Best Education Practice: College Tutor Training and Professional Development Activities

Tutor Training and Professional Development.  Wichita State University (KS)  (approved Promising Practice 9/25/13)   Taken from the abstract:  "Peer tutoring has become a familiar tool that many schools utilize to reinforce classroom teaching and increase student success.   For this reason, the Student Support Services (SSS) Project at Wichita State University (WSU) has implemented a Tutor Training and professional development program to assist new and returning tutors to develop strategies to support learning and enhance academic performance and improve the tutoring process to establish, implement, and maintain a comprehensive and quality tutor-training program."  [Click on this web link to download the education practice.]

Tactics That Engage Community-College Students Get Few Takers, Study Finds

"Most community colleges have begun using a suite of expert-approved strategies to get more students to graduation. But those programs are often just window dressing, as relatively few students participate in them.  Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/17/community-college-completion-strategies-lack-scale-report-finds#ixzz2hzE3Mnqe  at Inside Higher Ed

That’s the central finding of a new report from the Center for Community College Student Engagement. And Kay McClenney, the center’s director, places blame for the shallow adoption of “high impact” completion practices squarely on colleges and their leaders, rather than on students.  “Requiring students to take part in activities likely to enhance their success is a step community colleges can readily take,” McClenney said in a written statement. “They just need to decide to do it.”  The study draws from three national surveys that seek to measure student engagement at community colleges that collectively account for 80 percent of the sector’s enrollment. One is the center’s flagship survey -- the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE)....The 13 strategies include the use of academic goal-setting, student orientation, tutoring, accelerated remedial education tracks and student success courses (see box for full list). While experts and faculty members might not agree on whether all of the practices work well, there is an emerging body of evidence that they help boost completion rates.

For example, 84 percent of two-year colleges offer student success courses, which are designed to help new students navigate college and get off to a good start. The courses are particularly helpful to large numbers of lower-income, first-generation college students who attend community college, and who rarely get the support of family members who know the skinny on how college works.  Yet only 20 percent of surveyed students took a success courses during their first term, according to the report.  The other 12 practices showed similar gaps between being offered and being used. Take tutoring, which has obvious benefits to struggling students. Fully 99 percent of the surveyed colleges offer some form of tutoring, but the report found that only 27 percent of students had taken advantage of it during the current academic year."

Asking students to volunteer for service will not work.  They don[t want to face stigma for doing so, they don[t have time for activities that conflict with their two or three part time jobs they have to pay for tuition, and for all the others commitments in their life.  The solution is Universal Design for Learning where essential services and support are built directly into classes and required for all students. 

Best Education Practice: McWrite Scholarly Writing Skill Seminar Series

McWrite:  Developing Scholarly Writinig Skills.  Wichita State University (KS)  (approved Promising Practice 10/15/13)  Taken from the abstract:  "The McWrite model for developing scholarly writing skills was developed at Wichita State University to help students with difficulty mastering the mechanics of writing (punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, paragraph development) and scholarly writing required for graduate studies.  According to Schumacher and Gradwohl-Nash (1991), three purposes of writing are fostering understanding, changing conceptions. and developing thinking skills.  This is consistent with Piaget’s theory of cognitive development (1958).  All participants of the Wichita State University TRiO McNair Scholars Program participate in monthly, hour-long group sessions to develop increased competency in these three essential skills.  McWrite benefits students in all areas of their academics, fostering increased confidence in their writing abilities, and success in graduate school.  A unique feature of the McWrite program is the sustained and systematic approach to development of writing skills for all McNair Scholars, regardless of previous academic success.  This program is part of the core of the TRiO McNair program rather than an optional activity with limited attention".  [Click on this web link to download the education practice.]  

TRiO Works: Who Has Been Served and Some of the Best Practices

Best Education Practice: Assessment Tools for Equal Opportunity Center TRIO Programs

Post Assessment Evaluation Tool for EOC Programs.  Wichita State University (KS) (approved Promising Practice 9/25/13)  Taken from the abstract:  "There is a perennial need to develop assessment tools for TRIO program services in general and Educational Opportunity Centers (COE) program services in particular. The post-service assessment tool for an EOC program is designed to help EOC staff and administrators to use a generic tool and collect relevant evaluation data to assess and seek improvement in the quality of services. The goals of this practice is: 1) to develop a generic quantitative survey based tool to assess service efficacy; 2) to measure the self-reported learning outcomes of the EOC services; 3) to assess the efficacy of the EOC staff in providing these services."  [Click on this web link to download the education practice.]

Best Education Practice: Academic Advising Management System

Academic Advising Management System, Wichita State University (KS). (approved Promising Practice 10/11/13). From the abstract: "One service that the Wichita State University (WSU) Upward Bound Math Science (UBMS) Program provides in support of its mission is academic advising.A key practice with the WSU approach is the data collection and management of information essential for effective advising of the students. This information includes students’ progress towards completion of their required curriculum and enrollment pattern in math and science courses. It is also used for strategic planning purposes by the UBMS program personnel for whom the information helps inform study group formation, tutoring needs and summer course design. While Upward Bound programs commonly provide academic advising services to its students, the WSU approach is more comprehensive and includes additional stakeholders. [Click on this link to download the education practice.]

Best Education Practice: Podcasting Academic and Career Counseling for Post 9/11 Veterans

Podcasting Academic and Career Counseling for Post 9/11 Veterans.  Wichita State Unviersity (KS)  (approved Promising Practice 10/15/13)  Adding audio podcasting to the Upward Bound Veterans program allows our students to listen to important information when and where they want.  Podcasting is a simple way to provide information through the human voice some students prefer rather than reading a handout.  Listening to audio and video podcasts has rapidly grown recently due to widespread ownership of iPods, smartphones, and desk/laptop computers.  Podcasting can be as simple or complex as you want.  The most important element is the quality of information and its direct relevancy to the listeners.  [Click on this web link to download the education practice.]