Guest Post: Extended Programmes – A South African Initiative

Well, this is exciting! It’s Accelerating Achievement’s first international guest blogger. Today’s post comes from Dr. Chrissie Boughey of Rhodes University in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape province, South Africa. Dr. Boughey attended the 2011 Achieving the Dream Strategy Institute and after hearing some of her reflections on the event and, in particular, her perspective on colleges’ approaches to remediation and developmental education, we asked her to tell us—and you—more about the South African approach. The end of apartheid necessitated a different approach to higher education in South Africa and there are some striking similarities in the challenges we face in this country when it comes to serving underprepared students. The Extended Programme, described below, is an interesting approach to contextualizing and blending the entire remedial sequence into college-level study.

In South Africa, access to and success in higher education have long been critical issues because of the effects of apartheid on black students’ chances of gaining admittance to a university and succeeding once they are there. Early access initiatives tended to focus on stand-alone remedial courses in study skills, language, and numeracy. Analysis of the impact of this sort of work showed that students often felt marginalized and stigmatized and that learning did not often transfer to mainstream study.

In the early 2000s, thanks to “redress funding” from the South African Department of Education, “Extended Programmes with an Integrated Foundation Phase” began to be developed.  “Extended Programmes,” as they are now known, admit students who do not meet usual university entrance requirements to accredited programs of study leading to degree- or diploma-level qualifications. An Extended Programme prolongs the period of study needed for the completion of a qualification by up to one year. This additional year’s worth of instruction is used to provide learning opportunities that either lay a foundation for “mainstream” learning or support it in some way. Importantly, not all the additional instruction needs to be located in the first year of study since funding rules allow it to be provided throughout the curriculum.

In the years since the introduction of Extended Programmes, a number of different ways of providing the additional instruction have been identified. “Augmented” courses see students registered in normal courses but having the instructional time for those courses doubled with the additional instruction offered by specialists. A typical augmented course might thus offer eight classes per week instead of the four offered normally. “Extended” courses (not to be confused with Extended Programmes) offer a semester’s worth of learning over an entire year. This means that the pace of learning is slowed and more time is available for foundations to be built and for language and literacy to be developed in relation to authentic learning tasks. Funding for Extended Programmes allows a mix of different kinds of courses providing this additional instruction.

One of the advantages of Extended Programmes is that students begin earning credits towards a qualification immediately. The impact of this on motivation is enormous. In addition, the integration of developmental work with mainstream learning means that it can be authentic and support students as they engage with academic discourse communities.

While Extended Programmes benefit students enormously, the integration of support and development with mainstream teaching is challenging for faculty involved. At the core of these challenges is the need for academic teachers to adopt teaching approaches and assessment methods that are inclusive, rather than exclusive, of the diversity black working class students bring to learning.  Extended Programmes thus provide a rich site for research associated with the scholarship of teaching and with academic life in general.

Initially, only a small number of universities offered Extended Programmes. Now all public universities offer a number of these valuable learning opportunities to students who were previously excluded from or marginalized in South African higher education.

Dr. Chrissie Boughey is Dean of Teaching and Learning at Rhodes University.

In Context

As we’ve discussed here before, coming up with an appropriate moniker for developmental education is challenging. At some institutions, these courses are deemed “transitional” or “foundational” since students are acquiring skills that will form the basis of the rest of the postsecondary study. This week, we’ll be looking at a particular approach to integrating those necessary skills and content instruction. That’s right, it’s Contextualization Week!

These Peeps are studying culinary arts and the art of mathematics. And we’re still smitten with the Washington Post's Peeps dioramas.

As defined in a recent CCRC brief on the topic, contextualization is “the teaching of basic skills in the context of disciplinary topic areas.” This week, we’ll have posts from South Africa and South Texas detailing how different institutions employ these strategies on their campuses and how they shape student experience and outcomes. We’ll also dig a little deeper into current research on effective design and implementation of contextualized curricula. Stay with us!

Linky, Linky

• Today in Inside Higher Ed, Mike Rose writes powerfully about the challenges of our existing developmental education system:

  “But now we are at a watershed moment when not only are individuals and programs trying to do something fresh with remediation, but national attention -- public and philanthropic -- is focused on the issue as well. To make significant changes, we’ll need to understand all the interlocking pieces of the remediation puzzle, something we’re not oriented to do, for our disciplinary and methodological training and public policy toolkit work against a comprehensive view of the problem.”

  Rose raises a familiar lament about disciplinary and methodological silos, drawing particular attention to the lack of interaction between intellectuals focused on remediation and those focused on basic writing.
  
• In the spirit of breaking down silos (check out last week’s post about efforts in Ohio to align dev ed with adult basic ed), we want to draw your attention to an article published this morning by The Hechinger Report about basic skills education. Sarah Butrymowicz lifts up these programs: “Across the U.S., thousands of workers stuck in low-paying jobs are trying to get a leg up through free basic-skills classes that train them in everything from elementary math to basic literacy.”
• The U.S. Department of Education is hosting a Community College Virtual Symposium on April 27 from 2:00-5:00 PM EDT. There will be presentations on policies and practices that support bridge programs for low-skill adults, alignment of secondary and postsecondary education, improved developmental education, and college-employer partnerships that promote curricular change. Register here to participate.

Guest Post: Scaling Up Successful Practices, Drawing on Experience

This post is courtesy of Jim Knickerbocker, managing director of the Academy for College Excellence. ACE is an integrated, project-based program for developmental education students that accelerates student progress by focusing on both the students’ cognitive and affective experience. ACE began as a program at Cabrillo College and now exists at eight colleges across the country. In February, we shared some of what we learned at Jim’s great presentation on scaling at the 2011 Achieving the Dream Strategy Institute. Here, Jim talks about some of the deeper change—in organizations and individuals—that may be required to successfully expand an effective program. You’ll also note that we’ve chosen to illustrate today’s post with something a little more sugary than a JPG. That’s right, we’re shamelessly obsessed with the Washington Post’s annual Peeps Diorama Contest.

These peeps go to college in California and have created a strong peer support network because they participate in the Academy for College Excellence.

There is no shortage of inventiveness being put to work improving developmental education in America, but too many good ideas never grow beyond their first few classrooms at a college, let alone extend out to other colleges across the nation or persist over time.  Why is it so challenging to scale-up successful programs? 

And what do we mean by “scaling?”  The most common notion is reaching a wider number of people (more students enrolled in more cohorts at more institutions), but that is only part of the equation. For sustainability, greater depth is just as important, such as the magnitude of student transformation, degree of institutional change (structure, process, roles, policies, values), or attainment of a critical mass in a region or district.

Scaling necessarily entails a lot of change, which may send the message that what is new is more important than what has been.  Shifting priorities within institutions can induce rivalries as parties grasp for control over resource re-allocation. Beyond the changes in power and money, scaling usually requires changes in skills, habits, and ideas. There are a lot of factors that enable this kind of change, but the single most important ingredient to successful scaling is sponsorship—not just at the top, but with key participants (e.g., faculty senate, union, and community partners) who can provide leadership, resources, and support for teamwork. Another success factor is the use of evaluation data to promote buy-in.

The Academy of College Excellence (ACE) designed its model to promote scaling by moving high-intensity student support into the curriculum and creating peer-to-peer networks to reduce costs. ACE also developed a replicable methodology of workshops and tools to help colleges adopt and expand their ACE program. With these and other techniques, once the program is fully established at a college, the cost per cohort is not significantly greater than regular college courses.

Jim Knickerbocker, Ph.D., is managing director of the Academy for College Excellence.  To learn more about ACE’s scaling approach, you can check out the slides and handouts from Jim’s 2011 ATD Strategy Institute presentation in the Resources section under “Scaling Up.” You can learn more about ACE at www.my-ace.org.

Linky, Linky

Looking for a good Friday afternoon dev ed read? Here are a few options:

• Developmental Mathematics Revival is an exciting new blog from Jack Rotman, who leads the AMATYC “New Life Project” and is a liaison with Carnegie’s pathways work. 
• Does college still matter? According to the first ten minutes of today’s Freakonomics podcast, it really does! Steve Levitt says, “Of all the topics that economists have studied, I would say one we are most certain about are the returns to education.” Isn’t it comforting to know that economists are certain about some things?
• The Chronicle’s Jennifer Gonzalez reports on MDRC’s research on learning communities.
• Carnegie has posted the materials from their Statway and Quantway webinar, including an extensive Q&A.
• Can’t get enough dev ed content? Videos and presentations from last September’s National Center for Postsecondary Research Developmental Education Conference are available online.