The Report Card
             A monthly newsletter that gives you the facts...

Volume 1, Issue v
November 14, 2002

In This Month's Issue:

Progress in Pre-College Instruction

Next month's issue will feature : 
Student Access

For more information
 about this survey or other surveys, please contact  Erika Prager or Fia Eliasson.

Research and Planning
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Welcome to the fifth edition of The Report Card newsletter! This is a monthly newsletter containing information on various topics related to institutional effectiveness. This fifth issue is on Progress in Pre-College Instruction.   

Background:

Community colleges offer a range of pre-college courses and programs to prepare students for college or employment.  Basic skills consists of Adult Basic Education (ABE) for students with less than a ninth grade education, General Education Development (GED) for students lacking a high school diploma, and English as a Second Language (ESL) for students whose native language is other than English.  Developmental studies, on the other hand, provides “brush-up” courses in math, reading, writing, and study skills to prepare students for college level coursework and are often taken along with other college-level courses.

In 2001-02, pre-college instruction accounted for 31% of all state supported courses offered by GRCC compared to 24% offered by community colleges system-wide. (SBCTC Academic Year Report 2001-2002).   

Highlights: 

The number of FTEs produced by pre-college instruction increased slightly from 1,919 in 1999-00 to 1,931 in 2001-02. During the same period, the number of FTEs from pre-college instruction at community colleges system-wide increased by nearly 9%.  (See Figure 1).   

  • Pre-college instruction accounted for approximately 29% of the college's annual FTE efforts for the past three years compared to nearly 24% system-wide. In 2001-02, basic skills and developmental studies represented 16% and 13% respectively of the college's state and contract supported FTEs compared to 16% and 8% respectively system-wide.

The annual FTEs for developmental studies increased by 6% whereas basic skills decreased by 3% over the three years. (See Figure 2). 

  • In basic skills, the FTEs for high school completion and ABE increased by 57% and 10% respectively. FTEs for ESL and GED decreased by 11% and 21% respectively. (See Figure 3).
  • In developmental studies, the FTEs for IESL and math increased by 49% and 10% respectively, whereas English/reading decreased by 11%. (See Figure 4).

The completion rates for GRCC students enrolled in developmental math and English winter quarter 2002 were somewhat higher than the system-wide average (80% compared to 74% for math and 90% compared to 81% for English). (See Figure 5). 

  • The completion rate for students enrolled in developmental math increased by 6% from 1999-00 to 2001-02 compared to approximately 1% system-wide.
  • During the same period, the completion rate for GRCC students enrolled in developmental English increased from 80% to 90% over the past three years whereas the completion rate system-wide stayed constant.

During 2000-01, 973 students enrolled in Math 097 and about 82% completed the course successfully. Eighty-five percent of the students who continued on to college level math (102,107, or 156) within one year after finishing Math 097, completed the course with a “C” grade or better. (See Figure 6).

During the same period, over 81% of the 686 students that enrolled in English 100 passed the course successfully.  Of the students that continued onto college-level English (English 110) within one year after completing English 100, nearly 80% completed the course successfully with a “C” grade or better.  (See Figure 7). 

Learn More About The Office of Research and Planning

If you have additional questions, please contact
Erika Prager at ext. 2569 or Fia Eliasson at ext. 2568