College for a Day
The NCTN Promising Practice Series presents detailed descriptions of strategies from the field that are designed to promote the successful transition of students from ABE/ESOL to postsecondary education.
Contributed by
Janet Fischer
Formerly of: Northeast SABES
Northern Essex Community College
45 Franklin St.
Lawrence, MA 01840
978-738-7302
www.sabes.org/northeast
Mary Harris, Executive Director
Adult Education Program
Austin Community College
5930 Middle Fiskville Road
Austin, TX 78752
512-223-7895
www.austincc.edu/abe
Download version formatted for print [doc]
Program Context
Introduction
College for a Day encourages ABE/ESOL students to see college as a next step in their educational journey through a variety of simulated college experiences. This promising practice shares the lessons of two successful College for a Day programs located in different parts of the country: Texas and Massachusetts. Common aspects of both programs include students’ participation in classes taught by college professors, lunch, guided tours, student panels, information on admissions and financial aid and the challenge of anticipating attendance. Each story shares tips to make the program a very valuable experience for adult students.
College for a Day at Northern Essex Community College
Program Context
The System for Adult Basic Education and Support (SABES) was established by the Massachusetts Department of Education in 1990 to provide comprehensive training and technical assistance for adult educators and programs. Services are provided through regional offices located on community college campuses and one university campus throughout Massachusetts. The program described here was offered through the office located at Northern Essex Community College in northeastern Massachusetts.
The College for a Day program at Northeast SABES was inspired by Michele Sedor and Pat Mew, staff development specialists at SABES/West located at Holyoke Community College. Their success in the western part of the state was the catalyst for this Northeast SABES effort.
Rationale and Background of the Practice
Research on adult learners and experiences shared by colleagues address how reducing fear of the unknown is an important step in a student’s decision to attend college. Also for students to succeed in college, they need to know what is expected of them. College for a Day is a natural fit in meeting this need. When students come to the campus to take tours and participate in simulated classes, one sees instant success. Their fear of the unknown diminishes.
Description of the Practice
College for a Day is generally offered once a year as a 5-6 hour event. It is held over the spring break in March. Scheduling it during this time allows college faculty to be involved and classrooms are available.
Students start the day by reviewing course descriptions and talking with faculty. At the first event participants pre-registered with first-second-third class choices; however, a good percentage of students did not show up. Now registration is open on a first come-first serve basis on the day of the event. This process is made easier by using a color code system. If the faculty member says he/she can take up to 15 students, we make 15 color coded folders (e.g., yellow for radiology) for that class. When the color coded folders run out, the class is full.
After picking up their folders and registering for class, students go to a room where college representatives from the admissions, student activities, career services, and financial aid offices are ready to share information with them. A video about the college plays in the background and academic departments display information. Once completing this initial activity, it is on to refreshments.
The next step is the official beginning of the program. At this time the College President or Campus Vice President and the SABES staff welcome students. After a short review of the day’s agenda, students join groups based on their “registered” classes. Again the color coding system is useful. For example, students with a blue folder are directed to go to room X.
For the first year, classes were organized into two 45-minute sessions. Organizers learned that this schedule conflicted with the tours of the building they led before classes. This created a little bit of disorganization. As a result, the tours are now offered after classes. Also, 45 minutes for a class session is not enough. Classes are now scheduled for one session lasting for one hour and fifteen minutes or one hour thirty minutes. It limits choices, but gives students a deeper experience.
Generally there are ten simultaneous class sessions. These sessions represent the different types of courses students might take in college. Many of the courses include interesting learning activities. For example, an American Sign Language session includes a demonstration by a deaf teacher and a hearing ear dog from the community. The faculty person does a really great job in making this informative. Students feel that they would succeed in this course.
Another example is a wonderful offering from the Nursing Department. After watching a film on proper hand washing procedures, students wash their hands and put them under a black light to see the many untreated germs. In the radiology class, students see bones on X-rays. Some students participate in a session from the Respiratory Therapy department, while others made slides in the biology lab. Students interested in technology learned basic word processing and ways to effectively use Google from the SABES Technology Coordinator.
Other offerings for College for a Day include: a paramedic session, two sessions about career planning, a computer session, allied health session, and an ESL session. Many of the students want to take the ESL session to get a feel for a college English class. Students appreciate that the faculty member is a traditional ESL/grammar teacher. A course on Travel connected with the Travel Certificate program and a theatre course is sometimes offered, too.
One year the event offered a psychology course with career choices and time stress management topics. Activities included taking the Holland interest test. Participants like the career planning sessions and linking choices to appropriate college majors by learning, “How would that transfer into a program of study?”
At the end of the class, students meet an ambassador from the college’s Student Leadership Program or a SABES staff member and go on a building tour. The tour is coordinated so that participants aren't running into each other. During the tour, they pick up a bag lunch. Half way through lunch there is a student panel.
Five to seven people participate in the panel. Participants include students and several people from adult education programs. The coordinator prepares some typical questions College for a Day Students usually ask. Panelists share what life is like as a college student. College for a Day students laugh with the panelists. They say, “These guys were just like me a few years ago. If they can do it, so can I.” This helps nervous students to consider going to college.
Staffing
A major challenge for the event relates to staffing. There are never enough people to staff it. SABES staff is responsible for coordinating everything; however, people from the student activities office help out by offering their Student Leadership Program members. These college students give a lot of assistance as volunteer ambassadors. They volunteer as a part of their community service effort. Also, an employee from the admissions office helps SABES coordinate the day.
What are the staffing needs? For the registration process, five to seven people are needed. In addition one person is needed to make sure participants know where to go. One tour guide is needed for each group of fifteen students. This makes sure that no one gets lost. We need one to two people to help distribute the food at lunch.
The biggest challenges are making the scheduling decisions and getting faculty and staff to commit. It is wise to ask staff and faculty right after the event if they will participate next time. Usually they say, “Yes, let me know when you are doing it again.” Asking right after the event, increases the likelihood faculty and staff will agree to do this again next time.
Implementation Steps
There are many logistics to consider. It is important to figure out how to get participants to the college. Carpooling is a good option. Some participants may come by themselves. Knowing their transportation needs is information required for planning. For example, one year there was a bus to pick up participants coming by commuter rail. No one used it.
It is important to make sure there is enough food and that all the equipment is working. Determine who on campus is responsible for setting up the room(s), podium and sound system. Find out when they need to have the seating arrangement and equipment plans. Since participants are new to a college campus, plan the signage with this in mind.
It is useful to ask teachers to give students activities before the event as a way to help prepare for the day. Two easy examples are sharing a map of the campus and doing a word search to find campus offices, and going online to look up information about the college. This builds interest and the teachers become more invested, too. Another good preparation step is to gather materials for the participating ABE/ESOL teachers. Also, provide teachers with a folder with materials to help them guide their students’ reflections about experiences after College for a Day.
Challenges and Solutions
Students who actually show up for the event are often not the same as those who signed up for it. This reality is a challenge constantly in the back of one’s mind. One way to address this challenge is to not send out the class list until a few days before the College for a Day date. For this program to work well, it is important to know attendance number to plan class sessions, lunch, tours, room arrangements and materials.
Even with careful planning, there are always constraints. For example, the radiology class has a certain amount of equipment. This determines how many students can participate in this simulation, regardless of interest. Also, if the college campus is spread out, try to keep students in a centralized location where events can be concentrated.
Other planning questions are: How do you keep people moving? What do you want people to absolutely see? How do you want the rooms arranged? How are the seats set up? What kind of sessions are going to be most appropriate? How can you get former or current ABE students to talk? What are the special needs of a night program or a day program? Answering these questions involves careful record-keeping (e.g., who you spoke to and when) and patience. It is important to have one point person to make sure college representatives are not getting different directions from several people. Keep building the rapport with the people in the college.
Cost & Funding
It costs about $5,000 to hold a College for a Day program. The basic budget for the Northeast SABES program is determined by how much we need to pay faculty and staff, and by how much of the expenses can be covered by the college. Faculty is paid $150 and non-student staff is paid $50. Each student panelist receives a stipend of $20. Also, significant expense is involved in copying materials, and buying labels and folders.
Costs for bag lunches can be expensive. Costs are reduced by bringing in juices, drinks, and cookies from outside the college. Also, costs are further reduced by offering a few sandwich choices with chips, fruit and cookies. Keep records, date the quotes and get a description with each quote. By doing this process, it was determined that the college caterer charged three times as much as one from the “outside”.
A good challenge is to see how you can connect with the College’s activities and mission. Northern Essex Community College has a Title V grant. Funding for College for a Day came from this grant by providing student participant statistics. It is important to provide the college with as many exact figures as is possible. The first year College for a Day received $1,500 for the meals. The second year, $2,500 was received. Another way to raise funds is to collect raffle items from student activities and hold a raffle during lunch.
Evidence of Impact and Effectiveness
A better way to formally document the effectiveness and impact of this practice is needed. As of now, mainly informal ways are operative. ABE/ESOL programs regularly ask when the next College for a Day is planned. Program staff often states that it is one of the best experiences for adult education students and that their students love it. Also, we learn from teachers that their ABE/ESOL students have enrolled in the college.
How to document the outcomes? This is a challenge. It would be useful to do a follow up with participating programs a week or two after the event. At this time one could talk with the participants and do an evaluation by listing answers for them to circle on a scale from 1-5. Statistics by program, city, and how many are in GED, ESOL are maintained.
Implications for Practice, Policy and Research
Once the College for a Day program is institutionalized documenting how many faculty and staff participate is needed. This allows the host college to show how its resources are used to serve the community and to help fulfill its mission. By showing positive outcomes for learners, an event like College for a Day helps ABE/ESOL programs document what they are doing to help learners achieve their next educational step.
Implications for policy are determined by the College’s level of ownership. It is important to demonstrate that this is about more than recruitment. Anything that promotes lifelong learning in the community needs to be supported by policy.
This practice is not just helping students get their immediate goal met: getting a GED. It is a key to opening doors to their future by networking with them. It may be interesting to look at the impact of this practice by looking at different College for a Day models and best practices. Traditionally attending college is connected with a high school network or path. If most of your students are nontraditional, there is a large need that is filled with wonderful events like College for a Day. It is both a lot of work and fun.
College for a Day at Austin Community College District
Program Context -
College for a Day at Austin Community College (ACC) is an extension of the College’s Adult Education to College Connection Program started by ACC to serve seniors in the local high schools and was extended to adult education students. () Almost all of the adult education programs are located in the community. The Adult Education to College Connection program brings ACC recruiter and advisors to classrooms to help students with the college enrollment process. These representatives help them access to college presentations, fill out the ACC application, complete the electronic financial aid application, and register for college courses. College for a Day takes these services one step further by bringing students to the campus.
The ACC Board of Trustees made a big financial commitment to the College’s adult education program and see transitioning adult education (AE) students to postsecondary education as a return on this investment. In 2006 the transition of AE students to college became an initiative for ACC President, Dr. Kinslow. The President is thrilled with the idea of College for a Day. It fits well with the state's Closing the Gaps Initiative. (See )
The target audience for College for a Day is advanced level ESL students to top and intermediate to advanced level GED students who are finishing their adult education studies within the fiscal year. Also, in our multi-level classes instructors identified students on track to get their GED by the end of the fiscal year.
Rationale and Background of the Practice
The practice began in response to a presentation sponsored by the National College Transition Network at the 2007 COABE conference. A motivating presentation was made by Janet Fischer, the co-contributor to this promising practice.
Description of the Practice
Because the Adult Education to College Connection Program is a part of ACC and College for a Day is strongly supported by the President, departments readily agree to participate. itCollege for a Day happens in November on the Friday before the Thanksgiving break.
Agenda for the Day
After President Kinslow welcomes the students to the College, they attend a college success workshop. It is similar to the one provided for incoming ACC students. Attending two hands-on sessions follow the workshop. Then participants gather for lunch. During lunch staff members from Student Life office present information. The goal of the presentation is to encourage students to think about being a whole student. They encourage students to go beyond attending classes to join clubs and to participate in other activities. Also, the Financial Aid advisor speaks to the students at this time.
After lunch a student panel consisting of four students who had transitioned from a GED program into college shares their lessons. One talks about how important it is to complete the GED; one explains the Financial Aid process; one discusses how to choose classes; and one speaks about being a college student at ACC. ABE/ESL students asks the panelists very specific questions: How did students decide on a program? How hard was it to complete the GED? Who helped you in making your decisions? One of the themes from the panel discussion is how helpful the recruiters-advisors are in this transition process. They stay in contact with the students even after AE program completion.
Implementation Steps
Careful planning really pays off. It makes a big difference and it does take time. As Janet Fischer suggested at her presentation, talk through every movement of the day. Have people everywhere to give directions to make sure students knew where to go. It is important to look very professional to the students. Drive home the point that this day is for them and they are the center of our attention.
Keep it manageable. In planning the first ACC College for a Day, three departments were identified because of good relationships I have with each one. These departments are: Health Sciences, Continuing Education and Computer Information Technology. As a way to engage them, I made a presentation to the Department Deans early in the semester. This timing gave them plenty of time to decide about participation. Each department received an example of what I received at Janet Fischer’s presentation. The Deans were assured that their involvement in planning would be minimal (and it was).
Marketing the event is important. Adult education staff visits the ABE/ESOL classes to pass out “Save the Date Cards” and give an overview of the program. They go back to the classes close to the date of the event with the registration forms. Students are encouraged to complete them that day. Both activities are helpful in getting an early commitment from the students. Also, the ACC marketing department designed the marketing materials and the logo for the staff T-shirts. It is interesting to see how enthusiastic marketing is about the event.
The sessions are well received by the students because they are hands-on and an interesting variety is offered. Participants choose to attend two out of the twelve workshops offered. Several of the health science programs participate. Students have a lot of fun. In a floral industry based class, they make a floral arrangement to take home. In the “Walk the Talk” session, students learn how to take a person’s blood pressure. In the Animal Tech presentation, students learn how to do CPR on a dog. For the health sciences workshop, students participate in the labs. They can see and touch everything. The computer programming session is so popular that the instructor needs a larger than usual room to accommodate all the students.
Show the college leadership that this is a marketing opportunity and something they will be doing for the community. Colleges do these types of events all the time for high school students. Ask them to gear their efforts toward adult education students, too.
Challenges and Solutions
A big challenge is getting an idea of how many students would attend. At the first event, pre-registered students maxed out all the classes. It was not clear if everyone could be accommodated; however, only 60% of the students who pre-registered actually attended. People pre-registered for specific classes and we held their slots. These were slots that could have been offered to other GED providers in the area. Although students were identified carefully, some who were not on track to complete their program in FY07 attended. Some participants had a very low English proficiency which made communication a challenge. The challenge is: How do you get the people who will benefit the most to participate? How do you convince other students that this is an annual event and they will have an opportunity to come when they are closer to completing their program?
Cost & Funding
The AE program does not have money right now set aside for College for a Day. Additional funding may come along in the future. Luckily there are institutional funds to pay for a bulk of the expenses. Also, a local restaurant picked-up 50% of the cost of the food and the student services department bought drinks and morning snacks. Several staff members did a great job at soliciting door prizes from area stores and restaurants. The marketing department gave their time to create the marketing materials. Since this AE program is a part of the college, there is not a charge for the space.
Departments “show off their program” and pay their faculty salaries. They also get a free lunch and a t-shirt. For the college it is “recruiting” and the departments see it as recruiting. Choosing a Friday, because not as many classes helped..
Evidence of Impact and Effectiveness
It's still too early to determine this practice’s impact and effectiveness. A lot of the students who attend express a strong interest in transitioning to ACC. Plans to follow up with the students to see if they have successfully transitioned will document this. Some of the departments indicate they will follow-up with students who attend their sessions to answer any additional questions.
Implications for Practice, Policy and Research
It is important to develop relationships with your local postsecondary institution, as AE providers get more pressure to prepare students to transition to college level work. At ACC Departments are beginning to see the importance of providing the same college planning support to AE students need the same college planning support as they provide to high school students. Colleges need to broaden their outreach.
ACC has done a great job over the past several years in making sure AE students have the information needed to make decisions about attending college, choosing a program of study and registering for classes. Academic readiness of AE students is the next initiative shared by the Adult Education Department and other departments in the College. There is a gap between GED completion dates and the timing of college readiness. This gap results in students spending too much time and money in developmental classes. Students become discouraged and do not persist to degree attainment.
Targeted recruitment and retention efforts are the keys to successfully transitioning of AE students to college.
Implementing a College for a Day program can be as small or as large as needed. Start small with perhaps visits to one program at the college or have a college recruiter visit an adult education program. Then expand the activities to a college-wide event. College for a Day is now an annual practice at ACC. Planning is under way to extend invitations to AE providers in the area to attend our event or coordinate an event on their own.
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