Developing High School Partnerships

by Amanda Starkey

Using funds from the College and Career Readiness (CCR) grant, Southwestern Illinois College (SWIC) is working collaboratively with area high schools on four projects to reduce the need for remediation as students move from secondary to postsecondary education. The projects involve direct student contact that benefits students, though the greater outcome of these projects is the enhanced communication and development of partnerships between SWIC and area high schools, particularly with high school faculty and counselors. SWIC’s CCR projects include the High School Math Partnership Project, the High School Writing Partnership Project, the College Success Initiative (CSI), and Faculty Workshops.  All of these projects involve several components, and they continue to grow as new ideas are introduced.       

HIGH SCHOOL MATH PARTNERSHIP PROJECT 

The goals of the High School Math Partnership Project include:  

• Providing opportunities for high school math faculty and counselors to become familiar with the college placement tool used at SWIC,
  
• Providing opportunities for high school and SWIC math faculty to discuss alignment of high school and college curriculum, and
  
• Helping students understand the level of competency expected when they enter college and encouraging them to further develop their math skills while in high school.

A component of this project that is receiving positive feedback from participants is the meetings between SWIC math personnel and high school math faculty groups. Meetings have taken place with 16 of the more than 30 high schools in the district, and the intent is to continue this project until all interested high schools have been invited to participate. Topics of discussion with each school include an overview of high school and SWIC math curricula, expectations for students at each level, and the college placement process used at SWIC. The high school math teachers are also given the opportunity to become familiar with the math college placement assessment tool (COMPASS) used at SWIC.

Several key changes have been implemented as a result of these meetings. High school math faculty, after seeing the college placement tool and discussing the developmental coursework in place at SWIC, quickly focused on the need for their students to review algebra throughout their high school math courses.  Second, though math teachers were already aware of this, the discussions reinforced the need to keep students in a math class during their senior year. Strong math students move on to advanced math topics, but those with less proficiency need to continue with math, even if it means placing them into a course that reviews the concepts of algebra and geometry from previous courses, perhaps with more applications. Concern has been expressed that the senior year curriculum is sometimes overlooked due to the emphasis placed on courses taken before the Prairie State Achievement Exams in the junior year.

Another component of the High School Math Partnership Project that is being well received is the early junior COMPASS testing offered at four partner high schools. Students have the opportunity to discover gaps in their math preparation early enough in their high school careers to change study habits and take additional math courses to hone their skills.  Participating students are also surveyed before they complete COMPASS to learn how they think they will place, so their anticipated results and actual results can be compared to determine whether or not their expectations are realistic. Of the 939 students who have taken the math portion of the early COMPASS assessment and made a prediction about placement, 530 (56%) thought they would place higher than they actually placed. Interestingly, results showed students who score lower on the placement test tend to overestimate their placement into college math, while students receiving higher placement test scores actually place higher than their prediction. For students scoring lower on COMPASS the results may reflect their not realizing the difference between recognizing and mastering a concept. The more advanced students may be concerned that they will not score as high as they had hoped.

A final component to the project is the administration of COMPASS to assist one high school with the evaluation of a course for seniors who struggle with math.  A group of 40 seniors are enrolled in this course, sometimes called “911 Math” by the faculty. These students took the math portion of COMPASS in September 2008 and will return to campus in April 2009 to take the full COMPASS exam.  Of the 40 seniors taking 911 Math, 93% placed into basic algebra or lower on the initial COMPASS test. The goal is to use information from the assessments to assist high school math faculty to examine the merit of the course and make adjustments.  If the students show significant progress, information about the value of this course will be shared with other area high schools.  This course is being provided to address the concern that content in traditional senior math courses is not the most appropriate for the less developed math student.  Since algebra is often considered the “gatekeeper” course to more advanced mathematics courses for high school  students, it may be most beneficial to continue to emphasize algebra topics for students at this ability level. The expectation is that students who have shown progress in this math course will place at the Intermediate Algebra level or higher on COMPASS in April.     

HIGH SCHOOL WRITING PARTNERSHIP PROJECT

The goals of the High School Writing Partnership Project include:

• Facilitating meetings between SWIC and high school English faculty to better align high school and college writing expectations, and
  
• Communicating to high school students the importance of developing writing skills that are necessary to be successful writers in college.

Currently, members of the SWIC writing faculty are meeting for the third semester with high school writing teachers from area high schools. Several schools are invited to send up to four writing instructors to participate in a series of meetings throughout the semester.  A total of 11 schools have participated, with other schools getting the opportunity to participate in future semesters.      

Faculty involved in this project find discussions about their own classroom experiences to be important, along with examination of a common grading rubric and the norming of that rubric.  During the norming process, the instructors agree on what components of writing are most important and how they should be assessed.  Within those conversations, faculty members express concern that students see little use for writing, particularly at the secondary level.  SWIC faculty are sympathetic when they learn that high school faculty are sometimes required to assign a specific number of papers and as a result may not have adequate time to give feedback to students during the writing process.  The college faculty are also concerned about large class sizes, the little amount of writing required outside of English classes, and the shortage of computer lab space.  They understand these concerns could hinder the successful teaching of writing at the high school level. 

Both the high school and college faculty use the common rubric to grade senior essays.  Interestingly, when the first group engaged in this grading exercise, they did not find a gap between the grades assigned by high school teachers and those assigned by college instructors.  One thought is that the norming session gave the faculty members an opportunity to agree upon the importance of various elements of writing.  Though the high school teachers were apprehensive about the amount of time they were away from their classrooms to participate in this project, it proved to be an excellent opportunity for them to discuss alignment of curriculum with SWIC writing faculty. 

An unexpected outcome of the first series of writing faculty meetings was a request by the high school faculty for a SWIC representative to visit their classrooms to discuss college-level writing expectations with their students.  As a result, the SWIC Writing Coordinator visited with over 340 seniors at one high school during fall 2008.  He reminded the students of the importance of taking responsibility for their own education and discussed college-level writing requirements. Students also completed a survey that gave SWIC faculty a better understanding of the high school students’ perceptions of themselves as writers and their experiences with writing. 

COLLEGE SUCCESS INITIATIVE

The goals of the College Success Initiative (CSI) include:

• Increasing successful student transitions into postsecondary education, and
  
• Reducing remediation for high school seniors by improving their college readiness skills.

CSI involves collaboration of SWIC faculty and staff with several district high schools to identify students who will likely place in a developmental course. These students are given the opportunity to take the COMPASS placement test, with students who place into either Basic Algebra or Intermediate Algebra being given the opportunity to enroll in the course during the second semester of their senior year as a dual enrolled student with tuition, course fees, and textbooks paid by the grant.  Those enrolled in Basic Algebra and some of those enrolled in Intermediate Algebra receive extra support either through additional class time scheduled with the instructor or tutoring opportunities, usually before class.  Students are also offered attendance incentives, are instructed in effective time management and study strategies, and are encouraged to make an appointment with a counselor.  Successful completion of the course eliminates one semester of required developmental math coursework at SWIC.  Of the 21 CSI students enrolled in the spring 2008 semester, 16 (76%) successfully completed the course, compared to the success rate of approximately 50% for the average SWIC student.             

At one site, those who take COMPASS but do not place into the developmental courses are invited to attend a series of four workshops. Topics include study skills, goal setting, time management, and application for financial aid. Though the workshops receive good reviews from the students, scheduling is difficult. Careful coordination with the high schools is necessary if these workshops are to be continued.  Future workshops may be offered at the high schools to minimize disruption to students’ schedules.  

FACULTY WORKSHOPS

The goals of faculty workshops include:

• Providing opportunities for high school and SWIC faculty to learn new methods for instruction,
  
• Providing a venue for high school and SWIC faculty to share successful teaching strategies with one another, and 
  
• Offering high school and SWIC faculty opportunities to meet and develop trust and respect for one another.
  

In the summer of 2008, a total of 107 high school and college math teachers, representing 27 area high schools and SWIC, participated in one of two sessions of an algebra workshop.  The faculty members in attendance on both dates were receptive to learning ways to keep students engaged using active learning techniques, and they practiced a number of activities to implement in their classrooms to improve student learning.  The evaluations were very positive, with 100% of participants indicating the workshop increased their knowledge and teaching skills. The high school teachers were able to earn Continuing Professional Development Units (CPDUs) to meet requirements for continued certification, and they received a stipend for their attendance.   

Additional workshops are planned for spring and summer of 2009. Meetings for both English department chairs and math department chairs from area high schools are scheduled and will be facilitated by SWIC leaders in those disciplines.  Participants will have an opportunity to share best practices, dialogue about common concerns within their discipline, and discuss curricular issues. These meetings are anticipated to continue as an annual event where faculty leaders from SWIC and area high schools network and continue these important discussions.

Additionally, another workshop is scheduled for high school counselors, with the intake process used at SWIC as the topic for discussion. Participants will learn about Mission Success, which includes an orientation to the services available at SWIC, assessment using COMPASS, and interpretation of the scores. 

MOVING FORWARD

As these many activities are implemented and evaluated, SWIC’s communication with its partner high schools is improving. It is apparent that everyone involved wants to see the students succeed. Through these developing partnerships, SWIC and its partner high schools will continue to collaborate to align college placement and assessment expectations and find ways to motivate secondary students to improve their basic skills.

Amanda Starkey is Dean of Math & Sciences at SWIC and has 29 years of classroom teaching experience at the secondary and postsecondary levels.  She can be reached at amanda.starkey@swic.edu.