City College of San Francisco - California Competes

THEME I
course read an article supplemental to the topic they later write about in the writing course. While reading
the article, students learn how to annotate and practice doing so. When students are learning to write thesis
statements and to write main points in the writing course, they identify the thesis statement and main
points in the supplemental article to further reinforce their learning.
Evaluation of these efforts showed greatly improved student performance by Spring 2004, particularly for
Latino/a students (measured by successful completion rates). In general, students who passed the linked
reading/writing courses have been able to successfully skip over the subsequent course in the English
curriculum. Yet student progress in writing skills has been greater than that of students in reading. Given
this finding, faculty are now targeting reading as an area for improvement. However, the Department has
found it difficult to find qualified reading instructors for adult students, and thus has identified a need to
train more instructors in reading in order to continue to expand linked course offerings and to improve
reading instruction more generally.
In addition, during a Summer 2004 retreat, English faculty began creating entry and exit maps for
students in which they have identified the level of knowledge and skills that students must possess in
order to enter English 9 and 90 and those that they must possess in order to succeed to the next level.
These entry/exit maps will also help them standardize the content of English 9 and 90 curricula to
ensure that students are receiving instruction conducive to gaining these skills and knowledge.
At this stage, the Department has begun to redesign the basic skills English curriculum by rewriting the
course outlines for English 9 and 90 based on the entry and exit maps described above. As noted, the
linking of courses has yielded promising results. However, preliminary results suggest that an intensive,
blended reading and writing course (that would ultimately replace at least some current linked courses)
may be an even more powerful approach to supporting student learning. Thus, while the Department
is refining the linked courses, it will simultaneously explore how best to design and offer a blended
“megacourse.”
Accompanying the effort to create exit and entry maps (referenced above) has been a recognition that
current placement tests do not sufficiently distinguish student abilities at the lower levels; in light of this,
the English Department plans to develop more accurate testing instruments. That is, students who place
into basic skills do not represent one level of skill, nor do they all exhibit the same learning styles. Thus,
the College has determined that it needs to develop an assessment tool or tools to better distinguish
among students who place into basic skills in order to design more intensive, tailored support for those
students who may not benefit from the standard basic skills interventions that it has been developing.
In addition, the English Department is eager to fill the gap in their evaluation of students’ needs by
creating new assessment strategies to better evaluate and aid student progress. Included in their plans is
devising a way to measure affective changes in students with respect to reading and writing. Faculty have
recognized that, often, negative student attitudes toward these subject areas create barriers to success, and
determining how classroom activities can help shift these attitudes will improve student success. Faculty
have targeted portfolios as one assessment strategy that they believe will better allow them to measure
student learning outcomes; they will implement this strategy and explore others as appropriate.
English Department faculty have also developed a standardized grading rubric that promotes consistent
evaluation of student outcomes. The next year will include a focus on implementing and refining these
rubrics so the expectations and grading will be uniform throughout the Department.
Tutors, through the Koret grant, have begun to participate in classroom instruction, but they have
generally done so in a passive manner (observing the class) rather than by actively supporting students
one-on-one during class. During the coming semesters, faculty will work with tutors to design better
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