Math Task Force continues AB 1705 work with April 19 convening

March 15, 2024

Secondary education voices invited to join discussion

Discussions to improve calculus pathways for STEM students amidst a pending deadline this summer continues with the third “Central Valley Way to AB1705 Success” Convening set for Friday, April 19 in Fresno that will also bring more secondary education voices to the table and a review of guidance issued by the California Community College Chancellors Office last month.

Registration is now open for the event in Fresno presented by the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Math Task Force with the Charles A. Dana Center (University of Texas at Austin) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Fresno Convention Center, the site of two previous in-person convenings last fall and in January.

The event will re-convene community college math educators, administrators and institutional researchers working since the fall towards compliance with the final stage of AB1705: validation of equitable placement, support and completion practices for STEM programs.

Signed into law by Gov. Newsom in September 2022, AB 1705 is an amendment to the landmark legislation AB 705 (Irwin, 2017) which transformed placement and developmental education in the California Community Colleges. AB1705 supports full and comprehensive implementation by, among other requirements, specifying that colleges must demonstrate the benefit of transfer-level math preparatory courses for STEM Calculus 1 based on the following conditions:

The student is highly unlikely to succeed in the first STEM calculus course without the additional transfer-level preparation.
The enrollment will improve the student’s probability of completing the first STEM calculus course.
The enrollment will improve the student’s persistence to and completion of the second calculus course in the STEM program, if a second calculus course is required.

From now until July 1, colleges have the opportunity to validate that their preparatory courses meet the aforementioned AB 1705 standards.

Since passage, the state’s community colleges have worked towards compliance of various aspects of AB1705 including 19 Central Valley community college members of CVHEC through representatives serving on the consortium’s Math Task Force consisting of math faculty and administrators.

The task force has held several virtual and in-person work sessions since October designed to collaborate in unity for compliance. At the last convening Jan. 26, more than 82 math and administrative representatives from the community colleges — including several campus research professionals — and one high school principal met with the task force to explore five strands of curriculum planning:

Validating Prerequisites;
Designing Precalculus for 2025;
Math Support Outside and Inside the Classroom;
Building an AB 1705 Campus Team; and
Guided Self-Placement.

Since the Jan. 26 meeting, the strand leads have been preparing summaries of their breakout discussions held that day, said Dr. John Spevak, CVHEC regional coordinator who oversees the consortium’s Math Task Force.

Member college teams are also preparing summaries of the tentative plans they developed in the afternoon breakout sessions for oral reports. Additionally, the workgroups have been meeting and will report out on their progress in April regarding the strands.

A good portion of the April 19 meeting will be devoted to the data collection underway by CVHEC community college research professionals related to student success in math, part of the valleywide Data Collection Project under development by the consortium, said Spevak, who will again co-facilitate the April event with Dana Center colleague Dr. Tammi Perez-Rice.

Secondary ed voices

This next convening will also include representatives of K-12 school districts, including several high school principals who have already worked with CVHEC through the Central Valley Math Bridge Program.

“It’s important to bring into the conversation high school leaders and our colleagues who care as much about the future math success of students as community college math educators do,” said Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director.

That conversation was begun at the January convening of community college math professors and administrators when Marlena Celaya, principal of Orosi High School and former high school math teacher, told the group that Central Valley high school educators would very much like to participate in future discussions about math success for Central Valley students.

Spevak said this development will also foster additional learning about the high school math landscape as it pertains to college readiness.

Any Central Valley secondary education officials interested in attending the April 19 convening are welcome, he added.

CCC ‘validation memo’

Also up for discussion will be a Feb. 27 validation memorandum by the California Community College Chancellors Office entitled AB 1705 Validation of Equitable Placement, Support and Completion Practices for STEM Programs.

The Chancellor’s Office also presented a webinar March 4 to further discuss the details of this guidance and address questions.

The Dana Center and CVHEC teams are presently reviewing the CCC memo to provide analysis that will help guide the Math Task Force’s five strands committees and will be presenting its memo assessment in the coming weeks, said Joan Zoellner, M.A., who is the lead for the Dana Center’s Launch Years Initiative;

In a preliminary review of the memo, Zoellner noted that while the CCC memo provides direction on the validation process for transfer level math placement and enrollment practices for STEM programs, it indicates that no more than one transfer-level prerequisite shall be offered prior to calculus.

“The options for that prerequisite course are limited by the memo and validation options as well,” Zoellner said.

She recommended that consortium community colleges review the chancellor’s office memo and some of the findings presented to determine how it affects their respective campus.

“If possible, work with your IR department to confirm those numbers and results prior to the April 19 convening,” Zoellner advises.

For more info: centralvalleyhec@gmail.com

For media inquiries: Tom Uribes – cvheccommunications@mail.fresnostate.edu (or text 559.348.3278).

See also:

MATH TASK FORCE: ‘Something extraordinary’ (Jan. 26 wrap)

February 23, 2024

Modesto Junior College math professor Tina Akers-Porter discusses her strand group’s deliberations at “The Central Valley Way to AB1705 Success” Convening Jan. 26 where a call for a “principals task force” by Orosi High School Principal Marlena Celaya would bring more secondary education voices to the table.

‘Something extraordinary is happening in math in California’s Central Valley’

Math Task Force latest AB1705 session leads to calls

for more data, high school input, re-convene April 19

BY TOM URIBES
CVHEC Media/Communications Coordinator

Realizing that state guidance surrounding Assembly Bill 1705 remains elusive, valley community college math educators and officials forged ahead at “The Central Valley Way to AB1705 Success” convening Jan. 26 in Fresno with a determined and unified mindset to develop implementation plans that will serve the best interests of their students including a follow-up session set for April.

In addition, the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) Math Task Force discussion centered around five strands of curriculum planning for implementation before the law goes into effect July 1, two aspects emerged at the lively day-long work session: the increased participation of institutional researchers for pertinent data-collecting and a call for a “principal’s task force” to bring upper secondary education voices to the table.

Presented by CVHEC, the convening — the latest in a series of deliberations since fall — was attended by 82 representatives from the consortium’s 19-member community colleges, one high school principal and campus research professionals.

They agreed to reconvene April 19 for reports on follow-up work that will occur as a result of this most recent event. Registration for that event will open next month with additional details forthcoming.

Facilitated by the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin, the session last month reviewed five strands of curriculum planning: Validating Prerequisites; Designing Precalculus for 2025; Math Support Outside and Inside the Classroom; Building an AB 1705 Campus Team; and Guided Self-Placement.

“With tensions high and little guidance surrounding AB1705, the 19 community colleges and districts that comprise the CVHEC nine-county region are rolling up their sleeves and getting to work on this math movement the ‘Central Valley Way’,” summarized Tammi Perez-Rice of the Dana Center.

Perez-Rice, who co-facilitated the event, said the convening was solely dedicated to working and planning at a regional and institutional level in two parts. The first part was dedicated to expanding the five work groups that emerged from the Nov. 17 webinar and creating a plan to move forward. The second half of the convening was devoted to institutional planning.

“The fruits produced from these convenings are already being felt around the region,” Perez-Rice said. “The plans and implementations emerging from these convenings are more than just a response to AB705 and AB1705; they cultivate systemic reforms that will benefit all students in the CVHEC region and beyond.”

John Spevak, CVHEC regional coordinator who oversees the consortium’s Math Task Force and co-facilitator of the Jan. 26 gathering, said in the short-term, the five strands work groups will continue to communicate and provide updates in preparation for the April 19 convening. The strand leads are preparing summaries of their Jan. 26 breakout discussions and member college teams are preparing summaries of the tentative plans they developed in the afternoon breakout sessions for oral reports in April.

“In the longer term, our Math Task Force will continue to monitor what the California Community College Chancellor’s Office says, while mainly going forward with our own Central Valley approach to the five strands.”

That “Central Valley Way” stems from the work undertaken by the CVHEC Math task Force, first formed in 2019, in the past year that was intensified with four work sessions beginning Oct. 6 in a virtual convening with CCC vice-chancellor Eric Cooper. The first in-person session followed Oct. 13 in Fresno and another virtual session was held in two parts Nov. 17 before the Jan. 26 session.

These sessions may represent the only concerted effort by a region’s community college math community actively meeting to collaborate across campus boundaries for ways to unite as one voice and determine a curriculum course of action that meets the law’s intent, Spevak said.

“We at CVHEC, along with the Dana Center representatives and our College Bridge partners in the Math Bridge Program, feel that something extraordinary is happening in math in the Central Valley of California,” Spevak said.

After the Jan. 26 session ended, Perez-Rice reiterated a point she made the first time she visited Fresno for the first in-person convening last fall:

“This collaboration today was amazing. As I travel and talk to math faculty all over the country, what I see pulsating from the CVHEC community here in Central California is just compassion; caring about their students; putting their students first; understanding what their students need; and more importantly collaborating with each other working across institutions to make things happen.”

Inviting secondary ed voices to ‘align syllabi’

A key development of the convening was the assertion and agreement that a crucial next step is “to involve high schools in the discussion and determine how to breakdown barriers between systems for a cohesive collaborative effort to put students first across the state of California,” a message delivered by Marlena Celaya, principal of Orosi High School who was the only secondary education official in attendance.

Celaya’s comments, first in a strand session and later in general comments before the assembled group, resonated with the community college professionals as she offered to lead a task force of principals/administrators who would unify with the CVHEC community college math educators for implementation strategy — to listen and hear what the needs are and how to meet those needs.

“I’m willing to lead this work because I don’t want people to go through the wars I went through teaching algebra and volunteering all my time,” said Celaya, a former math teacher at Dinuba High School. “We would want to hear from community colleges and say to them ‘what do you need?’

“We heard something from you today: ‘I want to know what courses are offered at the high school and what does that course description look like?’ Aligning syllabi is what I’d like to do,” Celaya said. “Mathematics is my passion.”

Perez-Rice said the April 19 convening promises more high school representation, with over twelve principals who are part of the Math Bridge Program by CVHEC and College Bridge being invited. Other secondary education officials from throughout the valley are welcome she said.

Participant feedback: ‘great to see we’re not alone in this …’

After the event, several participants shared their assessment of the Jan. 26 convening.

“The conversations were amazing and we really appreciated being here,” said Joshua Lewis, chair of the Bakersfield College Mathematics Dept.

“There have been so many legislative changes and so many unknowns it’s nice to see the work that other campuses are doing and realize that we’re not alone, that we have shared values; that we have shared emphasis on student learning and really care about doing right by all of our students,” he added.

Nathan Cahoon, Taft college math professor, felt that the efforts of CVHEC’s Math Task Force as exhibited at the convening is strengthening the voice of the valley’s math community which will have an impact.

“It was amazing to work with incredible professionals who have some really amazing ideas,” he said. “I know I took many good notes about ideas to implement at our college. The connections we are building here with each other will be powerful down the road as we build a cohesive effort to get some good research together that we can send to the state as one voice from all the colleges.”

Modesto Junior College math professor Marina Hernandez said coming together within the region is relished because when attending other statewide or national conferences, the focus is not as localized.

“It was very helpful to learn what other colleges in the Central Valley are doing because we share similar student population and resources characteristics and their best practices are applicable to us here in our region,” Hernandez said.

Tina Akers-Porter, Modesto Junior College math professor, said the Math Task Force work has helped her better understand what AB1705 is and what it means for her students.

“I feel like I have a better understanding of some of the challenges of the legislation and what others are worried about,” she said. “We share some of those worries but it’s great to hear different points of view on that. A byproduct of this is we are seeing how we need to support underprepared students more, inside and outside the classroom, and sharing ideas to do that.”

Shelly Getty, Taft college math faculty and a strand leader, echoed Akers-Porter: “We left knowing we are going to start some specific tutoring and targeting students for tutoring. We will try to advertise it better and recruit so students get more access to the services we already provide which will greatly impact them. We shared some good ideas on how to do that effectively.”

Marissa Martinez, Taft college math professor, said, “We have our work cut out for us. There’s a lot of things that we have to address with a lot of moving parts. Everything keeps changing but it was great to be able to see that we’re not alone in this, that we’re working together to better serve our students.”

She said this intercollegial collaboration and the feedback from the colleges helps “so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel — what worked, what didn’t work.”

Next steps? Data research

“I would say the next step is collecting our data to see how the numbers show where we are so we can prove that these courses are important for our student success,” Martinez said.

This data aspect was also a key part of the convening as institutional research professionals were invited and directly participated such as Arooj Rizvi, research analyst in the Office of Institutional research and Effectiveness at San Joaquin Delta College.

“Researchers have a monumental role in the implementation of AB 1705 because policymakers are going to depend a lot on what we are able to produce as a group or even as an institution,” Rizvi said. “Being a part of these conversations helps us to see the bigger picture, the context and the requirements of what exactly it is that we are looking for in the data.”

She said it was exciting to hear at the convening what area colleges are going through.

“I realized how similar our challenges are from institution to institution, “she said. “Working through that together and being solution-oriented is something that’s going to take all of us towards a beneficial direction. Seeing us all here today was a defining moment in history.”

Owynn Lancaster, vice president of academic strategy for CVHEC partner College Bridge, said the event was “a huge success seeing folks come together from math to talk about math and really pool their resources to address actual challenges.

“The most powerful focus of change in education is always the educator,” Lancaster said. “I know everything’s heaped on them but in a lot of ways they have the greatest power of the greatest agency for this.”

For more info: centralvalleyhec@gmail.com

For CVHEC media inquiries: Tom Uribes – cvheccommunications@mail.fresnostate.edu (or text 559.348.3278).

See also:

Math Task Force

https://bit.ly/MTFconveneKSEE24

Valley’s math ed experts unite to address AB 1705 challenge for student success

The CVHEC Way to Math Success — Implementing AB1705

Math Task Force begins discussion of AB1705 implementation – Nov. 17 next
CVHEC Math Task Force meets in-person Oct. 13 for AB 1705 follow-up

NEWS RELEASE – CVHEC Math Task Force: Impactful legislation (AB 1705) Convenings Oct. 6 & 13

CVHEC Website Feature: Math Task Force Page

PHOTO GALLERY

What the CV-HEC Is Happening Blog: Math Bridge Update

February 23, 2024

Valley’s math ed experts unite to address AB 1705 challenge for student success

January 18, 2024

Math Task Force Convening Jan. 26:

‘Central Valley Way To AB1705 Success’

With the agenda released this week, over 60 Central Valley math education experts will convene in Fresno Jan. 26 to plan math pathways for student success as they brainstorm within five strands of implementation around Assembly Bill 1705 that goes into effect this summer.

The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium’s “Central Valley Way To AB1705 Success” Convening from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Fresno Convention Center, will bring together community college math educators, administrators and institutional researchers.

Presented by the CVHEC Math Task Force and facilitated by the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin, the convening is free with advance registration and includes lunch.

Discussion for the historic convening — with administrators and IR experts joining in the conversation — will center around five strands that the region’s community college math academicians can undertake for student success when the new law goes into effect July 1: Validating Prerequisites; Designing Precalculus for 2025; Math Support Outside and Inside the Classroom; Building an AB 1705 Campus Team; and Guided Self-Placement.

Five Math Task Force members serving as strand leads are: Jeremy Brandl, Fresno City College math professor; Nathan Cahoon and Shelley Getty, both Taft College math professors; Marie Bruley, Merced College dean of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM); and Jay Thomas, West Hills College Lemoore math professor.

After the event opens with a welcome and brief introductions, the strand subcommittees open the discussion by presenting reports regarding preliminary strand deliberations over the past few months that started at three meetings the Math Task Force held in the fall.

Participants will then break into tabletop talks for feedback and to brainstorm new ideas, a timeline and next steps followed by report outs of those subcommittee sessions.

Following lunch, the participants will break into their respective college teams to discuss “Preliminary College Plans” in two parts: “Validating Prerequisites Between Now and July 1, 2024;” and “Developing New/Revised Curriculum to Take Effect July 1, 2025.”

“College Team Report Outs” will follow before the final session “Where Do We Go From Here?” looks towards the future and the role of Math Task Force sub-committees, college teams and CVHEC.

Dr. Benjamín Durán of CVHEC with Dana Center reps Joan Zoellner and Tammi Perez-Rice at the Oct. 13 Math Task Force convening in Fresno.

Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director, said, “We are proud that our Central Valley community colleges are leaning in on the expertise of their own math experts to figure out the best way to support our students within the guidelines of the legislation.”

AB 1705 — passed in 2022 for implementation July 1, 2024 — expands the provisions established in AB 705 (2017) by explicitly requiring community colleges not only to place students directly into transfer-level English and math courses but also to ensure that students actually enroll in those courses.

The legislation also establishes that for students who need or desire extra academic support, community colleges shall provide access to such support. The new law clarifies that a community college can require students to enroll in additional concurrent support if it is determined that the support will increase the student’s likelihood of passing transfer-level English or math.

Community colleges have been tasked with ensuring they comply with both AB705 and AB1705 designed to strengthen support for student success and increase degree completion.

CVHEC helped start the conversation by bringing together its Math Task Force — made up of representatives from CVHEC community colleges — and other math educators to discuss ideas and options regarding implementation within the Central Valley community college mathematics community last fall.

Dr. John Spevak, CVHEC regional coordinator

In three virtual sessions and one in-person convening in 2023, the Math Task Force created a collaborative “Central Valley Approach” to each, said Dr. John Spevak, CVHEC regional coordinator who oversees the consortium’s Math and English Task Forces.

“Now, for the January session, administrators and researchers are joining the Math Task Force to develop data-driven and college-endorsed solutions that help meet the challenge head on and in unity for the best interests of students.”

The fall inaugural sessions were facilitated by two Dana Center representatives who will return to Fresno for the Jan. 26 convening: Joan Zoellner, M.A., who is the lead for the Dana Center’s Launch Years Initiative; and Dr. Tammi Perez-Rice, Postsecondary Course Program specialist.

Dr. Erik Cooper, assistant vice chancellor of the California Community College Chancellor’s Office Cooper, also participated in the first virtual session to discuss the recent history of math education reform in California and answer questions as well as present the CCCCO’s AB 1705 Implementation Guide and FAQ webpage.

“With the passage of AB 705 then later 1705 – all designed to strengthen support for student success – CVHEC has been moving full steam ahead in assuring that our member colleges and their feeder high schools have a good understanding of the seemingly turbulent waters of the legislation,” Durán said.

Strand breakdown:

Validating prerequisites — quantitative and qualitative: creating a Central Valley collaborative approach which would help make a strong case with the state. Point person: NATHAN CAHOON, Taft College math professor.
Designing Precalculus for 2025: An effective single-course prerequisite for Calculus 1 (especially valuable if the state allows in 2025-26 only one prerequisite course for Calculus 1). Point person: JEREMY BRANDL, Fresno City College math professor.
Math support outside and inside the classroom: What’s working best in the Central Valley, including math lab centers, tutoring, embedded tutoring, supplemental instruction, etc. Point person: SHELLEY GETTY, Taft College math professor.
Building an AB 1705 campus team: Who needs to be on the team? Math and English professors, IR/IT staff, counselors, administrators, etc. How does it best function? Point person: MARIE BRULEY, Merced College dean of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).
Guided self-placement: Helping ensure with the best possible questionnaire that students are taking the right math class when they start college. Point person: JAY THOMAS, West Hills College Lemoore math professor.

(Links to recordings of the two previous sessions are available below).

REGISTER – “The CVHEC Way to Math Success — Implementing AB1705” (Jan. 26, 2024)

EVENT AGENDA For questions: centralvalleyhec@gmail.com.

For media inquiries: Tom Uribes 559.348.3278 (text msg) or cvheccommunications@mail.fresnostate.edu

SEE:

Previous sessions recordings:

CVHEC “AB1705 in the Central Valley” Webinar with Dr. Erik Cooper Oct. 6, 2023

MTF meeting Nov. 17 (10 a.m. session)

MTF meeting Nov. 17 (1 p.m. session)

Coverage of the fall sessions:

Math Task Force begins discussion of AB1705 implementation – Nov. 17 next (with Oct. 13 photo gallery).

CVHEC Math Task Force meets in-person Oct. 13 for AB 1705 follow-up

NEWS RELEASE – CVHEC Math Task Force: Impactful legislation (AB 1705) Convenings Oct. 6 & 13

The CCCCO’s AB 1705 Implementation Guideand FAQ webpage.
The CVHEC Math Task Force

Dr. Erik Cooper of the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office zoomed into the Oct. 6 CVHEC Math Task Force session to address AB1705 implementation.

HIGHER ED NEWS: College Bridge to expand Math Bridge; CVHEC Transfer Project

January 18, 2024

College Bridge President Dr. Lynn Cevallos speaks at the Math Bridge kick off in Fresno May 18, 2023.

College Bridge funded $2.1 million to expand Math Bridge

the ‘Central Valley way’; collaborate with CVHEC Transfer Project

The College Bridge Program, a partner of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium, has received a $2,196,928 federal grant for expansion of its College Transition Bridge project that, among other features, will advance collaboration with CVHEC’s Central Valley Transfer Project and its college course-planning software, Program Pathway Mapper, as well as with consortium member colleges.

The College Transition Bridge project is a college counseling initiative created in 2017 that includes a curriculum to meet student needs in preparation for a successful transition from high school to college.

With this new three-year grant from U.S. Department of Education Rural Postsecondary Education and Economic Development (RPED) program funds, the College Transition Bridge Project will identify over 2,750 low-income, minority and rural students in the Central Valley to participate in a year-long program that provides students and educators access to college knowledge.

Additionally, the grant will expand the CT Bridge curriculum to include regional workforce needs and streamlined degree pathways to enter the workforce, said Dr. Lynn Cevallos, founder and president of College Bridge, a non-profit organization dedicated to forging a path towards both college access and success for underrepresented students.

“The pathways lead students from high school to community college to the university to career,” she said. “Expanded services are provided to students as well as intersegmental teams of instructors, counselors and administrators.”

She emphasized that “this grant is 100 percent Valley-focused benefiting the identified student population in the California Central San Joaquin Valley.

“And we will be connecting with CVHEC’s proven Central Valley way of doing things as we tie student success to the workforce needs of the region,” she added, explaining that CVHEC leads the partnership efforts connecting workforce needs through aligned college transfer programs between California Community Colleges and the California State University and University of California systems in the region.

The College Bridge team at the Math Bridge kick off last year: Owynn Lancaster, Dr. Nicole Korgie, Dr. Lynn Cevallos.

College Bridge, based in Southern California but working closely with CVHEC community college members and their feeder high schools in the Central Valley through its Math Bridge Project, is the only California recipient of the RPED program funds awarded Dec. 22 when the Biden-Harris Administration announced $44.5 million in grants to 22 institutions of higher education nationwide.

Funding from the RPED grant program, which promotes the development of high-quality career pathways aligned to high-skill, high-wage and in-demand industry sectors and occupations in the region, is designed to improve rates of postsecondary education enrollment, persistence and completion among students in rural communities.

Cevallos noted that two San Joaquin Valley demographic characteristics drive the need for the federally-funded project: the average per capita incomes are 32 percent lower than the state average; and college graduation rates are 50 percent below the state average.

“Students in the San Joaquin Valley lag far behind in academic performance compared to the rest of the state,” she said. “The region trails the state in bachelor’s degree attainment, with only 12 percent of the adult population holding a bachelor’s degree, compared to 21 percent in the state.”

She said that for associate degree attainment, the region and the state are similar at roughly 8 percent, so this grant opportunity also allows for the revision and expansion of the CT Bridge curriculum regarding:

Community College Transfer Pathways with an overview of all transfer pathway options but particular focus on the state’s two-to-four-year Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) Program;
and the CVHEC Transfer Project’s Program Pathway Mapper (PPM), the software tool that guides students in choosing courses to complete a specific ADT Program.

“In leading the partnership efforts connecting workforce needs through aligned college transfer programs between California Community Colleges and the CSU and UC systems in the region, CVHEC convenes regional partners to review and approve transfer curricula that serve as the basis for the ADT Program,” Cevallos said.

“Faculty from each partner college and university meet to review and approve ADT course requirements. Approved ADTs are loaded into Program Mapper software, which is embedded in College Transition Bridge.”

Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director, said this new endeavor between Central Valley Higher Education Consortium and the College Transition Bridge will streamline and clarify effective college and career pathways for high school students.

“The Central Valley Transfer Project is anchored by the Program Pathways Mapper, a simple, user-friendly but highly effective software platform,” Durán said. “CVHEC will now help integrate the use of the PPM into the college readiness activities provided by CT Bridge as the key planning tool for high school students to identify and chart their pathway to successful completion.”

Cevallos said the math and CT Bridge experience enables students to build their confidence and capacity in math and successfully complete college transfer-level math courses before high school graduation.

“College-level math and English are gateway courses that serve as prerequisites to many other courses important to successful completion and attainment of their desired degree/certification,” she said.

The funding provides the CT Bridge students, while still in high school, a series of college readiness activities such as completing financial aid and admissions applications, reviewing career opportunities in their desired workforce, selecting a major aligned with their desired career interests and planning the necessary sequence of courses, training and timeline for successful completion.

Stan Carrizosa, CVHEC regional coordinator who is the lead for the consortium’s Transfer Project, said

students who benefit from participation in the CT Bridge experience will be introduced to PPM and guided through the readiness details needed for them to plan their college futures from high school to community college and their four-year institution.

“Because so many of the CT Bridge students are first generation college prospects and come from backgrounds underrepresented in college attendance, they often transition to their local community college as their initial pathway into higher education,” Carrizosa said.

He cited the success of a PPM user who was a student panelist at the CVHEC Summit in October.

“Students like Araceli Tilley took full advantage of Program Pathways Mapper by utilizing the course planning software after her transfer from Merced College to continue planning her academic journey at UC Merced where she graduates with a master’s this spring,” Carrizosa noted.

For more information about the College Bridge RDEP grant, contact Dr. Nicole Korgie at nicole.korgie@college-bridge.org.

See:

the USDE press release announcement.

BACKGROUND: College Bridge’s mission is to identify and eliminate barriers that prevent underrepresented students from progressing to and through college specifically focusing on Black, Latino, low-income and rural students. One of its two objectives is to expand strategic dual enrollment partnerships to serve low-income, rural and Latino students in California’s Central Valley.

The CVHEC Way to Math Success — Implementing AB1705

December 20, 2023

Registration for “The CVHEC Way to Math Success — Implementing AB1705” set for Jan. 26, 2024 in Fresno is available here.

All math hands on deck!

Central Valley math, admin, IR pros invited to help plan for

AB1705 implementation at ‘The CVHEC Way to Math Success’ convening Jan. 26

A historic convening of the Central Valley’s mathematics professionals will be held in Fresno Jan. 26, 2024 to merge ideas stemming from a series of fall meetings of the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Math Task Force designed to address implementation of AB 1705 in 2024.

Registration is now open for “The Central Valley Way To AB1705 Success” that will be held from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Fresno Convention Center for math educators, administrators and institutional researchers. The event, facilitated by the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin, is free with advance registration and will include lunch.

The convening continues a first-of-its kind year-long discussion of ideas and options within the Central Valley community college mathematics community – CVHEC bringing together Math Task Force members and other math educators — in an ongoing quest for equitable mathematics under AB705 and AB1705.

“With the passage of AB 705 and now 1705 – all designed to strengthen support for student success – CVHEC has been moving full steam ahead in assuring that our member colleges and their feeder high school have a good understanding of the seemingly turbulent waters of the legislation,” said Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director.

“We are using the expertise of our own Central Valley math professors to help find the best ways to respond to AB 1705 with the greatest possibilities for student success.”

CVHEC’s Math Task Force — made up of representatives from CVHEC community colleges — held three virtual sessions and one in-person session this fall, bringing together the valley’s math educator community to look at how to best implement the legislation first passed in 2017 as AB 705 that was followed in 2022 with AB 1705.

Two sessions (Oct.6 via Zoom and Oct. 13 in person in Fresno) were followed with two virtual sessions on Nov. 17 (morning and afternoon), all drawing well over 30 math professors, reports Dr. John Spevak, CVHEC regional coordinator who oversees the consortium’s Math and English Task Forces.

Those inaugural sessions were facilitated by two Dana Center representatives: Joan Zoellner, M.A., who is the lead for the Dana Center’s Launch Years Initiative; and Dr. Tammi Perez-Rice, Postsecondary Course Program specialist.

At the Oct. 6 virtual informational session, Dr. Erik Cooper, assistant vice chancellor of the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, Zoomed in to discuss the recent history of math education reform in California. He fielded questions about the requirements and expectations for community colleges under AB1705 highlighting the CCCCO’s AB 1705 Implementation Guide and FAQ webpage.

(Links to recordings of the two sessions are available below).

“They were lively and productive discussions as we continue to move forward with a Central Valley Model in response to AB 1705 that works toward math success specifically for students in the Central Valley,” Spevak said.

“Now for the January session, administrators and researchers are being summoned to help meet the challenge head on and in unity for the best interests of students.”

The topics at the Jan. 26 meeting will center around five strands relating to AB 1705 that came out of the fall sessions involving CVHEC community colleges, creating a collaborative “Central Valley Approach” to each, Spevak said.

The strands — and Math Task Force professors serving as leads — are:

Validating prerequisites–quantitative and qualitative: creating a Central Valley collaborative approach which would help make a strong case with the state. Point person: NATHAN CAHOON, Taft College math professor.

Designing Precalculus for 2025: An effective single-course prerequisite for Calculus 1 (especially valuable if the state allows in 2025-26 only one prerequisite course for Calculus 1). Point person: JEREMY BRANDL, Fresno City College.

Math support outside and inside the classroom: What’s working best in the Central Valley, including math lab centers, tutoring, embedded tutoring, supplemental instruction, etc. Point person: SHELLEY GETTY, Taft College.

Building an AB 1705 campus team: Who needs to be on the team? Math and English professors, IR/IT staff, counselors, administrators, etc. How does it best function? Point person: MARIE BRULEY, Merced College.

Guided self-placement: Helping ensure with the best possible questionnaire that students are taking the right math class when they start college. Point person: JAY THOMAS, West Hills College Lemoore.

For questions: centralvalleyhec@gmail.com.

For media inquiries: Tom Uribes 559.348.3278 (text msg) or cvheccommunications@mail.fresnostate.edu

REGISTER – “The CVHEC Way to Math Success — Implementing AB1705” (Jan. 26, 2024)

BACKGROUND

Passed in 2022 for implementation July 1, 2024, AB 1705 expands the provisions established in AB 705 (2017) by explicitly requiring community colleges not only to place students directly into transfer-level English and math courses but also to ensure that students actually enroll in those courses. The recent legislation also establishes that for students who need or desire extra academic support, community colleges shall provide access to such support. The new law clarifies that a community college can require students to enroll in additional concurrent support if it is determined that the support will increase the student’s likelihood of passing transfer-level English or math.

SEE:

• Previous sessions recordings:

CVHEC “AB1705 in the Central Valley” Webinar with Dr. Erik Cooper Oct. 6, 2023

MTF meeting Nov. 17 (10 a.m. session)

MTF meeting Nov. 17 (1 p.m. session)

• Coverage of the fall sessions:

Math Task Force begins discussion of AB1705 implementation – Nov. 17 next (with Oct. 13 photo gallery).

CVHEC Math Task Force meets in-person Oct. 13 for AB 1705 follow-up

NEWS RELEASE – CVHEC Math Task Force: Impactful legislation (AB 1705) Convenings Oct. 6 & 13

• The CCCCO’s AB 1705 Implementation Guide and FAQ webpage.

• The CVHEC Math Task Force

WHAT THE CV-HEC IS HAPPENING BLOG (December 2023): The gift of math

December 20, 2023

For our year-ending “What the CV-HEC is Happening” Blog, here’s a holiday story of sorts by Dr. John Spevak that was published in his column for the Los Baños area (Merced County) newspaper, The Westside Express, Dec. 19. Dr Spevak, who is a vice president-emeritus of Merced College and currently a regional coordinator for CVHEC, coordinates the English and Math Task Forces for the consortium — all champions for student support through such measures as dual enrollment. He provides a personalized window into the founder of College Bridge which is partnering with CVHEC for the Central Valley Math Bridge Program, a math intervention that is utilizing dual enrollment in bringing together consortium community college members with their respective high schools across the central valley.

The gift of math … for students who don’t think they’re mathematical

BY DR. JOHN SPEVAK
CVHEC Regional Coordinator
Vice President-Emeritus – Merced College

Here’s a good question for the Christmas season: What’s the most unusual gift you’ve ever heard of?

I think I have a gift that can top your answer — the gift of math. And I know how that gift can be given—through an innovative program called “Math Bridge,” which before long will be coming to Pacheco High School in Los Banos and later to Dos Palos High School and perhaps Firebaugh High School, too.

Now before all of you who hated math or felt you weren’t good at math skip the rest of the column or sigh in skepticism, let me explain.

Imagine that before you graduated from high school someone had told you that you could be good at math. And imagine further that they enabled you not only to be good at math but to enjoy it and even become passionate about it.

That could have well happened to you if you were a high school student in the Central Valley Math Bridge Program. And your success in math could have opened all kinds of doors for you, in careers related to science, engineering, accounting and computer science, to name a few–careers that are in high demand and pay well.

If you’re still with me, dear reader, your curiosity may have been stirred to the point where you’re now asking, “How in the world can Math Bridge do that?”

Before I answer that question I need to tell you a story. Once upon a time there was a girl in high school, named Lynn, who liked math but didn’t like school, at least the part about being confined to a desk hour after hour each day. She had had some tough times as a teenager, including a period when she was homeless and dropped out of high school at age 15.

One day Lynn, who had decided she should at least get a high school diploma equivalent, started studying math to pass the math section of the GED test and that rekindled her love for math, so much so that after earning her GED, she went on to college and majored in math.

She earned good grades in her college math classes. Along the way she remembered what some middle school and high school teachers had told many students when they said, “You’ll never be good at math.” Sometimes this was said to girls like her, when some male math teachers didn’t think girls could succeed at math.

Not only did Lynn earn her bachelor’s degree in mathematics and secondary education from Boston College, she also went on to earn a master’s degree and then a doctoral degree (an E.D. from UCLA). She soon discovered her purpose in life as she sees it: to show high school students who don’t think they are good at math that they could indeed succeed in math.

She was determined to give them the gift of math.

Dr. Lynn Ceballos, president of College Bridge, presenting on the Math Bridge Program at the CVHEC Summit in October.

Dr. Lynn Cevallos eventually started a nonprofit organization called College Bridge about 10 years ago and created a partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District and California State University Los Angeles, calling it SLAM, the South Los Angeles Math Project, and initiated a nine-year longitudinal study. More than 160 students from six cohorts in three urban LAUSD high schools participated in the project.

In this project Lynn wanted only students who weren’t considered good at math to participate. She needed and received extensive and significant help from high school math teachers and university math professors who worked collaboratively to help students succeed.

They created a program called Math Bridge in which high school students enrolled in a dual enrollment transferable math class while they were in high school.

The results were astounding. The six cohorts of high school students had an average pass rate of 75 percent in a transferable math course compared with an average of 71 percent for the same course taught at CSULA. And the program increased the students’ confidence, with 92 percent considering themselves after completing the program ready for college.

Now Lynn has brought her project to the Central Valley. She has helped create a partnership that involves College Bridge, the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC), Fresno Pacific University and the Rand Corporation to develop the Central Valley Math Bridge Program with eight Central Valley community colleges and many of their feeder high schools.

The colleges who have so far signed on to the project are Cerro Coso, Columbia, Madera, Reedley, San Joaquin Delta in Stockton, Taft, West Hills-Coalinga and Merced.

A number of high schools in Merced County have signed on to the project, including Pacheco High School in Los Banos. Dos Palos High School plans to sign on next year. More might be joining later.

Since West Hills College Coalinga is part of Math Bridge, it’s a good bet that at some point Firebaugh High School will also participate.

The Math Bridge project requires a lot of work not only by Lynn and others who are now part of the College Bridge staff, but also by many high school math teachers and many college math professors.

For this project to work, high school educators need to identify students struggling in mathematics, then design interventions using a blend of college and high school math courses, and then create college and high school instructional teams working collaboratively to analyze student work for continuous improvement.

I’m excited about the project. Over the years as an educator, I’ve heard so many people, young and old, say they’re not good at math and never will be. I believe Math Bridge will change the perceptions of the high school students who will be a part of the project. They will realize they can be good at math.

That will be good for them and their families. And for the state and the country.

We need more young people to go on to college and then into math-based careers, especially in computers, science, and engineering, if we want our country to be the world’s innovative leader in these fields. This will be good for our country’s strength–and its security.

See Westside Express columns by Dr. John Spevak.

What the CV-HEC Is Happening Blog: Math Bridge Update

November 3, 2023

This month’s “What The CV-HEC Is Happening” guest blog is an update of the Math Bridge program presented by Owynn Lancaster, vice president for Academic Strategy with College Bridge, a California non-profit based in Los Angeles County dedicated to forging a path towards both college access and success for underrepresented students. College Bridge is a partner with the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium in the innovative program designed to improve math outcomes for struggling 11th and 12th graders and streamline Math pathways into college. Funded by a five-year $4 million grant through the US Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Program in January, this ambitious endeavor was kicked off in May with a convening of more than 150 valley K-16 educators in Fresno to begin the onboarding process for this historic intersegmental collaboration between CVHEC member community colleges and high schools in their respective service areas. That initiative was followed in April with a $1.1 million state grant to CVHEC/College Bridge partnership through the Central San Joaquin Valley K-16 Partnership creating the Dual Enrollment (DE) Math Bridge that will provide equitable access to transfer-level math courses with embedded support for high school students who are disproportionately impacted, and/or are not traditionally college-bound. This fall, the College Bridge and CVHEC Math Bridge teams have been visiting campuses to continue the onboard process in preparation for the program’s launch next fall.

Expanding the Reach of the

Central Valley Math Bridge

BY OWYNN LANCASTER
College Bridge

After our successful College Orientation meetings in September, the College Bridge team has been darting up and down the San Joaquin Valley, meeting with interested feeder highs schools to onboard and launch them for the coming academic year’s CV Math Bridge Project.

Inspiring our efforts, two amazing CVHEC member colleges have “jumped to lead the pack” as Dr. Lynn Cevallos, our College Bridge president, often says. The first of those with an impressing showing come from Merced College where their team has helped us garner interest from seven possible high schools! Showing the region’s commitment to opening options for their students in math and the impressive connecting power of the college’s administration.

In equally exciting efforts, San Joaquin Delta College helped to secure two committed high school partners from Stockton Unified, with interest from others in their region. Those two Stockton schools, Amos Alonzo Stagg High School and Captain Charles M. Weber of Applied Science and Technology have been two of the smoothest schools to onboard so far! More importantly addition of these schools and the partnership with Delta College now helps us open the CV Math Bridge Project across the breadth of the Valley.

With schools as far north as Stagg High School and as far south as Taft Union High School the reach of this project is now slightly smaller than the state of South Carolina! This means several more flights and drives are still ahead for our College Bridge team to continue to onboard and launch these high school partners, but in the end, we are excited by this transformative work.

The CV Math Bridge’s first cohort of schools will be starting in the coming academic year, 2024-2025, and there’s still room for more in the second cohort starting in academic year, 2025-2026. We invite high schools interested in participating to reach out and contact me at Owynn.Lancaster@college-bridge.org.

Also see: https://bit.ly/CVHECblog1223-GiftOfMath

CVHEC Math Task Force meets in-person Oct. 13 for AB 1705 follow-up

October 10, 2023

Registration is still open for the CVHEC Task Force in-person convening, “AB 1705 Student Success Workshop,” at the Fresno Convention Center Valdez Hall Oct. 13.

Impactful legislation is focus of two math convenings
as community colleges prep for deadlines

With two convenings this month, the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Math Task Force is tackling questions regarding California Assembly Bill 1705 requiring that California’s community colleges expand their efforts to enroll and support students in transfer-level math courses.

In partnership with the California Community College Chancellor’s Office and the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin, CVHEC presented the first session via zoom Oct. 6 (see recording) and the second will be an in-person convening Friday, Oct. 13, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Fresno Convention Center – Valdez Hall (702 M Street).

Registration is still being accepted for the free all-day session which includes a lunch.

Titled, “AB1705 Student Success Workshop,” the Fresno convening will explore how to best support students within the framework of AB1705 — a follow up to AB 705, previous legislation that fundamentally reshaped placement and remediation at the community colleges.

Dana Center representatives will be present to facilitate the development of materials and strategies that promote student success in the quantitative reasoning, statistics and BSTEM pathways.

“Additionally, we will explore the skills and andragogy (pedagogy) needed for the modern calculus course,” said Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director.

The 18-member CVHEC Math Task Force consists of math educators and administrators representing CVHEC’s 15 community college member institutions (total 28 CVHEC members with CSU, UC and private colleges in the nine-county region).

Central Valley Math faculty, chairs and deans are invited and encouraged to attend the Oct. 13 convening, said Dr. Durán. (See registration information below).

“Throughout California, there is varied understanding of the impacts of this assembly bill on college structures and on math educators,” said Dr. Durán. “These convenings provide the opportunity for our region’s community college math educators and administrators to strategize on paths to effective implementation.”

He said this is especially critical now given the deadlines next July that were discussed in the first session last week calling for colleges to validate the effectiveness of the transfer level prerequisites to gateway STEM calculus by July 1, 2024.

That was one of the areas covered by Dr. Erik Cooper, CCC assistant vice chancellor for Data, Visualization and Research, at the first session Oct. 6 in an hour-and-half virtual meeting entitled “AB 1705 in the Central Valley.”

Cooper addressed areas of confusion regarding the bill and its implementation with 44 math educators and administrators representing most of CVHEC’s 15 community college members.

Participants were asked to review the AB1705 FAQ prior to the virtual session and submit additional questions which Dr. Cooper addressed during the Oct. 6 meeting.

The recent legislation also establishes that for students who need or desire extra academic support, community colleges shall provide access to such support. The new law clarifies that a community college can require students to enroll in additional concurrent support if it is determined that the support will increase the student’s likelihood of passing transfer-level English or math.

Cooper’s presentation included a briefing on remedial education reform; multiple measures and prerequisites; throughput (successful completion of the gateway course in the discipline ); resources for implementation of the $65 million allocation and its impact on college plans; the AB 1705 Implementation Guide and AB 1705 FAQs; transferability; using data and using data locally; prerequisite validation; course success and its potential impact on prerequisite validation; meeting deadlines and matching majors; modalities; and limitations.

For deadlines, he explained that the Implementation Guide spells out that non-STEM programs were to validate transfer-level prerequisites to gateway English and math/quantitative reasoning courses by July 1, 2023 and make changes if necessary by July 1, 2024.

“STEM programs are limited to two transfer-level prerequisites prior to gateway STEM calculus after July 1, 2024,” Cooper emphasized. “The college must validate the effectiveness of the transfer level prerequisites to gateway STEM calculus as described by July 1, 2024 and make changes if necessary by July 1, 2025.”

Dr. John Spevak, Merced College vice president-emeritus who now coordinates CVHEC’s math and English task forces, noted that decisions need to be made by this fall and that many colleges have deadlines in early 2024 if not sooner for fall 2024 catalog course listings.

“The Math Task Force is using these fall sessions to get ahead of such deadlines,” Spevak said and noting that a possible third session may be discussed at Friday’s meeting.

For more information: Angel Ramirez, CVHEC finance operations manager, angelr@mail.fresnostate.edu. (For media inquiries, contact Tom Uribes at cvheccommunications@mail.fresnostate.edu).

Registration: CVHEC in-person Student Success Workshop registration (Oct. 13)

See agenda.

(Those unable to attend the Oct. 6 virtual meeting are asked to view the recording of that session prior to the Oct. 13 meeting. The recording link will be available Oct. 7 at the CVHEC website).

See:

• Original Math Task Force fall convenings news release online

• CVHEC Math Task Force: legislation review, Math Bridge and current best practices

After a review of AB 1705 via Zoom Oct. 6, the CVHEC Math Task Force will convene in person Oct. 13 in Fresno with other valley math educators and administrators to map out strategies for student success in the law’s new environment. Registration is still available,

MEMBER NEWS: Reedley and Merced Colleges host Math Bridge orientation for feeder high schools

October 10, 2023

Reedley College President Jerry Buckley addresses math officials from feeder high schools Sept. 21. Earlier in the day, his counterpart at Merced College, President Chris Vitelli, addressed his north valley districts. Both are CVHEC board members.

Central Valley Higher Education Consortium members Merced and Reedley community colleges hosted high school math educators and administrators from their respective service area schools Sept. 21 for an orientation and onboarding about the Central Valley Math Bridge Program that is now in full swing.

In a morning, session, Merced College hosted about 30 math officials from its service area feeder school districts who were welcomed by President Chris Vitelli. At the afternoon session in Reedley 30 were welcomed by President Jerry Buckley.

They met with the CVHEC and College Bridge teams led by Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director, and Dr. Lynn Cevallos, president and cofounder, of College Bridge to discuss how the program could benefit their students and follow up steps.

“We wanted to bring all the feeder high school leaders for Merced College and Reedley together to create a Math Bridge cohort of high schools involved in the project and create a regional community of practice for networking and collaboration,” Cevallos said.

She said interactions with participating high schools has been positive and supportive, “focusing on opening up options for their students and helping them to strengthen their connection between their college and feeder middle schools.”

Among several program features, the educators learned that this funding opportunity earmarked for the Central Valley specifically, will bring $160,000 in services per high school at no cost to districts.

Funded by a five-year $4 million grant through the US Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research (EIR) Program, the ambitious endeavor was kicked off in May with a convening of more than 150 valley K-16 educators in Fresno to begin the onboarding process for this historic intersegmental collaboration designed to improve math outcomes for struggling 11th and 12th graders and streamline Math pathways into college for their students.

See: