The Graduation Initiative Team will sponsor annual pilot projects that address issues gleaned from program and delivery chain assessment and integration efforts and / or take advantage of special opportunities as they present themselves.
Academic Year 2010 - 2011
EOP/FYE/English Pilot
This pilot focuses on the effects of a sequenced writing curriculum for EOP students. In summer ‘10, EOP students worked with faculty from English on a preview writing program during Summer Bridge. [We will need to get details of this curriculum from Dr. Kim Jaxon & Dr. Tracy Butts in English.] In fall ‘10, EOP students will take UNIV 101 with a writing component that teaches students how to formulate inquiry questions, use library databases to pursue an inquiry, read scholarly articles, and write an annotated bibliography. In spring ‘10, EOP students will enroll in and take ENGL 130; the course will build on students’ knowledge of research and writing practices gained in Summer Bridge and UNIV 101. The goal is to improve EOP students’ pass-rate in ENGL 130 and prepare them for conducting inquiries in college.
Public Sphere Pedagogy
FYE collaborates with three departments to provide public sphere experiences for first-year students: Political Science, Communication Studies, and Economics. Bill Allen of Institutional Research has agreed to provide “flags” in the enrollment databases so that we can track retention, GPA and graduation rates for students with one or more PSP experiences. In light of extensive assessment data on PSP indicating that it is a high-impact teaching practice for first-year students, we wish to begin tracking its effects on retention, GPA and persistence. This fall (‘10), EOP students will take CMST 132 from faculty involved in a PSP project (in this case, the Great Debate). The impact of PSP on non-URMs and URMs vs. those students with no exposure to PSP can be calculated once we have placed the “flags” in our tracking system.
Housing Component
Gary McMahon (CSSC) and Chela Patterson (EOP) have discussed looking at the variable of housing options when looking at the persistence and GPA’s of our students. Right now they are trying to determine how far they can drill down – off-campus vs. on-campus, but would also like to be able to break it out into on-campus vs. Craig Hall vs. off-campus vs. commuting from home.
Student Monitoring System
Good Start
The Chico Student Success Center (CSSC) recently created a Logic Model and an Evaluation Plan. The Evaluation Plan highlighted the need for additional assessments particularly for the transitional phase between high school and college.
Good Start is simply a spreadsheet that tracks what we consider Key Success Indicators including the timely financial aid disbursements, early personal contact with a Student Service Professional, the staff’s opinion of the appropriateness of the student’s class schedule, the student’s first year housing environment, and the student’s participation in the Summer Orientation program. The cohort group includes 107 first-time freshmen who attended the CSSC’s partnership high schools.
The output is summarized in a table format. The results are also linked to the Logic Model and the Evaluation Plan.
The Good Start data is now being integrated into EOP’s “Advisor” software.