Meeting the Needs of High-Risk Students Through Gen Ed: the Decanal Role

1. Meeting the Needs of High-Risk Students Through Gen Ed: the Decanal Role Elizabeth Child, Dean Angela Lanier, Reading Specialist College of Arts & Sciences Trinity Washington University

2. Abstract • This roundtable session will focus on the decanal role in Trinity’s ongoing curricular reform, which is aimed at improving outcomes for high-risk students. • Topics will include the use of specialists in developmental courses in various subject areas, curricular standardization initiatives, outcomes assessment, and retention patterns since the new curriculum launched.   • Trinity’s Dean and Reading Specialist will facilitate discussion of curricular initiatives and outcomes at audience institutions, with particular attention to administratively-driven initiatives that could be exported to other colleges or universities. • See Inside Higher Education:   http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/04/trinity

3. Small, historic women’s Catholic liberal arts college in major urban center (Washington DC) More than 85% of undergrads are women of color: (Black and Latina/Hispanic) One-fifth of students do not claim English as their primary language Between 80 and 90% of students need at least one developmental course More than half of students are from D.C. public schools: only 9% those who enter 9th grade are expected to complete college Median parental income: $30,000 95% of Trinity students received tuition discounts; more than half receive Pell grants Snapshot of Trinity College of Arts & Sciences Students

4. Curricular Reform: Identifying the problem • First-year attrition due to poor academic performance (which in turn affects aid status) • Flexible Gen Ed curriculum allowed students to take core skills courses late • Students unprepared for upper-level courses • Academic attitudes about “urban learners”

5. The First Year Experience: Centerpiece of Curricular Reform • Emphasis on foundational skills • Instruction by developmental learning specialists • Supplemental instruction and assessment • Pre-and-post testing • The learning community model • Intensive academic support and intervention for early alert students, probationary students, and other designated cohorts

6. Goals of the First-Year Experience:By the end of the first year, students will… • Develop abilities to read, understand and analyze texts. • Develop abilities to communicate effectively in speech and writing. • Develop abilities to understand and use quantitative reasoning to solve problems. • Develop abilities to locate, evaluate, and synthesize information in the construction of knowledge. • Begin to explore and connect fields of knowledge in liberal arts. • Begin to apply diverse modes of inquiry to the study of human societies and the natural world. • Appreciate and adhere to principles of academic honesty. • Develop capacity for engaging in civil discourse. • Develop skills necessary for academic success, including efficient time management, effective study skills, and responsibility for own learning.

7. Decanal initiatives within the curriculum • Development of an instructional team of specialists in Math, Writing, and Reading, all reporting directly to CAS dean. • Direct decanal oversight of diagnostic testing and placement, curricular development, and outcomes assessment in developmental and foundational courses. • Designation of the CAS Associate Dean as director of First Year Experience. • Creation of schedules for matriculating students resides entirely in the decanal office. • First-year student orientation recast as primarily academic rather than social and organized by the academic dean and staff. • Location of professional academic advisors in Dean’s office

8. Sample 1st Semester Schedule

9. Integration of specialists and faculty • Specialists and faculty offices together • Shared course resource page for CRS instructors • Proposal to start up foundational skills “think tank” for teachers of first-year students

10. Template for Course Reports • Executive summary • Course overview • Presentation of Data • Pre and post assessment • Course outcomes and relative variables • Placement data • Recommendations • Appendix (rubrics, samples, raw data)

11. Sample Course Report Data—Reading

12. Sample Course Report Data--Writing

13. Sample Course Report Data--Math

14. Our measure of success … • Overall fall-to-fall retention in the College of Arts and Sciences has improved from 68% in Fall 2006 to 76% in Fall 2010. • First-Year retention has grown from 60% in F2006 to 74% in F2010.

15. Noteworthy … • CAS retention rates have improved steadily over the past three years despite a major increase in enrollment during the same period. • Though we have redirected faculty and advising resources away from upper level courses and toward lower level courses, retention of upper level students seems to be holding steady. • Retention from F2010 to SP2011 was 90%.

16. Retention Patterns Fall 2007-Fall 2010

17. Pros and Cons from an Administrative Perspective • Benefits of the new Gen Ed: • Steadily improving student retention • Standardization of curricula for foundational courses (English, Math, Reading, Critical Thinking, Communication) • Regular, meaningful outcomes assessment • Rapid response to assessment findings

18. Pros and Cons, continued: • Challenges of the new Gen Ed • Institutional investment in decanal staff positions has diverted resources away from new faculty positions. • Emphasis on Gen Ed has slowed momentum for development of major and minor programs. • Growing proportion of decanal time is spent on hiring, mentoring, and evaluating staff.

19. Your turn … • Sharing successes: Have you instituted similar initiatives with measurable outcomes? • What challenges have you faced, and what kinds of initiatives have NOT worked for you? • What is the role of deans and other administrators in curricular reform at your institution? How effective a role are administrators playing in this reform?