Developmental Education Committee

Meeting Minutes: November 20, 2002

Present: Becky Bradshaw, Barb Cox, Ann DeArmond, Althea McBurrows, Jerry Niebauer, Kristin Rust, Jeri Schwerin, Gary Zaudtke

Minutes:

1. ESL - A recommendation was made to formalize the Passkey tutorial program for ESL students. Another suggestion was a dedicated space for ESL students in the Learning Center. It was also decided that we will ask Jocelyn Pihlaja for suggestions to help with the training of tutors to work with ESL students, as well as any other recommendations she might have in assisting students with English as a second language.
2. Developmental Science Course/Scientific Inferential Reading course: There is much concern about the success rate of students in the beginning science courses, especially the ability to read the science textbooks. It was again recommended that we offer the Developmental Science course during Spring 2003. It was asked whether it would still be necessary for a student who has taken Developmental Science to take Cell Biology. If students will still be required to take Cell Biology then there are scheduling and financial aid concerns. We will need science faculty to clarify this and answer other questions about the course. On Monday, November 25, the reading dept. will meet with faculty from the nursing program and science department to discuss ways to address the reading/study skills of at-risk health career students. One way might be for Reading faculty to team teach with Science faculty the developmental science course to provide strategies for reading in the content area through that class. Another suggestion might be the development of a separate reading course for health career students that would focus on scientific inferential reading. The reading department will report back to this committee and the Dean of Liberal Arts recommendations from this meeting.
3. Developmental Education Research: It will be necessary to find out the initial placement of students not succeeding in science courses, as well those not performing well on the Nursing Entrance exam. Knowing whether these students scored into developmental, took the required developmental, or did not place into a reading class during new student assessment will help as we make plans to address the needs of students struggling in the science and nursing areas. These questions and others from the Biology department will be forwarded to the Office of Institutional Research. Another concern for developmental education research was determined from last spring's assessment project where very few students that took developmental writing appeared in college courses that were assessed. The Office of Institutional Research will provide us with more data to help us evaluate whether this was a random occurrence or a sign of a more significant problem.

The next meeting will be Wednesday, December 4, 2002 from 1-2.

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