Breaking Through: Moving ELL Students to Credit Programs

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Breaking ThroughMoving ELL Students to
Credit Programs

• CCCAOE Garden Grove
• October 19, 2006
• Cerritos College, Norwalk, CA
• Maggie Cordero, Director Adult Education
• Martha Robles, ESL Faculty (non-credit)
• Nick Kremer, Executive Dean, CITE

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Breaking Through

• supported by
• the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and
  GlaxoSmithKline Foundation

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Breaking Through

• Purposes
• To research connections between adults with 8th
  or lower skill levels (low skilled adults) and
  occupational/technical degree programs in
  community colleges,
• To demonstrate strategies for improving the
  connections.
• Investigate state policies supporting these
  strategies

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Why Worry About Low Skilled Adults and Community
College?

• Community college degree programs are the
  threshold to family supporting wages (percent
  above)

Male
Female
Male
Female
Male
Female
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Too Many Adults Are Not Ready for College
88 million lack literacy skills needed to enroll
in college-level occ/tech degree programs
36 million lack HS credential
36 million lack HS credential
50 million have skills too low even to qualify
for non-credit training(TABE/ 8th grade)
50 million have skills too low even to qualify
for non-credit training(TABE/ 8th grade)
52 million ended their education with a high
school diploma
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Few Low-Skill Adults Make It to and Through
College
Only 7 of ABE students earn GEDs
Only 30-35 of GED obtainers enter college
Only 4 of them earn an AA degree
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Low-Skilled Student Completion Rates Are Very Low

• Example from Washington State cohort entering
  community colleges in mid 90s.

Associates Degree After 5 Years
Prince and Jenkins, 2005
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Four Barriers

• Programs for low skilled adults (ABE, ESL, GED,
  Workforce, developmental ed) are profoundly
  disconnected from rest of college
• The pace is slow in many programs
• Programs lack connections to the labor market
• Support services are unavailable to most
  pre-college students

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Four Synergistic High-Leverage Strategies
Increase Access and Success
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Breaking Through

• The Initiative -

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Goals of the Breaking Through Demonstration

• Institutional change to support low skilled
  adults (no boutiques)
• Demonstration of effective strategies and models
  to advance low skilled adults
• Promote peer-learning approach to technical
  assistance for participating colleges

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Participating Colleges

• Six Leadership Colleges have been selected they
  will receive multi-year grants to improve their
  colleges for low skilled adults
• Central New Mexico CC (TVI)
• Cuyahoga Community College ,
• Community College of Denver,
• Owensboro Community and Technical College (KY),
• Portland Community College ,
• Southeast Arkansas Community College

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Learning colleges

• Criteria Have promising practices that can be
  enhanced
• Fifteen colleges
• Cerritos is only California college

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Cerritos College

• Pathway for English Language Learners
• A collaborative effort of non-credit and credit
  programs
• Focuses on Spanish speaking adults
• Goal is a sustainable occupation
• Measured transition from Spanish to English

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Program Structure

• Structure
• Outreach
• Instruction
• Non-Credit VESL Course
• Bilingual Credit Courses
• English Credit Courses
• Support services
• Completion of certificate or AA Degree
• Job advancement or job change using new skills

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Program areas

• Program areas that lead to jobs that
• are in demand and pay a sustainable wage
• Medical Assistant
• Pharmacy Clerk/Technician
• Machine Tool
• Welding
• Plastics
• Automotive Technician

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Outreach

• Extensive outreach is conducted through
• Community events
• Site visits to employers
• Spanish language media
• Orientation events
• Community organizations/churches

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VESL Vocational English as a Second Language

• VESL courses encompass two elements
• 1) English Language Skills
• Students utilize the language skills Listening
  and Speaking, Reading and Writing to increase
  their English language
• 2) Vocational Nomenclature
• Students immerse themselves in the vocational
  nomenclature of the occupation
• ? as an introduction to the vocation,
• ? as a foundation for future courses, and
• ? as a bridge to the credit vocational course
• which follows

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Hands On Nomenclature

• Learn about Personal Safety
• Learn to identify Hand Tools

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Nomenclature

• Students are introduced to the written
  nomenclatureof the occupation by
• 1) Reading from authentic material (Modern
  Welding by Althouse)
• 2) Receiving supplemental material (Oxford
  Picture Dictionary by Shapiro) and language
  practice

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Math and Measurements

• Students learn to identify and use Cardinal,
  Ordinal, and larger numbers
• Students learn/review simple math
• Students learn/review how to operate a hand held
  calculator
• Students learn/review measurements
• Students learn to read a Vernier Dial Caliper

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Bridging to Credit Courses

• Students are prepared to bridge to credit courses
  by
• 1) Learning what to expect in credit classes
• (i.e., syllabi, grades, unitsfees )
• 2) Learning Study Skills
• (i.e., how to study with flash cards or study
  partners
• 3) Learning to ask questions
• (i.e., 101 Questions)

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Credit Bilingual Occupational Courses

• Selected introductory courses are conducted
  bilingually (English and Spanish)
• Allows students to start their occupational
  training while still learning English
• Designed to transition students to an English
  only instructional environment

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Credit English Only Occupational Courses

• These courses are the more advanced occupational
  classes that enable students to complete
  certificate/degree programs

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Collaboration of non-credit and credit

• Non-credit program is located on the campus
• Credit vocational programs struggle with serving
  English language learners
• Credit programs which are trying to build
  enrollment
• Record of success with initial programs
• VESL and Vocational Instructor work closely
  together

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Highlights

• The program enables students to transition and
• succeed in credit occupational programs
• A college research office study found that VESL
  students were more likely to transition to credit
  classes than general ESL students (25.7 v. 7.3)
• Upon transition to credit courses, VESL students
  are more successful in classes than the general
  student body (84.7 vs. 65.5 obtain grade of C
  or better)

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Challenges we are working on

• Add program areas, currently includes 6
  occupational areas
• Lack of appropriate instructional materials
• Limited number of students make the transition to
  credit (currently 25)
• Bilingual vocational instructors advising
  students to bypass VESL classes
• English language learner vocational students are
  employed at a lower rate (73 vs. 83 according
  to VTEA core indicators).

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More challenges

• Need a consistent approach to how first language
  is used in bilingual classes and approach to VESL
• How to best set realistic expectations with
  prospective and new students
• Establish a floor/minimal level of English to
  enter VESL classes

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Illustrating the Breaking through Strategies
for Success at Cerritos

• Re-organizing colleges
• The collaboration of non-credit and credit
  programs
• Acceleration of learning
• Use of first language as tool
• Labor market payoff
• Training in well paying, occupations in demand
• Support services
• Counseling
• Job Specialist

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Resources

• Breaking through project
• www.jff.org
• Projects
• Building economic opportunity for adults
• Breaking through
• Original study/white paper
• Newsletter

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DISCUSSION/QUESTIONS?