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Why Stretch Composition?

This proposal outlines the implementation of a Stretch Composition program for high school English learners, focusing on expository texts and aligning with Common Core standards. The program includes a Directed Self Placement process, allowing students to choose the sequence that best suits their abilities. The program has proven benefits such as higher retention rates, increased self-efficacy, and potential reduction in time to graduation. This straightforward program will be easy to explain, implement, and manage.

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Why Stretch Composition?

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  1. Why Stretch Composition? The EFL Stretch Composition Proposal

  2. High School English • For decades, English Language Arts has been primarily about reading literature. • Now, because of the Common Core Standards, there is an emphasis on expository texts. • The CSU-developed Expository Reading and Writing Course (ERWC) is aligned with Common Core. • ERWC is in almost half the high schools in the state. Students will be better prepared.

  3. The EPT • The EPT was developed by CSU faculty and ETS in the late 1970’s. • It used to be read by groups of faculty, each paper getting at least two readings. • Now it is read online and most papers get one reading. • The EPT will be replaced in a few years by a Smarter Balanced assessment related to Common Core, probably “read” by a computer.

  4. Remediation • The EPT essentially creates “remedial” students. • No matter how demographics, pedagogy, or standards have changed, in the last 30 years the percentage of students identified by the EPT as “remedial” has remained at just under 50%. • It seems clear that the EPT is not a criterion-referenced test.

  5. Why Stretch? • Students vary in writing and reading skills due to language background, academic preparation, and natural ability. • Some students inevitably need more time to develop academic writing skills at a university level, regardless of the quality of high school courses. • A stretch program allows all students to achieve the same outcomes while giving some more scaffolding and more reading and writing assignments.

  6. Why Directed Self Placement? • A single test, such as the EPT, is never enough. • The DSP process takes test scores, coursework, and self-assessment into consideration. • The DSP process allows students to choose the sequence that is most suited to their abilities. • DSP has been used for years at CSU campuses such as Channel Islands and Fresno.

  7. How Does DSP Work? • At Cal Poly Pomona, students will sign up for an online DSP process during the summer. • The online experience will include information about the program, sample assignments and texts, and a survey with questions about high school courses, assignments, grades, and attitudes. • During orientation, the student will meet with faculty and student advisors to go over the information and make a choice.

  8. Do Students Choose Well? • Other CSU campuses report that very few students place themselves too high or too low.

  9. Extra Units • Students will receive a maximum of eight units of credit toward graduation. • In the current program, multilingual students who take ENG 102 and 103 get eight units of credit.

  10. Annual Cycle • In the stretch program, students will have to take the courses in sequence, ideally with the same instructor to preserve the learning community. • In the current program, because of E.O. 665, students must begin remediation in their first quarter and complete it in a year, creating the same sort of cycle.

  11. Advantages of the New Program • All sequences will meet the same outcomes, assessed by a portfolio. • The outcomes are based on national outcomes designed by the Council of Writing Program Administrators. • The courses are not literature-based, but specifically designed to give students rhetorical tools and abilities that will serve them well in their majors.

  12. Proven Benefits • According to English Council President Sugie Goen-Salter, who is implementing a Stretch/DSP program at San Francisco State, the proven benefits are: • Higher levels of persistence and retention; higher self-efficacy, greater investment and higher success in their DSP-chosen course • Higher EO 665 compliance rates • Potential reduction in time to graduation – all units count toward degree • Pass rates equal to, or higher than, when students took remedial classes prior to First-Year Composition – compared to the English Placement Test, greater numbers of students meet the learning outcomes in their DSP-chosen course, more express a high degree of satisfaction with their chosen course; and more choose to stay in the university longer

  13. In Summary • The proposed design establishes clear, rigorous outcomes that are relevant to success in the university across the disciplines, distributes those outcomes sensibly across the two stretched versions of the course, and establishes common assessments across the program. • This is a clear, straightforward program that will be easy to explain, implement, and manage.

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