At Pasadena City College, small changes are adding up to big advances in achievement for minority students
Yet more public funding will help only to the extent the colleges know how to use it well, which is one reason it's important to understand what’s happening on campuses like Pasadena.the coldest February in L.A. in half a century, students huddled in their coats and slices of sunlight cut into a dreary portable classroom. It was the first day of Biology 11, and the adjunct instructor in chunky clear-framed glasses and skinny jeans asked the class to call her “Professor Alex.
After reviewing the syllabus that first day of class, Garcia lectured for less than five minutes about biodiversity and mass extinction before pivoting to an exercise. Each student had to read about one of five endangered species and formulate an argument about why it should be protected from a government budget cut . Then they had to advocate for their species in a group, and ultimately agree on a rank of all five species by importance.
When Rodriguez first redesigned Biology 11, success rates went up immediately, especially for Latino and black students, and that raised eyebrows among some colleagues.But as the semesters passed, more professors volunteered to teach what is known as the hybrid version of the course . This semester, there are 21 hybrid sections offered, and only two sections in the traditional lecture format.
So the biology faculty keep iterating. Another professor, Suzanne Iwanicki, took over leadership of the course redesign from Rodriguez 4 years ago. Semester in and semester out, full-time professors and adjuncts alike meet for two hours in the late afternoon every other Friday to read academic papers, rehearse new lessons and talk through ideas.
The conversation in class “brought tears to my eyes,” said Maxwell, who wants to earn a bachelor’s degree and become a dental hygienist. “Because I know people that have gone through that, because I feel like that could have been me.” Rios thinks many other PCC professors would have been just as understanding, though she had one instructor who kept a sign on the wall for “late assignments,” with an arrow pointing to the trash can. The professor meant it, Rios recalled, and made a show of tossing a couple of students’ late work into the trash to get the message across.
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