Crossroads Community College
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: Math
http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/developmental-math
Greg's struggle with math is not uncommon. Carnegie recognizes this and has created a network of of experts to create new pathways for the 60% of students entering college who need developmental math. "A staggering 70 percent of these students never complete the required mathematics courses, blocking their entry to higher education and a wide array of careers."
Volunteer Framework of Accountability
http://www.aacc.nche.edu/Resources/aaccprograms/vfa_archive/Pages/default.aspx
In beta testing with select schools around the country, SCC has been offered and is participating as one. An initiative of the American Association of Community Colleges, the Voluntary Framework of Accountability is a national system of accountability specifically for community colleges and by community colleges. Leadership in the sector is defining the most appropriate metrics for gauging how well our institutions perform in serving a variety of students and purposes.
"The VFA gauges student progress and outcomes including pre-collegiate preparation (such as developmental education and Adult Basic Education), academic progress and momentum points, completion and transfer measures, and workforce outcomes for career and technical education."
This is ambitious and full of promise. Howevere, one has to wonder about what appears to be a reliance on quantitative data. "Accountability" has earned a bad name, nationally. VFA promises transparancy yet not to be comparative.
The California Acceleration Project
While it is suspicious for its connections to Complete College America, CAP is a resource for how it is working with teachers, not against them, in order to affect curriculum for developmental education students, and is tracking data along the way. My college's acceleration design has been strongly influenced by CAP.
Accelerated Learning Program
ALP is one of innovative model for developmental education that has shown improvements in success rates and has potential to be scaled up. While it originated at the Community College of Baltimore County, as of the spring of 2013, ninety-seven schools throughout the nation have begun offering ALP and state-wide programs and are underway in three states: Arkansas, Indiana, and Michigan.
A broader resource for solutions for low-income people: http://www.clasp.org. CLASP advocates for federal, state and local policies to strengthen families and individuals' pathways to education and work.
Initiatives to Improve Dev-Ed
