Region I (Northern California), English Council for California Two-Year Colleges--Spring 2010 Report

Editors:

Kyra Mello, Associate Professor of English; Coordinator, Writing Language Development Center, Yuba College; ECCTYC Region I Co-Director

Kevin Ferns, Associate Professor of English, Woodland Community College; ECCTYC Region I Co-Director

College of the Siskiyous

Contributors: Steve Reynolds, Chair, Language Arts Department; English Instructor

College of the Siskiyous reported working on a number of projects including a learning community. Reynolds indicated that faculty is focusing on trying to improve services in the critical skills lab. He also commented that the CB21 coding project opened their eyes to problems in not having the one-level-below-transfer course considered a “basic skills” course. College of the Siskiyous would like to advocate that the one-level-below-transfer course be considered basic skills since according to Title V it does not satisfy graduation requirements for General Education in Written Communications. Reynolds pointed out that College of the Siskiyous is moving to make the one-below-transfer course non-degree applicable, yet it will not be coded basic skills. He’s concerned with the obvious inconsistency, and further points out that the institution isn’t supposed to use BSI funds to enact any innovations to improve student learning in courses considered non-basic skills. There appears to be a conflict with the course one-below-transfer that could use resolution.

Lassen College

Contributor: Cheryl Aschenbach, English and speech instructor; Academic Senate President

Lassen College reported no changes since the report made in fall 2009. To reiterate points made on the previous report, Lassen College made few changes to curriculum. They reported the addition of a writing lab course to support basic skills writing courses. This semester (Fall 2009) is the first time it is being offered. BSI projects are in progress, but Lassen College reports that it's too early to look at outcomes.

Lassen College reported no significant changes/cuts to the department as a result of the budget crisis. The only restrictions reported were to purchasing.

Woodland Community College

Contributor: Kevin Ferns, Professor of English; ECCTYC Region I Co-Director

Woodland College reports it has recently tried out an English 1A (College Composition)/Sociology 2 (Social Problems) learning community with limited success. A planned English 105 (Pre-Collegiate Composition)/Ecology 50 (Fundamentals of Environmental Science)/Math 111 (Pre-Algebra) learning community was cut due to budget issues. The English/Sociology learning community has suffered from a lack of funding, as both instructors needed more time to coordinate lessons and materials.

In terms of Basic Skills, Woodland Community College reports that two English teachers attended a reading apprenticeship training that inspired them to provide several on-campus training activities for faculty and staff. The training involved working with faculty to promote reading strategies for students in classes across the curriculum. The workshops have been successful at promoting awareness among faculty regarding students’ reading challenges and the ways instructors can assist students in reading comprehension.

Additionally, due to the budget cuts, the English courses at Woodland Community College have been scaled back to core composition courses with a few exceptions. Currently, Woodland Community College is not able to offer creative writing or journalism, and only offer three literature courses. Next year, one full time English position will be lost, and as of right now, Woodland Community College reports that there are no funds to replace the position.

Yuba College

Contributors: Kyra Mello, Associate Professor of English; Coordinator, Writing Language Development Center; ECCTYC Region I Co-Director

Francesca Hulin, Professor of ESL/VESL

The most significant program programmatic update at Yuba College is the implementation of the Writing Language Development Center (WLDC) in late 2008. BSI money is the only source of funding for tutor payroll and supplies, and the college has yet to institutionalize the program. The program continues to grow despite a lack of resources. Other programmatic updates include changes to testing in the ESL Department. ESL has begun using Accuplacer as an assessment tool to place ESL students. The results appear to be more accurate for low-beginning and beginning students. This was a move from paper testing to electronic, which has potential to be more accurate after more data is collected. Other program updates include the initiation of a learning community program in 2009. The English department is currently the foundation of this program; English instructors are involved in all links. Learning communities have been formed between Sociology and English 51 (one level below transfer) and English 1A, as well as a community between Chicano History and English 105 (two levels below transfer). New links are being pursued with advanced sociology and counseling. Success in the links has been limited in terms of retention or success, but students anecdotally report higher levels of satisfaction and formation of an academic community.

Yuba College is progressing forward in establishing SLOs at the course level. As far as research to support any outcomes, we are at the inception. We have hired an institutional researcher for Yuba College, using BSI funds, who has begun the task of gathering data at the institutional and course level. Progress is being made, albeit slowly. In addition, ARCC Codes have been updated for our active ESL courses based on the Final Rubrics for CB21 updated in September 2009. This will hopefully produce more accurate data reporting in terms of progress, retention and/or success of ESL students at Yuba College. 
 


The BSI committee is very active at Yuba College. This year’s convocation included two speakers on various writing and one-book projects from U.C. Davis. Dr. Zadina, will be presenting at our 2010 convocation and BSI will also be presenting a workshop related to research on basic skill students. Yuba College has also made strides to improve the developmental writing classes. With the use of BSI funds, a team of nine English, ESL and reading faculty, including adjuncts, created an integrated reading/writing curriculum in an attempt to meet the requirements of both developmental 110B (three-levels below transfer) reading and writing courses. The curriculum produced has been active, in several modified forms, during the last three semesters and continues to evolve according to student needs. Preliminary research on this new curriculum indicates some positive results.

The budget crisis seems to have hit Yuba College harder than our neighbors with, news at the time of this writing, of summer school being cancelled and then reinstated, our satellite branch at Beale Air Force Base being allegedly closed and then reinstated, numerous sections of courses being slashed from all departments in the Language and Arts division, and 35 adjuncts and 14 full-time professors being or contingently laid off district-wide. Additional rounds of cuts are to be expected. Also, until the last Board meeting on March 11, 2010, the ESL program was put on a contingency plan which would have reduced it by course offerings by 82%, that is from 28 course offerings to 5, and only one ESL faculty member was saved to teach these. However, the Board pulled the ESL faculty member on the contingency layoff list and the ESL program reduced only by 10 units or 3 courses. The consolidation of courses has led to several student protests, public attention in the news media, and an effort to recall the President of the YCCD Board of Trustees. Discontent with the current administration and low morale are reported at Yuba College.

Other concerns reported at Yuba College include a concern that there is an administrative push to bump lower-level ESL students back to community education and that our ESL program will begin focusing on higher-level language learners who are closer to transfer level courses. The consequence of this would be an increase in ESL students attempting to get into Yuba College but unable to test into even our lower English/ESL developmental courses. ESL students attempting to get into community colleges will not be prepared even for developmental-level courses making these developmental/basic-skill English courses comprised of a wider range of levels and abilities making it more difficult on both the students and instructors to find some common ground.

Despite the current economic woes at Yuba College, faculty report continued efforts to improve programs. There is a continued desire to work to develop the future relationship between reading as a discipline and writing as a discipline and even more collaboration between the ESL and English faculty with a potential objective of creating an ESL-track all the way to transfer.

Ideas for Future ECCTYC presentations:

Faculty in Region I have suggested the following topics for future ECCTYC presentations and conference themes:

· Building cohorts with English composition courses and other disciplines (ESL, sciences, engineering, math, green careers, vocational education, etc.). These would not be learning communities but entail multi-disciplinary curriculum focused on a theme or career goal. 
 


· Creative Writing and the Composition Classroom: Crossovers and Infusions. Asking Dr. Dana Ferris to present regarding dealing with Generation 1.5 and ESL writing issues. Defining this population and strategies that English professors can integrate into their curriculum to address these. . Dr. Zadina Learning communities; situated learning; faculty inquiry projects concerning the writing of writing assignments and the grading of those assignments; teaching students to work with text

Labels: Region_1

The next ECCTYC Conference will be held in Northern California

October 20-22, 2011.

Please check back for more details. Theme, hotel, attractions, and registration information to be unveiled April 2011.

Labels: Conferences, ECCTYC_Conference_2011, President

SUBJECT: OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR CHAFFEY COLLEGE

To President/Superintendent Shannon, Chaffey College:

The English Council of California Two-Year Colleges (www.ecctyc.org) is a professional non-profit organization representing all two-year college English departments and faculty members throughout the state. ECCTYC sends representation to National TYCA, hosts a biennial conference, and, as you know well, publishes inside english, an annual professional journal that reaches every campus of our college system. These are large tasks for a small non-profit, which is why ECCTYC relies on the generous patronage of constituent colleges like Chaffey.

The ECCTYC board recognizes Chaffey College as one of this organization’s strongest supporters: through years of continued representation on the board (notably Michael Dinielli and Sean Stratton), through years of travel support for your faculty and administrators who attend our statewide meetings, and through the hosting of the inside english publication, Chaffey has shown a strong and continued commitment to the advancement of English studies in California.

For strong and steadfast support, the board is pleased to present Chaffey College with an Outstanding Achievement Award for its support and contributions to ECCTYC and California’s Community Colleges. This award was presented to Chaffey care of Michael Dinielli on April 15 at the ECCTYC Spring 2010 board meeting.

Sincerely,


Gary Enns, President of ECCTYC
English Professor, Cerro Coso Community College

Labels: Awards, President, Region_9

Spring 2010 Board Meeting
15-16 April 2010, Full Board (and 14 April, Executive Board)
Doubletree Hotel San Francisco Airport

NEWS FROM CERRO COSO

CUTS

Unless the budget crisis resolves and mandates from the district and administration are lifted, our department will be forced to cut literature and creative writing courses next year. We will focus our energies solely on core basic skills, ESL, composition, speech, and critical thinking courses while the crisis runs its course.

ESL

Our institution has, admittedly, been lagging behind other colleges in our ESL offerings until just recently. However, we are now offering ESL courses at our central campus. We are advertizing the course and dialoging with organizations such as Head Start, the Adult School, and local employers in order to insure strong enrollment. With the support of the Basic Skills Initiative, our Learning Assistance Center now runs a language practice group led by tutor/mentors. This practice group is quite diverse, including individuals with backgrounds from Mexico, Cambodia, Brazil and Jordan.

SLO’S

The communications department will begin data collection for composition courses this summer. This process will include holistic scoring of research papers from a number of courses in addition to testing results from some courses.

LITERARY JOURNAL

I am continuing my work as faculty editor for our college’s student journal, Metamorphoses: A Journal of Literature and Art. In 2009, we began publishing student work online every Monday of the school year in a new feature called Met Mondays. This new feature has proven very popular with the college, and so we will continue while selections last. Met Mondays has helped to highlight the importance of the journal and the creative spirit of the students, even in the midst of the cuts to literature and creative writing courses. We plan on publishing the best of Met Mondays in a Fall 2010 print issue of the journal.

NEW DIRECTORS

PERRI GALLAGHER

I welcome the return of Perri Gallagher of Ohlone College to the board. Gallagher brings with her a wealth of experience. From 1999 to 2004, she served as Director of Region 2; in 2001 she provided leadership as chair of the “Capitol Ideas” ECCTYC Conference in Sacramento.

In June 2009, Gallagher earned her Doctorate of Education in Higher Education with an emphasis on technology. Regarding her interests, Gallagher states: “My dissertation, More than Poetic Examination: Metaphors that Structure Online Instructor Views, is a qualitative study with a sample population of ECCTYC member college English instructors, and was presented at [the 2009 ECCTYC Conference].”

“Working with ECCTYC has been a privilege, an honor and a whole lot of fun,” said Gallagher in a recent email, “which is why I’m happy to be returning to the board.”

Gallagher will serve as Region 2 Co-Director alongside Catherine Eagan of Las Positas College.

JENNIFER SKYTT

I also welcome Jennifer Skytt of Santa Barbara Community College as Adjunct Director At-Large for Southern California. Skytt is a Stanford University M.A. graduate who has become a very active part of the SBCC English program. She currently teaches foundational composition and critical thinking courses and tutors for the Gateway program. Recently, she was accepted into SBCC’s Multicultural English Transfer program, a series of courses “designed to meet the special needs of underrepresented and underserved students” (Skytt). Skytt recently attended her first CCCC’s, “returning with a greater understanding of the relationship between the political and scholarly aspects of the profession and the composition classroom” (Skytt).

The board looks forward to the enthusiasm and insights of these new members.

ECCTYC ONLINE

BLOG

I have made some adjustments to our blog; the right column of our blog page now features a table of contents by region and officer. When a proper tag is used on a blog post (e.g. Region_5, President, TYCA_Representative), the post will list automatically in the proper table of contents section.

This blog is a valuable resource, but only if directors and officers use it and share it. Post your own reports and news updates, and share your post links with your constituents. Contact me, and I will be happy to get you started.

CONSTITUTION

I have posted our constitution to our website’s “About ECCTYC” page. Visit www.ecctyc.org, scroll across the “ECCTYC Info” button, and select “About ECCTYC.” You will see the link to the constitution in the header of that page.

TOPICS FOR THIS MEETING

We have a number of important discipline topics to discuss at this meeting, including English department responses to accreditation, CCC-EAP, and the Basic Skills Initiative. We will also discuss some topics of great importance to the running of this organization, such as ECCTYC research, the future of i.e. at Chaffey, and the clarification of institutional memberships. Finally, we must lay the groundwork—location and committee appointments—for the 2011 ECCTYC Conference. I recommend the board draw heavily from Corinna Evett’s knowledge as our most recent conference chairperson. The playbook she has compiled will be essential to the success of our next conference.

Gary Enns
President, ECCTYC
Professor of English, Cerro Coso Community College

Works Cited
Gallagher, Perri. Message to the author. 3 Nov. 2009. Email.
Skytt, Jennifer M. Message to the author. 10 April 2010. Email.

Labels: President

Briefing Report
U.S. Department of Education Stakeholder Meetings
October 13, 2009 and October 21, 2009
By Stacey Novelli, Legislative Associate, NCTE Washington Office

The U.S. Department of Education is hosting a series of forums to discuss key issues related to the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Last month, Secretary Arne Duncan commented that that rewrite of ESEA should start now and that the reauthorization cannot wait. Congress reauthorized ESEA most recently in 2002 in what is known as the No Child Left Behind Act. Two forums were held in October.

On October 13, the Department hosted the second of five planned forums on ESEA reauthorization. The topic was “Great Teachers and Leaders.” Dr. Thelma Melendez, Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education, gave opening remarks and spoke of the important role of effective teachers and principals in promoting student achievement. According to Melendez, in order to ensure that all children have access to dedicated and highly-skilled teachers and school leaders we should:

1. Compensate teachers through a redesigned evaluation system informed by multiple measures including classroom observations and evidence of student engagement and learning;
2. Create new pathways to recruit and prepare a new generation of teachers who are supported in their first years in the classroom through mentoring programs;
3. Empower successful school leadership and faculties with the flexibility needed to build their school and create new and innovative programs to meet the needs of their diverse populations; and
4. Reach out to master teachers and leaders and ask them to bring their knowledge and expertise to the schools and communities that need them the most.

Carmel Martin, Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, summarized the overarching principles regarding teacher quality that will guide the development of a new ESEA bill for the Department. They include:

1. Treating all teachers as professionals by providing high quality pre-service training, professional development, access to timely student data and skilled leadership;
2. Recruiting and preparing talented individuals into the field of education, omitting barriers to high-quality alternative certification programs, and holding all teacher preparation programs accountable;
3. Developing school leaders that make schools work effectively for students and teachers; and
4. Equalizing the distribution of quality teachers and leaders between urban and rural communities. 

On October 21, the Department hosted the third of five forums on ESEA reauthorization. The topic was “Promoting Innovation and Rethinking the Federal Role.” Assistant Secretary Martin noted that the Department looks to develop an ESEA reauthorization package that better leverages federal dollars and makes the law less compliance-driven. Martin commented, “The best solutions are local, done at the classroom level with parents and teachers and other educators.” Jim Shelton, Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement, echoed these remarks, and noted that the importance of innovation in education reform cannot be understated, but that it is crucial to examine and understand how it happens versus simply trying to replicate so-called innovative programs that are successful.

The NCTE DC Office staff are attending and tracking the information in these Department of Education forums to gather information for the Executive Committee in writing NCTE’s 2010 legislative platform that will guide NCTE’s advocacy regarding changes in ESEA.

For videos from the forums, go to http://www.ed.gov/news/events/forum.html.

Stacey Novelli, Legislative Associate, NCTE Washington Office

Labels: President, TYCA_Representative

Presented at the Fall 2009 Board Meeting and Biennial Conference
22 October 2009
Hilton Pasadena

CONFERENCE

This year’s conference theme is Pathways to Community. The theme stands as a reminder of the kind of culture we as college educators strive to create on our campuses and in our classes. We see signs of community life in our classrooms every day. When one student’s shared insight about a poem leads to a more complete understanding for all of her peers—this is community at work. When in an online workshop a student’s draft is strengthened by the comments of his classmate—this is community at work. As educators, one of our most important tasks is to create—and improve upon—learning environments that facilitate the camaraderie, helpfulness, and partnership that characterize community. I am confident that as this year’s ECCTYC conference comes to a close, attendees will take with them new and inspired ways of creating this sense of community on campus and in classroom.

I commend our conference chair, Corinna Evett of Santiago Canyon College, whose vision and perseverance have been essential to this year’s event. Thank you, Corinna, for your dedication to ECCTYC and to the planning of this conference. I also applaud all members of the conference committee listed below for their diligence and industriousness as they attended to important conference work.

• Corinna Evett—ECCTYC 2009 Conference Chair
• John Thomas—Treasurer, Conference Badges
• Micah Jendian and Jan Lombardi—Program Committee Co-Chairs
• Corinna Evett, Micah Jendian, Jan Lombardi, and Sterling Warner—Program Layout and Production
• Corinna Evett (Chair) and Sean Stratton—Promotion Logos and Flyers
• Corinna Evett—Local Arrangements
• Susan Yonker and Gary Enns—Photography
• Chella Courington, Corinna Evett, Heidi Ramirez, and Sterling Warner—Speakers Committee
• Corinna Evett, Christopher McCabe, and Susan Yonker—AV Equipment
• Michael Dinielli, Corinna Evett, and Sterling Warner—Hotel Arrangements
• Sravani Banarjee, John Thomas, and Julie LaMay—Registration Committee
• Sean Stratton (Chair), Rosemarie Guglielmino, and Sterling Warner—Best Article, inside english Committee
• Catherine Eagan, Rosemarie Guglielmino, and Sterling Warner—Best Literary Magazine Award
• Sterling Warner (Chair), Michael Dinielli, and Tom Hurley—Nina Theiss Award
• Christopher McCabe (Chair), Corinna Evett, and Heidi Ramirez—Publicity

TYCA REPRESENTATION

Representation at TYCA National is essential to ECCTYC’s status as the Pacific Coast Region of TYCA, and so the board is indebted to Elissa Caruth of Oxnard College for her hard work and dedication as our organization’s representative to TYCA National. Caruth has been to eight nationals since 2005. Her role as representative has taken her to Pittsburgh, Chicago, Nashville, New York, New York again, San Antonio, San Francisco and next month Philadelphia. Caruth has served on several TYCA committees, including the nominations committee and the best article committee. She has shared her innovative ideas as a presenter four times at nationals, has moderated sessions, and has served as a round table facilitator. Her numerous and insightful TYCA Pacific Coast and ECCTYC reports can be read in current and back issues of inside english and TETYC.

Caruth’s term as TYCA rep is up this year, and after several years of service, she has decided to step down. Thank you, Elissa, for your commitment and dedication to The English Council and TYCA. Former ECCTYC board member Jody Millward of Santa Barbara City College has been nominated to replace Carruth as our representative. Millward, for many reasons which our first vice president will delineate in his report, is an excellent choice for the position and will be a wonderful addition to the board.

NEW CO-DIRECTORS

I have appointed two new co-directors—Kate Pluta of Bakersfield College for Region Five South Valley, and Kevin Ferns of Woodland Community College for Region One Northern California.

Regarding the Region Five appointment, nominations were sought from the division and department chairs of the Southern South Valley, and Pluta’s name rose to the top of the list. Bakersfield College’s English Department chairperson, Pam Boyles, states in her nomination of Pluta: “Kate has been a former department chair of the BC English Department, former Senate President, and has served many years on the CCA Executive Board in various leadership positions. … She has my highest recommendation!”

Regarding the Region One appointment, it was Ferns that noticed the vacancy and expressed interest in participating on the board. I interviewed him through email and am confident that he will make a fine addition to the board. At Woodland, Ferns is working to expand English offerings “beyond just the comp offerings and into lit and creative writing courses. He is also working on “expanding the scope” of his school’s literary magazine and on involving more students in the writing and editing of the publication.

VACANT SEATS ON THE BOARD

Currently, we have eleven of twenty-two co-director positions filled on the board. If the board approves my appointments for Regions One and Five, our number will be brought up to thirteen. That leaves nine co-director positions vacant. I urge the board to be proactive in filling these seats so that we can better represent our constituents throughout the state.

In particular, we need to fill the following key vacancies: Region Four North Valley Co-Director, and Adjunct Co-Director At-Large. Currently, we have no members in these positions. ECCTYC is seeking two promising and motivated adjunct instructors—one from Northern and one from Southern California—as well as two faculty members from the following Region Four schools:

American River College, Columbia College, Cosumnes River College, Deep Springs College (private), Humphreys College (private), Lake Tahoe College, Merced College, Modesto Junior College, Sacramento City College, San Joaquin Delta College, Sierra College

Other regions with vacancies include Region Two San Francisco Bay; Region Six Central Coast; Region Seven North Los Angeles; Region Eight South Los Angeles & Orange County; and Region Nine San Bernardino.

ECCTYC ON THE WEB

Our current website and paid web editor James Fitch of Hartnell College have performed admirably through this conference. Now, upon concluding the event, it is time to consider more cost effective and user friendly alternatives. It is my feeling that ECCTYC’s website should be inexpensive, easy for a board member with little coding experience to edit, and easy for co-directors and officers to post reports and reach their constituents. Members of the web committee are currently evaluating alternative interfaces such as Joomla and Drupal, and even free web building interfaces such as WordPress, to see if one of these technologies might help us to build a more intuitive web space. I encourage the web committee to continue this important work and to report back to the board at our next board meeting.

AGENDAS OF THE FUTURE

Finally, as president, it is my goal to create board agendas replete with topics of the utmost importance to our profession and to our constituents. To do this, I rely heavily on the help of the officers and co-directors of this board who bring with them the issues and concerns of ECCTYC constituents throughout California. I encourage board members to contact me with issues throughout the year in order to help shape the future direction of this organization.

Gary Enns
President, ECCTYC
Professor of English, Cerro Coso Community College

Labels: Conferences, ECCTYC_Conference_2009, President

President: Gary Enns, Cerro Coso Community College

First Vice President: Sterling Warner, Evergreen Valley College

Second Vice President: Michael Dinielli, Chaffey College

Secretary: Chella Courington, Santa Barbara City College

Treasurer: John Thomas, Diablo Valley College

Immediate Past President: Heidi Ramirez, Hartnell College

Editor of inside english: Sean Stratton, Chaffey College

TYCA Representative: Elissa Carruth, Oxnard College

Historian: Edith Conn, Ventura College

Labels: Editor_of_inside_english, First_and_Second_Vice_Presidents, Historian, Immediate_Past_President, President, TYCA_Representative

By Catherine M. Eagan, LPC

The contacts list for Region II was updated as of April, 2009. Colleges who have new English coordinators since that time should send their names to me at ceagan@laspositascollege.edu.

All constituents were asked for feedback and reminded of the October Pasadena conference. They were encouraged to get their dues in and receive the newest issue of inside english as well. I have recently realized that I should also be gathering information from private two-year colleges and tribal colleges—I will try to incorporate those voices in my next report.

In any case, no email responses were received; thus, the following report is based on the regional director’s personal knowledge. Any college who would like to add their college’s news and/or questions to the regional report is encouraged to contact Catherine Eagan at ceagan@laspositascollege.edu.

Berkeley City College (formerly Vista College, Berkeley)

BCC continues to participate in the Faculty Inquiry Network (FIN). For more information on their and others’ inquiry projects, see http://fincommons.net/2009/09/21/mid-term-inquiry-update-videos/.

Chabot College (Hayward)

Chabot’s English department continues to be busy with their Hewlett Grant and the Faculty Inquiry Network. Around 20 colleges are participants. Colleges in our region who are participating include the College of Alameda, Berkeley City College, Laney College, Las Positas College, Los Medanos College, and Skyline College.

Chabot’s Katie Hern and Tom de Wit joined with LPC’s Catherine Eagan to present at ECCTYC on acceleration, in an effort to get people reevaluating whether multiple levels of English are necessary for developmental students. Hern and Eagan also shared the work of the FIN on an ECCTYC panel with instructors from San Diego Mesa College, Glendale College, and Santa Ana College. For more information on their and others’ inquiry projects, see http://fincommons.net/2009/09/21/mid-term-inquiry-update-videos/. Finally, Tom de Wit and Sean MacFarland screened their recent film The Written Works, a student film on the experience of researching and writing a transfer-level research paper.

City College of San Francisco (SF)

No report.

College of Alameda (Alameda)

College of Alameda continues to participate in the FIN. Their Diesel Mechanics program is joining with basic skills English, math, and ESL faculty to discover whether the embedding of basic skills curricula into CTE courses will improve student success. For more information on their and others’ inquiry projects, see http://fincommons.net/2009/09/21/mid-term-inquiry-update-videos/.

College of Marin/Indian Valley (Novato)

No report.

College of San Mateo (San Mateo)

No report.

Contra Costa College (San Pablo)

No report.

Diablo Valley College (Pleasant Hill)

Tom Hurley participated in a “Tips on Getting Hired” panel at ECCTYC this year.

Laney College (Oakland)

Laney continues to participate in the FIN. They are investigating their bilingual Wood Technology/ESL program (called Carpentería Fina) to document the value of contextualized learning. For more information on their and others’ inquiry projects, see http://fincommons.net/2009/09/21/mid-term-inquiry-update-videos/.

Las Positas College (Livermore)

LPC continues to participate in the FIN. They are studying their basic skills program, both the accelerated course and the two-semester course, with the help of student co-inquirers and students in the Mass Communication program, who are working on a film documenting students’ experience of our program. For more information on their and others’ inquiry projects, see http://fincommons.net/2009/09/21/mid-term-inquiry-update-videos/.

LPC is continuing to improve its integrated reading and writing curriculum and is now using faculty-written modules, based on the CSU Expository Reading and Writing curriculum, in its basic skills courses. LPC’s College Foundation Semester (CFS), a learning community for at-risk students, expanded to two cohorts of students in this, its fourth, semester. CFS is excited to report that though at least half of its students are learning disabled, its success rates are higher than students who “mainstream” and enroll in stand-alone basic skills English, math, CIS, and study skills courses. (This learning community is based on Cabrillo College’s Digital Bridge Academy.)

LPC’s English 1A course is still making use of a “TBA” lab that students attend in the Integrated Learning Center, staffed by faculty in programs who also have a “TBA” lab. Unfortunately, budget cuts are affecting the amount of hours the center can be open. In addition, the state has handed down new guidelines for how TBA hours must operate that we are struggling with. Unlike Skyline and some other places, we have had students coming to a center that has faculty line-of-sight, which is good, but sometimes students come into the lab when no English faculty are present. This will not be allowed under the new guidelines, but since TBAs are only funded 1 hour of faculty staffing per course, it becomes very difficult to staff a facility where students can come to a TBA hour—in other words, it offers very little flexibility for the student. In addition, students will have to choose a day and time that they will consistently attend the lab for one hour per week, and they will have to submit that time in writing to their instructor at the beginning of the semester. This also takes away flexibility for students whose work hours change from week to week. Since Chaffey College just won the RP Group’s “Leaders in Student Success” award on a model that would not be possible with the new TBA guidelines, we wonder if they are counterproductive.

LPC just completed its accreditation site visit.

Los Medanos College (Pittsburg)

Los Medanos continues to participate in the FIN with its three different FIN teams. The English team is working with African-American students to look at how the Umoja model might improve African-American student success in English 70, an integrated reading and writing course three levels below transfer. The Math/Puente/Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching team is creating an “open-entry, one-semester accelerated course that prepares students for transfer-level Statistics,” as compared to the standard “three- to four-semester developmental path toward Calculus.” The course will be included in the Puente Learning Community. The third team is working collaboratively with San Diego City College’s Umoja program to improve African-American retention in basic skills math. For more information on their and others’ inquiry projects, see http://fincommons.net/2009/09/21/mid-term-inquiry-update-videos/
Katalina Wethington represented her team’s FIN work at the RP Group’s Strengthening Student Success Conference in San Francisco in early October.

Merritt College (Oakland)

Liz Green presented at ECCTYC this October. Her panel was entitled “Spoken Word Poetry: Making Artful Connections between Writing, Speaking, Reading, and Listening.” Green also teaches at DVC.

Napa Valley College (Napa)

No report.

Ohlone College (Fremont)

Ohlone, like LPC, continues to struggle with the new TBA hour guidelines. They are thinking of moving the TBA hours for their campus’ courses online. For more information, contact Perri Gallagher at Ohlone (pgallagher@ohlone.edu). Perri also presented at ECCTYC this year. Her presentation was entitled “Metaphors We Teach By: Research in Community College English Online.”

Alison Kuehner also attended ECCTYC. She shared the reading curriculum she has developed. For more information, contact her at akuehner@ohlone.edu.

Santa Rosa College (Santa Rosa)

No report.

Skyline College (San Bruno)

Karen Wong, Skyline’s SLOAC, has just been recognized by the RP Group for her outstanding contribution to SLO work at Skyline—she received a POWER Award at the Strengthening Student Success conference in San Francisco this October. (POWER stands for Promising Outcomes Work and Exemplary Research.) I reprint Wong’s reflections on receiving the award because it contains so much valuable advice on how to make SLO’s meaningful on our campuses:

Most loved? I hope so, or at least respected. I admit that I’ve had moments when I felt like the stigmatized Hester Prynne, only the scarlet letter “A” signifies assessment, in the case of us SLOAC Coordinators. Our colleagues’ attitudes depend in large part on how the SLOAC is rolling out (or unraveling, depending on your perspective). At my campus, we began with a discussion of assessment’s purpose, and in our planning, we’ve tried to stay true to that purpose: to improve student learning.

It’s a true honor to be the first recipient of this award, as I can easily think of so many equally deserving leaders. I don’t think I am deserving on my own, but I am happy to accept it on behalf of my campus’ SLOAC Steering Committee, with members from every campus Division, my College President, and the Dean of Research and Planning, and without whom my campus would not have been able to make such strides. Among our accomplishments. we:

• Researched the SLOAC initiative and created a Framework for its implementation;
• Continue to host or facilitate SLOAC professional development workshops in departmental, division, and campus-wide settings:
• Created an assessment flowchart and checklist for faculty and staff to track their progress on the SLOAC;
• Continue to collaborate with the Curriculum Committee to integrate SLOs and assessment into program review:
• SLOs on course outlines,
• a spreadsheet to track which courses have SLOs, assessment plans, completed assessments,
• specific questions that address outcomes and assessment in the program review instrument,
• a matrix to align courses with institutional outcomes;
• Drafted and adopted degree level outcomes (a.k.a. ISLOs), after soliciting campus feedback;
• Initiated research on and discussion of how to assess ISLOs:
• Working in coordination with the BSI (Basic Skills Initiative), reviewed and administered the CCSSE (Community College Survey of Student Engagement) as one means to assess ISLOs;
• Created an annual reporting template for assessment results that was tentatively approved by the Curriculum Committee but is presently submitted to the Office of Research and Planning;
• Reviewed database programs to document our assessment efforts, resulting in the District purchasing TracDat;
• Secured a personnel and financial commitment from the campus leadership to implement the initiative.

The list doesn’t even begin to reveal the thoughtful, intense deliberations that informed their eventual implementation. Thus we were quite pleased with the accreditation visiting team commending us on our SLOAC infrastructure (and recommending that we giddy-up with the actual assessment—no surprise there).

It’s also been a pleasure sharing what works and what doesn’t, as statewide SLOAC leadership has afforded me multiple opportunities. According to Eric Weiner (2008) in The Geography of Bliss (which I highly recommend), we derive pure joy from helping others. We definitely see this principle at work in SLOAC circles. My campus could not have moved forward without the assistance and input from SLOAC pioneers Janet Fulks and Marcy Alancraig, among others. In appreciation, I’ve enjoyed being able to reciprocate in kind, presenting at venues such as the Strengthening Student Success conference and the Academic Senate Accreditation Institute. I’ve also learned a great deal from the multiple presenters who so generously share their processes and insights.

As an educator firmly committed to access and equity, I am eager to put into practice a reflective methodology whose purpose is to increase student success. The SLOAC has enabled us to explore the meaning and implications of data, and to craft and implement a response that draws on our campus’ resources and expertise and is best suited for our student population. As much as I appreciate this recognition, I look forward to passing it on next year to one of the many thoughtful, inspiring leaders in the California Community College assessment movement. Let’s keep the ball rolling!

Solano College (Fairfield)

No report.

Labels: Region_2

Kate Pluta of Bakersfield College

Bakersfield College

SLOs and Assessment: The department is working on its third-semester review of English 1a SLOs and assessment of the research paper rubric.

General Update: BC no longer uses an essay for placement. It relies on COMPASS and multiple measures. The department has revised its department final for English 50 (formerly English 1).

Gloria Dumler and David Moton co-edited their new text Navigating America: Information Competency and Research for the Twenty-First Century, published in March 2009.

The department held its first Meet & Greet for English Majors in the spring of 2009; Cindy Hubble is helping set up an English Majors Club.

Retirement: Dr. Nancy Edwards retired after forty years of service.

New hires: Wesley Sims was hired for fall of 2009 in a tenure-track position. Wes just completed his doctorate, defending his dissertation this summer. Neal Stanifer was hired on a one-year temporary position.

Cerro Coso Community College

The communications department is working to add the "learning and self-efficacy skills" recommended by the Basic Skills Committee into all of its developmental composition and reading courses. We will have these added to all course outlines by the end of this semester. We are also working on offering ESL courses in the Fall of 2010. As a department, we agree that we are behind where we need to be regarding ESL and that offering these courses is essential to our ESL community members. We have faculty attending ESL conferences and meeting with ESL departments at other institutions in order to gain information and improve our own course offerings.

Labels: Region_5

Corinna Evett, Santiago Canyon College
ECCTYC Report for Region VIII: South Los Angeles and Orange County
Fall 2009 Board Meeting in Pasadena, CA

Santiago Canyon College:

As many across the state, our college, including our department, has had a few blows as a result of the dismal statewide budget situation. First, we have had to cut back our class offerings, which has proven detrimental to our adjunct faculty. In addition, we have lost the LHE funding for our Honors Coordinator as well as a portion of LHE for our Writing Center Coordinator. The most difficult thing has been watching friends lose their jobs and/or having to change positions and move from our campus to either the district or to our sister college. We are also facing a difficulty with our Library times and resources as a result of the budget situation. It seems that we might be losing our Literary Reference Center, which will adversely affect our literature students. Likewise, as we’ve lost staff and funding, the library hours have drastically diminished, which makes it difficult for instructors to schedule classroom bibliographic instruction for morning and evening classes as well as for students to utilize library services.

Despite the budget difficulties, we are still doing our best to meet the needs of our students and maintain a comprehensive English program. We have been able to fill all of our literature offerings as well as all of the classes in our writing class sequence this semester.

In regards to SLOs, we have completed our first round of SLO assessments in spring 2009. The assessment process has proven instructive: it has caused us to reconsider our SLOs as well as the assessment tools/models that we’ve chosen to use to determine student success. We have discovered that although we have seen moderate to clear student success, some of the questions may be flawed in that we may be asking students to utilize a skill other than the skill set forth in our SLO for which we are assessing. This semester, we have implemented a pre and post assessment model as well as reconsidering the questions that we’re asking, and we’ll see if they provide any difference in measuring student success.

Also, we continue to innovate our Writing Center (WC). This semester, we have incorporated a customized workbook and a My Writing Lab component into the WC curriculum. Thus far, the addition of group work, practice exercises and writing assignments have proven fruitful for students.

Our department continues to participate in Basic Skills Initiative advancement by participating on a number of BSI committees. We have participated in leading and attending a number of Best Practices Seminars, Writing Center Evaluation Committees, and Mentor Programs for students and faculty. We have also participated in a number of norming sessions with the ACE and English faculty members. The data collected at the norming sessions was shared with the Counseling department, which assisted counselors with student placement.

Our department plays a large role in our campus’ Learning Community program. Many of our classes are linked with other disciplines, which continues to assist students and create a deeper sense of community that crosses disciplines.

Keeping community building in mind, we are thinking about ways to improve adjunct faculty participation in the department. Especially during this time when so many adjunct faculty members are losing their classes/jobs, as a department, we want to communicate our level of concern and appreciation for adjunct faculty. Therefore, we are considering a mentor program for tenured faculty to reach out to adjunct faculty more as well as better ways to communicate department happenings and needs to our adjunct faculty such as re-implementing our department newsletter and monthly updates.

Golden West College:

Dibakar Barua provided the following information:

The English faculty plays a pivotal role in the advancement of the basic skills initiative at Golden West College. Our department has two basic skills lead faculty members. They are responsible for working with respective departments to increase campus-wide awareness of basic skills students and their needs. In this role, the lead faculty planned and implemented a workshop series related to effective teaching strategies and this semester they will offer an additional workshop on technology. The spring workshop was widely attended by full-time and part-time faculty. Workshop evaluations were also overwhelmingly positive. In addition to the support provided by lead faculty, our department has completed a course wide assessment for English 009, Developmental Reading and Writing, and is working on a similar assessment for English 010, Reading and Writing Essentials. This assessment will be used to tailor curriculum and improve student learning. Also in English 010, a valuable learning community has been established linking this intermediate course to counseling. Our English department is committed to collaborative learning efforts and we are looking into future pairings. Moreover, the sense of community fostered by learning communities will advance the success of basic skills students. Lastly, the English department will host a faculty retreat that focuses on basic skills, student equity and academic accessibility for students with learning disabilities. This retreat will inform an ongoing study focused on student equity and disproportionate impact.

Our department was among the first on campus to establish viable Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs), and we are currently working on developing and implementing methods of assessment, tracking and analyzing data using the five-column model, and assisting other departments on campus with their efforts in this area. In addition to recently updating the SLOs for all of our courses, our Content Review subcommittee is revising the outlines for each of the four composition courses to reflect the language and intent of SLOs rather than course objectives. Last year, we began including SLO assessment in an exit exam for our entry-level composition course, and we are now expanding that effort to cover all sections of our pre-transfer level courses, as well as one level of ESL. We are tracking the data we have collected in eLumen; we are employing this information to make instructional improvements and reflect our dedication to student success. Several of our department members are also using their knowledge of SLOs and related assessment techniques to assist others on campus through teaching and assessment-related workshops. English faculty support SLOs not only in our own courses, but we are also extremely active on campus committees such as Institutional Effectiveness, Academic Senate, Student Success, and Basic Skills – Lead Faculty.

Saddleback College: Long Beach City College:

No Response No Response

El Camino College: Cerritos College:

No Response No Response.

Coastline Community College: Cypress College:

No Response. No Response.

Fullerton College: Irvine Valley College:

No Response. No Response.

Marymount College: Orange Coast College:

No Response. No Response.

Santa Ana College:

No Response.

Labels: Region_8

Sravani Banerjee

Evergreen Valley College
Articulate September 21-26: Evergreen Valley College celebrated a week-long festival of global arts and cultures to commemorate the opening of our new Theater Arts Complex. The presenters, from diverse backgrounds and a variety of disciplines, included renowned authors, performers, musicians and composers, such as Cherie Moraga, Sandip Roy, and Aimee Pham.
Achieving the Dream initiative: Evergreen Valley College has been invited to join this national initiative:
“Achieving the Dream’s student-centered model of institutional improvement is focused on creating a culture of evidence in which data and inquiry drive broad-based institutional efforts to close achievement gaps and improve student outcomes overall.”

Currently, we have 25 classified professionals, administrators, faculty and students serving on the core and data teams. These teams will use the academic year to analyze disaggregated data to identify gaps in student achievement and develop an action plan to improve outcomes for students. The goal is to identify three to five priority areas for improving student success and have these priorities integrated into our campus-wide strategic initiatives. The teams will also create a four-year plan to reduce the achievement gaps our students are experiencing.

Campus Technology: EVC is transitioning from Blackboard to Moodle for course management systems by next semester and Windows XP to Windows 7 in the next 18 months

Accreditation: The report is in progress with the first draft due next week.

Curriculum Issues: Curriculum separation between Evergreen Valley College and San Jose City College is being discussed and researched for its impact on students.

Budget Issues:

• The General Fund Revenue has been reduced by $2.2 million and translated by the State Chancellor’s Office into a 3.39% Workload Reduction (think of this as negative growth). This means that we now have a permanent lower funded base. The colleges will be working hard to determine the most effective way to approach this reduction.
• The Categorical Programs revenues have had revenues reduced by an initial estimate of 16-32% depending on the program. The large programs are DSPS, EOPS, CalWORKS all at 16% and Matriculation at 32%. These initial amounts assumed the same percentage, as backfill from the federal American Recovery and Re-Investment Act and this is the basis for our adopted budget. However we have just learned that the federal backfill will only by about half of what was expected.
• The state is already predicting that revenues will come up short for the budget that was just passed. In anticipation, we have budgeted a reduction of resources of close to $1 million.
• In 2008-09, after mid-year reductions, the district still had a structural deficit (when ongoing expenditures are greater than ongoing revenues) of almost one million dollars. To address this structural deficit in 2009-10 we have budgeted an annualized reduction of $500,000 in the medical benefit category. The Benefits Committee will be working this fall to identify ways that this target can be met effective January 1, 2010.

Latina Heritage Month: Our celebration of Latina Heritage month included presentations by author Reyna Grande, Dr. David Lopez, president of National Hispanic University, Latin Dance fundraisers, and a writing contest.

We also celebrated 40 Years of the Chicano Movement in San José, with speakers such as Sophia Mendoza who is featured in Nanette Regua & Arturo Villarreal’s book, Mexicans in San José. The event focused on community-based organizing which has played a profound role in empowering San Josés’ diverse Latino community. Rallying around issues of quality education, police brutality, immigrant and labor rights, groups have employed militancy, culture and history as key organizing tools. Newer generations have also worked to strengthen the voices of women and the LGBT community.

Disabilty Awareness Month: Events included: Suicide Prevention presentation by Mary and Victor Ojakian; “Passion = Perseverance: Why Having a Career Plan Makes College Easier”; Interactive discussion presented by Jan Johnston-Tyler, a neurodiversity counselor and author; California State Assembly member Jim Beall presenting on Disability rights.

Labels: Region_3

Region I (Northern California)
Editor: Kyra Mello, Associate Professor of English; Writing Language Development Center; Yuba College; ECCTYC, Region I Co-Director
Butte College
Contributor(s): No response

College of the Redwoods 
Contributor(s): No response

College of the Redwoods—Del Norte 
Contributor(s): No response

College of the Siskiyous 
Contributor(s): Steve Reynolds, Chair, Language Arts Department; Professor of English; Carly Furry, Part-time instructor and Writing Lab instructor

The faculty of the College of the Siskiyous reported they continue to implement projects and improvements for BSI and update course outlines of record to include well-written SLOs. In addition, the faculty continue to implement both appropriate methods of instruction and appropriate methods of assessment that are directly aligned to the SLOs.

They further report that very few curricular changes have occurred in Language Arts as a result of BSI funding though they have instituted several programs that impact Language Arts students. They have instituted a two-week Summer Bridge program prior to the start of the fall semester, which includes math and English refresher courses for under-prepared students (the primary target population has been athletes who arrive to college before the start of the semester). In addition, another BSI project that has affected Language Arts is a learning community that pairs one section of one-level below transfer composition with a college reading course. The other BSI Language Arts project has been to add an instructional assistant to the course which is two-levels below transfer composition. Data for these new programs is forthcoming.

Colleges of the Siskiyous also reported changes in the running of their Writing Lab including procedures for working with students and mechanisms for tracking students’ progress and achievement of learning outcomes. Budget cuts have significantly impacted Language Arts labs. They have experienced cuts to hours and layoffs in both the reading and writing labs. The faculty and staff have been told to expect additional cuts to programs. Contributors conveyed great concern about the future of supplemental instruction in writing at College of the SIskiyous.

Feather River College
Contributor(s): No Response
Lassen College

Lassen College made few changes to curriculum. The faculty reported the addition of a writing lab course to support basic skills writing courses. This semester (Fall 2009) is the first time it is being offered. BSI projects are in progress, but Lassen College reports that it's too early to look at outcomes.


Contributor(s): No Response

Shasta College

Shasta College reports that the loss of full-time faculty devoted to transfer-level courses and cutbacks in literature offerings has been challenging. The faculty also reported concern about Basic Skills faculty smoothly integrating with the English Department. Despite these challenges and budget shortfalls, Shasta College reports that the department's full-time faculty continues to operate at a high level of proficiency.

Shasta College’s Language Arts department has gone through significant division restructuring and expansion of distance learning. Organizing a coherent department with several branch campuses and multiple deans continues to pose challenges.

Woodland College
Contributor(s): Kevin Ferns, Professor of English; ECCTYC Region I Co-Director

The faculty of Woodland College report they are considering revamping their English placement exam. The faculty at Woodland College would like to know more about BSI funded projects and programs and writing-center development at other institutions. The writing center is a particularly important issue because Woodland College is experiencing potential cutbacks due to budget. The faculty would also like to know how other departments are grappling with loss of staff, faculty, and resources.

Yuba College
Contributor(s): Kyra Mello, Associate Professor of English; Coordinator, Writing Language Development Center; ECCTYC Region I Co-Director; Francesca Hulin, Professor of ESL/VESL; Kelly Fredricks, Associate Faculty of English

The most significant program update at Yuba College is the implementation of the Writing Language Development Center (WLDC). Using BSI funds, English, ESL, and reading faculty lobbied and won support for a large-scale tutoring center. Previously Yuba College’s English tutoring services were part of the College Success Center (CSC). While significant improvement had been made to the program over the last three years, the service had long outgrown its space in the CSC. BSI funds supplied the money needed to move the service into its own space. BSI money is also the only source of funding for tutor payroll and supplies. The college has yet to institutionalize the program. The program continues to grow despite a lack of resources.

Yuba College has also made strides to improve the developmental writing classes. Using BSI funds, a team of nine English, ESL and reading faculty, including adjuncts, created an integrated reading/writing curriculum in an attempt to meet the requirements of both developmental 110B (three levels below transfer) reading and writing courses. A curriculum was produced but due to the late marketing, the class did not make enrollment. However, as a result of that project, a collaboration between an English and ESL professor was made to take portions of that curriculum to pilot in a mutual ESL and English 110B writing courses. The outcome of the first semester pilot was students producing a higher caliber of writing than had been seen in the past. While adjustments to this curriculum still had to be made the following summer, the pilot continues and data will be tracked of students involved in these sections down the road. This semester an ESL and English professor continue to pilot the newest, revised version of the integrated 110B curriculum.

In addition, Yuba College has initiated a learning community program. The English department is currently the foundation of this program; English instructors are involved in all links. Learning communities have been formed between Sociology and English 51 (one level below transfer), as well as a community between Chicano History and English 105 (two levels below transfer). Since these communities are in their first trials this semester (Fall 2009), comments concerning their outcome are unknown at this time.

The budget crisis seems to have hit Yuba College harder than our neighbors with news, at the time of this writing, of summer school being cancelled, our satellite branch at Beale Air Force Base is facing possible closure, numerous sections of courses are being slashed from all departments in the Language and Arts division, and 35 adjuncts are being laid off district-wide. We are told another round of cuts is to be expected.

Despite the current economic woes at Yuba College, faculty report continued efforts to improve programs. Faculty would like to work to develop the future relationship between reading as a discipline and writing as a discipline and even more collaboration between the ESL and English faculty with the possibility of creating an ESL-track all the way to transfer.
Faculty in Region I have suggested the following topics and speakers for future ECCTYC presentations and conference themes:

• Creative Writing and the Composition Classroom: Crossovers and Infusions.
• Dr. Dana Ferris to present on Generation 1.5 and ESL writing issues including defining this population and strategies to address their distinct writing needs.
• Dr. Zadina to present on brain research and student learning.
• Molly Emmons (Butte College) to present on learning communities.
• Situated learning
• Faculty inquiry projects concerning writing assignment prompts and assessments.
• Teaching reading strategies to use with writing.

Labels: Region_1

Northern California – Region 1

Butte College, Clear Lake College, College of Redwoods, College of the Siskiyous, Feather River College, Lassen College, Mendocino College, Shasta College, Woodland College, Yuba College

San Francisco Bay – Region 2

Chabot College, City College of San Francisco, College of Alameda, College of Marin/Indian Valley, College of San Mateo, Contra Costa College, Diablo Valley College, Laney College, Las Positas College, Los Medanos College, Merritt College, Napa Valley College, Ohlone College, Santa Rosa College, Skyline College, Solano College, Vista College

San Francisco South Bay & Monterey – Region 3

Cabrillo College, Canada College, DeAnza College, Evergreen College, Foothill College, Gavilan College, Hartnell College, Mission College, Monterey Peninsula College, San Jose City College, West Valley College

North Valley – Region 4

American River College, Columbia College, Cosumnes River College, Deep Springs College (private), Humphreys College (private), Lake Tahoe College, Merced College, Modesto Junior College, Sacramento City College, San Joaquin Delta College, Sierra College

South Valley – Region 5

Bakersfield College, Cerro Coso Community College, College of the Sequoias, Fresno City College, Porterville College, Reedley College, Taft College, West Hills College Coalinga, West Hills College Lemoore

Central Coast – Region 6

Allan Hancock College, Cuesta College, Moorpark College, Oxnard Community College, Santa Barbara City College, Ventura College

North Los Angeles – Region 7

Antelope Valley College, Citrus College, College of the Canyons, Don Bosco Technical Institute (private), East Los Angeles College, Glendale College, L.A. Harbor College, L.A. City College, L.A. Mission College, L.A. Pierce College, L.A. Southwest College, L.A. Trade-Technical College, L.A. Valley College, Mt. St. Mary’s, Doheny (private), Pasadena City College, Rio Hondo College, Santa Monica City College, West Los Angeles College

South Los Angeles & Orange County – Region 8

Cerritos College, Coastline College, Compton College, Cypress College, El Camino College, Fullerton College, Golden West College, Irvine Valley College, Long Beach City College, Marymount Palos Verdes (private), Orange Coast College, Sadivleback College, Santa Ana College, Santiago Canyon College

San Bernardino – Region 9

Barstow College, Chaffey College, College of the Desert, Copper Mountain College, Crafton Hills College, Mt. San Antonio College, Mt. San Jacinto College, Mt. San Jacinto College-Menifee, Palo Verde College, Riverside Community College, San Bernardino Valley College, Victor Valley College

San Diego – Region 10

Cuyamaca College, Grossmont College, Imperial Valley College, MiraCosta College, Palomar College, San Diego City College, San Diego Mesa College, San Diego Miramar College, Southwestern College

Labels: Region_1, Region_10, Region_2, Region_3, Region_4, Region_5, Region_6, Region_7, Region_8, Region_9

The following is a small sampling of the types of presentations that you can expect to attend at the ECCTYC 2009: Pathways to Community conference:

• “Teaching in a Learning Community or What in the Hell Were We Thinking When We Cooked This Up?”
• “Community Through Comics”
• “Creative Ideas to Help Basic Skills Students Succeed in Composition Classrooms”
• “Spoken Word Poetry: Making Artful Connections Between Writing, Speaking, Reading, and Listening”
• “To Dumb Down or Not to Dumb Down? Issues in Teaching Shakespeare in the Composition Classroom”
• “Creating Community Across the Disciplines: Introduction to Literature meets African American History”
• “Between Tony the Tiger and Simon Cowell: Moving Peer Response Beyond ‘It’s Gr-r-r-eat’ but Stopping Before ‘It Sucks’”
• “Reaching All Learning Styles In On-Line and Hybrid Courses”
• “Facebook and the Classroom: Productive Identities and Social Bonding in Nonymous Online Environments”
• “Tips on Getting Hired in a Community College: A Panel Discussion on Hiring”
• "Revisiting Metacognition: Students Think about Thinking in Developmental and Transfer-Level Composition Classes"
• "A Conversation with Andrew Lam"

As you can see, October's conference proves to be a most enjoyable event, so be sure to register soon! See you in Pasadena, Oct. 22-24!

Labels: Conferences, ECCTYC_Conference_2009

Region V South Valley South
By G.S. Enns, posted 22 April 2009

Building Bridges Conference: On Friday, 6 February 2009, Region V benefited from the nineteenth annual Building Bridges Conference held at the Four Point Sheraton in Bakersfield. The first retreat was held in 1990 as a retreat focused on improving articulation between Bakersfield College and CSU, Bakersfield. Through the years, the day-long conference has grown and now includes seven colleges. In addition to CSUB and BC, participants now include the English departments of Cerro Coso Community College, College of the Canyons, College of the Sequoias, Porterville College, and Taft College. This year’s breakout session topics covered important college teaching issues such as Basic Skills, Learning Communities, English as a Second Language, Technology in the Classroom, Responding to Papers, Teaching Research, Teaching Reading, Critical Thinking, Grammar/Usage, and Learning Disabilities. This year’s conference was supported by Allyn and Bacon/Longman, Bedford/St. Martin’s, Thomson, Houghton Mifflin, McGraw-Hill, and Prentice Hall. Visit the BBC website for more information.

Cerro Coso Community College: The Cerro Coso Community College English Department is considering moving to WriterPlacer, AccuPlacer’s writing assessment tool in order to place students. Currently, CC faculty score student placement essays holistically. The benefits of WriterPlacer are obvious: results are immediate, and much time is saved. However, some drawbacks exist: the prompts in WriterPlacer are not text-based and therefore do not test how well students can work with outside sources, which is a key distinguisher between placing students in Cerro Cos’s English 70 and placing them in 101.

Some CC English faculty attended TechEd 2009 in Ontario to learn about cutting edge education technology. Faculty found the following sessions particularly engaging: Camtasia Studio: Best Practices in Education; Snagit: What You Need to Know About Screen Capture and Editing; Jing: Simple, Quick and Free Visual Classroom Communications; PowerCounterPoint: How Working Memory and PowerPoint Can Work Together; Focused Discussion Groups That Engage the Online Learner (till next session); Authentic Learning in a Second Life; Beyond the Music: Educational Uses for iTunes U; Practices to Foster Informal Learning

Labels: Region_5

By Catherine M. Eagan, Las Positas College

The contacts list for Region II is updated as of early April, 2009. All constituents have been informed of the upcoming Pasadena conference, featured speakers, and the proposal due date. (I provided them with a flyer and proposal form.) They were encouraged to get their dues in and receive the newest issue of inside english as well.

BERKELY CITY COLLEGE (formerly Vista College, Berkeley)

Berkeley City would like guidance on how English departments and their colleges are integrating program review into their budgeting processes and how they are integrating SLOs into program review.

CHABOT COLLEGE (Hayward)

Chabot’s English department is busy with their Hewlett Grant and the Faculty Inquiry Network. Around 20 colleges are participants. Colleges in our region who are participating include the College of Alameda, Berkeley City College, Laney College, Las Positas College, Los Medanos College, and Skyline College. Each college’s projects will be described below.

Chabot is continuing work on TLC—“The Learning Connection,” which seeks to bring together multiple student support services on campus, and the Center for Teaching and Learning, which coordinates faculty inquiry groups (FIGs), BSI research projects, training in instructional technology, and resources generally. The CTL is pledging to help faculty with professional development by “partnering with Institutional Research, Staff Development, Program Review, and the Library in order to ask the right questions and provide access to information related to the questions.” See http://www.chabotcollege.edu/learningconnection/ctl/. As I said in my last report, the Center has been put off to 2016 due to budget constraints, but it is an exciting initiative.

CITY COLLEGE OF SAN FRANCISCO (SF)

No report.

COLLEGE OF ALAMEDA (Alameda)

College of Alameda is participating in the FIN. Their Diesel Mechanics program is joining with basic skills English, math, and ESL faculty to discover whether the embedding of basic skills curricula into CTE courses will improve student success.

COLLEGE OF MARIN/INDIAN VALLEY (Novato)

No report.

COLLEGE OF SAN MATEO (San Mateo)

No report.

CONTRA COSTA COLLEGE (San Pablo)

No report.

DIABLO VALLEY COLLEGE (Pleasant Hill)

Report coming from John Thomas, ECCTYC Treasurer.

LANEY COLLEGE (Oakland)

Laney is participating in the FIN. They are investigating their bilingual Wood Technology/ESL program (called Carpentería Fina) to document the value of contextualized learning.

LAS POSITAS COLLEGE (Livermore)

LPC is participating in the FIN. They are studying their basic skills program, both the accelerated course and the two-semester course, with the help of student co-inquirers and students in the Mass Communication program, who are working on a film documenting students’ experience of our program.

We continue to improve our integrated reading and writing curriculum, and are now writing basic skills modules based on the CSU Expository Reading and Writing curriculum but using our own readings and combining the modules with other assignments related to grammar, citation, and group research. Our College Foundation Semester, a learning community for at-risk students with a small cohort of students, will begin its fourth semester. It will have two cohorts for the first time in the fall. CFS is excited to report that though at least half of their students are learning disabled, their success rates are higher than students who “mainstream” and enroll in stand-alone basic skills English, math, CIS, and study skills. (This learning community is based on Cabrillo College’s Digital Bridge Academy.)

Our English 1A course is still making use of a “TBA” lab that students attend in the Integrated Learning Center, staffed by faculty in programs who also have a “TBA” lab. Unfortunately, budget cuts are affecting the amount of hours the center can be open. In addition, the state has handed down new guidelines for how TBA hours must operate that we are struggling with. Unlike Skyline and some other places, we have had students coming to a center that has faculty line-of-sight, which is good, but sometimes students come into the lab when no English faculty are present. This will not be allowed under the new guidelines, but since TBAs are only funded 1 hour of faculty staffing per course, it becomes very difficult to staff a facility where students can come to a TBA hour—in other words, it offers very little flexibility for the student. In addition, students will have to choose a day and time that they will consistently attend the lab for one hour per week, and they will have to submit that time in writing to their instructor at the beginning of the semester. This also takes away flexibility for students whose work hours change from week to week.

We finally have a basic skills coordinator and lead faculty member (in sociology), so that is good. We are still struggling to access basic skills money and institutionalize basic skills initiatives and professional development.

We are still curious to learn how other colleges are doing with the SLO process and how they are integrating their adjunct faculty into that process. We are interested to learn how colleges are meeting ACCJC’s demand that SLOs be on the course outline. LPC’s Academic Senate decided long ago that SLOs should be more dynamic and that faculty should not have to go through a course outline revision when the SLOs changed.

LOS MEDANOS COLLEGE (Pittsburg)

Los Medanos has three different FIN teams. The English team is working with African-American students to look at how the Umoja model might improve African-American student success in English 70, an integrated reading and writing course three levels below transfer. The Math/Puente/Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching team is creating an “open-entry, one-semester accelerated course that prepares students for transfer-level Statistics,” as compared to the standard “three- to four-semester developmental path toward Calculus.” The course will be included in the Puente Learning Community. The third team is working collaboratively with San Diego City College’s Umoja program to improve African-American retention in basic skills math.

MERRITT COLLEGE (Oakland)

No report.

NAPA VALLEY COLLEGE (Napa)

No report.

OHLONE COLLEGE (Fremont)

Ohlone is also struggling with the new TBA hour guidelines. They are thinking of moving the TBA hours for their English courses online.

SANTA ROSA COLLEGE (Santa Rosa)

The CTE dean at Santa Rosa is planning to work with the English department to create a contextualized English curriculum for CTE students. They are looking for examples of best practices at other community colleges. I have referred them to the College of Alameda’s FIN team, but they would appreciate more feedback—contact Stephanie Thompson at sthompson@santarosa.edu.

SKYLINE COLLEGE (San Bruno)

Skyline College has approved release time for three BSI coordinators—two faculty and one counseling faculty, consisting of Karen Wong (English instructor); Jacquie Escobar (counselor); and Soodi Zamani (math instructor). They assumed their posts in Fall 2008; this semester, the counselor will receive 20% release time to take the lead in Student Services components; the math instructor will receive 20% to take the lead in coordinating learning communities; and the English instructor, Karen Wong (also the SLOAC coordinator!), will receive 60% to be the overall coordinator. To find out more about Skyline’s BSI, access their website at http://www.skylinecollege.edu/collegesuccess/.

Skyline is also reevaluating its TBA lab hour.

SOLANO COLLEGE (Fairfield)

No report.

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