Developmental Education Committee

Meeting Minutes: September 22, 2003

Present: Barb Cox, Ann DeArmond, Hanna Erpestad, Jeri Ann Jurkovich, Kristin Rust, Nancy Schumacher, Jeri Schwerin, Paula Young

1. Learning Center Update: Paula reported that the center has been very busy already this semester. Many classes have toured the center, and Paula has visited several classes to explain the services available. The LC also held an open house earlier in September. Other news from the center:

• Development of a tutor referral form for the Reading department that will also be used by writing instructors. If this proves successful, Paula will make similar forms for science and math instructors to use to refer students to the center.
• Textbooks for Reading and English are available in the Center, and science and math texts will be added soon. The Center is also starting to gather course syllabi to be available to students and tutors in the center. Syllabi from the science courses will be acquired first.
• Other connections being made include: tutorials for the NET pre-nursing exam, work with the Upward Bound program, various study groups, two math faculty holding office hours in the center, Reading II students spending Friday Newsweek discussions in the center, and several classes using Passkey.

2. ESL: The Learning Center and several faculty expressed concern about the number of ESL students requiring extra assistance and the need for expertise in this area to effectively help this population. Suggestions from the committee:

• Contact a retired Reading/English instructor who might be interested in volunteering time in the center to work with ESL students.
• Jeri Ann will contact enrollment services to see how many students self-identify English as a second language to determine if offering classes is feasible. Other options might be to provide release credits to current employees with ESL training to work in the Learning Center.

3. SAA: The SAA committee has requested that the Developmental Education Committee determine what question they have about developmental education at LSC, so an assessment project can be developed and implemented this year. The group decided that they would like to know how prepared students are when leaving Reading I to go onto Reading II and also if Reading II students are college ready or if Critical Reading should be recommended.
4. Scheduling:

• Jeri Ann and Ann will meet to see if more classes are needed for Spring 2003.
• Ann suggested combining Reading Strategies I with Basic Study Skills for Fall 2004. She will discuss this with the Reading Dept. and proceed from there.
• It was also recommended that Learning Communities be established between the Reading, English, and Study Skills classes. Once courses and sections are determined, it will be necessary to attend Student Services meetings to assure students are advised and registered properly.

5. Disability: It was brought up that the developmental courses have a large number of students with a variety of disabilities, especially in the first level of reading and writing. Hanna suggested it would be helpful to get more training in this area. Jeri Ann said she would talk to Georgia about the possibility of providing workshops on campus or finding conferences that might be useful.

It was decided that the committee will meet on the 3rd Monday of each month during Fall semester. We also need to find representation from the math area while Becky Bradshaw is on sabbatical. Ann will contact math instructors to see if anyone is interested in joining the committee.

The next meeting will be Monday, Oct. 20th at noon in the Academic Conference Room.

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