What are the success rates of students in Reading courses who previously took any English course, concurrently enrolled in any English course, and who never enrolled in any English course?
Cohort: Students enrolled in Reading courses in the 2007-2008 school year
a. Those who have never enrolled in an English course
b. Those currently enrolled in an English course
c. Those who are not enrolled in an English course now, but have in previous semesters
What are the success rates of students in English courses who previously took reading, concurrently enrolled in reading, and who never enrolled in reading?
Cohort: Students enrolled in English courses in the 2007-2008 school year
a. Those who have never enrolled in a Reading course
b. Those currently enrolled in a Reading course
c. Those who are not enrolled in a Reading course now, but have in previous semesters
d. Those who have previously passed Read 82
Hi Team,
I’ve attached the revised notes from the 10/28/08 meeting and the meeting notes from the 11/4/08 meeting. Please review them to see if I’ve accurately captured our discussions.
Also, by the next meeting (11/25/08), please generate a list of 2 or 3 hypotheses (based on your experience as a reading instructor and the administrative data we’ve examined) for why you think reading students experience difficulties in the reading classroom and the factors that you hypotheses facilitate learning for reading students. Please focus on hypotheses that:
(1) Are focused on practices that we, as practitioners, can influence (for example, hypotheses such as “students are not successful in the reading courses because they are having financial difficulties” are not helpful because we can’t craft a solution based on it to improve student learning)
(2) Can be answered through student interviews. Focus on hypotheses around student history/experience and perceptions.
I am moving away from the term “theme” and asking the team to generate hypotheses instead because I sensed that “themes” was a tad confusing. Daniel will compile the hypotheses for the next meeting and we can develop student interview questions around them.
Here are some examples of “hypotheses” math faculty had around math students and how we generated interview questions from them:
(1) Hypothesis: Students are not studying outside of class for the math course because they are too busy with competing responsibilities such as work and family.
a. A sample of survey questions that addressed the hypotheses:
i. On average, how many hours do you study for this math class every week, outside of class time?
ii. On average, how many hours do you work per week (job, employment)?
iii. How many children do you have? Are you the primary caretaker of your children?
iv. Do you have other responsibilities besides school, work, and children (such as taking care of your parents)?
b. Interview question that addressed the hypotheses:
i. Tell me how you study for your math class and/or math test.
c. Findings: Of the 730 students surveyed, a majority worked very few hours or did not work at all. In addition, a large proportion of students did not have other responsibilities that competed with school. Students, in the interviews, actually reported they wished instructors would assign more homework and quizzes because they valued the practice; they wished instructors would give more frequent feedback on homework.
(2) Hypothesis: Students are not doing well in math classes because they are not utilizing the academic support services such as SI and the math lab.
a. Survey question: Which of the following study resources do your use to help you in your math class?
b. Interview question: Tell me the study/help resources that you are aware of to help you study for math.
c. Findings: Students that used SI were satisfied with the program. The interviews revealed that very few students used the math lab because they had negative experiences in the lab. For example, it was difficult to understand a lot of tutors due to language barriers and many tutors were not trained to help lower-level math students. In addition, students described the math lab as “unwelcoming” and “inconsistent”.
Some hypotheses I’ve heard in our meetings have been:
(1) Students are having difficulty in the reading courses because they are unmotivated to do the work.
(2) Students are having difficulty in the reading courses because they lack general study and thinking skills.
Some questions I’ve also heard you ask that may be a good start in developing interview questions include:
(1) What are students’ expectations?
(2) What do students consider success?
I’ve attached the interview protocol and survey used in the math project; I hope these examples will prompt some ideas for the reading project.
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Hannah Alford
Hello Reading Evidence Team,
Thank you for all of your hard work today at the meeting! Our discussion around reading students was very invigorating and you’re comments and questions added a layer of rich information to the administrative data we examined.
I wanted to assure all of you that the discussions we have in our meetings will be kept confidential; they are not meant to be reported to administrators or any other groups on/off campus. Remember, the purpose of our project is to examine student experience and success (however we/student define success J) in reading. Our meeting notes are designed to capture our data “sense-making” process and document any hypotheses or questions we may have around the data. However, if there are any statements that I misinterpreted in my note-taking, please feel free to correct them as it is necessary for us to have accurate notes. I want our discussions to be fluid and open, even when they are around topics that are difficult to talk about.
The only information that constituents outside of this project group will have access to is the final report of findings, which we all will take part in writing.
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Hannah Alford
As long as the world is turning and spinning, we’re gonna be dizzy and we’re gonna make mistakes.
-Mel Brooks
So this is the updated table for where students who are tested (and enroll in classes) are placing. The percentage of students who achieve Proficiency was low because I was dividing by just the number of READ students who scored proficient, and not the total number of students who scored proficient. This graph should be more accurate, and will be presented at our meeting on Nov. 4.
The following two tables are a (very) small preview of the presentation I will be giving at our next meeting (10/28). They detail the percentage of students who place at each of the reading levels based on their results in the reading assessment test.
It gives us a little view at the level students are at when they enter the college. As you can see, it has been relatively consistent in the last four years.
I do plan to present all the data in a much cleaner and concise matter during the meeting, so don’t fret about having to see a dozen tables like these!
-Daniel
