Pima Community College hasn’t always done well by students who come to the college with academic deficiencies, but officials are promising a number of long-awaited improvements this year.
The lack of a well-coordinated system to help students who need to catch up is one issue that got the school in trouble with its accreditor, and it’s one problem PCC must prove it has fixed by the next accreditor’s visit in September 2016.
Recent high school graduates aren’t the only ones affected. Many incoming PCC students are adults who have been out of school for years and need help in reading, writing or math in order to succeed at college.
A college committee spent several months examining PCC’s developmental education system in response to the accreditor’s concerns and issued 36 recommendations for change more than a year ago. So far, four of the changes have been fully implemented. Another six are “ongoing” and 15 are due to be put in place sometime this year, according to the college’s timeline for improvements.
PCC recently hired a new administrator to oversee the improvement effort and plans to hire several new instructors to work exclusively with developmental education students.
The college’s improvement plan calls for a better assessment process to gauge whether incoming students are deficient — one that does not rely solely on test scores — and a mandatory system to familiarize students with PCC tests before they take them.
It also calls for the college to adopt computer applications designed to help deficient students, and to better track which methods brought them up to speed the fastest.
“Developmental education is a high priority for the college,” said Erica Holmes, PCC’s provost.
PCC’s accreditor identified a lack of focus on and funding for developmental education more than two years ago.
The college has been “painfully slow” to make improvements, said Dave Gallagher, a former PCC instructor and now a member of the Pima Open Admissions Coalition, a citizens’ group that has fought for changes.
Gallagher blames delays on the problems left behind by PCC’s former chancellor. When a new chancellor, Lee Lambert, took over nearly two years ago, there was little possibility of quick fixes, Gallagher said.
“Like recovering from a hurricane, recovery takes time,” Gallagher said.
