Unerprepared Learners history

Initiative History - Underprepared Learners Work Group

Materials on this page are in PDF format unless otherwise noted.

The Charge

The Members

Background

PowerPoint Summary of Preliminary Report

Work Group's Concept Proposal
The following sections describe the work group's findings and the four elements of its preliminary concept proposal.
- Findings
- Element 1: A New Category of Coursework to Support the Applied Associate of Science Degree
  The WTCS Underprepared Learners Committee proposes a new category of coursework that consists of a thin layer of transitional courses with the specific purpose of getting students who are academically weak when entering programs ready to succeed in their program courses. These courses would be designed to make sure students who are admitted to WTCS occupational associate degree programs are adequately prepared for the system-wide General Education courses. They would articulate with key General Education courses and focus on developing proficiencies needed by large numbers of students.
  These new courses could be called General College courses. They would be assigned a postsecondary aid code, and, as college courses, they would be tuition-bearing. Students would earn college credit for these courses. Only students admitted to programs could enroll in these courses. However, these courses could not be part of a program’s course requirements, and the credits students earned in these courses would not count towards program completion.
  
  These General College courses would cover levels of proficiency immediately leading to and meshing with levels of proficiencies delivered by AAS General Education courses. This category of courses would be confined to three- to five-credit sequences of learning in reading, writing, mathematics, and sciences—and possibly a limited number of other topics—that articulate with specific General Studies courses. A separate body of developmental/remedial (and adult secondary) coursework would continue to exist that would deliver competencies, academic or occupational, comparable to those offered in secondary schools.
  
  Please view this PowerPoint presentation for an illustrated model of the proposed General College category of courses.
- Element 2: Placing Students In Courses Based On Better Assessment
  The Underprepared Learners Committee believes that there should be a system-wide approach to assessment and placement of program students. Wisconsin technical colleges generally have used standardized assessment tests for program admission purposes, despite these instruments’ limitations for that kind of decision making, while not fully exploiting their value for placing students in particular courses that would be proper starting points for their program work. The work group would like admissions assessment in the WTCS to become a more accurate and fine-tuned practice, leading to placing program students in appropriate starting courses.
  For underprepared students, the open enrollment philosophy unfortunately can become a grant of a “right to fail.” Experience bears out that students usually try to “tough out” difficult courses, often with predictably disappointing results, rather than enroll in preparatory coursework their college may have recommended to them. The work group urges the WTCS to stand against the “right to fail” that is implicit for underprepared students in some of our admissions practices. Improved assessment practices should be coupled with assertive course placement practices that give underprepared students the preparation they need to succeed in their programs.
  
  The justification for the proposed General College category of courses partly rests on the commitment of the colleges to prescribe those courses as indicated by assessments. Since the General College course competencies would be the same in all WTCS districts, assessment and placement of students can become more consistent. The Work Group believes that, after a period of reviewing available information, building and refining curriculum, analyzing student outcome data, and making necessary adjustments, this approach could mature into a consistent system-wide approach to mandatory placement in these courses. College staff would still have a moderate degree of placement discretion based on their professional judgment.
- Element 3: Work With High Schools to Close Achievement and Curricula Gaps
  The WTCS office and local college districts should work with the Department of Public Instruction and each district’s high schools to help them recognize gaps in curriculum between our institutions and, more generally, the college preparedness levels of their graduates. Many high schools are engaging in efforts to increase their graduates’ readiness for college and the world of work. We can aid them in their work since 1) we now have common General Education courses with common expectations which can help simplify the articulation and instructional tasks ahead, and 2) we have data on the success of every public high schools’ graduates in our academic courses that may be helpful to local school districts.
- Element 4: Mount a sustained effort to develop instructional and student support strategies, including insistent advising, that improve student success
  The colleges throughout the system collectively have a wide variety of approaches and methods that positively affect student performance. Our system needs to share effective practices as well as continue actively seeking out those at institutions throughout the country. Examples might include increased tutorial support, implementation of learning communities with other disciplines, development of mathematics anxiety study skills workshops, integration of classroom instruction with computer-supported instruction, provision more focused learning prescriptions for underachieving students, enhancing support labs on all campuses, establishing more frequent assessment, and sending out interim progress reports to all students via their email accounts, etc. In particular, our colleges should look for ways to try out more insistent forms of student advising and assess the effectiveness of those approaches.
  Additionally, the system has added QRP program-based data reporting systems to its institutional performance data reports. These can be used with college data to monitor student and program success more effectively and to plan continuous improvement strategies.

For more information contact: jayson.chung@wtcsystem.edu

Last modified: November 13, 2006