Fullerton College Awarded $1.5 Million for Basic Skills
Fullerton College’s Basic Skills Program has been awarded $1.5 million from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office to help improve the progression rate of basic skills students from remedial education to college-level instruction.
The Basic Skills Program at Fullerton College currently offers several services that help under-prepared students attain the skills necessary to succeed in college. This new $1.5 million in funding will allow the program to launch the Fullerton College Pathway Transformation Initiative, which will provide a significant increase in services to students.
“This grant will help us support more students in reaching their transfer and degree goals more quickly than ever before,” said Director of Basic Skills and Support Programs Kristine Nikkhoo. “It will help remove barriers to student success and allow more students access to transfer-level English and math classes.”
The Pathway Transformation Initiative represents a campus-wide effort between multiple departments and divisions, including English, math, reading, ESL, counseling, social sciences, and automotive, to transform basic skills course pathways for students and increase their overall success and completion.
The Pathway Transformation Initiative features four project areas. They include a course-placement process, which integrates multiple measures of assessment to increase persistence and completion rates; direct placement, which will provide support to students who determine for themselves that they can be successful in college-level courses; content-alignment, which supports students enrolled in automotive and social science courses; and a proactive student services process, which integrates FC’s thriving Growth Mindset instructional initiative with counseling.
The funding is made possible by the state Chancellor’s Office Basic Skills and Student Outcomes Transformation Program and will be administered beginning July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2019. Fullerton College is one of 43 colleges in the state who will receive the grant. The 2015-2016 state budget provided the California Community College system with $60 million in one-time funds for campuses to adopt or expand evidence-based practices that boost student success. Colleges, such as Fullerton College, that articulated a compelling plan for adopting or expanding two or more high-impact strategies that transform basic skills outcomes were eligible to apply for up to $1.5 million.
The Pathway Transformation Initiative helped secure the maximum grant amount. These funds are in addition to the Basic Skills Initiative state funding that Fullerton College receives for innovative programs such as the Entering Scholars Program (ESP) and the Graduate Student Mentorship Program.
