Florida State College Earns "Best Practices" Award for Academic Success Centers

Florida State College at Jacksonville was recognized specifically for the Academic Success Centers for Developmental Mathematics.   

“Florida colleges continue to play a vital role in developing avenues for students to remain competitive in a rapidly changing global marketplace,” says Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson.  

“Our colleges are leaders and innovators in education,” said Chancellor Holcombe. “The Best Practice Awards give much-deserved recognition to exceptional programs that allow our institutions to learn from proven strategies that raises the level of performance for the entire Florida College System.”

Click here to learn more about Florida State College at Jacksonville's Academic Success Centers for Developmental Mathematics.

We produced the video above for the awards ceremony. Unfortunately, 2-minutes isn't enough time to tell you everything there is to know about the Academic Success Centers at Florida State College at Jacksonville.  We interviewed Dr. Kathleen Ciez-Volz, Director of Academic and Instructional Program Development to learn more about the award-winning program. 

FSCNetwork: What is the Academic Success Center?

Dr. Ciez-Volz: The Academic Success Center is Florida State College’s program for developmental education. It emphasizes individualized instruction as well as diagnostic and prescriptive teaching methods in a computer-enhanced learning environment designed to meet students’ academic needs. When students visit the ASC, not only will they find dedicated faculty, but they will also find dedicated staff, including both professional and peer-level tutors who are there to assist them with their course work. In addition to scheduled class time, instructors are available for lab hours, which allow students to receive assistance at a variety of times throughout the day. Students also benefit from completing their studies in state-of-the-art learning facilities where they can use course software and access many other computer applications.

FSCNetwork: When are students placed in the ASC?

Dr. Ciez-Volz:  Students are placed in ASC courses based on their P.E.R.T. (Postsecondary Education Readiness Test) or college placement test scores. Once inside a class, they will find an augmented number of resources, including their instructor and the educational support services that reside in the ASC. Outside of assigned class and lab times, students can come for additional practice as well as one-to-one small group assistance from their instructor and from tutors.

FSCNetwork: Do all students take the PERT exam?

Dr. Ciez-Volz: Every student will take the PERT unless he or she has an existing placement test score on file, like the SAT or ACT, but the vast majority of students at the college will take the PERT, which stands for the Postsecondary Education Readiness Test.

Depending on your score, you will either test as college ready and you will be placed into College Algebra or ENC 1101, Freshman Composition, or beyond, but if like the majority of students, an individual doesn’t test as college ready, and about 70% of our population is not college ready, they have an opportunity to develop the skills they need, and they can do so right here in ASC.

FSCNetwork: What can students expect when they go to ASC?

Dr. Ciez-Volz: Students have the opportunity to take classes here, and while here, they may experience a variety of instructional approaches, from small group instruction to mini-lectures to cooperative learning to whole group discussions, and importantly as well, hands-on practice with diagnostic and prescriptive software, which is designed to help with the mastery of course competencies.

I think the most important resource is the people who work here themselves—the faculty, the academic tutors, the ASC management and advisors as well as the peer tutors. As you look around, you are going to see state-of-the-art computer facilities, state-of-the-art classrooms that are terrific resources. Every ASC student will have access to software custom designed for his or her learning needs in reading, writing, and math, yet the ASC professionals and how they choose to assist students with the technical resources are the cornerstone of the program.

FSCNetwork: Florida State College was just presented the "Best Practices" Award for Academic Success Centers for Developmental Mathematics by Chancellor Will Holcombe of the Florida College System. What does that mean to you and the College?

Dr. Ciez-Volz: The Chancellor’s Best Practices Award represents a cumulative, institutional-wide effort at making change—broad, far-reaching change in a core institutional area that has a demonstrated need, not only at FSCJ, but also across the state of Florida. That need is developmental education. We know that the vast majority of students who come to community/state colleges in Florida require remediation and need developmental education. It is FSCJ’s commitment to doing so in an innovative, supportive way that blends the best of the human touch with a great deal of technology to help students reach their academic and professional goals.

FSCNetwork: How do you know the program is working?

Dr. Ciez-Volz: One of the most telling signs that the program is working can be seen in data related to MAC 1105, which is College Algebra. After implementing this model, we observed a 5% increase in student success in college algebra among those that had completed MAT 1033 or Intermediate Algebra in the Academic Success Center. Our emergency model of taking the students who are in need of help to the next level with a lot of investment on their part and a lot of investment on the part of the faculty is demonstrating positive results, most notably seen in student performance in college algebra. That’s the best place to look—Howdo they do once they leave us and enter college-credit classes? We believe that more excellence is yet to come.

Although we have just started in the past year with the implementation of this model through our collaboration with student analytics and research, one of our core goals is to continue tracking student progress, not only on a semester-to- semester basis, but also on a continual, long-term basis so that we can see how we are doing and how we can do what we are doing even better.

FSCNetwork: The Academic Success Centers are impressive. Can students not enrolled in developmental education take advantage of ASC services and facilities?

Dr. Ciez-Volz: While the ASC is designed for students who have college prep or developmental courses, any student can come to the Library Learning Commons and receive help with math, English, humanities, social sciences. Both professional and peer-level tutors are available to assist students. There is help and support for every student, from the college preparatory to the college ready and beyond.

FSCNetwork: Florida State College Network produced a 2-minute video demonstrating how the Academic Success Centers operate as a metaphorical “emergency room.” If we carried through with the emergency room metaphor for every “patient” who comes in, what other emergency conditions do you see and how does the ASC treat them?

Dr. Ciez-Volz: Students enter the Academic Success Center, which we at Florida State College liken to an educational “emergency room,” because they need help, and if we are to retain them in college, they need help immediately upon their arrival—hence, the sense of urgency. The research is clear: The longer a student is enrolled in developmental education, the less likely he or she is to complete a degree or certificate. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to “treat” the “patients” based on their presenting symptoms in reading, writing, and/or math. In addition to assistance with basic skills, developmental students often present with an emergency condition involving the need for greater confidence and self-efficacy regarding their own ability to succeed academically. Therefore, ASC faculty and staff work diligently to encourage and motivate students to attain their educational goals while teaching them the skills necessary to do so—namely, to apply effective time management, study, and test- taking skills to each academic task that they embrace.