What’s Up with DEI: Danville Community College

For the past month and a half, we’ve been sharing some of the DEI state policy team and college accomplishments from the last year of work. We’ve made our way (alphabetically!) through the six DEI states, profiling the DEI colleges in those states as we go. Yesterday, we introduced Virginia’s state policy work; now it’s time to learn a bit more about Danville Community College in Danville, Virginia.

Danville Community College (DCC) serves more than 4,000 students in the city of Danville and Pittsylvania and Halifax Counties. We’ve selected some highlights from their last year of DEI work in three main categories: scaling, institutional policy change, and academic and supportive service innovations.

Scaling

• All DCC developmental courses now include a technology component, and faculty members incorporate online homework assignments, require students to supplement classroom instruction with instructional videos, and encourage students to take advantage of online practice tests and tutoring. 
• At the beginning of their DEI work, the college served approximately 30 students in modular instruction. Now, approximately 200 students complete developmental math in four-week modules rather than the traditional 15-week program. With the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) math redesign that will be implemented in spring 2012, all developmental math students will be enrolled in math modules.

Institutional Policy

• Because of the major revisions to developmental math content in the VCCS, faculty teaching college-level courses are reviewing the content of the new nine math modules and determining which of the modules students need to be prepared for their first college-level math course and program of study. A course-by-course review will also be required no later than fall 2011 for new students enrolling in spring 2012. Descriptions of the new math modules have been shared with high schools in the service area.
• In 2010-2011, developmental education faculty conducted the first formal program review of developmental math and English, documenting assessment of specific learning outcomes, setting benchmarks, examining data, and using the data to make changes designed to improve student success.
• DCC has created a Developmental Education Advisory Committee with representatives from the local business community, public schools, and other educational institutions. At two meetings over the course of the year, participants discussed the challenges and opportunities facing potential partnerships between DCC and other educational institutions, business, and industry.

Academic and Supportive Service Innovations

• The college has worked with Rose Asera, a DEI technical assistance provider, to design a Faculty Inquiry Group. Originally, faculty met to align curriculum between developmental and college-level courses and develop a writing rubric. The rubric has been shared with area high schools and adult basic education providers and used at DCC by developmental writing faculty and college-level faculty.