A Pathways Placement Survey was sent to local academic senate presidents, curriculum chairs, English, ESL, mathemtics, and counseling department chairs seeking qualitative data in order to begin addressing the 2nd Resolved statement. The data is needed on local placement in English, English as a Second Language, and mathematics pathways that includes the areas of success, areas where improvement is needed, and what support colleges and faculty need in order to close equity gaps and ensure students meet their educational goals.
Whereas, All placement methods, including the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office “default placement rules,” must be evaluated regularly for efficacy and bias; and
Whereas, Substantial shifts in placement, enrollment, and successful completion have been experienced as a result of both full AB 705 (Irwin, 2017) implementation and COVID-19 pandemic challenges; and
Whereas, Local governing boards are to consult collegially with local academic senates on all academic and professional matters and in particular curriculum, degree and certificate requirements, grading policies, program development, and standards or policies regarding student preparation and success (Title 5 §53200), which are integral to determining student placement protocols that provides students with the best chance of success; and
Whereas, The Guided Pathways Task Force report Optimizing Student Success: A Report on Placement in English and Mathematics Pathways [1] identified key data elements associated with placement data that indicated areas for a more in-depth and collaborative analysis;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges encourage, support, and assist local academic senates in collaboration with college research professionals to create evaluation plans that examine throughput, student success, persistence, retention, unsuccessful course attempts, and completion with a goal of optimizing student success and addressing inequities and achievement gaps among disproportionately impacted or marginalized student groups; and
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, in collaboration with system partners, write a paper on optimizing student success by evaluating placement in English, English as a Second Language, and mathematics pathways for consideration at the Spring 2022 Plenary Session.
MSC
1. Optimizing Student Success: A Report on Placement in English and Mathematics Pathways