LACCD Student Success Initiative

Steering Committee

 

April 19, 2006

 

Minutes

 

 

Attendees: David Beaulieu (ELAC), Gary Colombo (District), David Jordan, (LAMC), Daryl Kinney (LACC), Stanislav Levin (DO), Joy McCaslin (LAPC), Ed Pai (WLAC), George Prather (DO), Pat Siever (WLAC), Rebecca Tillberg (LACC), Maria Elena Yepes (ELAC)

 

Absent: John Clerx (District), Deborah Harrington (LAVC)Chini Johnson-Taylor (LATTC), Audre Levy (LASC), Leon Marzillier (DAS—LAVC), Susan McMurray (LAHC), Abbie Patterson (LAHC), Hector Plotquin (LACC), La Vergne Rosow (DAS—LAVC), Carlie Tronto (LAVC)

 

 

Minutes of 3/3//06

 

The minutes of the March 29th meeting of the SSI Steering Committee were reviewed and approved.

 

 

College Reports

 

East

 

East currently has two committees addressing issues related to student success—their Transfer and Basic Skills Committees. In addition, East reports that they will be hiring five new counselors, three of whom will be in new counseling positions. During the ensuing discussion, it was noted that new faculty should be introduced to student success “best practices” through carefully designed and comprehensive “New Faculty Academies.”

 

Mission

 

Mission has been so involved in accreditation preparations and other issues that the college has not been focusing directly on student success innovations during the past few months. They are, however, engaged in working on a group or “Wiki-“revision of their Faculty Handbook. They are also planning a college-wide retreat on educational planning and budgeting issues for later in April that should have direct implications for the college’s Student Success efforts.

 

Pierce

 

Pierce reports that they recently hosted a series of student focus groups and that the results were fairly “painful.” Counselors at Pierce have been engaged in developing Student Learning Outcomes for their unit, and find it challenging to specify exactly what students expect from their services. Pierce is also currently drafting a series of Student Success Goals that will be incorporated into their college-wide educational master plan.

 

 

 

City

 

City is focusing on spreading EOP&S practices across the entire college. The counseling department is offering shorter appointments and more “drop-in” counseling opportunities to increase the number of students served. The student success effort at City has also been merged with its Student Learning Outcomes committee. This group plans to focus its energies on activities that will impact student success outcomes over the next few months. In addition, City has decided to administer the Learning and Study Skills Inventory (LASSI) to begin assessing the strengths and weaknesses of their study skills instructional efforts. In order to increase persistence, they are also sending out fliers to remind currently enrolled students to re-enroll for the next term. Faculty will received these fliers as well, so that they can re-enforce the re-enrollment message in their classes. City is also initiating a peer mentoring program by sending out postcards to recruit potential mentors. Each participating student will receive $200 to contact 10 first-time students four times during the semester in order to encourage them in their studies and offer them information about campus resources.

 

Harbor

 

Harbor continues to develop its First-Year Experience Program for entering, first-time college students. They also conducted an extensive student satisfaction survey as part of their recent accreditation effort and got very positive results. Like other colleges, they feel they need to improve students’ access to and the quality of academic advising.

 

West

 

There’s continuing strong interest at West in the “Lifemap” system. However, it’s clear that West needs to broaden the student success initiative and to coordinate more with key campus constituencies, including key departments and faculty groups. The ACT program at West may serve as a model of successful student support. ACT offers students a comprehensive orientation with integrated follow-up enrollment and counseling services.

 

 

Final Preparations for the May 5th SSI Workshop

 

Committee members reviewed the final draft agenda for the May 5th Student Success Initiative workshop. Additional revisions and suggestions were solicited for the descriptions of the afternoon breakout sessions. Campus SSI Steering Committee representatives agreed to forward final lists of participants to G. Colombo by Friday, April 28.

 

 

CCSSEE/CCSEQ

 

R. Tillberg and G. Prather reported on the District Research Council’s further discussions of the CCSSEE and CCSEQ instruments. Concerns have been raised across the state about the validity of CCSSEE data and benchmarking, because it does not draw from a truly representative sample of community colleges nationwide. It was also noted that very large state systems, like SUNY, might have too much control over instrument design and content. The CCSSEE would also relatively expensive to administer District-wide, running between $84,000 and $110,000 per year. By contrast, the CCSEQ would cost about $57,000 per administration, while our own student survey costs roughly $25,000. However, one advantage of the CCSSEE is that it presents final results in a very “user-friendly” way for faculty and staff. It was agreed that a joint subcommittee of the SSI Steering Committee and the District Research Council would meet to discuss how the current District Student Survey instrument might be adapted to include more items addressing student engagement and student success. SSI volunteers include G. Colombo, Daryl Kinney, Pat Siever, and Deborah Harrington.

 

 

TRUCCS Presentation

 

D. Beaulieu informed SSI Steering Committee members that Dr. Linda Hagedorn would be in Los Angeles on Friday, May 19th to “close out” the “Transfer and Retention of Urban Community College Students” project (TRUCCS), and proposed that the Steering Committee hold its next meeting on that date. In many respects, TRUCCS provided the impetus that led directly to the Student Success Initiative effort, so Committee members agreed that this might be an appropriate venue for the TRUCCS debriefing. As a result, it was agreed to hold the meeting from 10 a.m. until noon in the District Board Room on that date. It was also suggested that the session be video taped, since at least two colleges will be hosting all day retreats that day. It was further suggested that grad students at USC currently working on projects related to LACCD campuses—and those who had participated in the TRUCCS project—be invited to participate as well.

 

 

Board Hearing on Assessment

 

G. Colombo informed the Committee that a special hearing on Assessment and Placement procedures had been scheduled for the next meeting of the Board of Trustees Committee on Planning and Student Success on Wednesday, May 10th. Committee members reviewed a list of questions on college assessment procedures that had been sent to VPs of Academic Affairs and Student Services. Committee members responded with suggestions for limiting the number of questions directed to the campuses. In addition, G. Prather offered to prepare data on assessment rates and student placement outcomes by the date of the meeting. It was also suggested that J. Clerx be asked to provide some context on State assessment mandates and guidelines and that B. Duxler be invited to provide background on APMS and the use of multiple measures in assessment.

 

 

Next Meeting

 

It was agreed to hold the next meeting of the SSI Steering Committee on Friday, May 19 from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. in the Board Room at the District Office.

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