Faculty Development and Ensured Learning
The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) Student Success Center is committed to ensuring that all students have the opportunity to succeed in college and beyond. One of the ways that SBCTC accomplishes this goal is through its focus on ensured learning and faculty development, which are grounded in the guided pathways framework and a commitment to racial equity.
Ensured learning is the process of ensuring that all students have the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in college and beyond. This is accomplished through a variety of strategies, including:
- Providing high-quality instruction from qualified faculty
- Offering a variety of support services to students
- Using data to track student progress and make improvements to instruction
- Investing in faculty development
Faculty development is the process of supporting and preparing faculty to teach effectively. This is accomplished through a variety of strategies, including:
- Providing professional development opportunities that are relevant to faculty's teaching needs
- Offering opportunities for faculty to collaborate with each other and share best practices
- Supporting teaching and learning professionals throughout our system
- Providing resources and support to help faculty with their research and scholarship
The Student Success Center’s focus on ensured learning and faculty development is making a difference in the lives of students across Washington state. By ensuring that all students have access to high-quality instruction from qualified faculty, the SBCTC is helping to create a more educated and prosperous future for the state.
Information, Resources, and Events
This year’s new faculty professional development will be embedded in the student success Summit as a “New Faculty Track.” This free and virtual event will have sessions designed to:
- Understand the different types of pedagogy and how to apply them in their teaching
- Develop effective teaching strategies that meet the needs of their students
- Connect with other new community college teachers and share resources and ideas
Led by SBCTC's Student Success Center with funding from College Spark Washington, a college consortium is working to change the assessment model for English 101 classes, which have been identified as key gatekeeper courses in college. Anti-racist writing assessments are a way to ensure students in English 101 courses are taught and assessed without negative racial bias.
Another purpose of building this work is to support English departments and practitioners across the Washington State CTC system to “increase the percentage of students who earn their first college-level credits in English within one year of college enrollment” by closing equity gaps for historically underserved students of color (HU-SOC). This project aligns with Guided Pathways in Washington State as this work will address one of the Essential Practices of a Guided Pathways redesign, College-Level English Within One Year of Enrollment, and do so in the spirit of the SBCTC vision to lead with racial equity.
The college consortium looks forward to sharing best practices throughout the college system.
This year more than 14 groups and individuals presented at the renowned National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in higher ed (NCORE). Both the Student Success Center and the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion teams value the work of our colleagues and want to bring this work back to Washington.
We are creating a series of content called NCORE Encore in which presentations will be repeated at local conferences and we are also working on on demand recordings as well. Be on the lookout for these awesome sessions!
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- Student Success Summit
Washington community college math faculty continue to reform and/or transform math placement and math course pathways with the goal of helping students complete their college level math requirements. To support these efforts, SBCTC is offering the following professional development opportunities for math faculty this year:
- Attend in-person math retreats and convenings for math faculty to share with and learn from their colleagues across the state. Additionally, math faculty are invited to join their partners in Transitional Studies (BEdA) at in-person BEdA Math Pathways training sessions. For information about upcoming events, go to the SBCTC Professional Development Calendar.
- Join virtual learning communities on topics such as data science, themed MATH& 107 courses, and instructional pedagogy. Learn more by emailing Dawn Draus to gain access to the Canvas Math Pathways and Placement Course.
Contact Information
Student Success Center & Strategic Initiatives
ssc@sbctc.edu
Sign up for email updates
- ATLC eList: Sign up to find out about upcoming conferences, retreats and other professional learning experiences.
- Math eList: Discuss curriculum and policy issues with mathematics colleagues (faculty and administrators).
- FDC eList - For teaching and learning professionals. Get updates, ideas, and best practices in faculty development.
- College System and SBCTC Calendar
Faculty Corner
Related Groups and Contacts
Page Manager:
amontenegro@sbctc.edu
Last Modified: 9/15/23, 1:31 PM
