2016 Academic Academy

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Friday, March 18, 2016

9:30 a.m.  Continental Breakfast and Registration         
Camellia/Gardenia

10:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m.  Welcome

Cleavon Smith, Chair, ASCCC Equity and Diversity Action Committee
Ginni May, Chair, ASCCC Transfer, Articulation, and Student Services Committee
David Morse, ASCCC President

10:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.   General Session I
Camellia/Gardenia

Keynote Address: Lead the Choir: How Local Academic Senate Leadership is Critical for Integrating Equity into the Campus Culture

Veronica Neal, Office of Equity Director, De Anza College
Mayra Cruz, Professor of ECE, Academic Senate President, De Anza College

Equity is the hot topic across the state as well as in our local academic senates. Many of the conversations center on student achievement, and for good reason, as they imply that we make a commitment that every student receives what she or he needs to succeed. However, student success happens in the context of a healthy functioning system that has been made equitable as a means of transformation. Presenters will engage attendees in a new paradigm of excellence through equity. An essential aspect of equity is creating a framework for driving equity deeper into the institution and further leveraging the abilities of those working on equity from the top down, middle out, and bottom up.

11:45 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.  Break

12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.   Lunch
Camellia/Gardenia

1:00 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.  Breakout Session I

Follow-up with General Session Speakers
Bataglieri

Ginni May, TASSC Chair
Mayra Cruz, De Anza College
Veronica Neal, De Anza College

This session is a follow-up to the general session in a more intimate setting, to consider and discuss a case study of one community college’s academic senate partnership with various key stakeholders to integrate equity into the senate processes, some aspects of the 10+1, and the educational master plan.

Outcome: Attendees will review the case study and engage in a series of reflective dialogic questions. Participants will have an opportunity to explore the meaning of transformation at their individual institutions and how to strengthen the role of academic senate in infusing equityconsciousness in their institution.

Diversifying our Faculty: From Conversation to Action
Beavis

Shuntay Taylor, Facilitator, TASSC member
Adrienne Foster, ASCCC South Representative
David Morse, ASCCC President
Thuy Thi Nguyen, Interim General Councel, Chancellor’s Office

For years California community colleges have been discussing an ongoing issue: The diversity of our student population is not matched by the composition of our faculty. Administration and faculty must work collaboratively to address issues of recruiting, hiring, and retaining faculty that can better serve the needs of our diverse student population. This session will be an exploration of concrete strategies to pursue at both the local and system levels to make our faculty more reflective of our student population.

Outcome: Attendees will know about the laws, regulations, and data supporting the need to reexamine faculty hiring practices. The nine Equal Employment Opportunity multiple methods that were recently approved by the Board of Governors will be presented and discussed.

Institutional Change to Equitably Improve Student Success: From Planning to Action to Evaluation
Bondi

Mario Rivas, Facilitator, EDAC member
Andrew Barlow, Diablo Valley College
Beth McBrien, Diablo Valley College
Joan Symonds, Diablo Valley College

Diablo Valley College faculty, staff, and administration worked collectively to create a new Strategic Plan that was adopted in April 2014. The plan’s directive is to increase student success, and its core values are Excellence, Student Learning, and Equity. Since January 2015, the college has been working on Strategic Plan implementation. This work has already entailed a change in the college’s governance structure and a college-wide call for innovations supporting the Strategic Plan that yielded 86 proposals. The DVC Academic Senate, in particular, has been working on reviewing and revising the academic senate goals and committees, participating in a college-wide reorganization of the college governance committees, helping to create a mechanism for soliciting and finding funding for institutional innovation, and developing professional development strategies to address closing the achievement or opportunity gap.

Outcome: Attendees will be provided with an overview and assessment of DVC’s work to create a climate of ongoing institutional and cultural transformation that revolves around supporting student success with a shared vision of inclusive excellence through outcomes based, evaluative processes.

Serving Former Foster Youth in California Community Colleges: Successes, Challenges, and Recommendations
Tofanelli

Michael Wyly, Facilitator, TASSC member
Darla Cooper, The RP Group

Every year, former foster youth arrive at California community colleges with basic needs (e.g., housing, food, transportation) that extend beyond the academic, financial, social, and personal issues most students face. Recognizing these challenges and acknowledging the disproportionate impact on success experienced by foster youth, the Chancellor’s Office now asks colleges to address this population in their equity planning. Yet, many colleges remain unclear about how to best serve these students. This presentation will share findings and recommendations from The RP Group research on strengthening efforts at the state and local level to meet the specific needs and improve the achievement of former foster youth.

Outcome: Attendees will be informed of the issues that former foster youth face in the California community colleges along with some recommendations on how to address these issues.

2:15 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.  Break

2:30 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.   Breakout Session Block II

Exemplary Program Winner 2015: Bakersfield College MIH (Making it Happen) Program
Bataglieri

Trevor Rodriguez, Facilitator, TASSC member
Sonya Christian, Bakersfield College
Janet Fulks, Bakersfield College

Bakersfield College Addressing Equity by Making It Happen (MIH) and Guided Pathways Bakersfield College has been addressing student success, equity, and student support by transforming basic skills and carefully designing student pathways to address our 84% underprepared student population. BC began by addressing high school transition and placement through multiple measures, an intervention resulting in remarkable equity outcomes and course success. High school to college transition was recreated through onsite outreach to high school students and staff as well as extended summer orientation. Bakersfield College Equity and Student Success and Support Program dollars scaled up supplemental instruction and the Writing Center with outstanding results addressing achievement gaps. But this transformation is complete only when the outcomes lead to clearly designed program pathways with completion coaches guiding the students along the way. This interactive breakout will provide an opportunity to examine your college’s ability to redesign placement, basic skills, program pathways, and academic support services to help maximize student success.

Outcome: Attendees will be able illustrate, using evidence from recent statewide studies and local Bakersfield College data, the importance and implications of multiple measures, designed pathways and student support for equitable student success.

Learning from our Students: Equity Focus Groups
Beavis

Bryan Hirayama, Facilitator, EDAC member
Courtney Cooper, EDAC member
Darla Cooper, The RP Group
Terrence Willett, The RP Group

As part of its equity planning efforts, Cabrillo College wanted to learn more about the experiences of students from the different groups that were being targeted in the college’s equity plan. To do so, the college engaged The RP Group to conduct focus groups with the following targeted student groups: Latino and Latina students, African-American students, Native American students, current and former foster youth, veterans, and students in need of accessibility and disability services. The intent was to use this information to augment the quantitative data gathered by the college in order to help inform the college’s equity efforts. In this session, participants will learn the specifics of how students were recruited for the focus groups, how the focus groups were conducted, and how information was integrated with database metrics. Presenters will share some of the results from the focus groups and how these results have been used thus far to implement improvements.

Outcome: Attendees will understand the specifics of how to recruit students for the focus groups, how to conduct focus groups, how to integrate information with database metrics, and how to use the results from the focus groups to implement improvements.

Using Academic Support Index to Better Understand Student Data, Identify Students for Intervention, and More Precisely Evaluate Program Efficacy 
Bondi

Mario Rivas, Facilitator, EDAC member
Cleavon Smith, EDAC Chair
David Stevens, Berkeley Unified School District

The Academic Support Index (ASI) is a novel method for providing each student with a quantitative measure of the likelihood that he or she will require additional academic support to fully realize his or her learning potential. The ASI has shown strong correlation to academic outcomes ranging from elementary grade reading levels, standardized test scores, high school grade point averages, University of California eligibility, and college degree attainment rates.

Outcome: Attendees will do the following:

• Understand the theoretical framework of the Academic Support Index;
• Understand the correlations to student outcomes and the predictive nature of the ASI;
• Examine how the ASI provides a counter narrative to the traditional methods of educational data disaggregation;
• Experience how the ASI can help focus educational data by providing “apples to apples” comparisons; and
• Examine some examples of how the ASI can be used to interrupt historical patterns of student performance.

Supporting Student Success and Completion through Mentoring: A Two-Pronged Approach   
Tofanelli

Cheryl Aschenbach, Facilitator, EDAC member
Sandra Fuentes, Reedley College
Darlene Murray, Reedley College
Nate Saari, Reedley College

Student mentor programs are shown to increase student engagement and retention and support persistence. This breakout session will focus on best practices for developing and implementing a student mentor program and how to align the planning process the college’s Educational Master Plan and the Student Equity Plan while gaining institutional support. Through a hands-on interactive activity, professionals will be able to conceptualize the impact of mentoring and have the tools to begin the discussions of considering a mentoring program at their institutions.

Outcome: Attendees will be introduced to the challenges and some best practices of implementing a student mentor program. Attendees will leave with a foundation of tools and strategies for introducing a mentoring program at their institutions.

3:45 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.    Break

4:00 p.m. to 5:15 p.m.     Breakout Session Block III

Breaking Down Silos in the Basic Skills: How Faculty can Integrate Classified Staff and Student Tutors to Foster Student Success
Bataglieri

Vicky Maheu, Facilitator, TASSC member
Nick Banford, Sacramento City College
Cindy Dibble, Sacramento City College
Tara Loschiavo, Sacramento City College
Holly Piscopo, Sacramento City College
Hannia Velez, Sacramento City College

This breakout session will demonstrate a scalable strategy that allows classified staff, students, and faculty to work together as a genuine team focused on student success. The Essential Support Teams in English, ESL, and Math (ESTEEM) program brings together teams of faculty, classified staff, and student tutors to provide intrusive student support within basic skills classes. Each panelist represents one of the parts of the “three-legged stool” of support: faculty, classified, and student. Moreover, panelist will examine preliminary data analysis and strategies to scale up this program.

Outcomes: Attendees will learn of a scalable strategy that allows classified staff, students, and faculty to work together as a genuine team focused on student success. Moreover, they will learn that the increased collaboration between faculty and classified staff has allowed for the “cross-training” required to help our college better connect with 21st century learners.

Using Open Educational Resources (OER) to Close the Achievement Gap: What Can Faculty Do? 
Beavis

Marne Foster, Facilitator, EDAC member
Cheryl Aschenbach, COERC member
Dan Crump, COERC member
Dolores Davison, COERC member

Open Educational Resources (OER) are a frequent topic of discussion in community colleges these days, in part because of the work of the California Open Educational Resources Council (OERC), an intersegmental group of faculty created in response to SB 1052 (Steinberg, 2012) and AB 798 (Bonilla, 2015). COERC is working to promote the use of OER by identifying resources for faculty who wish to adopt these materials in their classes and providing incentives to faculty to lower textbook costs. This breakout will examine what OER is, what OER materials look like, and how faculty can use these resources to help students succeed and close the achievement gap.

Outcome: Attendees will become familiar with OER, the cool4ed.edu website, and the AB 798 Textbook Affordability Act as means by which to lower textbook costs to students.

EOPS Impact Study: Estimating Effects and Inferring Implications 
Bondi

Michael Wyly, Facilitator, TASSC member
Terrence Willett, The RP Group

Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) provides services to educationally and economically disadvantaged full-time students. The Chancellor’s Office Data Mart provides outcomes for these students but to more fully explore the details of program efficacy it is advantageous to employ statistical controls to estimate program effects on persistence, unit accumulation, gateway course completion, certificate and degree earning, and transfer. This session provides an overview of an analysis conducted by The RP Group in partnership with the California Community Colleges Extended Opportunity Programs and Services Association with implications for student equity planning.

Outcome: Attendees will be able to describe uses of reporting and program evaluation in the context of EOPS for student equity planning and student service implementation.

Scaling up Student Success Programs in Community Colleges: Form Islands of Innovations to Institutional Practices 
Tofanelli

Shuntay Taylor, Facilitator, TASSC member
Diana Bajrami, College of Alameda

Despite a major focus on disappointing outcomes of community colleges, especially for students from underserved communities in higher education, and notwithstanding the proliferation of student success programs at national and state level, student success programs continue to be “pockets of innovations.” While these initiatives are implementing new evidence-based practices and are producing effective results on a small scale, they are also generating an initiative fatigue as colleges are spreading themselves too thin while they chase new funds and generate new initiatives.

Scaling up Student Success for Underserved Communities in Higher Education is a new model based on the necessity of developing a substantive framework informed by the experiences of educational leaders and practitioners engaged in scaling up practices. This framework highlights elements of interventions that address the complex needs of students and involve collaborations between all segments of the education system, as well as partnerships between education and business. This first of the kind, practitioners-informed model is a practical guide for educators and educational leaders committed to student success and educational equity and provides implications for more effective institutionalized and equitable educational practices.

Outcome: Attendees will discuss the importance of institutionalizing student success programs to reach more students and to produce more equitable student success and analyze the framework and share best practices of efforts of institutionalizing equitable student success.

5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.   Reception
Camellia/Gardenia Foyer

Join your colleagues at this reception sponsored by the ASCCC Foundation. A no-host bar and hors d’oeuvres will be available. Attendees may also sign up to join different Executive Committee Members for dinner following the reception.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.   Breakfast Buffet
Camellia/Gardenia

9:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.   Breakout Session Block IV

Creating an Equitable College Environment for LGBT Students, Faculty, and Staff 
Bataglieri

April Pavlik, Facilitator, TASSC member
Gayle Pitman, Sacramento City College
Johnnie Terry, Sierra College

Every student has the right to a safe learning environment where he or she can learn and grow academically and socially. As a result, campuses have the power and responsibility to enact policies, programs, and practices that work to make their campuses more inclusive, welcoming, and respectful for all. This breakout session will address challenges and roadblocks to creating a more LGBTQIA-friendly environment. The session will also help participants identify specific policies, programs, and institutional practices that can help create an affirming educational environment for LGBTQIA students and employees.

Outcome: Attendees will understand the challenges to creating an LGBTQIA-friendly campus environment and will begin to identify specific actions they can take to address these challenges.

Understanding ESL, Equity, and Diversity: The Carts or the Horses? 
Beavis

Dolores Davison, Facilitator, TASSC member
Sydney Rice, Imperial Valley College
Leigh Anne Shaw, Skyline College
Kathy Wada, Cypress College

English as a Second Language (ESL) has gone from being relatively unnoticed to being front-and-center in key discussions of student success at community colleges; this development has prompted dramatic changes to ESL delivery at many colleges statewide. Credit and non-credit ESL both play a role in our colleges and communities, but they differ in purpose, scope, and evaluation. This session will examine how ESL is delivered in the California Community College System and by whom. Comparison and contrast of ESL with transferable college coursework will illuminate what ESL is and what its role can be. Furthermore, the methods used to evaluate ESL will be analyzed and the accuracy of this evaluation discussed. Finally, presenters will shed light on ESL’s role in equity in an ever-diversifying California and why credit ESL is a critical pathway for non-native English learners to achieve their academic and career goals.

Outcome: Attendees will understand the role of credit and noncredit ESL in California community colleges.

Equity-in-Action Redux: Implementing Equity-Minded Frameworks 
Bondi

Carolyn Holcroft, Facilitator, Foothill College
Micaela Agyare, Foothill College
Hilda Fernandez, Foothill College
Paul Starer, Foothill College

Now that colleges are being held accountable for their Student Equity Plans, an equity-minded framework is essential to seeing our colleges live and act on the hope expressed in those plans. In this breakout, we will model Foothill College’s continued efforts to address the cognitive frames—the mental map of attitudes and beliefs—that faculty, staff, and administrators have and that can affect the implementation of the details of our plans throughout the entire college body. Attendees will learn how to apply an equity rather than deficit minded framework as a starting point for successfully implementing their student equity plans.

Outcome: Attendees will be able to distinguish the characteristics of a deficit vs. equity-minded framework, use an equity-mindset to re-frame the challenges encountered at their colleges in the implementation of their student equity plans, and identify opportunities for overcoming these challenges using an equity mindset.

Practices of a Students of Concerns Team Across Services 
Tofanelli

Trevor Rodriguez, Facilitator, TASSC member
Nicky Damania, Bakersfield College
Grace Commiso, Bakersfield College

Each faculty and staff member has a different tolerance for the variety of behaviors they encounter in the classroom or on campus. Whether it is dealing with academic integrity, social anxiety, classroom disruption, or potential threat, with the aid of the right team, we can help support these students to a positive academic success.

In this session, the co-chairs of Bakersfield College Students of Concern Team will share reporting structures, case management methodologies, and methods of addressing various students of concern. They will define behaviors and review the importance of implementing an early alert process, discussing reported students at Student of Concern meeting, follow up services, and behavioral interventions. At Bakersfield College, the Students of Concern Team is a collaboration with Student Life, Counseling, Student Health and Wellness, Financial Aid, DSPS, Human Resources, and Public Safety.

Outcome: Attendees will learn how Bakersfield College streamlined processes that address various student needs and behaviors like homelessness, classroom disruption, pantry needs, anger management, mental health, and wrap around services for student success. Attendees will understand how to establish an organized behavioral intervention response teams to approach individual student issues with a case management methodology in mind for a systemic referral process and collaborative response coordination.

10:15 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.   Break

10:30 a.m. to 11:45 p.m.    Breakout Session Block V

Holistic Approach to Working with Your College Using the Starfish Enterprise Success Platform
Bataglieri

April Pavlik, Facilitator, TASSC member
Lidia Jenkins, City College of San Francisco
Norberto Quiroz, Santa Rosa Junior College
Cynthia Rico, San Diego Continuing Education
Michelle Stricker, Reedley College
Robyn Tornay, California Community Colleges Technology Center

Thirteen California Community Colleges have partnered with Hobsons to pilot the Starfish Enterprise Success Platform that is comprised of Degree Planner, Early Alert, and Connect. This breakout will demonstrate how the implementation is going for three of the colleges, what the product is able to do for them, and how they will be using this for their electronic education planning on their campuses.

Outcome: Participants will identify components of the Starfish Enterprise Success Platform by learning

• Product capabilities and why colleges chose to pilot;
• Change in processes that they have done and will be doing in their departments; and
• How they will engage with their student populations and the populations chosen for their pilots.

Incorporating Equity into the Program Review and Institutional Planning Processes
Beavis

Marne Foster, Facilitator, EDAC member
Courtney Cooper, EDAC member
Carolyn Holcroft, EDAC member
Paul Starer, Foothill College

Last year the Academic Academy included a presentation on Foothill College’s efforts to foster an ethos of equity in all our campus’ instructional and non-instructional programs and on work to integrate consideration of student equity as a core component of the program review process. Foothill has continued to work to coordinate planning and budget allocation for basic skills, student equity, and Student Success and Support Program plans in the hopes of synergistically increasing student success while maximizing use of human and financial resources. The presenters are back to share their successes and challenges from this past year.

Outcomes: Attendees will

• identify potential approaches for incorporating equity considerations into their program review processes; and
• discuss possible challenges and solutions to incorporating equity considerations in college planning processes

Award Winning Campus Programs that Increase Diversity Awareness 
Bondi

Ginni May, Facilitator, TASSC Chair
Shannon Vellone Mills, Cosumnes River College
B.J. Snowden, Cosumnes River College

Programs that increase the awareness of diverse student populations to all constituency groups on community college campuses are key components to student success. This session will cover topics such as supporting the needs of students, institutional buy in, faculty support, and how to acquire the resources necessary to start and continue programs. The session will also address how receiving recognition for innovative student centered programs can be an essential tool in maintaining ongoing support, as well as fostering a campus climate of inclusion and innovation.

Outcomes: Attendees will learn about the components of award winning programs that increase the awareness of student diversity on campus and how to support them.

Roadtrip Nation: What Are You Going to do with Your Life?” 
Tofanelli

Mario Rivas, Facilitator, EDAC member
Romel Antoine, Roadtrip Nation
Cleavon Smith, EDAC Chair

In 2007, after spending years collecting the stories of people who have made careers out of their passions, Roadtrip Nation saw a deep, relevant connection between their learnings from the road and students in the classroom. The need for exploratory and inspiring student resources became even more acute with the release of the Gates Foundation’s Silent Epidemic Report, a study detailing the severity of America’s education crisis which cited a lack of student engagement as the key factor contributing to a student’s decision to leave school. In an effort to combat this issue and enhance student connectedness to school, Roadtrip Nation developed a project-based learning and career exploration experience. This self-discovery resource guides students to explore their unique identities and discover pathways aligned with their interests.

Outcome: Through video presentations and small group activities, participants will be able to understand how Roadtrip Nation can be a tool for building motivation, self-construction, and career-exploration for students. The breakout will also focus on how Roadtrip Nation can help increase equity for students by helping build soft skills such as informational interviewing, asset mapping, and organization.

11:45 p.m. to 12:00 p.m.  Break

12:00 p.m. to 12:30 p.m.  Box Lunch
Camellia/Gardenia

Attendees will take a box lunch and return to the General Session Room for the concluding session. 

12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.   General Session II
Camellia/Gardenia

Don’t Go It Alone: ASCCC’s Relation to Local Colleges

During this time, attendees will have the opportunity to share the challenges identified during this conference and discuss how ASCCC can help local colleges address those challenges either through online resources, upcoming institutes, or local visits.