The Basic Skills Initiative Requires New Approaches to Improve Success Rates
The Basic Skills Initiative (BSI) is an innovative new program in California that aims to assist students to become successful in college. Previously, basic skills training came into play only after students had tested poorly or were unsuccessful in their courses. Now, the BSI program focuses on addressing the needs of "at risk" students as they enter college.
The term "basic" refers to fundamentals needed to be learned prior to mastering course materials, and which are the "DNA" for learning most subjects. Among these are time management, task planning, taking responsibility, task precision, and expectations.
Eight such basic skills or learning fundamentals are measured in SmartGrades.net™, an easily accessible and scalable assessment. This is a new approach in which students identify the basic skill areas in which they need to improve, and are readily linked to basic skills interventions, check lists, and exercises published in our companion instructor's manual. Its newest feature is the Early Alert Report, which identifies those students most in need of developmental education.
SmartGrades.net supports many of the "effective practices" in the Basic Skills report published by the Center for Student Success and Research & Planning Group of the California Community Colleges. For example, it especially addresses Effective Practice D.3: "The developmental education program addresses holistic development of all aspects of the student. Attention is paid to the social and emotional development of the students as well as to their cognitive growth." In addition, SmartGrades has been researched in-depth, has 30,000 students in its norm group, and correlates with students' GPA between r=.35-.50.
We would like to work with you on implementing the Basic Skills Initiative in your college. We have many California colleges already using our assessments, and could provide you with several references if you like.
If you wish to evaluate SmartGrades right away, follow the brief instructions in the attached BSI/Smartgrades flyer.
We're ready and willing to support your BSI implementation, with a proven student assessment and instructor's manual. In addition, we are developing a BSI Implementation Guide that will provide step-by-step instructions on how to install the SmartGrades program in your college.
Ed Hallberg President, Ombudsman Press Inc. Professor Emeritus, California State University, Los Angeles
