Group items tagged

Article by Rob Jenkins, August 16, 2011 on Improving Online Success for beginning college students. See excerpt below. Makes me think about how MCNC's SLI work has introduced? equipped? advanced? students' and teachers' online working skills, especially the push to use social media. And how all MCHSs and ECHSs should attend to this skill development for their students.

Isn't this what MCHS and ECHS do with their students to ensure college readiness and success? Excerpt: "Some institutions do require students to participate in specific programs-and they've seen positive results. For instance, Brazosport College, in Lake Jackson, Tex., began to require first-time students to take a student-success course in 2007. It teaches time-management skills and proper study habits. As a result, the fall-to-spring retention rate for students who completed the course jumped to 89 percent, compared with the baseline rate of 66 percent. Those students passed remedial courses at a higher rate than before, and as a result were more likely to stay enrolled in college, the report says."

From the Overview, "Cal-PASS is an initiative that collects, analyzes and shares student data in order to track performance and improve success from elementary school through university."

One Jam participant noted that data from Cal-PASS was useful in helping them gauge their students' success post-graduation.

Describes important elements in developing a systematic method for high schools to collect and use college proficiency information to make strategic decisions in preparing students for post-secondary success.\n\n

Paper examines the mismatch between high school preparation and college expectations; how high schools should prepare students for college success.

The College Success Foundation guides underserved, low-income students to finish high school, and provides the system of supports and scholarships needed for students to graduate college and succeed in life.

Documentary highlighting the success of three high-performing charter schools in the Boston area.

Miami Dade, which has more than 90,000 students, for example, decided to require those who place into developmental courses to take a "success" course that teaches basic study and time-management skills. That requirement helped to double graduation rates for the college's minority students. Valencia, seeing data that students who added classes late had poor completion rates, instituted a policy barring students from registering for classes that have already met. To maintain some flexi­bility, the college introduced "flex start" sections, which begin a month into the semester. Another excerpt: Faculty-Led Efforts Faculty buy-in is another crucial component to colleges' meeting their completion goals. Finalists for the Aspen Prize all had faculty members strongly dedicated to teaching-and conducting research on teaching methods. "What we heard a lot from faculty was, 'How can I find better ways to deliver instruction to my students?'" Mr. Wyner says. As part of the tenure process at Valencia, full-time faculty develop three-year "action research projects" on teaching techniques that involve training courses, advisers, and peer-review panels. The faculty members test teaching strategies, assessing students' performance against that of control groups. Ideas that work find a place in the classroom. In one project, a professor tried giving individual lab assignments to developmental-reading students, rather than a blanket assignment for all students. The new method worked better, the professor determined, and all sections of that course on Valencia's East Campus now use that model of instruction. Valencia is not the only college where faculty drive the innovation. At Miami Dade, faculty members banded together to improve students' pass rates in math, choosing and testing several new teaching methods. Some showed promise, such as testing algebra students more often on smaller amounts of material, a practice that continued.

The DECA Institute was formed with grant funds awarded to the Dayton Early College Academy. The purpose of the grant was to share successful practices for urban students with other Ohio schools. Video and PowerPoint resources from the Institute are available on the website.

ASCD, formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, is "The global leader in providing programs, products, and services that empower educators to support the success of each learner" (from their Twitter profile).

Website run by Skip Downing, author of On Course: Strategies for Success in College and in Life. The site provides practical applications of the On Course principles (free of charge). Strategies are designed with the goal of empowering students to become active, responsible learners. There are links to descriptions of workshops and to registration options.

Passionate about the impact of technology integration on student success! 2006 TCEA Classroom Teacher of the Year. Carol Mortensen: Blogger. Author.

The Community College Research Center (CCRC) is part of the Insitute on Education and the Economy, Teacher's College, Columbia University. From their site: "CCRC"s mission is to conduct research on major issues affecting community colleges in the United States and to contribute to the development of practice and policy that expands access to higher education and promotes success for all students."

Organization aimed at "building, strengthening, and empowering communities committed to college access and success..."

National College Access Network listserv

Member benefits include NCAN Daily E-Briefing and Discussion Listserv, Advisor Discussion Listserv, access to webinars, and more.

By Benedict Carey in the Health section, The New York Times, September 6, 2010. The author shares findings that contradict common knowledge about study habits. Techniques that have had proven success in studies are alternating study environments, mixing content, spacing study sessions and self-testing.

This research is why I was encouraging host ambassadors to upload their pictures and profiles--they can be far more successful than I at engaging their peers in Polilogue-learning prior to the Conference.

provocative article, March 10, 2011, about asking one question about your work: You know you've really done your job when [what happens]?

A wonderful 5-minute video that captures not only the concepts underlying a "more intensive pathway" in cc developmental studies but also the same thinking behind the MC-EC high school integrated approach--affective, academic, college success skills

excerpt on teaching critical thinking "What are the right kinds of questions to ask? In figuring out what questions to ask, it's really helpful to look at Bloom's Taxonomy. Bloom's begins with a knowledge-based question such as, "Who was the first president of the United States?" To answer that question simply requires knowledge. That's just a first step. Next you want them to be able to evaluate. So I push teachers to look at the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy that involve the analysis and evaluation type of questions. That's when you're pushing kids' thinking. For instance, if you ask, "To what extent was George Washington successful as the first president of the United States?" that's a much higher-level question. It requires a student to evaluate, to create a set of criteria for what makes someone a great president, to possess knowledge about George Washington, and to evaluate his performance against that set of criteria. I suggest that teachers really think about questions that hit four specific criteria. Questions should be open-ended, with no right or wrong answer, which prompts exploration in different directions require synthesis of information, an understanding of how pieces fit together be "alive in their disciplines," which means perpetually arguable, with themes that will recur throughout a student's lifetime and always be relevant be age-appropriate

"Unlike most traditional academic conferences, sessions at an unconference don't consist of one or three or five people delivering papers to an audience. Instead, they might feature project demonstrations, discussions, creative work sessions, or other formats that build on the knowledge and expertise of whoever attends. For the Texas THATCamp (and I think this is fairly typical at others), participants posted session ideas beforehand on the website, followed by a 45-minute scheduling process as THATCamp began. Topic headings generated by those initial session ideas were posted on the walls of a large meeting room, and participants circulated through the space to meet up with others interested in similar topics. After some productive chaos (which admittedly tested my structure- and schedule-loving personality a bit) the group developed a schedule of sessions that represented not only a variety of interests but also the desire to cluster certain topics into tracks. Like any conference, I frequently wanted to be in two places at once - which I see as one marker of the event's success."