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First-Year Composition (FYC) Proposal

• The FYC Proposal at a glance • Reasons for the proposal

1) Why baccalaureate credit?2) Why “stretch?”

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The FYC ProposalFrom the Old to the New

EPT SCORE COURSES

141 - 85A 85B 101

142 to 150 95 101

151+ 101

EPT SCORE COURSE SEQUENCE

141 - 102 103 104

142 to 150 105 106

151 + 107

Current

Proposed

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Why Baccalaureate Credit?

• The content of every course included in the FYC proposal is every bit college-level work (assignments, texts, faculty).

• The history of remediation in the CSU and the fact that the EPT, the sole determinant of who is considered “remedial,” is a norm-referenced placement test, not a criterion-referenced proficiency test, which means the notion of “remediation” is an accidental historical creation.

College-Level Work• In all of the FYC courses at CSUSB, students read

book-length, non-fiction texts, conduct research, and address essay assignments at a level comparable to any college-level work they are engaged in at CSUSB.

• They do not practice grammar skills in isolation or learn to write sentences and paragraphs before they are asked to write complex academic essays.

• In short, this is not “Bonehead English”; the courses do not consist of the content that they “should have learned in high school.”

A Bit of Pedagogy

• The field of composition studies has taught us that teaching grammar in isolation, before the stuff of “real” academic writing simply does not work because:

• the process of learning to write is not linear and incremental, but spiral.

• grammatical competence begins to drop off as language tasks become more complex or abstract

• Thus, attention to grammar and editing is incorporated into all writing classes at CSUSB, including 306 and even graduate level classes; it is not indicative of “pre-collegiate” work.

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A Brief History of CSU “Remediation”

• Since 1977, CSU freshmen have been taking the English Placement Test (EPT) unless exempted (SAT score, AP credit, etc.)

• Since 1986, those who score below 151 (EPT score range:120-180) on the EPT have been labeled “remedial” and placed in non-baccalaureate English classes.

• Rumor had it that number of “remedial” students was increasing, so the CSU Board of Trustees set a goal in 1997 to reduce the need for remediation.

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% of CSU Freshmen College-Level English “Proficiency”: Reported EPT Results

and Trustee Goals

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Reported

Trustee Goals

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Why We Failed to Meet the Goal

• A placement test has been used as a proficiency test.

• The EPT is norm-referenced, aimed to place about half of its students below “Freshmen Composition,” and it boasts a 0.89-0.93 reliability (ETS website).

• Between 1977 to 1986, there was no “remediation”: English 100 and 101.

• In 1986, special funding from the CSU led to the creation of non-baccalaureate English courses (99, later 85A, B, C and 95). CSUSB resisted the move but to no avail.

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A Comparison of the English Placement Test (TOP) and Entry Level Mathematics (BOTTOM)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

Reported

Trustee Goals

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2004 2005 2006 2007

ReportedTrustee Goal

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The CSU Has Been Aware of the Tyranny of the EPT

• It has approved doing away with the EPT as a placement tool (Channel Islands, Fresno State);

• It has agreed to award baccalaureate credit to all FYC courses (Channel Islands, Fresno State, Fullerton, SF State).

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Why Stretch?

• Builds from the assumption that FYC can be best taught as the same set of skills (“content”) in different sequences (time spans). Longer sequences are “stretched” versions of the shortest one.

• A key component: Learning community—cohorting of students, consistency of instructor, etc.

• National trend: Arizona State (ASU), IUPUI, SF State.

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So, We Began to “Stretch” in 2004-05: 85A and 85B

EPT SCORE COURSE (SEQUENCE) COURSE

141 - 85A 85B 101

142-150 95 101

151+ 101

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CSUSB Stretch and Retention

85AFALL

85BWINTER

RET. %

AVERAGE

1997-98 204 126 62

1998-99 332 245 74

1999-00 342 256 75

1900-01 352 267 76

2001-02 454 294 65

2002-03 402 295 73

2003-04 479 338 70

2004-05 578 479 83

2005-06 550 463 84

2006-07 590 501 85

Unstretched

71%

Stretched

84%

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But We Can’t Fully Stretch in the Current FYC Program

EPT SCORE

COURSE (SEQUENCE)

COURSE

141 - 85(6)A 85(6)B

101

142-150

95 101

151+ 101

The problem is the divide between 101 and previous classes: 101 is taken by all students and is the same in content. But a fully stretched program presupposes a different end-point class.