In May, Strong Start to Finish hosted our annual Learning Network Convening in Denver, Colo. For many, this event, Celebrating Our Work and the Promise of Dev Ed Reform, was their first time attending an in-person convening since the pandemic began. Designed as an invitation-only event to create an intimate experience, we curated sessions featuring the work of our SStF network from 2018–2021.
Rapid technological changes are creating new, high-demand career paths for students, many of which require college math. However, long-standing structural barriers impede many students’ completion of college-level math courses. In this blog, Elisha Smith Arrillaga, from The University of Austin at Texas, discusses how corequisite math courses increase student success and lead to more equitable access to emerging career paths.
The needs of Black, Brown, Asian American and Indigenous students are often overlooked in college classrooms, creating challenges and barriers to course completion. This blog post from Vanson Nguyen of College of Alameda and Jamylle Carter of Diablo Valley College asserts that faculty are uniquely positioned to improve students’ experiences and outcomes in the classroom. It also highlights the importance of hearing directly from students to understand what they need to be successful.
Over the past several years, Lauren Schudde’s research team has been examining how community colleges in Texas responded to a statewide mandate for corequisite coursework. They discuss several common strategies to smooth the transition to corequisite reforms used by high implementation colleges (those exceeding state targets and moving rapidly to scale).
Our blog post from Karon Klipple of Carnegie Math Pathways and Alison Kadlec of Sova Solutions asserts that leaders at every level have a shared responsibility to ensure faculty receive the support they need to implement new models and provide students with the high quality education they deserve.
ACUE and Complete College America teamed up for a blog post on how college faculty can be empowered to take ownership of student success goals and developmental education reforms.
K-12 enrollment trends suggest that the number of English learners enrolling at community colleges is increasing, but there’s been less progress on the front of ESL reform. Jessica Brathwaite shares how changes to ESL assessment and placement systems, as well as course structures, have the potential to help more students meet their postsecondary goals.
Colleges increasingly recognize that a single assessment is poorly predictive of student success, inhibits student progression while increasing costs and disproportionately negatively impacts Black, Brown, low-income and first-generation students. Phase Two Advisory outlines methods and strategies that colleges are using to design self-placement approaches with equity at the center.
Within-group comparisons support the achievement of student groups who are marginalized by identifying ways to measure advancements and identify institutional barriers. Learn how combining between- and within-group comparisons can support addressing inequities in this blog by SStF Director Maxine Roberts.
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