Part 2: Developmental Education Task Force Report, University of Wisconsin Colleges - National Council of Teachers of English

Reports

Part 2: Developmental Education Task Force Report, University of Wisconsin Colleges


State: Wisconsin
Level: Higher Education
Analyst: Pruitt, John

This report comes from the two-year institutions within the University of Wisconsin system. The following points come from the Executive Summary. If you’d like a full copy of the report, contact me at john.pruitt@uwc.edu.

English-Specific Recommendations
1. Develop a financially sustainable way to offer multiple measures placement on all campuses and online. Work toward offering an institutional or departmental placement assessment process on campuses that do not have sufficient numbers of trained placement teams to offer a campus-based placement process.

2. Prioritize hiring faculty and instructional academic staff who have graduate training, teaching experience, and professional development work in composition studies, developmental education, reading pedagogy, and/or English language teaching (TESOL). Assign courses based on the expertise required for teaching them.

Developmental Writing Recommendations
1. Develop ways to help campuses fund and manage sustainable composition tutorial programs on every campus that would a) enroll at-risk students in the first semester and b) increase the core writing completion rate for continuing students who begin college in developmental courses.

2. All campuses should implement a writing support program coordinated by someone with expertise in writing studies if one is not already in place.

Developmental Reading Recommendations
1. Require Academic Reading (LEA 101) for underprepared students who do not demonstrate minimal competencies for college-level academic reading based on standardized test scores and work toward providing more comprehensive academic support programs for reading.

2. Work toward offering a two-course reading sequence with College Reading and Study Strategies (LEA 103) on each campus.

3. Offer English Language Academic Reading (LEA 105) as an alternative to LEA 101 on campuses with a multilingual student population.

English Language Program Recommendations
1. Develop an English language program on every campus that has a multilingual student population. Send institutionally-recruited international students only to campuses that have an English language program.

2. Establish minimal criteria for enrolling in credit-bearing courses based on TOEFL scores and multiple measures placement.

3. Require all instructors for English language courses and programs to have a graduate degree in TESOL.

Recommendation around High School Partnerships
Individual campuses, departments, or groups within the UW Colleges may wish to pursue grant funding to develop K-12 partnership programs related to academic literacy skills and college readiness.