Over the past two years, GSCC worked with 25 of the country’s most effective professors teaching remediation at community colleges across the country, gathering information about their classroom methods of success. Using innovative technology and a set of powerful digital tools created by GSCC, faculty examined and analyzed their personal teaching patterns. GSCC faculty also connected and worked with each other to create more engaging, inspiring and effective classrooms by testing and adapting new tactics that improve student outcomes. GSCC has analyzed its data to identify classroom practices most commonly used by great teachers and found that it’s not just what you teach, it’s how you teach it.

At a time when an educated workforce is more important than ever before, the time for a bold new look at college – particularly in remedial classrooms – is now. This generous grant from BMGF will enable GSCC to continue our important work with faculty across the country, using new tactics and technology to improve our nation’s graduation rates,” said Dr. Gail O. Mellow, President of LaGuardia Community College, Co-Principal Investigator GSCC.

The current award will allow GSCC to launch a second cohort of full time and adjunct faculty who teach remedial mathematics or English, to be recruited from community colleges across the country, as well as to refine GSCC’s innovative online tools. A call for the faculty participants will be issued in late January, 2012 for a fall semester launch.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation award will also fund the development of a business plan for an online Research & Development Network that will capitalize on the success of the GSCC. The Research & Development Network will be a linked system that can support and supplement research in developmental education by providing a ready set of faculty to explore and test activities, curriculum, online tools, etc., that are being developed by other projects—in real time in actual classrooms.

“Our paradigm-shifting methods help faculty re-examine their own practices, test and adapt methods most appropriate to their own challenges and connect with fellow educators for a largernetwork of support and ideas. This funding will allow GSCC to bring this innovative approach to community colleges across the country in order to bring better outcomes to the students who need it most,” said Dr. Diana D. Woolis, Founding Partner, Knowledge in the Public Interest, Co-Principal Investigator GSCC.

For information about Global Skills for College Completion, please contact Dr. Marisa Klages, Project Director, mklages@lagcc.cuny.edu , 718-482-5677.
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LaGuardia Community College located in Long Island City, Queens, was founded in 1971 as a bold experiment in opening the doors of higher education to all, and proudly carries forward that legacy today. LaGuardia educates students through over 50 degree, certificate and continuing education programs, providing an inspiring place for students to achieve their dreams. Upon graduation, LaGuardia students’ lives are transformed as family income increases 17%, and students transfer to four-year colleges at three times the national average. Part of the City University of New York (CUNY), LaGuardia is a nationally recognized leader among community colleges for its boundary-breaking success educating underserved students. At LaGuardia we imagine new ideas, create new curriculum and pioneer programs to make our community and our country stronger. http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/home/

Knowledge in the Public Interest, founded in 2001, designs conversations that are transforming education. Through innovative uses of social media, KPI fosters powerful online collaborations focusing on educational practice and policy. KPI brings together education leaders, researchers,
practitioners, and other experts throughJams—one‐day, synchronous, moderated online exchanges;eCommunities—structured, facilitated virtual working groups that achieve specific outcomes over set timeframes; and Networks**—ongoing interactions of diverse participants addressing issues of shared concern. http://www.kpublic.com/

Contact us if you are interested in joining the effort.

We warmly congratulate Bronte.

Faculty noted the benefit they gained from being a member of a community of practice comprised of colleagues from around the country and from networking with a wider group of developmental educators. They described how GSCC changed their teaching, particularly in the case of enhancing their assessment practices. For example, they learned to include more, short, low stakes assessments throughout the semester, rather than waiting until the end to find out if students have mastered skills.

A challenge, at least in the beginning, was to understand the process and the goals of the project, especially as these evolved organically as the semesters progressed. One survey respondent pinpointed the way GSCC is different from other professional development: “The hardest adjustment was to switch my thinking from ‘Am I teaching the right content/curriculum?’ to ‘How am I teaching the content?’ Everything else out there is curriculum/content focused. It took a long time to break me of that thinking.”

The survey asked for suggestions on what should be included for a future cohort. In response, faculty highlighted: sharing classroom practice, reflection, tagging with themes, the Pedagogy Circles, and peer review of work. Faculty found Pathfinder, the database of links to lessons and resources used in GSCC classrooms, to be a tool of growing value. Making efforts to ensure that GSCC is affordable for faculty who would like to take advantage of this new model ranked high. In particular, this would allow adjunct faculty, who do not have access to professional development funds, to be involved in the process.

In the end, both the results of the survey and the reflections in the Choice Event confirmed the success of GSCC.

Here are some quotes from faculty:

“Having all of these amazing colleagues all over the country to commiserate over the trials and tribulations of developmental education has been one of the most valuable parts of my GSCC experience.”

“Practice without assessment is empty. What GSCC did for me was help me refocus my attention on this part of the learning cycle…”

“[Pathfinder] gave me a brand new lesson I have never used before and is helping [me] get ideas for how to show more Caring and Tailored instruction, my primary themes to work on this semester…”

“[GSCC] was invigorating, thought provoking, reflective, encouraging, inspiring, challenging, tiring at times, but always promising for improved student achievement.”

Baseball has TONS of statistics kept every which way. What data elements can help refine our “seeing” pedagogical patterns so we can provide faculty improvement opportunities as precisely as Billy Bean did for the Oakland A’s?

Here are some examples of of how the GSCC faculty design team frame their appreciative-based coaching questions using themes and patterns to indicate strengths.

• What strengths did you see in the portfolio overall?
• Name these in terms of themes.
• Were these the same strengths that the featured faculty identified and tagged?
• Were these the ones that showed up in the preliminary patterns?

Suggested Readings
Appreciative Inquiry: Change at the Speed of Imagination (book)
By Jane Magruder Watkins and Bernard J. Mohr. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 2001

A Coaching Journey from Resilience and Well-being to Flourishing (article)
By Jacqueline Binkert & Ann L. Clancy
Appreciative Coaching, 2009

The Jam was a great success; people from across the spectrum and every level added their voices to Turning Around Failure.  In total, the Jam saw over 150 participants from more than half the country — 28 states plus Washington, DC. Of those, 60 active participants posted their thoughts. Almost 100 people jumped on in the first 90 minutes and excitement built quickly among the participants!

Here is some of what was discussed:

“We all know that better-funded institutions embed student supports into the entire experience. Life at a wealthy institution can be one big safety net–students themselves call it a ‘bubble world.’ When we know that the sky is not going to open and rain down gobs of money upon our community colleges, how do we pick and choose among the most important support services?” – Lara Couturier, Jobs for the Future (JFF)

“One other thing looming on the horizon is the cut to Pell Grants. If there is likely to be less money going around, are we going to cut the aid to each student or are we going to need to focus on specific sets of students where we think the payoff or the need is greatest? Expanding or keeping the same pool of persons in a program with less and less money is going to have everyone coming up short.“  – Thomas Nenon, Vice Provost for Assessment, University of Memphis

“The Legislative Budget Board here in Texas published a report on Predictors of Access and Success. It found that the single strongest financial aid predictor of success is receiving a work study award. This study was commissioned as Texas was considering adding new merit criteria to the state’s largest need-based grant program-TEXAS grants. It’s an interesting study that may be of interest.“  – Leslie Helmkamp, Center for Public Policy Priorities (Texas)

“Michigan has just revamped part of its funding policies for ABE programs. Instead of going to a single organization or institution, certain kinds of funds will go only to a regional consortium made up of ABE/GED providers including school systems and community-based organizations, a community college, a four year university, and the workforce investment board. The state has been divided into regions, and while no funds have yet been released under this system, it does appear to be the future for the state in literacy/ABE/GED education….I anticipate we will cut costs by non duplication of services, and we will modify our roles so that we, as a region, can become more efficient and coordinated, leading to serving more students more effectively without increasing costs. We will be able to refer students smoothly from one program to another, from adult ed to community college, and, since we will be funded as a group, there should be no competition for the students.“  – Linda Spoleman, Director of Instruction, Grand Rapids Community College (Michigan)

To learn more, please visit Getting Past Go.

The impetus for this Jam emerged from a Lumina Foundation Convening in late June where representatives from over 30 programs, research organizations, institutions and states, along with five other foundations met to discuss the need for developmental education reform.

Following up on that momentum, we are looking forward to a deep conversation among a diverse group of stakeholders working on developmental education from classroom practice to financial aid policy.

Nothing would make us happier than the voice of GSCC faculty and their colleagues, including Presidents, Deans, Counselors, State Legislators, Governor’s ed staff.

Join the Jam by clicking here to register.

In Webinars, faculty will be brought up to date on the grant and on the project’s data outcomes. The interim evaluation report from SRI, Seeing Pedagogy: Affordances of an Online Professional Development System for Individual Faculty Improvement, will be discussed in the Webinar on data outcomes. The report will be available on the website once it is finalized.

In the online community, faculty will take part in various activities where they will thoughtfully review their classroom practice from previous semesters. Activities will include faculty picking a notable lesson from last semester to identify the learning objectives , observing videos from past semesters that exemplify themes, and evaluating the materials they use to teach.

* How has GSCC changed what you do in the classroom?
* How has GSCC helped your students?

Our faculty made video responses! Here’s what Bronte Miller has to say.

Watch more GSCC faculty responses.
Trisha O’Conner, Delta College, Michigan
Katrina Nichols, Delta College
Richard Getso, South Texas College
Michelle Zollars, Patrick Henry Community College, Virginia
LaVache Scanlan, Kapi’olani Community College, Honolulu, Hawaii