Bridge Mini-Grant: On Track Academy HS & SCC English Department

Overview of the Project: 

Bridge to College English Mini-Grant, 2019-2020, On Track Academy & Spokane Community College Partnership

Our mini-grant focused on encouraging Bridge to College (BtC) English students to move directly and successfully from high school into college by building stronger high school and college partnerships among students and faculty. We planned two college visits to Spokane Community College (SCC) for BtC students from On Track Academy (OTA).

During these visits, students toured SCC’s campus, discovered campus resources by attending during College Success day, sat in on a variety of English 101 classes, talked with 101 students during a “speed-interview” session, learned about 101 coursework, asked questions of a 101-instructor panel, and gained confidence in navigating the transition from high school to college by meeting with SCC’s academic counselors, tutors, and guidance instructors.

The mini-grant project outcomes were:

• develop and/or improve local college and school district partnerships with a particular emphasis on English faculty and BtC teacher collaboration
• improve the opportunities for students to do college planning in their senior year as part of their BtC courses
• increase the number of high school students transitioning directly into college after graduation and/or using the placement agreement to enroll in college-level English

 

Takeaways and Lessons Learned

The OTA students reported positive takeaways from visiting SCC, including that supportive faculty and small class sizes make college seem “do-able.” OTA teachers report that students have commented on the visits over the remainder of the year, and several BtC students have already decided to attend SCC when they graduate.

 

Additional project successes included helping students see the connections between SCC’s and OTA’s overlapping philosophies of meeting students where they are; introducing students to the variety of available academic and career and technical program choices through a campus tour and conversations with campus support professionals; and the happy accident of connecting students with SCC’s previously-scheduled Student Success Fair, which featured keynote presentations by STEM faculty and dozens of campus resource tables promoting the theme You Belong Here.

Future partnership activities could be improved by implementing lessons learned from this collaborative effort, such as:

• crafting a more specific message about the importance of reading, writing and critical thinking skills in transfer and CTE program success
• collecting additional pre- and post-event surveys for more strategic data analysis
• deliberately scheduling events to coincide with SCC’s College Success Fair or other college-wide student support events
• planning for sustainable funding of facilitation, transportation, food and materials, and substitute teacher costs
• scaffolding SCC and OTA student interactions, such as creating more intentional shared tasks – before, during and after the visits
• scheduling the second visit later in the spring when high school students are making post-graduation plans
• using these visits as a first point of contact with high school students, and leveraging institutional systems (such as SCC’s Outreach office or specific program offices) for follow up, additional information, and recruitment

 

Student Experiences

A few weeks after the second visit, we surveyed OTA students about how the experience impacted their perceptions of the college and plans for the future. Here are three responses:

“Being able to sit and listen [in] on a college class was so important for me at the time. Because I am a senior and looking at future colleges. So being exposed to that environment really helped me solidify where that was that I wanted to attend college. Which is SCC. Because being able to see how a class operates, and understanding your own responsibility, and the amazing help and support I could get was all too good to pass up on.” 

-Kaitlyn Jones, OTA student

 

“[O]ne thing I thought was cool to hear is that the teachers will work with you individually or in groups so that you aren't behind or confused. [W]hen it comes to instructing and provid[ing] the necessary information needed to be a successful student at SCC, I believe the teachers would be 10/10. The bridge to college writing helped me prepare for college level writing with the topics and information being very specific and informative. Each writing response helped me structure my notes and thoughts better with each topic.”   

-Ethan Stearly, OTA student

 

“I definitely feel like the instructors and services SCC provides will help me be successful. I especially like how accessible everything is, and how open to help everyone who works in the building is willing to be as long as you're willing to ask. I felt like our [BtC] writing assignments helped prepare me for college writing…”   

-Jacob Bewely, OTA student