Diablo valley college president7/5/2023 ![]() ![]() The entire experience has been eye-opening for former Los Medanos College president Peter Garcia. “When you see the systemic, decades-long, inequity of educational outcomes for groups of students, I don’t see any ethical argument for not doing this,” she said. Hiltbrand acknowledges it’s a lot of work but believes it’s all worth it. “Their skill involves building skill sets so we can go through this whole process, facilitate tricky conversations and build more teams around the campus.” “It wasn’t just like they are coming in and telling us what they know and leaving,” she said. Joellen Hiltbrand, an English instructor and a member of the evidence team, said she has been inspired by CUE’s skill in training fellow faculty members. “If you run out and try something and it’s a big flop, you’re not going to be able to try many more things after that.” “You need to be successful in what you do so people will support the process,” Debro said. Debro was one of those in the latter group, but he learned that it makes more sense to tread carefully and not jump to any conclusions. Some students were not enrolling in transfer-level courses even when they had been successful in the preparation course.Īfter seeing these daunting results, some individuals felt overwhelmed with the enormity of the task ahead, while others were inclined to jump right in and quickly enact changes. ![]() For instance, the team learned that 50 percent of first-time students of color were leaving after their first semester. The Los Medanos team found disturbing results after examining its student data more closely. Thus far, more than 25 two- and four-year colleges in eight states, including California, have implemented the inquiry-based action research on their campuses. Estela talks about best practices versus ‘best practitioners.’ CUE wants to develop best practitioners so we can do the work ourselves.” “They are training us to look at our own data, study it and think about what can be done to make change for the better. “ is not coming in to study the school themselves,” Debro said. Karl Debro, a member of the evidence team and the Advancement Via Individual Determination program coordinator for the campus, believed CUE researchers were going to come on campus, collect data about the school and then present a scorecard on how it measured up to different standards. In the year to come, team members will be examining transfer-level courses, as well as student services. At Los Medanos, the team’s work in the last year culminated in inquiries about an introductory English course and the matriculation process. Project outcomes can range from a larger equity focus to institution-wide policy changes. They are not just meeting for the sake of meeting.” “The opportunity we created for the team was a structure that is interdisciplinary and that engages them in a collaborative research activity. “It shows that there are dedicated, committed faculty members and that opportunities have to be made to tap their potential to be leaders of change,” Bensimon said. She described evidence team members as individuals willing to commit their time voluntarily to a process that has been demanding and without compensation. ![]() The method, which essentially trains college instructors to become “action-researchers,” was developed almost 10 years ago by Estela Mara Bensimon, CUE co-director and professor of higher education at USC.īensimon’s philosophy is that campuses must acknowledge and change institutional practices that interfere with student achievement. The scorecard approach centers on a college “evidence team” made up of faculty members and other staff, which uses data broken down by race and ethnicity to identify barriers to student success and to pinpoint areas for improvement. The center has been involved with the Hispanic-Serving Institution – part of the Contra Costa Community College District – since September 2009. The team has been working hard to implement an intense, research-based approach called the Equity Scorecard™ developed by USC’s Center for Urban Education (CUE) and based at the USC Rossier School of Education. Tim Leong, left, of Communications and Community Relations at Contra Costa Community College District with Peter Garcia, president of Diablo Valley CollegeĪ multidisciplinary group at Los Medanos College is involved in a comprehensive equity initiative expected to improve retention and transfer rates for students of color attending the East Bay campus about 40 miles northeast of San Francisco. ![]()
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