Curriculum

All elements of this policy will be implemented no earlier than fall 2023 and no later than fall 2025 by decision of the planning and design teams described throughout this document.

May 26, 2022 - ACME Year End Report 2021-2022

ACME Year End Report 2021-2022

May 13, 2022 - ACME Update

Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to announce that CT State Community College will begin implementing the Alignment and Completion of Math and English (ACME) Policy to scale in Fall 2023. Approved by the Board of Regents in May 2021, this policy aims to increase completion of English 101 and the appropriate college-level gateway math course during a student's first year through implementing corequisite education. All students will begin their community college education in English 101 and the college-level gateway math course most appropriate for their program with the corequisite supports as needed. This policy also directs the offering of accelerated English as a Second Language (ESL) sequence, which has been piloted at some colleges.

Between 2018 and 2021, as part of the Guided Pathways work in CSCU, and led bythe CSCU Student Success Centerand its Guided Pathways Managers, hundreds of faculty, staff, and administrators collaborated on recommendations that set the foundation for the BORACMEpolicy. Over the past year, faculty working groups, with continued support from national experts from the Dana Center, have dedicated hundreds of hours to readying the components of theACMEpolicy for implementation. Over the coming year, much work remains ahead of us that will see faculty working groups studying and refining the implementation ofACMEto ensure that at scale it meets the BOR expectation of advancing equitable student success.

James Gentile and Andrew Sottile lead the English faculty workgroup, Debora Rimkus leads the math faculty workgroup, and Hannelore Moeckel-Rieke leads the ESL faculty workgroup. Each discipline workgroup consists of faculty members from across the CT State Colleges and Universities, all of whom contribute to the design and implementation ofACME. TheACMECore Steering Committee coordinates the activities of the discipline workgroups, and it developed a website to share information aboutACMEwork:ACME. It serves as a repository for meeting information, presentations, and other resources and links to discipline-specific webpages.

ACMEand corequisite education provide a fundamental shift from our current practice of prerequisite developmental education. Gateway math and English courses are prerequisites or corequisites for many courses. Therefore, all faculty must consider the implications of this policy on their programs and courses over the coming academic year. The leads for each discipline group are preparing professional learning opportunities and resources to support faculty and staff during this transitional period.In the meantime, the leads are available to answer questions as needed and will keep faculty updated on developments through CMAC, CCET and ESOL councils.Faculty teaching corequisite courses will receive targeted outreach and professional development opportunities to support successful implementation of these courses.

Thank you once again to everyone who has helped make this equity-informed, faculty-led, and student-centered work a priority. I look forward to the rollout in Fall 2023 but recognize that the work is far from done. I encourage all faculty and staff to become actively involved in the rollout, so that together, we deliver the best possible corequisite supports to our students.

Miah LaPierre-Dreger, Ed.D.
Interim Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs
CT State Community College

• Math Course Outlines
• Math Course Crosswalks
• Math Courses Flowchart
• Path to Calculus Flowchart

Prof. Aja Shabana, ACME Math Faculty Lead
Email: aja.shabana@ctstate.edu

See resources section above.

• ENG 1010, ENG 1010H
  ENG 1010: Composition satisfies the Written Communication I requirement. It is additionally offered in an Honors format.
  
  
• ENG 0910
  ENG 0910: Composition Workshop is the linked corequisite course for ENG 1010.
  
  
• ENG 1020, ENG 1020H, ENG 1030, ENG 1030H, ENG 1080
  ENG 1020 /1020 H: Composition II and Literature, ENG 1030 / ENG 1030 H: Composition II and Non-fiction Texts, and ENG 1080: Composition II: Technical Writing and Presentation each satisfy the Written Composition II requirement. These are included here to illustrate the progression from Written Communication I to Written Communication II. They are not directly part of the ACME project.

• English Placement and Advising
• CCET Challenge Essay Chart

Teaching the New English Co-Requisite Course Handbook

See resources section above.

Dr. James Gentile, ACME English Faculty Lead
Email: james.gentile@ctstate.edu 

Prof. Rashida Williams, ACME English Faculty Lead
Email: rashida.williams@ctstate.edu

Professor Alicia Hall, ACME ESOL Faculty Lead
Email: alicia.hall@ctstate.edu

Prof. Sigrid (Siggy) Nystrom, ACME ESOL Faculty Lead
Email: sigrid.nystrom@ctstate.edu

Faculty, staff, and coordinators involved in first year experience courses from the twelve CT community colleges developed a new College & Career Success course during the period of Spring 2018 to Fall 2019. The course was informed by Guided Pathways principles and backward designed to ensure that students develop the knowledge and skills to establish and achieve their academic and career goals. The course outcomes were carefully crafted to serve as a foundation for students to begin to develop core general education competencies, such as critical thinking and information literacy. In addition to emphasizing the development of essential success skills and strategies, the course includes a focus on career exploration culminating in the creation of an academic and career plan. The FYE work group completed the design of the three credit College and Career Success course (CCS 101) for CT State Community College in Fall 2019. The FYE work group then developed and submitted a statement in support of the CCS 101 course recommending the following:

• FYE/Student Success departments and faculty move the course through their campus curriculum approval process and begin teaching this course at their respective colleges.
• Academic administrators support the scheduling and staffing of the course.
• Academic programs include this course in their newly aligned curriculum for the one college.

The recommendations of the FYE work group were affirmed by the Choice Architecture and Holistic Student Support Redesign teams. The work and recommendations from the FYE work group provided the foundation for the College and Career Success (CCS 101) policy recommendation. The policy recommendations, supported by the staff report, were approved by the BOR in June 2020 (see CSCC College & Career Success 101 Policy).

The policy requires that all CT State Community College programs include the three credit CCS 101 course and that all degree-seeking students enroll in CCS 101 within the first nine credits.  Additionally, policy requires that CCS 101 1) includes a component that meets the general education core diversity requirement, with the acknowledgement that diversity topics should ideally be embedded throughout the General Education core and across the curriculum and 2) fulfills one of the general education core competencies. There must also be administrative oversight to ensure consistency of delivery and outcomes. An Interim Coordinator of CCS 101: College & Career Success was hired in July 2021 and a CCS 101 Advisory Council was formed in Fall 2021 with representation from each of the twelve campuses. Council voting members included coordinators and instructors of First Year/College Success courses along with non-voting members from Diversity/Equity/Inclusion, Professional Development, and Institutional Research. This council met during Fall 2021 to incorporate the General Education Core Competency of Continued Learning Information Literacy as well as the Diversity Requirement into the course outcomes, description, and topics outline. This new course will play a vital role in the Guided Pathways work in Connecticut, and beginning in Fall 2023, will serve as the primary vehicle in CT State Community College degree programs to ensure that every student has the strategies and skills to succeed in college, an introduction to diversity, and a clear, well designed individual academic and career plan.

College and Career Success (CCS) Workshop #4 - Recognize Cultural Identity and the Value of Diversity

Friday, 3/31/23, 10:00a.m. – 11:30 a.m. - College and Career Success (CCS) Advisory Council members share promising practices including teaching strategies (activities, assignments, and instructor resources) to be used to meet CCS Outcome: "Recognize cultural identity and the value of diversity". Guest speaker, Patricia Gagliardi, Director of Education and Restorative Justice, Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from Southern Connecticut State University

Video: Watch the presentation View Slides

Guided Pathways Advisor Training on CCS 1001: College and Career Success

Topics include:

WHY CCS 1001 is important to student success
WHAT is CCS 1001
WHO is required to take CCS 1001
Exemption and Substitution Process
WHEN students should take CCS 1001
HOW students can take this course
HOW to handle a student scenario

Video: Watch the presentation View Slides

Growth Mindset in Mind: Providing High Quality and Productive Feedback to Students in CCS 1001: College and Career Success

Friday, February 24th 12:00p.m. – 2:00p.m. - During this session, participants learn about how to foster a growth mindset when providing feedback to students. Numerous feedback strategies that will increase engagement and learning while not overly taxing faculty time are discussed and illustrated.

Video: Watch the presentation View Slides

College and Career Success (CCS) Workshop #3 - Create Academic and Career Plans

Friday, 12/9/22, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm - College and Career Success (CCS) Advisory Council members share promising practices including teaching strategies (activities, assignments, and instructor resources) to be used to meet the CCS Outcome: "Create academic and career plans including financial and success strategies for goal attainment"

Video: Watch the presentation Slides: Agenda - Career and Academic Planning Slides: Academic and Career Planning Slides: Incorporating Focus2 into Career Assignments

College and Career Success (CCS) Workshop #2: Define and Apply College Success and Resilience Strategies

Friday, 11/18/22, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm - College and Career Success (CCS) Advisory Council members share promising practices including teaching strategies (activities, assignments, and instructor resources) to be used to meet the CCS Outcome: “Define and apply college success and resilience strategies”

Video: Watch the presentation Slides: Download the slides

College and Career Success (CCS) Workshop #1: Identifying and Engaging with Campus Resources and Community

Friday, 10/14/22, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm - College and Career Success (CCS) Advisory Council members share promising practices including teaching strategies (activities, assignments, and instructor resources) to be used to meet CCS Outcome: Identify campus resources and engage with the campus community.

Video: Watch the presentation Slides: Download the slides

Engaging Students in Asynchronous and Synchronous Online College and Career Success (CCS) Courses”

Fri, Sep 16, 2022 - Participants learned about the importance of the College and Career Success course and how they can engage online learners in this class. Student endorsed and research-based student engagement strategies that can work in asynchronous and synchronous learning environments will be shared and modeled.

Video: Watch the presentation Slides: Download the slides

Presented by

Christine Harrington

Questions

Please contact Jill Rushbrook with any questions.

CT State Professional Learning Day

Resources from CT State Professional Learning Day for FYE/College and Career Success on 11/12/21:

Videos

• View Recordings of panel discussions

More resources to be added soon! Stay tuned!