language programs and their key features and, given availability of funds, to facilitate replication across the Colleges. In addition, best practices in classrooms and labs and descriptions of effective learning environments will be collected and disseminated widely to inform and assist both credit and noncredit programs. However, noncredit basic skills courses are funded at approximately 60 percent of the rate provided to credit basic skills courses, which is a disincentive for colleges to offer those courses. The Colleges need to gather practices with high effectiveness rates, such as innovative program structures, peer support, and counseling, and acquire funding to implement these approaches to reach all students needing basic skills education. The study presented here was commissioned by the California Community Colleges System Office to identify effective practices in basic skills programs, as outlined above. The Center for Student Success (CSS), which is affiliated with the Research and Planning (RP) Group for California Community Colleges, was selected to conduct the study. There are three major components of the study: 1. An extensive review of the literature related to basic skills practices, as well as an overview of examples of strategies employed by 33 California community colleges and nine out-of- state institutions. 2. A self-assessment tool which will allow colleges to reflect on how their current practices fit with the findings from the literature regarding what are known to be effective practices for basic skills students. 3. A cost/revenue model for developmental education programs which provides a way to explore the incremental revenues that can be derived over time from such programs. 1 More information about the Statewide Strategic Plan is available at http://strategicplan.cccco.edu/. Basic Skills as a Foundation for Student Success in California Community Colleges – Executive Summary 3 Literature Review The approach to conducting the study combined the and Overview of intense work of a group of associates of the Center for Student Success with iterative reviews of each of Institutional Examples the three work products by a panel of faculty with extensive expertise in basic skills. In addition, drafts of each work product were reviewed by Dr. Carole Bogue- Feinour, Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, California Community Colleges System Office, and Dr. John Nixon, Vice President of Instruction, Mt. San Antonio College. For the purposes of this study, the following working definition of basic skills was established: Basic skills are those foundation skills in reading, writing, mathematics, and English as a Second Language, as well as learning skills and study skills, which are necessary for students to succeed in college-level work.2 In order to establish criteria for “effective” practices, this document adopted a variation of Hunter Boylan’s definition of best practice, modified as follows: “ Effective practices” refer to organizational, administrative, instructional, or support activities engaged in by highly successful programs, as validated by research and literature sources relating to developmental education. Over 250 references, spanning more than 30 years, were reviewed, making this the most comprehensive review of literature in the area of basic skills conducted in California community colleges to date. Study after study by a multitude of researchers confirms a consistent set of elements that commonly characterize effective developmental education programs. These elements can be organized under the broad categories of organizational and administrative practices, program components, staff development, and instructional practices. A total of 26 effective practices emerged under these four major categories and are listed below. A. Organizational and Administrative Practices Institutional choices concerning program structure, organization, and management have been related to the overall effectiveness of developmental education programs. The following effective practices have been identified in this area: A.1 Developmental education is a clearly stated institutional priority. A.2 A clearly articulated mission based on a shared, overarching philosophy drives the developmental education program. A.3 The developmental education program is centralized or highly coordinated. A.4 Institutional policies facilitate student completion of necessary developmental coursework as early as possible in the educational sequence. A.5 A comprehensive system of support services exists, and is characterized by a high degree of integration among academic and student support services. A.6 Faculty who are both knowledgeable and enthusiastic about developmental education are recruited and hired to teach in the program. A.7 Institutions manage faculty and student expectations regarding developmental education. 2 The inclusion of English as a Second Language in this definition recognizes that all ESL is not, by definition, subsumed under basic skills. To the extent that a student is unable to succeed in college-level coursework due to inability to speak, read, write or comprehend English, ESL skills may be considered as foundation skills