Myra Snell: Role of Faculty Learning in Community Colleges

Printer-friendly version

Speaker: Myra Snell, Mathematics Professor, Los Medanos College

From Improving Basic Skills Education in Community Colleges, a meeting hosted by the Carnegie Foundation.

The vast majority of students entering California’s community colleges are underprepared for college, testing into "basic skills" or "developmental" classes; and many will never make it to the credit-bearing courses necessary to earn a degree. In response, The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation began an initiative to identify interventions and design more effective models for teaching mathematics and literacy at this level.

In the course of its work with 11 campuses participating in the Strengthening Pre-collegiate Education in Community Colleges (SPECC) initiative, Carnegie found a need for shared responsibility for developmental education. At a recent SPECC convening, Carnegie spoke with a community college president, and two others who work with basic skills education on their campuses on what it will take to transform the community college student’s experience.

Also see:

• Robert Barr, Executive Director, Foothill-DeAnza Community College District Office of Research and Planning
  
• Peter Garcia, President, Los Medanos College