Close to Home: At SRJC, new approach gets better results

One of the best things about working at Santa Rosa Junior College is that I know every member of this organization is dedicated to the success of our students. That’s why we got into education — for the joy of seeing a student grasp a new concept, walk across the graduation stage or achieve their personal goal. While we may not all agree on the path to get there, we do agree on why we’re here. We’re here for our students.

Yet there are times we must ask ourselves difficult questions like, “Are remedial classes helping students, particularly students of color, reach their academic goals?” Since the answers are not always obvious, I look to the data.

Prior to the pandemic in 2019, SRJC began to implement state Education Code changes designed to more efficiently get students into and successfully through transfer-level courses in English and math within one year, which has been shown to positively correlate with graduation rates. At the same time, we prepared ourselves to provide the supports students need to succeed in those classes. Now, three years later, we’ve seen an overall improvement in success rates among all ethnic groups as well as the following:

— Prior to fall 2019, students of color had a 12% gap in success in transfer-level English, when compared to white students. Today, that gap is down to 4%.

— Prior to fall 2019, students of color had a 10% gap in success in transfer-level mathematics, when compared to white students. As of today, that gap is decreased to 8%. More importantly, both groups experienced an over 10% increase in success.

Additionally, we saw evidence that enrolling in for-credit, remedial classes increased the length of time it took for students to achieve their educational goals, often delaying graduation and students’ ability to enter the workforce or transfer to a four-year institution.

These data clearly show that remedial, non-transfer level classes perpetuate structural inequities for our students of color and make it less likely that those who want to will be able to complete a degree. At the same time, we knew we could not simply place students into transfer-level classes without making any other changes.

Knowing all this, we asked ourselves, “How can we do this in a way that supports the success of all students?”

At SRJC, we deeply believe in student equity and in providing the supports that all students need to reach their goals. In order to help students complete transfer-level math and English in the first year, we are:

— Expanding other support programs, including math and English labs, tutoring, peer coaching, concurrent support courses, library support and more.

— Increasing the number of free, noncredit, pre-transfer level math and English courses designed to support transfer-level class success.

— Continuing to work with our faculty in these areas to ensure that we evaluate the efficacy of these efforts and adjust where needed.

I believe that by working closely with our dedicated faculty, allocating the resources to provide support to students and by evaluating and adapting our practices as we go, we will continue to improve our rates of student success in these programs.

The bottom line is that what we were doing before was not working. The rates of students failing transfer-level English and math, particularly students of color, were far too high. Data shows that many students who do not pass these classes in the first year drop out before graduation. The changes we have implemented show improved rates of student success, and we will continue to explore more ways to help all SRJC students achieve their educational goals. This may not be easy, but our students are worth it.

Frank Chong is president of Santa Rosa Junior College.

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