This past year was unique for Citrus College as AB 705 eliminated non-transferable English and math classes from all community colleges. As the bill said,
“The bill would prohibit a community college district or college from requiring students to enroll in remedial English or mathematics coursework that lengthens their time to complete a degree unless placement research that includes consideration of high school grade point average and coursework shows that those students are highly unlikely to succeed in transfer-level coursework in English and mathematics.”
This past fall semester was when the bill was put into action at Citrus. As a whole, Dr. Gina Hogan, the Dean of Language Arts and Library, believed that the bill had a positive impact on Citrus students this past semester.
“It went really well. Our success rate went up to 65% for English 101 and English 101S from 50% to 55% somewhere in that range.” said Hogan. “ So clearly what we’ve done is working, it’s meeting the needs of the students a bit more than it was before … So I feel like students are more supported whether it is the four unit class or the five unit class and they are doing much better.”
Hogan spoke about the differences in the 101 and 101S classes and how the extra hour the students receive in the 101S class is often crucial.
“The only difference is in the S you have because it is a five unit class you’re in the class a bit longer, you’re in the class five fours with the teacher verses four.” said Hogan. “But part of the S is the embedded tutoring component, the writing center component at a kicked up version compared to 101. But also it allows the teacher to spend a bit more time with the student and to offer just in time remediation.”
The English department is in full swing as adjusting to the new bill and look to have even more success in the future. This will be the second 18 week semester in which the 101 and 101S classes will be open for students and it will be important for students and staff at Citrus to see the results of AB 705.
Michael Wangler, the dean of mathematics and business, knew of the bill when Gov. Jerry Brown signed it into order in Oct. 2017 as the school noticed him soon after that.. Although the law has impacted both the English and math departments at Citrus, the two departments have taken different approaches to the new system of classes at Citrus. Wangler and the math department will be set up for the new changes to the coursework by fall 2019.
“We have added support to some of our key courses as well but there are multiple pathways in math not just a single course.” said Wangler … So it’s really going to be based on major now, really an emphasis on students identifying either a major or at least a career goal, some area of interest they might have and than it is much easier for them to find the right math class that way.”
One of the big differences between the English and math classes are the amount and the types of classes that each department has to offer. This past fall introduced support classes for statistics, which started with 11 classes and now has 17 classes into spring.
“There’s still a support element but it’s being built into the course instead of having two different versions in large part, that’s because of its the nature of the course and the popularity of the course.” Wangler said.
The support courses are geared towards a collaborative environment that allows students to be in groups. This includes more time with the professors throughout the week, group work and even new furniture that is fit for group communication and an established support system within the classroom.
“In the last data available was a couple years ago and we had throughput rates of about 14.5%,” Wangler said. “So what that indicates is that students once they start their math what percentage of them get done with their math requirement within the year.”
In comparison to this past fall the two statistics classes with support the throughput rate had an increase of 48.5%. In its one semester, the support classes has nearly tripled their throughput rates and hopes to be a good indication for the future of the math department.
“Ultimately our goal is to reach parity with the rest of the college where you have successful throughput rates closer to 70% across the college as a whole.” said Wangler
CA Bill AB 705 already has been seen a positive initiative for Citrus even in its starting years. This upcoming year will be a real test to see if AB 705 is fit for Citrus College and its students.
