SR 10-02 - Mandatory Early Start Program

Senate Resolution File:
SR 10-02 Mandatory Early Start Program

Drafted By: Jacquelyn Kilpatrick, Ivona Grzegorczyk, Cindy Wyels, Bob Mayberry, Jorge Garcia, Mary Adler, Kathryn Leonard, Brad Monsma, Geoff Buhl, Jesse Elliott, Julia Balen, Joan Peters, Kathleen Klompien, and Stacey Anderson.
Background: The CSU Board of Trustees has proposed mandatory Early Start Programs beginning in the summer of 2012. Eventually all admitted first-year students determined deficient in English and/or Mathematics-as measured by the EPT and ELM-will be required to begin making up those deficiencies before enrolling in classes. Campus proposals for fulfilling the mandate are due by November 19, 2010.

The Board of Trustees has indicated that there will be no additional funding provided for Early Start summer courses. Federal financial aid and Pell grants will be available for students but may impact the amount available to them for academic year attendance.

Responses to the Early Start Proposal:

May 7-8, 2009: The CSU Academic Senate passed a resolution in opposition to the Early Start Program (ESP).
October 24, 2009: The CSU CFA passed a resolution opposing the proposed program.
November 2, 2009: The CSU English Council submitted to the CO a proposal in response to a presentation on the proposed ESP by the CO.
March 2010: The CSU Board of Trustees voted to require all 23 campuses to create and implement programs in remedial Math and English. Students whose scores fall below a certain line in the English Placement Test (ESP) and/or the Entry Level Mathematics (ELM) test will be required to enroll in these new programs prior to enrolling as freshmen in the fall-presumably in the summer before their first academic year. If they do not participate in one of these programs, they will not be allowed to enroll. Executive Order 1048 makes provisions for exceptions under “extraordinary conditions.”
- In 2009, 58% of students in the CSU fell into these categories, although they met all admission requirements and had high school scores in the top third of their classes. Percentages by campus range from 14% (Cal Poly SLO) to 91% (Dominquez Hills).
- In Fall 2010 at CI, 52.8% of incoming freshmen scored below the cut-off on the EPT, 47.6% scored below the cut-off on the ELM, and 34% scored below the cut-off on both. In other words, these students are not exceptions; they represent roughly half of our student population.
April 10, 2010: The CSU English Council sent a position statement to the Chancellor’s Office in opposition to the ESP.
October 25, 2010: The Mathematics Council came to an agreement on how to satisfy the mathematics portion of the mandate.

Senate Resolution
WHEREAS The Academic Senate of California State University Channel Islands affirms the CSU Board of Trustees’ goal of integrating fully-qualified first year students who need additional support in English and Mathematics into mainstream academic life quickly, humanely, and with a high degree of probability that they will graduate in a timely manner; and

WHEREAS CSUCI has a successful math remediation program with a student success rate of 80% in remedial courses-higher than the CSU system-wide average; and

WHEREAS CSUCI’s innovative Directed Self Placement/Stretch Composition program is directed and taught by experts in the field and has a 93% student success rate-far above the national average; and

WHEREAS The considered wisdom of CSU’s well informed faculty should be the predominant factor in shaping curriculum and academic programming within the CSU; and

WHEREAS The Academic Senate of the CSU has identified the following concerns, and others, regarding the mandatory Early Start Programs that have been proposed by the CSU Board of Trustees (AS-2895-09/APEP/AA):

The legality of denying enrollment to fully qualified and admitted first-time freshmen;
The limitation of access for economically disadvantaged and/or geographically dispersed students;
The financial aid implications for students;
The shift of mandatory instruction to a non-traditional instructional session;
The paucity of evidence-based, longitudinal data on the effectiveness and social impact of programs such as “early start”; be it

RESOLVED That the Academic Senate of CSU Channel Islands opposes the use of tests such as the EPT and the ELM, which were originally designed as placement instruments, to either grant or deny otherwise qualified first-time freshmen enrollment at CSU Channel Islands; and be it further

RESOLVED That the Academic Senate of CSU Channel Islands urges that, prior to implementation of any “early start” programs, the CSU ensure that serious attention be paid to the financial consequences and equity concerns-to campuses, individual students, and the state of California- resulting from the various “early start” approaches, particularly those requiring participation as a pre-condition for enrollment; and be it further

RESOLVED That the Academic Senate of CSU Channel Islands distribute this resolution to the CSU Board of Trustees, the Office of the Chancellor, the Executive Vice-Chancellor and Chief Academic Officer, the Chair of the Academic Senate of the CSU, the CSUCI President and Provost, the Chair of the English Council of the CSU, and the Chair of the Mathematics Council of the CSU.