Achieving the Dream
Seattle Central’s Current Achieving the Dream Initiatives:
- Learning Communities and Integrated Assignments: Increase the number of learning community interdisciplinary offerings. Seattle Central’s learning community initiative is especially focused on expanding their integrated assignment learning community model offerings and increasing the number of learning community offerings which include developmental math and college level coursework. Seattle Central engaged the Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education to provide faculty development workshops and is holding a series of faculty get-togethers called “Collaboration Klatches” to provide information outreach, faculty development and networking opportunities.
- Developmental Algebra Yearlong Cohort: A cohort of students who continue with the same instructor throughout their three quarter developmental algebra sequence. The course structure includes student development and additional support designed to foster student success, retention and persistence, including supplemental instruction, and a counselor “success coach”.
- The Math Path - Pre-College Math Facilitated Study Sessions: Faculty and peer facilitated developmental math study sessions which provide students supported time on task to assist them in organizing their own study and becoming independent learners. The sessions include outreach, student development and peer mentorship elements.
- Self Regulated Learning Project: This project has two main facets:
- Student development courses, taught by math faculty, which provide additional content support, study skills and student success strategies specific to the domain of mathematics during students’ concurrent enrollment in a pre-college level math course,
- A math faculty learning community whose members are reading and discussing self-regulation theory and developing modules to be piloted and evaluated in stand-alone courses Fall 2009.
- Faculty/Staff Collaborative Inquiry into Student Learning and Success: Based on the CLIPs—Communities of Learning and Practice model, groups of faculty and/or staff propose and tackle questions regarding teaching, learning and facilitating student success. These projects will culminate in the presentation of findings and recommendations for action by the college.
- English Teaching and Learning Inquiry Projects (2009 – 2010):
- Development of an English Composition faculty handbook
- Assessment of the COMPASS E-Write English writing test
- Researching and developing writing learning support offerings (the Wire)
- Research project examining student preconceptions and using this knowledge to increase student success in Achieving the Dream target populations
For more information regarding the Achieving the Dreaminitiative at Seattle Central, please email achievingthedream@sccd.ctc.edu .