Proposals for 2009-2010

In an effort to be proactive and ahead of state-wide timelines for Action Plans and Expenditure Planning, the Basic Skills Committee decided to accept proposals for 2009-2010 in Spring 2009 so that when we come back in August, we are prepared to implement immedately. All documents relating to the proposals can be found here.

The Proposal Deliberation Timeline is in that wiki folder, too.

The rubric for deliberating proposals specifies the necessity for analytics, as well as connections to both the Educational Master Plan and the Student Equity Plan.

On-going Activites proposals for 2009-2010:

• Campus-wide Professional Development
• Humanities Professional Development
• Information Competency Online LR10 LC augment
• Noncredit Success Workshops
• Pathways to Success Program
  
• Student-Athlete Study Skills Center
  
• Supplemental Instruction
• Textbooks
  
• Umoja Program Scholars (UPS) and College Success Institute II

New Activities proposals for 2009-2010:

• Math ALEKS
• Math Online Evening MAC
• Math Self-Assessment Videos
• Speech-to-Text Initiative

Assessment Data

Fall 2008 Assessment Data for English, Reading, Math -- Elementary Algebra, and Math -- Arithmetic.

Under the leadership of Corrine Kirkbride, the Math department is working on a Math Self-Assessment Website for our students so that they will be able to accurately self-assess themselves into the appropriate math course.

English Department Discussion Forum

We've had a Boardster.com forum up for a couple of years for the department to conduct asynchronous discussions of various teaching, course, and program issues. Given how high our teaching loads and service commitments are, it's been a good way to keep us in touch with each other.

Student-Athlete Study Skills Center

The Solano College Student-Athlete Study Skills Center opened in the 400 Building in the Spring of 2009. Currently students using the Center are enrolled in Tutoring 500, which is a no-fee, no-credit class. Students will be tracked based on their enrollment in this class. The staffing is made up of a supplemental instructor who is also an assistant coach. The Center is open M-TH 12-3 and 4:30-6 and Fridays 12-2:00.

Students can use the Center for quiet directed study or can use the supplemental instructor to get a referral to specific tutoring at our Tutoring Center, our Math Success Center, or our Math Activities Center. The Center has ten laptop computers which students can use while there. We are hopeful that the S-ASSC will begin offering special sessions in conjunction with the Success Center on selected study skills topics, such as note-taking, test-taking, math anxiety, etc. in the near future.

After the Spring 2009 semester grades are available, the Tutoring 500 grades will be analyzed to see what the success rate was of each student, along with any trends detectable in their GPA or units completed. Other statistics may be used with the assistance of our Institutional Researcher, Rob Simas.

Success Workshops -- Spring 2009

Plans have begun to create a "one-stop" Success Center to support students outside of the classroom. The Success Center would house peer tutoring, supplemental instruction, English activity and drop-in labs, and a space for workshops on a variety of topics, including MLA citations, financial aid, textbook reading strategies, time management, preparation for the Composition Mastery Exam, and Learning Resources 10. The Success Center is seen as one of two really key components in our overall re-design, the other being the Pathways to Success First and Second Semester Experience Program. Here is a link to the overall structure of our re-design.

Here is a link to the Spring 2009 schedule of LR10 workshops, which are open to anyone working on research, not just the students enrolled in the English 1/LR 10 sections.

Here is a link to a survey about what workshops faculty, staff, and managers would like to see offered, and here is a link to the preliminary analysis from that survey.

A Non Credit Working Group has been created to address a number of issues to help make these workshops a reality and allow for the collection of Non Credit and Non Credit Enhanced funding for them. Here is where information about this group's activities can be found.

Professional Development & Resources

Basic Skills Handbook

Carnegie Foundation resources for professional development

Links to other groups working on student success

Searchable state-wide BSI effective practices database

State-wide BSI resources for professional development

State-wide BSI publications

The College Success Institute: Summer Bridge to Success

Here are files pertaining to CSI Cohort II for Summer 2009 and an analysis of the FTES generated by Cohort I.

The first iteration of the our summer bridge program, called The College Success Institute, was run at the Vallejo Center in June and July 2008. Counselor/Instructor Brenda Tucker, Counselor/Instructor Jocelyn Mouton, and English Instructor Patrick Vogelpohl made this a tremendous success. CSI started with 25 students, and it finished with 24. 19 of those 24 went on to enroll at an institution of higher education, 17 of them at Solano College--adding up to a total of 16+ FTES. What makes these numbers truly remarkable is that the students selected for CSI are those who had very little if any belief in or the opportunity to attend college.

Here is Pat's introduction to the program:


Here is a link to essays which the students wrote.

Below are video interviews with the participants. I think you will find their stories inspring, giving a look into the transformative power of summer bridge and higher education: