City College of San Francisco - California Competes

THEME II
and student success in basic skills courses in the English, Mathematics, and ESL Departments as well as
providing an analysis of the “value added” by a variety of retention and student success programs. While
the findings of these reports are not the focus of this essay, the way the College used this information
is central to this theme. The Chancellor had identified the improvement of basic skills outcomes as a
primary goal of his tenure at the College from the time he assumed leadership in 1998. As the drafts of
the Basic Skills Reports circulated among campus constituencies, it became clear that the College needed a
more unified and coordinated effort to address student outcomes in basic skills. In Fall 2003, the dormant
Basic Skills Subcommittee of the Academic Policies Committee was activated and took on the challenge
of developing an institutional response to the coordination and collaboration of basic skills programs and
services. At the time of this essay, Spring 2005, the Basic Skills Subcommittee was formulating a proposal
that eventually will be submitted to the Academic Senate. In addition, external and District resources have
been used to establish a number of other new initiatives to improve the effectiveness of instruction based
on the findings of the Basic Skills Report (e.g., the Koret English and Math initiatives and Title III supplemental
instruction in English, Math, and ESL).
Long-term comprehensive assessments play an important role in formulating institutional policy and
stimulating broad-based change, but every day classroom faculty, counselors, librarians, department chairs,
and administrators are faced with practical decisions that have an impact on student learning outcomes.
Information about scheduling effectiveness, student success rates in specific courses, and comparative data
based on a host of demographic variables is essential to practical decision making that promotes student
outcomes. Therefore, in 2001, the Office of Research, Planning and Grants initiated the development of
the Decision Support System (DSS), an online data processing engine that provides any member of the
College community—and members of the outside community who request access—instant statistical
information on a wide variety of student characteristics, demand for and access to courses and sections,
and various student success data. While the system certainly has its limitations, the ability of College
faculty, staff, and administrators to have timely access to this information has begun to profoundly
change the way the College makes day-to-day decisions.
Institutional Efforts to Improve Student Learning Outcomes. The evolving institutional focus on student
learning outcomes at the College has contributed to a broad range of initiatives designed to improve
student learning. This essay can only present a few selected examples of these initiatives. Following the
last accreditation review, the Chancellor’s Office and the Academic Senate launched an Enhanced Self-
Study (ESS), an effort to examine factors promoting and inhibiting student success across five broad areas
of CCSF programs and services: Pre-registration and Matriculation; Pre-Collegiate Learning; College-Level
Learning; Enrollment Management Tools; and Student Outcomes. Over 170 faculty, staff, students, and
administrators participated in five task forces that produced 38 recommendations, of which at least 11
directly addressed SLOs. Many of these recommendations have been implemented, some are in the
process of implementation, and others are still under consideration or have been rejected.
The visiting team report from the last accreditation review had urged the College to seriously consider the
appropriateness of its written composition and mathematical reasoning graduation requirements. As a
result of an ESS recommendation, the English graduation requirement has been raised. An independent
task force was charged with reviewing the math requirement and making recommendations. Both of the
new requirements have now been adopted through the Shared Governance process. In addition, the
College has adopted an Information Competency graduation requirement, and a task force is currently
working out the details of the implementation of this requirement, which is designed to assure a student’s
ability to do research and manage information. 4
4 The Information Competency requirement was not part of the Enhanced Self-Study. Work on the requirement began before the
ESS and final approval occurred during the 2003–04 academic year.
CITY COLLEGE OF SAN FRANCISCO 263