With English 78, English 79 and Math 92G discontinued beginning Fall 2019, some are showing concern , while others believe the move is a good step forward.
Assembly Bill 705 (AB705) “requires that a community college district or college maximize the probability that a student will enter and complete transfer-level coursework in English and math within a one year time-frame and use, in the placement of students into English and math courses, one or more of the following: high school coursework, high school grades, and high school grade point average,” according to the the California Community College Chancellor’s office.
Delta will now base assessment off of high school coursework and grade point average, giving the time-frame of a student a much faster transfer time-frame.
“AB705 is incredibly important for Delta but California as a whole because the community college institution, and academia in general have such entrenched white supremacy and inequality/inequity,” said Instructional Support Assistant for the English Acceleration Program, Sara McDougall.
Being able to give students an “equal footing regardless of their previous experience or lack of experience, educational disparities they’ve experienced” is a positive outlook for which AB705 is attempting to address.
“I think it’s better not to take tests. Being placed into English and math courses based on our grades and what classes we’ve already taken is best” said Samantha Olmos, a senior at McNair High School.
Not only will students looking to transfer, and spend less time at a community college, they will be able to achieve goals much faster, closer to the aimed two-year graduation rate.
A “standard argument against it is that in order to get people matriculated through that course in such a shorter amount of time” by narrowing it down from four semesters to two, McDougall said, people who are against AB705 believe “we’re just doing it by dumbing down standards.” Even though that is not proven, in the end after taking English 78a, 78b, and 79 will have to take English 1A to transfer.
English as a Second Language (ESL) students will still be required to take the Assessment exam.
For more information, visitdeltacollege.edu/department/assessment-center.