Post-Conference Workshops 

This session will focus on how colleges can leverage their first year and/or College Promise programs as onramps into Guided Pathways. Using the Los Angeles Community College District’s LA College Promise program as a model and the Guided Pathways framework as a guide, participants will engage with the research and high-impact practices that keep the student journey at the center of any program or intervention design. Participants will learn how utilizing a comprehensive and holistic pre-college and first year experience program, in combination with clearly defined pathways and integrated career/major exploration, can dramatically increase student success and completion.

Participants will also have the opportunity to identify external regional partners in education, government, and private industry that can support the goals of the College Promise program. Participants will leave with strategies for how to: 1) Identify resources to help make the case for a comprehensive, completion-oriented College Promise program at their own institutions; 2) Convene a wide range of stakeholders to partner in College Promise; 3) Crosswalk existing college efforts with Guided Pathways to create an integrated student experience.

Presenters: Jessica Cristo, Los Angeles Community College District/California Community Colleges’ Success Network (3CSN); Phyllis Braxton, Counselor, Los Angeles Pierce College; Joanna Zimring Towne, Los Angeles College Promise/California Community Colleges’ Success Network (3CSN)

One of the most important and often underappreciated resources students have to support their success is other students. Peer educators, such as tutors and Supplemental Instruction Leaders, can create powerful spaces that are strengths-based, learner-centered, and rooted in care. As we recover from the pandemic and strive to build stronger communities and connections, it’s time to take a closer look at how we can support this work. Join this deep-dive session as we explore the following:

• How the pandemic loss and trauma can manifest as “learning loss” in some students, and the importance of community, care, and connection in post-pandemic equity and success.

• The unique role that peer educators already play in providing academic support that simultaneously addresses the affective and cognitive domains of learning.

• Strategies for how we can support and strengthen this work by providing peer educators with deeper professional learning in metacognition and interconnected learning theory.

• Using WestEd’s Reading Apprenticeship framework, generate concrete strategies for how practitioners can build training and support in four interconnected areas of learning: social, personal, cognitive, and knowledge-building dimensions.

In teams, participants will create concrete plans for strengthening professional learning for peer educators and design at least one activity to take back to campus and implement right away.

Presenters: Megan Keebler, Chaffey College; Crystal Kiekel, Los Angeles Pierce College/California Community Colleges’ Success Network; Madi Blaney, Los Angeles Pierce College

After years of Guided Pathways redesign, pandemic-induced changes in instructional and student services delivery, and the continuing racial and social justice reckoning, colleges are advancing approaches and models to support students more equitably while meeting them where they are. Counselors continue at the center of much of this work, and while they encounter structural and cultural barriers, many are committed equity champions and have worked with others to develop and refine student-centered reforms. Regrounding counseling’s purpose, delivery, and deployment in this new context has led to emerging strategies including the expansion or merging of learning communities; working with success coaches and teams; and focusing counseling in career communities that expand the network of support.

Join us for a facilitated dialogue about the experience and future of counseling in the California community colleges. Counselors, success coaches, and student services team members who have taken bold steps at their campuses will share their progress and some of the key infrastructure and capacity constraints they’ve addressed along the way. Participants will explore how student experience and equity can be at the center of counseling and student supports going forward as they strive to be equity champions on their campuses.

Presenters: Luis Chavez and Sherry Shojaei, Career Ladders Project, and a panel of CCC counselors and success coaches

The dyad of equitable placement and completion is essential to advancing ongoing equity within our system. The California community colleges have successfully closed equity gaps regarding access to transfer-level courses; however, outcomes continue to lag for disproportionately impacted student groups. Corequisite support courses are one promising practice that has the potential to narrow equity gaps. However, recent studies have found the implementation of corequisite courses is lagging in the number of sections needed to support students in transfer-level courses, especially in STEM-related math courses. Improvements in teaching and learning must continue to develop at each college to advance efforts to improve equitable outcomes for all student groups.

This workshop is tailored to faculty members interested in creating, enhancing, revising, or evaluating corequisite support courses. The workshop will discuss findings from a recent study by the Multiple Measures Assessment Project (MMAP) research team on statewide outcomes across support courses and best practices from qualitative interviews with faculty teaching corequisite courses. This research will be paired with hands-on corequisite development considerations and practices presented by faculty from colleges with improvements in throughput as a result of corequisite support.

Presenters: Steve Schlesser, Cabrillo College; Giovanni Sosa, Crafton Hills College; Mallory Newell, De Anza College; Daisy Segovia, The RP Group

Dual enrollment is expanding in California and across the nation. The new multiyear CCC Roadmap between the Governor and the CCC system includes goals over the next five years to 1) close equity gaps in access to dual enrollment programs and 2) increase the percentage of TK-12 students graduating with 12 or more college units earned through dual enrollment by 15%. The state recently invested $700 million for high schools to expand equitable dual enrollment, and the new CCC Chancellor has indicated that this will be a high priority for the system for the immediate and foreseeable future.

How are colleges managing these new expectations? What can colleges that are leading the state share about how to accomplish this? How do we ensure that equity is at the center of expansion efforts, and how can we work together to change the generational trajectories of students from communities underserved by higher education in California? What would it look like if all ninth grade students had an introductory dual enrollment course and an education plan that included 12 or more units of college credit by the time they graduate? 

Join us for this workshop that will explore concrete strategies to expand equitable dual enrollment, including creating a strategic action plan, focusing recruitment and outreach, identifying and removing implementation barriers, and making quick progress with colleges’ high school partners.

The presenters will also share tools and resources that can support attendees’ college and high school partners and discuss what else is needed to accelerate student progress and equity via dual enrollment. The session will be led by the Career Ladders Project and the CCCCO, and resource persons from several colleges will be on hand to support the workshop.

Presenters: TBA

Tailored for interdisciplinary college teams, this workshop will connect participants to institutional, program, and classroom-based Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) tools and resources developed through the Chancellor’s Office’s SEM Program. Attendees will examine key internal and external factors that impact enrollment patterns and learn how to apply a holistic approach to SEM that focuses on optimizing enrollments and strengthening equitable student outcomes. To get the most out of this workshop, participants are encouraged to attend as a team of two to four. Teams will reflect on their local practices and acquire techniques for developing, integrating, and implementing data-informed SEM plans that incorporate student enrollment groups of focus. Participants will explore how Guided Pathways can inform and align student-centered scheduling to support persistence and completion. Finally, this workshop will move to a more personal level of SEM with an emphasis on how faculty can use relevant equity-based data to inform classroom policies and practices.

Presenters: Michelle Barton and Wendy Nelson, Palomar College; James Todd, Sierra College; Michelle White, The RP Group; Dan Walden, Victor Valley College