Pullias Center Invitational Conference Highlights Key Successes and Challenges of AB705 Implementation in LACCD

By Sheryl MacPhee

The 3rd annual USC/LACCD Research-Practice Partnership Conference on AB705 brought together more than 50 researchers, faculty, staff, and administrators. Taking place in December 2021, the purpose of this year’s conference was to engage practitioners in a discussion of key findings from the implementation of AB 705 in the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD). More than 50 invited researchers, District practitioners, faculty, and came together to review and discuss key findings from the implementation-to-date of AB705 for the nine colleges in the LACCD. The conference was organized by Tatiana Melguizo, Professor at the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the USC’s Rossier School of Education, an expert on math equity, community colleges and STEM reform.

The California bill, passed in 2017, mandates that community colleges are now required to place students directly in transfer-level math and English courses, with supports. The bill was designed to maximize the probability that students will enter and complete transfer-level coursework in these disciplines within a one-year period.

Required placement in developmental math and English courses had long been seen as a barrier to students enrolling in and completing transfer-level courses, and ultimately students’ ability to transfer to a four-year program. In the past, students’ course placement was based solely on the result of a placement test. Now, community colleges in California must use multiple measures, such as high school coursework, grades and GPA to determine the appropriate transfer-level courses.

Over the past two years, the Pullias Center for Higher Education, as part of the USC-LACCD Research-Practice Partnership (RPP), has been conducting a mixed-methods evaluation of AB705 focused on how LACCD practitioners are implementing this landmark policy, with funding from The Spencer Foundation. The December conference, consisting of four presentations, brought together a diverse group to summarize and discuss the findings from quantitative and qualitative data about the bill’s implementational successes and challenges to date in the LACCD colleges.

“We are so grateful to the Spencer Foundation and our team of researchers to have this opportunity to explore and discuss the key findings about the implementation of AB705 in LACCD,” said Dr. Melguizo, who also serves as Principal Investigator on the project.

The four presentations were conducted by Dr. Mallory Newell, Director of Institutional Research and Planning at DeAnza College and Project Lead at the RP Group; Co-PIs Dr. Federick Ngo from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Cheryl Ching of the University of Massachusetts, Boston; Mily Kudo from LACCD; and discussions by Dr. Ryan Cornner of LACCD and Pam Burdman of Just Equations. Ms. Burdman also served as moderator throughout the two-hour virtual conference.

Dr. Newell’s presentation focused on the significant achievements in completion levels for transfer-level math and English classes, with Black and Latino/a/x students increasing the most. She also described an increase in student centered-ness, and students’ new ability to guide their own placement as a few of the positive repercussion of AB705’s implementation in LACCD.

Drs. Ngo and Ching presented results from the survey administered to capture a district-level picture of the early implementation of AB705. The survey was designed using insights from “sensemaking.” Dr. Ching explained that sensemaking speaks to “how education practitioners interpret policy information, messages, and signals, and how their interpretations shape implementation.”

Dr. Ching also noted that while the AB705 mandate compelled changes, both to assessment and placement as well as to how students are supported, “our research found that beliefs in the value and efficacy of these changes are mixed. This signals that while there is compliance, there is more work to be done if AB705 is going to be a truly transformative policy.”

LACCD’s Kudo shared the District’s online dashboard, which features high-level data and focuses on first-time LACCD students.

Finally, Dr. Cornner and Ms. Burdman shared their reflections on the findings presented during the conference. According to Dr. Cornner, there is a lack of clarity and different levels of understanding about the implementation of AB705 policy across the District, and the state. He recommended that these gaps need to be filled with continued conversation and reflections about the curriculum, the different models which take place and how they work. Ultimately, this will require more extensive communication so that the information can be shared more broadly. Dr. Cornner considers the data to be an important source to drive future AB705 implementation policies, and looks forward to developing other curriculums which are grounded in both intense dialogue and broad conversation of the educational community.

To learn more about AB705, you can watch the full recording of the December 2021 conference here, as well as read the Pullias Center’s 2021 Report on AB705 Implementation across the LACCD (link).

The 3rd annual USC/LACCD Research-Practice Partnership Conference on AB705 brought together more than 50 researchers, faculty, staff, and administrators. Taking place in December 2021, the purpose of this year’s conference was to engage practitioners in a discussion of key findings from the implementation of AB 705 in the Los Angeles Community College District. More than 50 invited researchers,District practictioners, faculty, and came together in December 2021 to review and discuss key findings from the implementation of AB705 to date for the colleges in the Los Angeles Community College (LACCD) system. The conference was organized by Tatiana Melguizo, Professor at the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the USC’s Rossier School of Education, an expert on math equity, community colleges and STEM reform.

Required placement indevelopmental math and English courses had long been seen as a barrier to students enrolling in and completing transfer-level courses, and ultimately students’ ability to transfer to a four-year program. In the past, students’ course placement was based solely on the result of a placement test. Now, community colleges in California must use multiple measures, such as high school coursework, grades and GPA to determine the appropriate transfer-level courses.

“We are so grateful to the Spencer Foundation and our team of researchers to have this opportunity to explore and discuss the key findings about the implementation of AB705 in LACCD,” said Dr. Melguizo, who also serves as Principal Investigator on the project.

LACCD’s Kudo shared the District’s online dashboard, which features high-level data and focuses on first-time LACCD students.

To learn more about AB705, you can watch the full recording of the December 2021 conference here, as well as read the Pullias Center’s 2022 Report on AB705 Implementation across the LACCD.