An Update: Transfer Initiatives in Illinois

1. July 20, 2017 Session 3I An Update: Transfer Initiatives in Illinois Malinda Aiello,Assistant Director For Academic affairs, IBHE Dr. Ashley Becker, Senior Director for Academic Affairs, ICCB

2. Presentation Overview • Illinois Articulation Initiative • Associate of Science Degree Changes • Remedial Education Reform • Postsecondary & Workforce Readiness Act • Dual Credit • AP/IB • MyCreditsTransfer

3. Illinois articulation initiative

4. Illinois Articulation Initiative (IAI) What is the IAI? How does it work for students? Seamless transfer among 110 Illinois institutions Transferable GECC package Includes course recommendations for transferring into 18 majors Statewide quality assurance Designed to serve undecided and self-advising students Assists students who know they want to transfer, but are undecided about destination • The Illinois Articulation Initiative was jointly launched for IL colleges and universities by: • Illinois Board of Higher Education • Illinois Community College Board • Transfer Coordinators • IAI Purpose: • Ease the transfer of students among Illinois public and independent, associate and baccalaureate degree-granting institutions

5. The many numbers of IAI There are over 58,000 Transfer Students in Illinois. IAI helps! • 110 Participating Institutions (public & private) • 6 General Education Core Curriculum (GECC) Panels • 197 GECC Course Descriptors • 7,000+ GECC Approved/Active Courses • ` • 15 Active Major Panels • 81 Major Course Descriptors • 2,300+ Major Approved/Active Courses • 26 membership seats per GECC & Major panel • 525+ faculty, TCs, and CAOs serving on panels • 138,000+ visits to the iTransfer site on an annual basis

6. iTransfer & imanage • iTransfer Website: Provides information to current and potential students, parents, faculty, advisors, registrars, etc. • www.itransfer.org • iManage System: Serves as the course review system for panel members, assign membership roles, etc. • http://www.itransfer.org/IAI/iManage/

7. IAI as a Model • Through the IAI, Illinois has developed one of the most comprehensive course approval and quality assurance processes in the nation, assuring that all approved courses are comparable and meet the high standards established by the faculty panels. • IAI serves as a model for transfer throughout the nation; other states aspire to do the job of articulation as well as we do through our faculty-driven process. • Several states have inquired or shown great interest in IAI, both the process and the system, including: Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Ohio, Texas, and Wyoming

8. A.S. Degree changes

9. The Modified A.S. Degree • When? • In the fall of 2015, ICCB approved modifications to the degree intended to smooth transfer for STEM students into four-year institutions • How? • Under the new A.S. degree model, students will be required to take one additional math course and one additional science course, which will displace two GECC courses in the HFA and SBS categories • The GECC remains intact, however the timing of when the packages is completed will now differ between A.A. and A.S. students • Under this new degree model, students are now able to take the necessary prerequisites and complete course sequences required for STEM pathways • Why? • This means that students will no longer have to choose between completing the associate’s degree and meeting STEM transfer prerequisites • Benefits: • CCs will likely see more A.S. completions • STEM students will now be on equal footing with native students at 4 yr. institutions; the modified A.S. degree would allow a student to replicate, as closely as possible, the first two years of undergraduate study in the student’s chosen STEM major field of study.

10. Associate’s of Science (A.S.) Degree

11. Remedial ed. reform

12. Remedial Education Reform • Complete College America • Math Pathways • Co-Requisite Survey Results • Bridging the Gap

13. Developmental Education at Illinois Community Colleges Developmental Education at Illinois community colleges is an approach to education that focuses on helping students achieve their full potential, through accessible pathways to college completion.   Through Developmental Education, colleges are able to support both academic and personal growth of underprepared students through instruction, counseling, advising, and tutoring. Unfortunately, many developmental students face tremendous barriers, with less than one quarter of developmental students actually completing a degree or certificate within eight years of enrollment into college. Addressing the needs of developmental students is the one of the most challenging and important issue facing community colleges in Illinois. • Developmental education enrollment and rate of overall enrollment have remained relatively constant over the last ten years. • Students indicated being in Baccalaureate/Transfer Curriculums accounted for 50 percent developmental education enrollments. • The majority (8 out ten) of community colleges are within 10 percent of the statewide rate of students enrolling in developmental education courses. • Approximately 60 percent of students in developmental education take Math Only.

14. Illinois Community College Developmental Education Enrollments

15. Developmental Education in Illinois

16. White House Commitment Developmental Education Redesign: The ICCB, in partnership with the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) will revise developmental/remedial education in Illinois to advance college readiness. The ICCB will also work with the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) to match unit record data for additional socioeconomic information as needed and will also work with the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) to make use of predictive analytics to determine employment goals for each community college district. • "The Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) is making a commitment to increasing the number of co-requisite remedial programs, which will reduce the time-to-degree and the completion rates of students entering postsecondary who are not college ready. Currently, 12 Illinois community colleges offer co-requisite remedial programs, and the ICCB will commit to doubling the number of co-requisite remedial programs in the system."

17. CCA IL Co-Requisite to Scale Pilot project • Technical Assistance Grant with Complete College America • Officially kicked off the pilot project in spring of 2016 IL and the participating institutions agreed to: • Data Collection: Collect baseline data across math and English co-requisite and math pathway programs. • Implementation: Implement co-requisite and pathway remedial programs in participating community college and university Math and English departments. • Scale: Use the data to advance an agenda focused on scale.

18. IL Co-Requisite pilot project • Co-Requisite Definition: • A course design in which students who are assessed below college-ready in Math, English, or Reading are enrolled in a first-year college credit-bearing course and receive additional academic support or otherwise are instructed in college-level content and receive additional academic support concurrently with the college-level material. The model ensures that a student has the opportunity to complete a college-level gateway course within one academic year.

19. IL Co-Requisite Pilot project: Participating Institutions

20. IL Co-Requisite Pilot project:Baseline Data • All eight pilot institutions began collecting data in the Fall of 2016. • During year two, pilot institutions will report all co-requisite/pathway remedial program data to IBHE and ICCB. • IBHE and ICCB will then use this data to assist with the state’s efforts to scale. • Success Example: Current co-requisite data at SIUC and SIUE • The co-requisite class structure is in place at SIUC, with roughly 150 students having taking the class during the Fall 2015 semester. • These students took exactly the same common final as the standard College Algebra students, and performed in a statistically equivalent way.  • In fact, the mean score of the co-requisite classes, was slightly higher than that of the standard College Algebra students (70% vs 67%). • At SIUE, the success rate for a two-semester sequence of Intermediate Algebra (remedial) and College Algebra has had a combined success rate of 36%  (60% x 60%), with the one semester co-requisite success rate of 58%.

21. Math Pathways Status in Illinois • ICCB has supported pathways courses since 2010. • IMACC, ISMAA, and IAI approved PMGE in April 2013. • Many Illinois schools are teaching Mathematical Literacy for College Students (MLCS) as a pathways option. • DEAC will use this model as an academy model for revamping developmental education throughout Illinois.

22. Survey Results: Developmental Education Initiatives Across the Illinois Community College System

24. The Illinois Approach to Pathways - PMGE Preparatory Mathematics for General Education (PMGE) • 3-4 semester hours • Prerequisite: Basic Algebra with a “C” or better or appropriate placement This course is designed to help students develop conceptual understanding and problem solving ability. In particular this course must satisfy the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice. • 1 Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. • 2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively • 3 Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. • 4 Model with mathematics. • 5 Use appropriate tools strategically. • 6 Attend to precision. • 7 Look for and make use of structure. • 8 Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

25. The Illinois Approach to Pathways - PMGE Topics must include the following: • Characteristics of functions including graphical analysis. • Operations on expressions and functions. (must include factoring) • Modeling with functions. These may include linear functions, but should emphasize at least three types of nonlinear functions (polynomial, rational, radical, exponential, logarithmic functions). Topics must also include at least two of the following: • Modeling with systems of equations. • Modeling using probability and statistics. • Modeling using geometry and right triangle trigonometry. • Modeling using proportional reasoning.

28. ICCB’s Bridging the Gap • The Bridging the Gap grant aims to reduce remediation and promote student readiness for college level coursework and the seamless transition from high school to college. • Co-Requisite Remediation • Transitional Course Development • Summer Bridge Programming

29. Bridging the Gap

30. Bridging the Gap

31. The pwr act

32. Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness Act (P.A. 99-0674) • The Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness Act (PWR) aims to prepare more students for meaningful career opportunities by supporting postsecondary and career planning, promoting and incentivizing competency-based learning programs, reducing remedial education rates, increasing alignment between K-12 and postsecondary education systems, and implementing college and career pathway systems.

33. Transitional Math • PWR creates the Transitional Math Statewide Panel, facilitated by IBHE, ICCB, and ISBE, which shall define transitional mathematics competencies aligned to ISBE-adopted learning standards and requirements associated with the following postsecondary institution mathematics pathways. • (1) STEM (Math) Pathway Committee. This pathway is for students with career goals involving occupations that require the application of calculus or advanced algebraic skills. Successfully attainment will guarantee placement into a community college calculus-based mathematics course sequence. • (2) Technical Math Pathway Committee. This pathway is for students with career goals involving occupations in technical fields that do not require the application of calculus, advanced algebraic, or advanced statistical skills. This pathway emphasizes the application of mathematics within career settings. Successful attainment will guarantee placement into a credit-bearing postsecondary mathematics course required for a community college CTE program. • (3) Quantitative Literacy and Statistics Pathway Committee. This pathway is for students focused on attaining competency in general statistics, data analysis, quantitative literacy, and problem solving, and is intended for students whose career goals do not involve occupations relating to either the STEM or Technical Pathway or those who have not yet selected a career goal. Successful attainment will guarantee placement into a community college GECC mathematics course (not in a calculus-based course sequence).

34. Competency-based Education • The PWR Act establishes a pilot program for voluntary school district participation in moving from “seat time” graduation requirements to competency based high school graduation requirements. • Allows a waiver process for pilot districts of laws and regulations that may restrict the competency based system’s implementation. • CBE allows students more flexibility to progress as they demonstrate mastery of concepts.

35. Dual credit

36. Benefits of Dual Credit Research has found that students who took dual credit courses in high school were more likely to: • Graduate from high school, • Enroll in college, • Start college in a 4-year institution, • Enroll in college fulltime, and • Stay in college at least two years. College Readiness Persistence Completion Community College Research Center, Columbia University

37. Benefits of Dual Credit

38. Dual Credit Secondary Faculty Requirements • In June of 2015, The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) revised rules for Dual Credit Faculty Requirements to assure academic quality by requiring institutions to demonstrate that faculty members who deliver college-level content are appropriately qualified to do so.    • Under HLC’s Dual Credit Faculty requirements, an institution must demonstrate responsibility for the quality of its educational programs, learning environments, and support services, and it evaluates their effectiveness for student learning through a process designed to promote continuous improvement. • Specifically, institutions are expected to ensure all courses are rigorous, faculty are qualified for all of its dual credit programs, and assure that its dual credit courses or programs for high school students are equivalent in learning outcomes and levels of achievement to its higher education curriculum. • Therefore, all high school faculty seeking to teach dual credit courses must have a Master’s degree in content area or a Master’s degree plus 18 graduate credit hours in content area he or she teaches or wishes to teach in.

39. New Collaborations • Currently, the Illinois Community College Board is working with Northern Illinois University, Governor State University, and Southern Illinois University Carbondale to develop 18 hour graduate certificates in Mathematics, Science, and English.  • Through this partnership, the Illinois Community College Board and its partners hope to have an online and hybrid graduate certificate and Master’s degree programs offered for the upcoming 17-18 school year. • Without our partners, Illinois secondary and postsecondary institutions will not be able to have access to quality and flexible postsecondary Master’s programs and certificates to assist high school teachers with obtaining the proper credentials to teach dual credit courses. 

40. How to Expand Dual Credit Offerings • Dual Enrollment Opportunities • Many institutions offer college-level courses to students while in high school.

41. Ap/ib & college credit

42. Advanced Placement (AP) exams • College credit for scores of 3 or higher at all public IL HEIs • August 13, 2015, HB 3428 signed into law • Public Act 099-0358: The College and Career Success for All Students Act • Amended Section 30… • “Beginning with the 2016-2017 academic year, scores of 3, 4, and 5 on the College Board Advanced Placement examinations shall be accepted for credit to satisfy degree requirements by all public institutions of higher education. Each institution …shall determine for each test whether credit will be granted for electives, general education requirements, or major requirements and the Advanced Placement scores required to grant credit for those purposes.” • Each institution is also required to publish and maintain its Advanced Placement examination score course granting policy on its website. • IBHE: http://www.ibhe.org/AdvancedPlacement/default.htm • ICCB: http://www.iccb.org/cte/?page_id=933

43. International baccalaureate (ib) • College credit for scores of 4 or higher at all public IL HEIs • July 22, 2016, SB 2505 was signed into law • Public Act 099-0624: The College and Career Success for All Students Act • Amended Section 30… • Beginning with the 2017-2018 academic year, scores of 4, 5, 6, and 7 on an International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme subject shall be accepted for credit to satisfy degree requirements by all public institutions of higher education. “Each institution …shall determine for each subject score whether credit will be granted for electives, general education requirements, or major requirements and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme subject scores required to grant credit for those purposes.” • Each institution is also required to publish and maintain its International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme subject score course granting policy on its website. • IBHE: Coming Soon! • ICCB: Coming Soon!

44. MyCreditsTransfer

45. MyCreditsTransfer & Transferology • What is it? • A statewide initiative designed to facilitate transfer within Illinois using the nationally available tool, Transferology. • Within Transferology, students can find the courses that transfer between institutions, degree requirements that courses satisfy, and different majors that institutions offer. • It’s the single, existing source of consistent, up-to-date and centralized transfer information in IL which allows students to plan for and achieve successful transfer across the state. • Who uses it? • Students, faculty, and institutional staff such as advisors • 12 public universities, 48 community colleges, and 10 private institutions in Illinois • Over 354,000 IL-based visitors to the site annually

46. Questions? Malinda Aiello aiello@ibhe.org 217.557.7355 Dr. Ashley Becker ashley.becker@illinois.gov 217.524.5503