“Chaffey isn’t here to teach. We’re here to see that our students learn. There’s a big difference.”
Greg Creel, Instructional Specialist
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Chaffey College sits on the edge of Rancho Cucamonga, tucked up against the San Gabriel Mountains. Its 100 degree and certificate programs draw about 20,000 students each year from the Ontario/Inland Empire region. At the heart of this school are Student Success Centers led by full-time faculty and organized as curricular extensions of the classroom – not as ancillary support for struggling students.
At many schools, students are referred to a learning center only after getting a D on a paper or failing an exam. Chaffey’s centers aren’t framed as interventions, or even as product-oriented aids that help students finish a paper or prepare for an exam. Chaffey’s aim is to anticipate the speed bumps students will have and to build in support before the student stumbles. Leaders of the Success Centers say they strive to mirror the approach to learning that happens in classrooms. Working closely with faculty to ensure effective, targeted help, the centers host workshops, tutoring and supplemental instruction. Increasingly, students come for Directed Learning Activities. These are prepared for specific classes and present material that can’t be squeezed in to limited classroom hours.
Half of all students use the centers each year. A new Faculty Success Center provides parallel opportunities for individualized support and creative learning for full-time and adjunct instructors. A recent eight-day seminar, Preparing for the Underprepared, is an example of the center’s focus on pedagogy for basic skills. “We don’t just support the students,” said Laura Hope, interim dean of Instructional Support. “We support the faculty because it’s incredibly demoralizing to watch half your student population fail. And semester after semester, that’s the experience of many instructors.”
Laura Hope, Dean of Instructional Support
Faculty and staff say Chaffey’s attention to basic skills in academics and student services depends upon the unswerving commitment of college administrators and across-the-board participation of faculty.
The office of Institutional Research is integral to every aspect of planning. Data track what specific activities in the Success Centers have the biggest impact on student success. For example, data revealed that workshops contribute more to student success than tutoring. In response, the centers have directed more resources – and more research -- toward workshops. The centers now host more than 300 workshops each semester.
Success data also play a role in student advising. At the beginning of each semester, faculty in charge of the Success Centers visit classrooms to describe support services. They are able to tell students in most basic skills sections exactly how their use of the centers and other services will affect their success. Some students say advice is more credible (and less preachy) when it is backed up by hard numbers. “I tell them ‘55 percent of you won’t pass this class if you don’t use the centers; 75 percent who do use the centers will pass,’” said Greg Creel, instructional specialist. “Then I ask, ‘If you’re in Vegas, which odds are you going to choose?’”
California's community colleges use a wide range of worthwhile activities to improve basic skills. Hewlett Leaders have reached beyond activities that serve discrete groups of students to adopt strategies of integration for scaling up and sustaining basic skills success. In addition to this broad, encompassing approach, the visiting team members who selected the 2009 Hewlett Leaders identified a number of specific elements that support student success at Chaffey College:
- At the center of Chaffey’s basic skills transformation are Student Success Centers organized as curricular extensions of the classroom – not as ancillary support services for struggling students.
- A new Faculty Success Center provides parallel opportunities for individualized support and professional growth for instructors.
- A campus-wide culture of evidence drives the data collection and analysis that guides planning.
