Developmental Education Committee

Meeting Minutes: April 4, 2005

Present: John Arola, Barb Cox, Steve Dalager, Sherri Dalager, Ann DeArmond, Hanna Erpestad, Kathy Grosh, Tracey Hammel, Joni Mathison, Kristin Rust, Georgia Robillard, Paula Young.

1. Committee Minutes - The committee was reminded that minutes for meetings from the past 3 years can be found at www.lsc.edu/Committees/.
2. A+dvancer, GPA for Success, Study Skills workshop -

• A+dvancer - Paula reported on the current progress of the IE initiative for A+dvancer. She will be working with the advisors and testing personnel to identify students that may best benefit from this program, as well as making high school connections.
• GPA for Success - the Learning Center has available for use by all students a CD currently being used by the nursing program to improve academic success.
• Study Skills workshop - Paula is available to attend classes and provide a 1 ½ hour workshop on study skills. She recently presented to an Essential Science Skill class.

3. Writeplacer -
   Joni is working with the English faculty to begin implementing the ACCUPLACER companion essay test. A cut score needs to be established for deciding who takes the test, as well as what score they need to qualify for College Comp I. Steve and Jocelyn both took the test and are fairly satisfied with the computer scoring for grammar and content. Karen Bush has volunteered her Fundamentals of Writing II class to also take the test to gain further data to help determine cut scores and accuracy of the test.
4. Mission Statement - With feedback from the committee, Paula has rewritten the mission statement to read:
   
   The mission of the Developmental Education Program at Lake Superior College is to provide a comprehensive and integrated program in instruction and services that prepares students for college-level work and that enhances the quality of student learning, as directed by the MnSCU policy for college readiness. The Developmental Education Program is student centered in that it provides access and success by ensuring students develop skills to compete in the curriculum.
   
   The principles that guide the Developmental Education Program are:
1. Student success is the central priority for developmental education policies and procedures.
2. The process for decision making about policies and procedures is pro-active, collaborative and evolutionary.
3. Faculty involvement is central to formation of policies and procedures, which are grounded in classroom practice.
4. Students in developmental courses perceive themselves as connected to the education process and the college. (April 2005)

5. Future direction of Developmental Education - Ann asked the committee for suggestions on the organization of developmental education for next year. The committee agreed they wanted someone given at least 3 release credits to coordinate and provide leadership for developmental education. Ann said she would take this back to Jim Berg for his consideration.
6. Research -
   Ann and Paula met with Sue Stenerson to begin research on the success of the developmental learning communities from this academic year. Sue will conduct focus groups for the current reading and writing community and a control group of students in those classes but not in the learning community. She will also begin tracking students from the fall cohorts to begin gathering data concerning persistence, GPA, and graduation rates.
7. Other -
   John suggested students take their reading and writing classes before Pre-Algebra rather than after or concurrently, as students need the reading skills for the math courses. It was also suggested that the developmental pre-requisites need to be revisited for Medical Terminology. Paula is providing tutoring services for that class, and the tutor has noted that developmental students are especially struggling with the material.

The next meeting will be Monday, May 2, at noon.

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