- Las Positas College
- Math and Language Equity and Achievement
- Completed Tasks
Math and Language Equity and Achievement
Completed Tasks
2023-2024 Completed Tasks
- The committee worked on identifying projects that will support student completion of transfer level math and English in one year and could be funded using AB1705 monies from the state. The chair met with both academic deans to work on budgeting and determining how much money to allocate to various projects and whether to allocate it in load or F-hours. The committee, working with administrators and their assistants, began to create PAFs and work on the projects.
- The committee reported on its AB1705 work to the state Chancellor’s Office.
- The committee worked with the Math Success Project lead on his AB1705 and AB928 compliance work.
- Committee administrators discussed placement language with Chabot College and reported back to the committee, who then discussed various options.
- The committee discussed and supported the development of new curriculum and revison of curriculum delivery systems among its constituent members: math, English, and ESL. AB705 mandates that colleges maximize the potential for students to complete transfer-level English and math in one year and complete ESL sequences in a maximum of three years. These departments collaborated on concurrent support models, non-credit course outlines, placement, assessment, scheduling, and advising strategies for students who are deciding between pathways, whether English or ESL or SLAM or BSTEM math.
- The committee strategized as to how to get more students using supports like Tutoring and RAW and Smart Shops and how to support faculty and student tutors in their roles. The committee discussed ways to allow for the Tutoring Center Director and his assistant to work on special AB1705 projects and to allow for classified staff like Instructional Assistants to work on special AB1705 projects. That work is ongoing.
- The committee reviewed data and strategized around how to better support students with learning and other disabilities in their math, English, and ESL courses. The committee began work with a counselor who will receive AB1705 funding. By coincidence, this counselor is in DSP&S. The committee also began working with the new DSP&S Learning Specialist and joined with the DSP&S director in liaising with MACC and our local high schools.
- The committee planned the yearly high school alignment meeting, making a new effort to include ESL and special education faculty in the English meeting. This was the second year that special education faculty participated in the math meeting.
- The committee developed a proposal for the Ellucian Advise dashboards with Guided Pathways.
- The chair kept the MLEA website updated and regularly uploaded minutes and agendas to that site and the SEA website.
2022-2023 Completed Tasks
- Reporting to Academic Senate on AB1705, September 2022; Work on AB1705 Senate Subcommittee; Beginning of Regular Reports during Academic Senate Meetings in Spring 2023.
- Keeping abreast of directives from Chancellor’s Office through webinars and memos; sharing and discussing these in meetings and in between meetings. This informs curriculum and placement work, for example English’s experimentation with other curricular models, English and ESL’s decision to adjust the English GSP to better place students who did not graduate from a U.S. high school, ESL’s plans for assessment, ESL’s decision to deactivate ESL 1A, and Math’s discussions around placing students directly into Calculus I. Beginning research on other curricular models besides non-credit, for example competency-based education.
- Keeping abreast of research on student success in math, English, and ESL; curricular design and pedagogical best practices in same.
- Supporting the Tutorial Center Coordinator in his redesign of website and addition of a day-by-day schedule that shows students all their support options in English and math; discussing the embedding of student tutors and the challenges around the hiring of more tutors.
- Sharing student feedback as to their experiences in and perceptions of transfer-level courses and various concurrent support options; inviting student voices into meetings when possible, for example LPCSG President and English student assistant, who has been working on a call project to English students who have dropped (Fall 2023) and on research of other colleges’ website information about placement and AB705.
- Discussing plan of action for improving communication around placement through videos, slide presentations, and/or Assessment website and GSP re-design. March meeting will review student assistant research on other colleges’ information and possible adding of video to Assessment website and Steps to Success webpage.
- Discussing the idea of restoring a dedicated counselor for ESL orientations, which has now happened; hearing about ongoing work in Assessment Center to help students enroll and register.
- Discussing the data on DSPS student success post-AB1705, data on most common disabilities at LPC (ADHD, LD, and mental health), curricular models like learning assistance courses or embedded LD specialists; addition of non-credit support courses for other disciplines for math and English; data we would like to seek from IR; how to collect data on success of students who use their accommodations versus those who do not; possible topics for Flex Days to support DSPS students and students generally (universal design, differentiated learning).
- Offering of panels on AB1705 and pedagogical and curricular impacts at Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 Flex Days.
- Discussing strategies to increase student use of supports; designing of LPC Math, English, ESL Resources animated flyer for display on 1000 screens, handing out flyers at upcoming LPC Open House.
- Formulating of boilerplate language to describe opportunity of transfer-level coursework, best approach to succeeding, to share with outreach team, counselors.
- Creating of wish list for AB1705 state funding.
- Advocating for continued AB705 funding for English and math and first-time funding for ESL.
- Consulting with GP lead on “communication flow” document for Ellucian Advise.
- Posting of minutes for MLEA and SEA meetings; updating of MLEA and SEA websites.
2021-2022 Completed Tasks
- The committee spent a great deal of time reviewing and assessing data that math and English AB705 leads and the English and mathematics departments had gathered with the help of our Institutional Researcher. Data included success rates, throughput rates, whether required placement according to GPA band promotes success and throughput, and disproportionate impact. ESL has met with the Institutional Researcher and the MLEA chair and is reviewing research, curriculum from other colleges, and its own students' and community's needs during the program's AB705 innovation period. We have also reviewed and assessed data from the Tutorial Center and DSPS. We are making plans to collect more DSPS data. Statewide data from the Chancellor's Office, the RP Group, and PPIC have also been reviewed.
- The committee has also spent time sharing pedagogical and curricular approaches that address equity. For example, it heard from professors working on linguistic justice and will consider equity in assessment. It has also considered how to learn more about the performance of DSPS students in transfer-level classes and how to develop faculty familiarity with universal design, differentiated instruction, and other practices that will support students. The committee may do more to publicize best practices for equitable teaching.
- MLEA is a subcommittee to SEA and has coordinated with it well, sometimes bringing discussion items from SEA meetings into MLEA meetings, for example in the area of equity in assessment, Guided Pathways, and student access to campus resources like tutoring.
- MLEA faculty members offered a Flex Day session on changes due to AB705 so that faculty could consider how it might impact their teaching, course offerings, and course outlines. The DSPS Director collaborated with an English faculty member to offer a session on able-ism.
- The committee has looked at various barriers that surface for students. The most obvious barriers are pre-requisites that lower success rates. We have worked with the Chancellor's Office to submit our transition plan for full implementation of AB705. We have explored how co-requisite courses can provide support without creating barriers for students. We have worked to institutionalize self-placement and provide students with information and avoid steering them into courses that they may not need. We recently heard from the administrator and faculty offering courses at the Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin, and they are working every day with students on working around or within barriers so that students can learn and make academic progress.
- The committee has heard from the new ESL Outreach Coordinator to learn about their identification of prospective students' educational needs.
- Math and English faculty members have worked to revise their Guided Self-Placement in accordance with AB705 and our current course offerings as of Fall 2022.
2020-2021 Completed Tasks
- Merged with AB 705 Task Force for common work/purpose
- Reviewed LPC data for first-year students in Math and English; discussed how we should be tracking students for AB 705 compliance purposes
- Reviewed statewide implementation of AB 705 and compared LPC's implementation in English and Math
Committee Meetings
3rd Thursdays
3:15 - 4:30 pm
Location: Zoom (See Outlook calendar for meeting link)
For more information please contact: