The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) recently selected faculty from across the state to form Discipline Input Groups (DIGs) whose task is to review and update the CB 21 Course Descriptors for basic skills English, math, and ESL. CB 21 coding is part of the C-ID process and describes the number of levels below transfer-level English and Math. How a course is coded allows the state to track progress of students moving through the transfer sequence, the data of which appear on the Student Success Scorecard. Following further work by the group, the drafts will next be given to a smaller Faculty Discipline Review Group (FDRG), whose task is to prepare them for statewide vetting.
Chris Gibson from English and Leigh Anne Shaw from ESOL joined discipline faculty from many colleges to participate in the review, held at the Oakland Marriott on Friday, September 19, 2014. Several factors drove the purpose for the meeting, among them:
- The Common Assessment Initiative (CAI), which is the result of legislation requiring the creation of a set of common descriptors to be used in determining placements of students at every college in the state. An assessment tool is also being created. The common descriptors would allow students who move between colleges to be placed without having to take an additional placement test. In order for the CAI to complete its work, the CB 21 coding of courses needs to be updated.
- The passage of Resolution 09.04 at the 2014 ASCCC Spring Plenary, authored by Leigh Anne Shaw, and entitled “Consistency in Data Mart English as a Second Language Basic Skills Progress Tracker.” This resolution was supported by research conducted by ESL professionals throughout the state documenting serious errors in the data in Data Mart, which informs the Basic Skills Progress Tracker. ASCCC is urging faculty to review the data coding on their courses to ensure that errors are corrected so that correct information is reported to the state.
Article by Leigh Anne Shaw
