CAEP Initiatives
California Adult Education Program Year 5 Program Plans:
Plan Summary:
The Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) School of Extended Learning noncredit English as a Second Language (ESL) program aims to support adult immigrants and English Language Learners (ELLs) in their efforts to obtain a family-sustaining job, matriculate to post-secondary or career technical education, support children in school, and become productive members of society.
For this grant cycle, the program’s overarching objectives are 1) to increase students’ attendance and persistence rates, 2) to raise the number of students who receive the state-recognized ESL certificates of competency, achieve CASAS learning gains, and accomplish their educational goals, and 3) to achieve robust enrollment by implementing effective marketing and outreach strategies to reach more community members.
Action Plans:
In order to achieve the above goals, the noncredit ESL program will:
- Improve our data collection methods to capture accurate student attendance, learning outcomes, CASAS learning gains, and certificate completion data for analysis and cycle of efficient course planning, implementation, and evaluation.
- Train instructors and staff to apply evidence-based strategies to enhance adult learner motivation and persistence and to effectively practice data-informed instruction.
- Leverage technology to explore new accelerated learning methods for effective learning and persistence
- Invigorate the certificate process to incentivize course and certificate completion
- Continue our efforts to align curriculum and reinforce the career pathways for ELLs as we move forward with federal and state initiatives such as the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), Immigrant Integration, Guided Pathways, Vision for Success, and AB 705
- Collaborate with the college’s student support services and build cross-agency partnerships to offer better instructional support and wraparound services including tutoring, childcare, housing, food security, financial support, physical and mental health support, academic and career counseling.
- Develop and implement marketing and outreach plans that target the low skilled adult immigrant population in our area and create student advising and marketing materials to provide information on career and academic pathways.
The intended outcomes are:
- Improved student data collection and reporting
- Increased number of students with an abbreviated education plan and clearly defined learning goals
- Improved student attendance, certificate completion, and matriculation rates
- Increased number of learners enrolled in the noncredit ESL classes