City College of San Francisco - California Competes

THEME VI
registration), and second, the evaluation of support services (e.g., counseling, learning assistance, early
alert and intervention) available to students as they embarked on their studies with sights towards
certificate completion, graduation, and/or transfer. The data collection methods invited wide participation.
The first phase utilized faculty, staff, and student focus groups, which, through structured interviews and
surveys, provided candid information regarding the steps of the intake process. This information was later
charted and accompanied by a narrative of the findings, both of which were verified by affected office
staff, whose comments were incorporated into a final draft of recommendations. The integrity of the
review process was ensured through the consultation of a “cross-functional” team of faculty and staff
representing the different Student Development offices, who worked with the project leader. The second
phase of the process utilized the input of all student support offices providing counseling services, mentoring,
and learning assistance. Focus groups also included instructional faculty input. The success of the
Student Services Systems Review can be attributed to its clearly defined purpose, buy-in from the Student
Development offices, meticulous structure for data collection and analysis, use of anecdotal and research
data, monitoring of quality by the cross-functional team, and the usefulness of its findings. Important
recommendations emerged from the SSSR such as the reorganization of counseling, re-engineering of
Admissions and Records operations, and the computerized delivery of placement testing and orientation—
recommendations that laid the groundwork for subsequent College-wide discussions of these issues during
the 2000–01 Enhanced Self-Study process. The ESS process was an even more ambitious review of academic,
as well as student development, policies, practices, and procedures. Many of the recommendations
generated from the ESS process provided the evidence needed, in part, to earn CCSF a coveted Title III
grant from the U.S. Department of Education. This five-year grant provides direct support for enhancements
to the student intake processes and student support services directly addressing the needs of
the large basic skills student population at CCSF. These needs include computerized placement testing,
electronic educational plans and degree-audits, tutoring, and basic skills learning communities.
Institutional practices and procedures. In addition to assessing its operational practices, the College also
reviews and updates its institutional practices on a regular basis, as the need arises. An interesting process
of evaluation and change that has had broad ramifications not only for students, but also for practices
in both the academic and student divisions, was the raising of the associate degree requirements for
Mathematics and Written Composition. With the 2000 Accreditation team’s strong encouragement that
the College scrutinize the alignment of CCSF associate degree requirements in Mathematics and Written
Composition with Title 5 standards, the CCSF Math, English, and ESL Departments and the Academic
Policies Committee re-examined the standards, eventually shifting their previous interpretations of the
Title 5 graduation requirements. The reinterpretations did not come about instantaneously, however.
Both standards were to undergo the most rigorous of Shared Governance scrutiny: the Math standard
addressed by a special Math Graduation work group of the Academic Policies Committee and the Written
Composition standard taken up for discussion during the Enhanced Self-Study process, from which raising
the standard eventually emerged as an ESS recommendation. Semesters of intense discussion ensued
after the issues reached the Academic Policies Committee. Concerns about the Math requirement change
included whether students graduating with Elementary Algebra would necessarily possess basic arithmetic
skills, whether acceptable equivalencies to CCSF’s Elementary Algebra course could be easily determined,
and again, whether Title 5 clearly specified Elementary Algebra as the minimum math course level.
Discussion regarding the Written Composition requirement included the possible loss of a graduation-level
course in ESL and, if so, the mechanism for ESL students to enter the general English curriculum in order
to complete the Written Composition requirement. An additional issue for discussion regarding both standards
was the possible disproportionate impact of the changes on students of color. By 2003, the raising
of the Math graduation requirement was approved by the Bipartite Graduation Requirements Committee,
and an ad hoc implementation committee set about determining acceptable equivalencies and developing
official language to be included in all future College publications and disseminated to all affected departments.
As the target academic year for implementation approached, however, it was found that actual
operational implementation details had not been fully defined, including whether the raising of the Math
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