Ron Liss, SFCC’s vice president for academic and student affairs, says it’s up to the community college to bridge the gap for academically underprepared students—even if the problems start in elementary school.
Credits: Alexa Schirtzinger
“Why aren’t they prepared? We never designed them to be prepared,” Liss, who has also conducted academic research on education systems, tells SFR. “When colleges were created and high schools were created, there was never an intent to link the two.”
Whereas a high school diploma was once enough to land a reasonably high-paying job, Liss says, now an associate’s degree is the bottom-line prerequisite for most occupations.
“So all of a sudden, you needed to make that leap—but we didn’t make the system, at the same time, prepare the easy transition,” Liss says.
Changing an entire education system takes years, he says—so it’s often up to community colleges to bridge the achievement chasm.
“That’s where we’ve developed these developmental programs that say, ‘We can fill in that gap,’” Liss explains. “We’re going to try and get there.”
In fall 2009, 64 percent of incoming SFCC students—and 69 percent of Hispanic students—were enrolled in at least one developmental course.
Though that speaks to the college’s efforts to bring unprepared students up to speed, Liss says, the developmental courses also lead to unintended consequences.
“The students that spend any significant amount of time in developmental classes prior to being in college [courses] have very little chance of ever graduating,” Liss tells SFR. “If they start in our lowest-level courses, I can almost guarantee you that they will not graduate. Their financial aid runs out; other things get in the way; they have more of a chance of getting sidetracked.”
In part, he says, that’s because developmental courses often have nothing to do to with the real reason most students decide to go to college.
“We put them in things that they don’t care about,” Liss explains. “If I want to learn about biofuels, but I have to go through two years of developmental [coursework] before I take my first biofuels course, my chance of ever being motivated to get there is taken away.”
It’s also discouraging, he says, to spend entire semesters in developmental classes that cost the same amount of money as other classes but don’t count toward a degree or certificate.
Around 2005, Liss says, SFCC administrators began to notice that the developmental courses sometimes had a counterproductive effect on retention and student success—and they started brainstorming.
They realized, Liss says, “that we really need to do more than just these small, little pieces. We need a whole experience that the student would go through during their first year—what we call a First Year Experience.”
Over the course of 2011, Liss’ brainchild will become a reality. Drangmeister is in the process of hiring six staff members to run the program, including a director, a curriculum specialist, two advisers, an administrative assistant and a data analyst.
Drangmeister hopes to “have all the pieces in place” by April 18, the beginning of pre-registration for fall and summer courses at SFCC, so that a full-fledged First Year Experience will be in place for students who start their studies this fall.
Start with the staff at SFCC - the academic advisors are the worst I have ever seen!
I arrived needing a few prerequisite classes for work at UNM. I was told that my transcripts were all that was needed for placement. I had already earned a BA and an MA.
Upon arrival I was informed by a patronizing 'academic advisor' that coursework not completed within the last 5 years was 'not worth anything'. I replied that by this logic, all of the scientists at Los Alamos were non-functional, academically. The Advisor failed to see the humor or the logic in this. He huffily insisted I was to take a math placement exam 'for your own good'.
I circumvented the exam with a phone call to the instructor, who was only too happy to assist me with registration.
Several weeks later I had an uncomfortable encounter with the now enraged Advisor. In the hallway. He was completely unprofessional about it.
I passed the class with a 99 average. So the intervening 22 years failed to dull my ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Imagine that.
*Note to the SFCC administration: the installation of Academic Advisors who automatically regard every single incoming student as an unintelligent, uneducated and/or underperforming individual does nothing for your recruitment and retention.
Perhaps these same individuals should repeat some of their coursework since it is, obviously, more than 5 years out of date, and they are functioning below grade level.
The comment about the academic advisors being the worst ever is extremely false. I can understand this gentleman's frustrations; however his experience is an exception. My experience with the academic advisors has been wonderful. They are helpful and always trying their best to help anwser any questions a student may have. They make the transition from high school to college as convenient as possible.
Perhaps, the academic advisers are 'the worst' Homonym has ever seen, and if so, perhaps his experience is very limited. I returned to college in the summer of 2009, after an absence of almost 20 years (the most recent attempt at a degree), and encountered the same thing (previous courses work no longer valid). I consider myself extremely fortunate to have run into Calahan Fiddes, an academic advisor at SFCC. I was actually glad I retook the Algebra...I was a little rusty. I 'tested out' of the other prerequisites, and that was the end of it...I was on my way! I cannot thank the staff and instructors enough for their continued support and encouragement. As with anything in life, I realized I also had to be my own advocate, and persisted in looking for answers and solutions, when confronted with concerns or questions. I will graduate in May, having retrained in an entirely different field, and have been offered, and excepted a job in the health care. I'm have also registered for Fall 2011 classes, and plan to continue for a BA in health sciences. By the way, I'll be 65 in June, and know that many of us at SFCC seeking an 'encore' career have experienced the encouragement and support of the staff at SFCC>