Program & Schedule 

8:30 - 8:45 Welcome

8:45 - 9:55 Opening Keynote Address with Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart

9:55 - 10:05 Break

10:05 -11:05 Facilitated Conversations about a Culture of Caring

11:05 - 11:15 Break

11:15 - 12:30 Breakout Sessions

Opening Keynote Address with Dr. Lowery-Hart, President of Amarillo College
No Excuses: Transforming Student Success through a Culture of Caring

Amarillo College developed a “Culture of Caring” that ushered in a new era of innovation, success, and cultural transformation. The Amarillo College reformation systemically and intentionally loves students to success. Our Culture of Caring embraces systems change by integrating accelerated learning, predictive-analytics, and wrap-around social services to overcome student poverty barriers.

Amarillo College loves the student we have, rather than the student we thought or wished we had enrolled. It works. Through building systems of caring, Amarillo College has seen an impressive growth rate increase in our student attainment and transfer rates over the last five years (20% to 56%) and closed achievement gaps.

Following Dr. Lowery-Hart’s talk, you will have the opportunity to engage in further conversation about how a systemic Culture of Caring can become part of your own campus culture.

Faculty Diversification: Why the Time is Now
The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, in partnership with the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office and Board of Governors (BOG), has embarked on a multi-year plan to increase the diversity of the faculty within the California Community Colleges. With a range of proposals, initiatives, and trainings, colleges are increasingly viewing diversification of the faculty in the system as one of their most important goals moving forward. In light of rapidly increasing social awareness of the disparities within all systems of society, the BOG Workgroup on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has accelerated the implementation timeline for these activities.

Presenters: John Stanskas, Academic Senate for California Community Colleges; Daisy Gonzales, California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office; and Greg Smith, Shasta College

***** This session will also be presented on October 30 at 11:15 AM *****

Student Support (Re)defined Meets Guided Pathways: Redesigning Student Onboarding in Light of COVID-19
Onboarding is a fundamental aspect of clarifying paths to student end-goals (Pillar 1) and helping students choose and enter a path (Pillar 2)—the first two pillars of the Guided Pathways framework. When colleges support students with equitable, holistic, and effective onboarding practices, they position students for long-term success and goal achievement by helping students stay on path (Pillar 3) and ensuring students are learning (Pillar 4). Join us to learn about a new RP Group guide that offers a structured process for using Student Support (Re)defined's six success factors to strengthen your students' experiences through their first year. Hear from two colleges about how they are using this approach to implement student onboarding remotely, reflect on your own college's onboarding efforts, and begin considering opportunities to advance your support to students as the enter (or re-enter) the college.

Presenters: Gustavo Oceguera, Norco College; Lisa Wilkins-Cooper, San Joaquin Delta College; and Rogéair Purnell, The RP Group

Seize the Power of Data to Align K14 Pathways to Living-Wage Jobs: How Intersegmental Mapping Can Engage Regional K12, Community Colleges, and Employer Partnerships to Increase Your Students' Economic Mobility
WestEd developed a pathway mapping process in tandem with technical assistance aimed to strengthen alignment between K12 and college career education programs that support robust regional K14 pathways responsive to local labor markets. In this session, we will share how data has been used to encourage intersegmental alignment to living-wage jobs in regions across California and Nevada and offer participants resources to start similar analyses.

Presenters: Rachel Antrobus and Allie Bollella, WestEd

Executing AB 705: Does It Work for All?
Corequisite remediation has a special status in AB 705 but does corequisite remediation maximize throughput for all students? In this session, we disaggregate transfer-level math and English completion for students in corequisite remediation models. Additionally, we will compare outcomes across different versions of corequisite remediation such as credit, noncredit, enhanced courses, and unit load variations. We will also describe the implementation styles and throughput results of colleges based on interviews and analysis from a stratified random sample of 14 colleges from across the state with either high or moderate proportions of transfer-level courses in their class schedules. Disproportionate impact analyses will be shown for different equity groups in varying types of corequisite models. This presentation will provide attendees with examples of how they examine their own courses for disproportionate impacts.

Presenters: Craig Hayward, Bakersfield College; Terrence Willett, Cabrillo College; Mallory Newell, De Anza College; and Loris Fagioli, Irvine Valley College

Skittlz for Peer Educators: Co-Creating Strategies for Meaningful Online Student Engagement and Learning -
In this session, you will join 3CSN Coordinators and student tutors to explore ways that peer educators can co-create powerful virtual learning environments. Hear how tutors and SI leaders are learning to build highly structured, supportive sessions that focus on building the affective and cognitive skills necessary for success, and share your own ideas for improving our online peer presence.

Presenters: Crystal Kiekel, Rebecca Moon-Stone, and 3CSN Student Interns, California Community Colleges’ Success Network

Student Supports: Innovation and Action for Virtual Support
This conference session will highlight rapid innovations and actions taken by several California community colleges to support students virtually. Presenters from various student support areas will make brief presentations based on their campus teams' work to address persistent challenges facing student support services. Participants, in an abbreviated process, will select and investigate promising practices that are being implemented and scaled at colleges; they will share and explore approaches and concepts and receive templates that can be used to plan change efforts on their campus. All participants will be invited to join an online counseling community of practice facilitated by the Career Ladders Project.

Presenters: Luis Chavez, Career Ladders Project; Amy Naverez, Chaffey College; Jenna Gausman, Santa Monica College; and Val Garcia, West Hills College Lemoore

***** This session will also be presented on October 16 at 11:15 AM *****

Schedule

8:30 - 8:40 Welcome

8:40 - 9:40 Breakfast with a Thought Leader

9:40 - 9:50 Break

9:50 - 11:05 Breakout Session 1

11:05 -11:15 Break

11:15 - 12:30 Breakout Session 2

Breakfast with a Thought Leader

Start your day off with an intimate conversation with a leading expert in our field. If you have ever wished you could have breakfast or lunch with a particular community college leader who you admire, then this session is for you. In this session you will have the opportunity to ask questions and share ideas with a leader in community college work as well as network with others from throughout the state. We hope the conversation will inspire your day (and maybe your month).

• Dr. Julianna Barnes, President, Cuyamaca College

• Dr. Kristi Blackburn, Interim Vice President of Pathways Innovation & Institutional Effectiveness, Los Angeles Community College District

• Dr. Darla Cooper, Executive Director, The RP Group

• Linda Collins, Founder and Executive Director, Career Ladders Project

• Dr. Deborah Harrington, Executive Director, California Community Colleges’ Success Network (3CSN)/Dean of Student Success, Los Angeles Community College District

• Dr. John Hetts, Visiting Executive, Research and Data, California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office

• Dr. Cynthia Olivo, Assistant Superintendent/Vice President of Student Services, Pasadena City College

• Dr. Rowena Tomaneng, President, San Jose City College

• Dr. Matt Wetstein, President, Cabrillo College

College-Focused Rehousing and Beyond: How Cerritos College has Created Housing and a Basic Needs Office for Homeless Students
Cerritos College has partnered with a nonprofit housing provider for homeless youth, Jovenes Inc., to implement innovative solutions addressing student homelessness. This presentation will describe the various strategies that Cerritos and Jovenes have deployed in order to identify students and connect them to housing support. Cerritos College will share how the school has invested in real estate within close proximity to the school to provide dedicated housing and holistic support to homeless students. This innovative approach allows Cerritos College to create housing solutions for students while partnering with a community nonprofit organization with housing expertise to manage the day-to-day operations and services. Further, Cerritos College will share how its new Basic Needs Office, "Falcon's Nest," is better serving these students.

Presenters: Amber Hroch and Dilcie Perez, Cerritos College; Eric Hubbard and Jamal Wilson, Jovenes

***** This session will also be presented on October 23 at 11:15 AM *****

An Unconventional Approach to Address Inequity: Listening, Asking, Observing and Listening Some More -
When Student Equity Plans generated a Student Equity Budget, many colleges swept away the funds for what they deemed as critical needs. Professional training and noted educators focused on how to write a plan, how to disaggregate data, and how to measure disproportionality. Few workshops or speakers focused on what could be done to address inequity. Few research models focused on utilizing students' voices and experiences to build a framework of success. This session will present both a research framework as well as an intervention model to address disparities in student success, especially for male students of color. Using a qualitative inquiry design, Mt. San Antonio College has developed a "Framework of Support" that addresses key developmental components impacting the success of male students of color and implements critical intervention strategies to address the imposter syndrome, identity developing, and locus of control.

Presenters: Sectino Keagan, Giovanni Rodriguez, and Audrey Yamagata-Noji, Mt. San Antonio College

Problem Solving: Moving Dual Enrollment Online
In response to dual enrollment courses rapidly moving online due to COVID-19, Career Ladders Project developed a webinar series to problem solve with a community of practitioners. In these webinars, expert practitioners shared their strategies for working through emerging issues with this move to remote delivery including access to technology, familiarity with platforms and modalities, communication, support services, and opportunities for enhancing online engagement. While much of the content focused on operational issues—like transitioning the infamous “paper form” to an online electronic workflow—the webinars also delved into the bigger issues of educational equity and access in a time of crisis and ways to sustain our practitioner community of practice. In this session, participants will consider the efforts needed to respond to the dire needs of our communities while providing timely assistance.

Presenters: Naomi Castro, Career Ladders Project; Carla Yorke, Cerritos College; and Matt Morin, Chaffey College

AB 705 Outcomes: It Takes a Campus to Produce Equitable Student Success in Transfer-Level Mathematics at Citrus College
In fall 2019, Citrus College expanded its AB 705 mathematics co-requisite course offerings from one (Introductory Statistics with support) to three (adding Applied Calculus with support and Precalculus with support), granting more students direct access to transfer-level math. The college achieved this expansion through the collaborative work of multiple campus stakeholders with an equity focus to guide the work. This interactive session will focus on sharing pedagogical strategies from all three co-requisite courses, discussing how our faculty community of practice for each course supports both full-time and adjunct faculty. We will discuss in-situ counseling services and classroom environment redesign along with the COVID-19 adjustment made by both students and faculty to remote teaching. We will share course success and throughput rate data at course level and disaggregated by various disproportionately impacted student groups.

Presenters: Toros Berberyan, Victoria Dominguez, Raquel Gutierrez, Lan Hao, Sara Khair, and Sophia Lee, Citrus College

Ground Your College Redesign in the Student Experience Using Student Support (Re)defined - In Times of Crisis and Beyond
With the double pandemic of COVID-19 and racial injustice, understanding students' actual experience in our colleges is imperative to an institutional response that meets students' needs and truly improves equity. Looking through the lens of the student experience can reveal unintended impacts of institutional practices and policies on the success of different student groups and help clarify redesign priorities. Join us to learn about a structured process for using Student Support (Re)defined's six success factor framework to (1) engage students to share their perspectives and experiences and (2) inform specific areas of action. Through large group discussion and small group activities, hear from one college participating in Leading from the Middle about how it has applied this inquiry process, share your own student engagement efforts, and advance your own practice of examining the student experience to inform redesign priorities.

Presenters: Priyadarshini Chaplot and Kelley Karandjeff, The RP Group; and Alice Mecom, Rio Hondo College

***** This session will also be presented on October 30 at 11:15 AM *****

Collaborative Learning Structures and Socio-Emotional Interventions in a New Virtual Mathematics Learning Experience
This session will engage participants in experiential activities that demonstrate how collaborative learning and socio-emotional strategies are represented in an innovative online mathematics learning experience. The design, instructional approach, and technological processes are intended for mathematics faculty and focus on the improvement of learning opportunities for online mathematics students through platform interaction and instructional strategies. The session will begin with a collaborative activity and a description of the instructional and technological structures salient in the virtual course model. Then, participants will explore more deeply with the instructional approach of the synchronous collaborative course components, and learn about the ways in which student behavioral data within the system can be used to inform both messaging and instructor intervention.

Presenters: Nicole Gray, Foothill College; and Lewis Hosie, WestEd

Ungrading Classroom Assessments in a Pandemic -
In this session you will learn and discuss the concept of ungrading for classroom assessments that will increase student learning, especially during a pandemic.You will learn from different classroom models for ungrading and apply your learning by (re)designing your own grading policy.

Presenters: Jessica Cristo, Jennifer Escobar, Deborah Harrington, Nika Hogan, and Student Interns, California Community Colleges’ Success Network

Overcoming Barriers to College Completion: Perspectives from Predominantly Latinx Inland Empire/Desert Transfer-Achieving Students
More than half of the college-going high school students in the Inland Empire/Desert attend one of the region's twelve community colleges, however these students have the lowest rates of achieving timely degree, certificate, or transfer-related outcomes across the state of California. This is of particular concern since nearly 6 in 10 students identify as Latino in a region of close to 5 million residents where less than 10% of Latino adults hold a bachelor's degree. The Growing Inland Achievement (GIA) Transfer Achievement Project investigates barriers and self-reported strategies among students who successfully transferred to regional bachelor's degree institutions. In addition, we ascertain student insight into what community colleges can be doing to ensure greater rates of transfer achievement.

Presenters: Eric Michael and Sorrel Stielstra, Growing Inland Achievement

It Takes a Village for ESL Student Success! -
At Madera Community College, the ESL program (established in 2012) is uniquely situated to make the most out of recent initiatives, legislation, and priorities. This presentation will report on a collaborative, problem-solving program development approach encompassing community partnerships, instruction, and student services—supported by institutional research. Through the implementation of surveys and focus groups with ESL and undocumented students, student voices have underscored compelling needs. Participants will learn about student-voice-centered research projects and how these can inform program development by utilizing COVID-19 information and initiating actionable steps, leveraging community partnerships to better support our students, and gaining insight into student perspectives.

Presenters: Nancy Frampton, Sergio Lemus, Marisela Maciel, and Elizabeth Villalobos, Madera Community College; David Hernandez, Madera Unified School District; and Michelle Santesteban, State Center Adult Education Consortium

Students Speak Their Truth about Transfer: What California Community College Students Say They Need to Get Through the Gate -
Each year, nearly 60,000 California community college students who are close to transfer do not make it to university. What do students say impacts their progress? How do they suggest strengthening their transfer success? Learn about culminating research from the RP Group's Through the Gate transfer study, including results from surveys and interviews with 800+ transfer students who had not yet made it to university. Enjoy an interactive panel discussion with students about the research, including four key factors impacting their transfer journey. Hear about and generate recommendations for acting on the research to boost students' university readiness. Engage in "speed" planning, outlining immediate steps to take on your campus for building students' transfer capacity and achieving related Vision for Success goals.

Presenter: Darla Cooper and Alyssa Nguyen, The RP Group and Student Participants

Guided Pathways and Learning Communities: How Hearing Student Voice Changed the Way We Work
East Los Angeles College, El Camino College, and Career Ladders Project utilized student focus groups to investigate how learning communities can inform our Guided Pathways work. As action-practitioners, we learned about focus group protocols and facilitation, and coded transcripts to reveal findings. We collectively conducted nine focus groups, some with learning community students and others with general population students, and found they had very different experiences. These findings, and the action research process, have strongly influenced our Guided Pathways work. The process of becoming action researchers has changed us as practitioners in how we approach our work. Participants will discuss the findings from the focus groups and implications for informing their own work, and consider how the action research process could enrich their own redesign efforts.

Presenters: Naomi Castro, Career Ladders Project; Nora Zepeda, East Los Angeles College; and Jenny Simon, El Camino College

Schedule

8:30 - 8:40 Welcome

8:40 - 9:40 Student Panel

9:40 - 9:50 Break

9:50 - 11:05 Breakout Session 1

11:05 -11:15 Break

11:15 - 12:30 Breakout Session 2

Student Panel

Join us for a conversation with three current or recent community college students who will share their experiences and what helped them succeed, and will provide insight and recommendations on what we can each do to strengthen the success of all of our students.

The Role of Faculty Success in Closing Equity Gaps
Community colleges have a mission of open-access and democratizing higher education for all students. With AB 705, access to transfer-level courses has opened, but long-standing equity gaps continue to persist. We will not be able to close these gaps unless we truly understand the factors that influence student success. This presentation explores faculty success as a factor in equitable student success. Over the past year, De Anza College has been exploring a multitude of factors that influence student success and have started conversations around the instructor’s role in success rates. This session explores the results from a multilevel model of factors that influence student success and how powerful the role of the individual faculty member is in student achievement.

Presenters: Karen Chow, Mallory Newell, Jerry Rosenberg, and Ola Sabawi, De Anza College

Lessons Learned Post-AB 705: Assessing the Impact and Outcomes of Implementation using a Mixed-Methods Research Model
How can colleges gauge the efficacy of their AB 705 implementation practices and approaches? What types of data and information are needed to effectively measure the impact of AB 705 in order to optimize student success? Using a multipronged approach, Compton College identified opportunities to facilitate AB 705 implementation and advance throughput in transfer-level math and English by working in partnership with the RP Group to assess the outcomes of key strategies related to placement, academic support, and professional learning activities. In this session, learn how the college connected results from a cross-functional research study to inform practices around AB 705 and discover key findings and takeaways from interviews, surveys, and focus groups with students, faculty, and in-class tutors.

Presenters: Mahmut Gundogdu and Lauren Sosenko, Compton College; Darla Cooper and Michelle White, The RP Group 

Caring, Commitment, and Community through COVID-19
Very few, if any of us, were prepared for how we would transform our complex college campuses into one that is caring, responsive, committed, and responsible when dealing with a crisis. How does a college community stay focused on a commitment to equity when the world as we know it seems to be crumbling? This presentation will share the voices we heard from our students, the strategies we employed to stay connected, and how we translated a crisis into a demonstration of caring. Presenters will share how we communicated with students—from online information, to online services, to "What's Up Wednesdays," to mental health discussions with male students of color. We will also discuss instituting safe mobile loaner laptop distributions and mobile food pantries and staffing program "lifelines." "Lessons Learned (The Hard Way)" will also be shared, including development of policies on the fly and confusing facts with fears.

Presenters: Aida Cuenza-Uvas, Tannia Robles, Koji Uesugi, and Audrey Yamagata-Noji, Mt. San Antonio College 

***** This session will also be presented on October 23 at 9:50 AM *****

AB 705 and Successful, Equitable Outcomes through Embedded Support: The PAL Program at Chaffey College -
In mid and late March, we shifted the PAL embedded mentoring program from mostly face-to-face delivery to an entirely online approach. PAL mentors embedded in the virtual classroom on Canvas and met with students outside of class through Cranium Cafe. The transition was very successful, and the program has continued through the summer term in the entirely online format. Despite the pandemic and higher rates of access to English 1A as mandated by AB 705, our success rate was higher in spring 2020 than it was in spring 2019, due in large part to the strength of the PAL embedded mentor program. Ninety-two percent of all English 1A students who accessed a PAL mentor outside of class went on to successfully complete the course.

Presenters: Sharon Alton, Leona Fisher, Kimberly George, and Alina Mowlanazada, Chaffey College 

Signs and Signals: The Role of Messaging in Informing Students' Math Journeys
Mathematics reforms—including diversified math pathways, placement reforms, and corequisite offerings—have the potential to dramatically improve equity in student outcomes, but only if they are implemented in equitable ways. That means that colleges need to eliminate structures, question assumptions, and remove deficit-oriented messages that have traditionally steered marginalized students away from college-level courses as well as pathways leading to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields. Just Equations analyzed California community college and state university websites along with available college student success data to examine signals that inform students' selection of math courses and pathways during the onboarding process. Join us to learn about messaging practices to ensure positive math experiences.

Presenters: Mina Dadgar, Education Equity Solutions; Pamela Burdman, Just Equations; and Rogéair Purnell, RDP Consulting

Student Supports: Innovation and Action for Virtual Support
This conference session will highlight rapid innovations and actions taken by several California community colleges to support students virtually. Presenters from various student support areas will make brief presentations based on their campus teams' work to address persistent challenges facing student support services. Participants, in an abbreviated process, will select and investigate promising practices that are being implemented and scaled at colleges; they will share and explore approaches and concepts and receive templates that can be used to plan change efforts on their campus. All participants will be invited to join an online counseling community of practice facilitated by the Career Ladders Project.

Presenters: Luis Chavez, Career Ladders Project; Amy Naverez, Chaffey College; Jenna Gausman, Santa Monica College; and Val Garcia, West Hills College Lemoore

***** This session will also be presented on October 2 at 11:15 AM *****

Clarifying the Path to Completion and Transfer: Why and How Program Mapping Drives Progress and Completion
Program maps can be a very effective tool to improve student progress and increase equity in the structure of students' course-taking. When program maps are highly available to students, staff, and faculty, they increase equity by acting as a safety net for students who are not able to access counselors. They also serve to equalize "college knowledge" so that first generation students can plan and structure their schedules in ways that support and promote progress and completion by default. Student voice and statistical evidence will be shared showing how and why deployment of the Program Pathways Mapper—a popular online program mapping tool—is resulting in higher levels of student progress toward completion as measured by key Guided Pathways momentum points and students' on-path percentage metric.

Presenters: Craig Hayward, Bakersfield College; Rob Shorette and Chenoa Woods, California State University Chancellor’s Office

***** This session will also be presented on October 23 at 9:50 AM *****

Building Communities and Supporting Faculty in Times of Change, Post AB 705
 As AB 705 continues to change the landscape of composition in California, much of the focus has been on offering practical support services to our students. However, it is equally important to focus on creating a sustainable and supportive environment for faculty. In this session, we will (1) share preliminary survey and success rate data gathered from our new English class and (2) discuss the faculty outreach and professional development efforts we have implemented at College of the Canyons to help faculty navigate the changes created by AB-705.

Presenters: Annie Aboulian, Erin Delany, Alexa Dimakos, Adam Kaiserman, and Alene Terzian-Zeitounian, College of the Canyons

Proposing Three New Measures to Assist with Equitable Student Placement, Support, and Success
Sacramento City College's Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Equity and Success Initiative (SESI) is a Department of Education funded program that began in spring 2017. The principal focus is improving representation and success in STEM disciplines. To date, we have been able to nearly double our fall-to-fall retention rates for our Latina/o/x students. Successful program elements include use of measures that more accurately predict course success rates based on three specific skills (STEM-Score), help our students understand their own responses to varying stimuli and then how to take charge in optimizing their learning environment (Adolescent Adult Sensory Profile), and align essential life needs with available resources (Student Needs Survey). We are excited to share these instruments for potential use as multiple measures in placement or planning, and general support of student success.

Presenters: Paul de Gennaro, Tiffanie Ho, and Rosalinda Salazar, Sacramento City College

Online Dual Enrollment Courses: A Collaborative Model for Expanding College Credit Opportunities for High School Students
In response to a growing demand for college credit opportunities at over 30 high schools in Kern County, Bakersfield College has collaborated with high school partners to pilot online dual enrollment courses. While online formats have traditionally proven unsuccessful for younger students, the collaboration and additional supports built into this model have provided results worth sharing and replicating. Bakersfield College and high school partners will share the details of implementing these courses, lessons learned along the way, and how this model has helped maintain opportunities and access amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

Presenters: Nicole Alvarez and Kylie Campbell, Bakersfield College

Leading Change in Changing Times: Challenges and Success of Middle Leaders
Middle leaders are literally and metaphorically between the needs of the moment and those of the long term, as well as between the students and the forces that shape the system. Middle leaders-- whether they have formal titles and leadership responsibilities or lead from wherever they are on campus-- have been in positions to make their institutions more effective and more equitable. While the waves of change have been moving across the community college for the last decade, this year has been a tidal wave. What can middle leaders do in these transitional times? Join a conversation with colleagues who are middle leaders -- LFM coaches working towards change at their own college and supporting a team at another college-- to talk about the challenges they have faced, the strategies they have employed, the successes they have achieved, and their ongoing struggles as they lead from the middle now.

Presenters: Debra Polak, Mendocino College/Leading from the Middle; and Leading from the Middle Coaches

Schedule

8:30 - 8:40 Welcome

8:40 - 9:40 Panel Discussion: Leading through Change

9:40 - 9:50 Break

9:50 - 11:05 Breakout Session 1

11:05 -11:15 Break

11:15 - 12:30 Breakout Session 2

Leading through Change

We live in challenging times, both personally and professionally. How should our colleges respond? How do faculty, staff, and administrators continue to care for, connect to, and create community for our students and our employees? In this panel discussion, three California community college leaders will talk about how they have navigated the changes due to COVID-19, the ensuing economic and social fallout, and the rising calls for racial justice. Join us to hear from Dr. Carole Goldsmith, President of Fresno City College; Dr. Keith Curry, President of Compton College, and Thuy Nguyen, J.D., President of Foothill DeAnza Community College as they share their stories and answer questions about leading through change.

Transfer and Alignment with the California State Universities (CSU) and the University of California (UC)
With the 10^th anniversary of the introduction of Associate Degrees for Transfer approaching, and the recent introduction of the UC Transfer Pathways, it would seem that transfer between the California systems of public higher education would be easier than ever. Yet, that is not the case, as students are facing increased barriers to successfully transferring to the system and institutions of their choice. What can colleges and statewide organizations do to assist students in their transfer goals, and what changes need to be made to ensure that students are well served by both the processes in place and subsequent proposals around transfer?

Presenters: Dolores Davison and Virginia May, Academic Senate for California Community Colleges

Windows and Mirrors: Instructor-Led Planning to Close Opportunity Gaps Reflected in Disaggregated Instructor-Level Data
In this session, walk through one full day of professional development training focused on analyzing disaggregated instructor-level data and determining ways that faculty can examine their perceptions of their students and of themselves as instructors—all designed to help participants reflect on their practice and work on ways to better serve disproportionately impacted student equity groups. While the session’s examples focus on supporting English faculty, all materials can be adapted to other disciplines.

Presenters: Kyle Hill, Micheline Pontious, and Mitra Sapienza, City College of San Francisco

Clarifying the Path to Completion and Transfer: Why and How Program Mapping Drives Progress and Completion
Program maps can be a very effective tool to improve student progress and increase equity in the structure of students' course-taking. When program maps are highly available to students, staff, and faculty, they increase equity by acting as a safety net for students who are not able to access counselors. They also serve to equalize "college knowledge" so that first generation students can plan and structure their schedules in ways that support and promote progress and completion by default. Student voice and statistical evidence will be shared showing how and why deployment of the Program Pathways Mapper—a popular online program mapping tool—is resulting in higher levels of student progress toward completion as measured by key Guided Pathways momentum points and students' on-path percentage metric.

Presenters: Craig Hayward, Bakersfield College; Rob Shorette and Chenoa Woods, California State University Chancellor’s Office

***** This session will also be presented on October 16 at 11:15 AM *****

Caring, Commitment, and Community through COVID-19
Very few, if any of us, were prepared for how we would transform our complex college campuses into one that is caring, responsive, committed, and responsible when dealing with a crisis. How does a college community stay focused on a commitment to equity when the world as we know it seems to be crumbling? This presentation will share the voices we heard from our students, the strategies we employed to stay connected, and how we translated a crisis into a demonstration of caring. Presenters will share how we communicated with students—from online information, to online services, to "What's Up Wednesdays," to mental health discussions with male students of color. We will also discuss instituting safe mobile loaner laptop distributions and mobile food pantries and staffing program "lifelines." "Lessons Learned (The Hard Way)" will also be shared, including development of policies on the fly and confusing facts with fears.

Presenters: Aida Cuenza-Uvas, Tannia Robles, Koji Uesugi, and Audrey Yamagata-Noji, Mt. San Antonio College

***** This session will also be presented on October 16 at 9:50 AM *****

Harnessing Neuroscience and Memory Research as a Foundation for Creating a Culturally Responsive Classroom
Academic disciplines at California community colleges are structured according to Eurocentric ways of organizing and legitimizing specific types of knowledge and ways of knowing. This workshop will examine Culturally Responsive Pedagogy as an act of resistance to education's colonial foundations and provide a neuroscientific understanding of how Eurocentric ways of knowing are reinforced. Key to the success of this approach is the collaboration between faculty and students to co-produce knowledge to ensure courses are culturally responsive and emphasize cultural wealth, are relevant to students' experiences and goals, are academically rigorous, and cultivate belonging and community among students and faculty. Participants will leave the workshop with tools to harness neuroscience to facilitate the learning of students from diverse cultural experiences.

Presenters: Elizabeth Imhof and Joshua Ramirez, Santa Barbara City College

A Qualitative Evaluation of AB 705
The RP Group, in partnership with the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, interviewed 14 colleges throughout the state identified as either scheduling an average of 80% or more of their English and math courses at transfer level or scheduling an average of 65% or less of their English and math courses at transfer level in fall 2019. The purpose of these interviews was to better understand the factors that influence varying levels of and approaches to implementation. A stratified random sample of all California community colleges within each of the seven Vision for Success regions was used to select the colleges resulting in over 70 interviews with faculty, staff, administrators and Institutional Research and Planning professionals.

Presenters: Mallory Newell, De Anza College; Terra Morris, and Michelle White, The RP Group

We Need to Make Changes in Our Classrooms Now: Cuyamaca College's Equity-Minded Teaching and Learning Institute
Closing equity gaps requires investing in all faculty so they can make changes to their instruction. Cuyamaca's Equity-Minded Teaching and Learning Institute inspires faculty to make such changes through honest reflection on their equity data, instructional practices, and curriculum. By providing practical, social justice-based teaching and learning approaches, this institute cultivates communities of practice among faculty who are committed to improving instruction through critical self-reflection. Through this institute, faculty use their equity data to reimagine their teaching practices and create a supportive and caring classroom climate that is culturally responsive and builds on students' cultural wealth. During this session, participants will learn how Cuyamaca developed, piloted, and scaled this institute across disciplines through partnerships with Title V and Extended Opportunities Programs and Services (EOPS).

Presenters: Katie Cabral, John Escobedo, Moriah Gonzalez-Meeks, and Jesus Miranda, Cuyamaca College

College-Focused Rehousing and Beyond: How Cerritos College has Created Housing and a Basic Needs Office for Homeless Students
Cerritos College has partnered with a nonprofit housing provider for homeless youth, Jovenes Inc., to implement innovative solutions addressing student homelessness. This presentation will describe the various strategies that Cerritos and Jovenes have deployed in order to identify students and connect them to housing support. Cerritos College will share how the school has invested in real estate within close proximity to the school to provide dedicated housing and holistic support to homeless students. This innovative approach allows Cerritos College to create housing solutions for students while partnering with a community nonprofit organization with housing expertise to manage the day-to-day operations and services. Further, Cerritos College will share how its new Basic Needs Office, "Falcon's Nest," is better serving these students.

Presenters: Amber Hroch and Dilcie Perez, Cerritos College; Eric Hubbard and Jamal Wilson, Jovenes

***** This session will also be presented on October 9 at 9:50 AM *****

Using Affective, Non-Cognitive Strategies to Ensure Learning
Student Support (Re)defined offers six success factors that students say they need to succeed in college, and if we want our students to experience these factors, then affective, non-cognitive practices and strategies are the most effective way to incorporate them into our classes, whether online or face-to-face. In this session, we will examine some of the research that supports the use of affective learning activities and the evidence of their effectiveness with all students, and especially with our underserved students. We will highlight some of the affective practices and strategies that help students feel more directed, focused, connected, engaged, nurtured, and valued and provide opportunities for participants to experience them firsthand as we model how they work in practice. Participants will be able to adopt or adapt these practices and strategies for their own classes.

Presenters: Diego Navarro, Cabrillo College (Retired)/WGU Labs; Pam Guenther, Santa Barbara City College; and Kathy Molloy, Santa Barbara City College (Retired)/The RP Group

How Visible or Invisible are Leaders of Color at your College?
Educators of color in higher education face different challenges than their white colleagues when they move into leadership positions. However, their presence on campuses also brings different approaches to supporting the success of students of color. As colleges are having the hard conversations about equity at all levels of the institution, how can the voices of these leaders be amplified, their experiences understood, and their strengths recognized? Join us in a conversation with leaders of color as they talk about their pathways to leadership, the obstacles they have encountered, the strategies they have employed, and the successes they have achieved. In small groups, participants will discuss specific actions they can take to further equitable outcomes for students and the campus community.

Presenters: Diva Ward, Cañada College; Michael Takeda and Tabitha Villalba, Fresno City College; Reagen Dozier, Porterville College; Vandana Gavaskar, Santa Barbara City College; and Ireri Valenzuela, The RP Group

Schedule

8:30 - 8:45 Welcome

8:45 - 9:55 Final Keynote Address with Dr. Angélica Garcia, President of Berkeley City College: Courageous & Caring Community Colleges: Advancing Equity and Racial Justice for Students

9:55 - 10:05 Break

10:05 -11:05 Facilitated Conversations Following Keynote Speech

11:05 - 11:15 Break

11:15 - 12:30 Breakout Sessions

Final Keynote Address with Dr. Angélica Garcia, President of Berkeley City College
Courageous & Caring Community Colleges: Advancing Equity and Racial Justice for Students

This keynote will address how equity-centered leadership and practice calls for deep self-reflective learning and engagement in institutional experiences that are unapologetic about centering students. Focusing on equity and racial justice is critical in interrogating the systemic forms of institutionalized discrimination embedded in the structures of higher education, such as, racism, sexism, and homophobia. In her talk, Dr. Garcia will offer a perspective that to have a courageous commitment to student success and completion, colleges must have focused leadership, meaningful relationships, and care enough to work through the discomforts of anti-racist and anti-sexist structures.

Following Dr. Garcia’s keynote, attendees will have the opportunity to participate in further conversation about how we can each engage in creating a Courageous & Caring Community on our own campuses.

Faculty Diversification: Why the Time is Now
The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, in partnership with the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office and Board of Governors (BOG), has embarked on a multi-year plan to increase the diversity of the faculty within the California Community Colleges. With a range of proposals, initiatives, and trainings, colleges are increasingly viewing diversification of the faculty in the system as one of their most important goals moving forward. In light of rapidly increasing social awareness of the disparities within all systems of society, the BOG Workgroup on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has accelerated the implementation timeline for these activities.

Presenters: John Stanskas, Academic Senate for California Community Colleges; Daisy Gonzales, California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office; and Greg Smith, Shasta College

***** This session will also be presented on October 2 at 11:15 AM *****

Beyond Math and English: Gatekeeper Courses by Program, and Ensuring Success for All
Research has shown that one of the barriers to a degree and/or transfer is the completion of transfer-level math and English courses, the traditional gatekeepers to successful completion. AB 705 was passed in order to remove these barriers across the entire system, and we expect this will translate to increased completions. Can we extend the momentum of AB 705 at the institutional level to "ensure learning" (Guided Pathways Pillar 4) across all programs of study offered locally? Which courses should colleges strategically invest resources in? In this session, we share (1) Irvine Valley College's framework for identifying gatekeeper courses at the program level, and (2) the steps department chairs are taking to improve the outcomes of these courses.

Presenters: Loris Fagioli, Rebecca Kaminsky, and Vinh Nguyen, Irvine Valley College

Integrated Student Support in a Guided Pathways College
This session will provide participants with an introduction to Career Ladders Project's new online tool developed to support colleges as they redesign student services to be more integrated to the student experience. The Integrated Student Supports Design Guide provides users with an overview of emerging best practices in redesigning student services, three to four college examples for each topical area, and a guide to getting started on their own campus that includes recommended data points to examine, inquiry questions to explore in teams, and sample design activities that use a design thinking approach.

Presenters: Michelle Simotas, Career Ladders Project; and Saramanda Swigart, City College of San Francisco

Ground Your College Redesign in the Student Experience Using Student Support (Re)defined - In Times of Crisis and Beyond
With the double pandemic of COVID-19 and racial injustice, understanding students' actual experience in our colleges is imperative to an institutional response that meets students' needs and truly improves equity. Looking through the lens of the student experience can reveal unintended impacts of institutional practices and policies on the success of different student groups and help clarify redesign priorities. Join us to learn about a structured process for using Student Support (Re)defined's six success factor framework to (1) engage students to share their perspectives and experiences and (2) inform specific areas of action. Through large group discussion and small group activities, hear from one college participating in Leading from the Middle about how it has applied this inquiry process, share your own student engagement efforts, and advance your own practice of examining the student experience to inform redesign priorities.

Presenters: Priyadarshini Chaplot and Kelley Karandjeff, The RP Group; and Alice Mecom, Rio Hondo College

***** This session will also be presented on October 9 at 9:50 AM *****

Entering the Second Year of AB 705: What’s Happening and Where Do We Go Next?
This session will highlight AB 705 changes underway statewide, including findings of a forthcoming analysis of fall 2020 course schedules. To what extent are colleges still offering remedial courses? What is happening at colleges that have eliminated (or nearly eliminated) stand-alone remedial courses in English and math? What impact are the changes having on completion, equity, and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) pipelines? Looking past year one, this session will highlight additional efforts that will be needed—institutionally, departmentally, and in individual classrooms—to support success and equity for all students.

Presenter: Katie Hern, California Acceleration Project