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Curriculum Alignment

CCS 101
College & Career Success


This new course will play a vital role in the Guided Pathways work in Connecticut, and beginning in Fall 2023, will serve as the primary vehicle in CT State Community College degree programs to ensure that every student has the strategies and skills to succeed in college and beyond including a clear and customized academic and career plan.

CCS 101
Advisory Council

Mission

The CCS Advisory Council will:

  • Oversee the continual curriculum development and assessment process of CCS 101 including providing guidance on assessment of student learning outcomes including Course Outcomes, General Education Core Competency Outcomes, and Diversity Requirement Outcomes.
  • Plan for the optimum delivery of CCS 101 by informing and developing professional learning opportunities for instructors of CCS 101.
  • Determine, refine, and clarify policy related to CCS 101.
  • Utilize and review data/student success measures to evaluate effectiveness of CCS 101 course.
  • Guide practices to enhance quality of instruction statewide including developing a CCS 101 repository, creating consistent job descriptions, training requirements and evaluative measures for CCS 101 instructors.

Meeting Info

Membership

AY 2021-2022 Members

Ex Officio

  • Forrest Helvie, Interim Director of Professional Development, CT State fhelvie@ncc.commnet.edu
  • Kerry Beckford, Interim Associate Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, CT State kbeckford@txcc.commnet.edu
  • Caitlin Boger-Hawkins, Director of Planning, Research, & Institutional Effectiveness, Northwestern Connecticut Community College/Asnuntuck Community College cboger-hawkins@nwcc.commnet.edu

Administrative Oversight

Agendas & Minutes

CCS 101
Events

CT State Professional Learning Day

Resources from CT State Professional Learning Day for FYE/College & Career Success on 11/12/21:  

Videos

Presentation Articles & Slide Decks 


More resources to be added soon! Stay tuned!

CCS 101
Course

View the Course

CCS 101
Policy

View the Policy

CCS 101
Background

Faculty, staff, and coordinators involved in first year experience courses from the twelve CT community colleges developed a new College & Career Success course during the period of Spring 2018 to Fall 2019. The course was informed by Guided Pathways principles and backward designed to ensure that students develop the knowledge and skills to establish and achieve their academic and career goals. The course outcomes were carefully crafted to serve as a foundation for students to begin to develop core general education competencies, such as critical thinking and information literacy. In addition to emphasizing the development of essential success skills and strategies, the course includes a focus on career exploration culminating in the creation of an academic and career plan. The FYE work group completed the design of the three credit College and Career Success course (CCS 101) for CT State Community College in Fall 2019. The FYE work group then developed and submitted a statement in support of the CCS 101 course recommending the following:

  • FYE/Student Success departments and faculty move the course through their campus curriculum approval process and begin teaching this course at their respective colleges.
  • Academic administrators support the scheduling and staffing of the course.
  • Academic programs include this course in their newly aligned curriculum for the one college.

The recommendations of the FYE work group were affirmed by the Choice Architecture and Holistic Student Support Redesign teams. The work and recommendations from the FYE work group provided the foundation for the College and Career Success (CCS 101) policy recommendation. The policy recommendations, supported by the staff report, were approved by the BOR in June 2020 (see CSCC College & Career Success 101 Policy).

The policy requires that all CT State Community College programs include the three credit CCS 101 course and that all degree-seeking students enroll in CCS 101 within the first nine credits.  Additionally, policy requires that CCS 101 1) includes a component that meets the general education core diversity requirement, with the acknowledgement that diversity topics should ideally be embedded throughout the General Education core and across the curriculum and 2) fulfills one of the general education core competencies. There must also be administrative oversight to ensure consistency of delivery and outcomes. An Interim Coordinator of CCS 101: College & Career Success was hired in July 2021 and a CCS 101 Advisory Council was formed in Fall 2021 with representation from each of the twelve campuses. Council voting members included coordinators and instructors of First Year/College Success courses along with non-voting members from Diversity/Equity/Inclusion, Professional Development, and Institutional Research. This council met during Fall 2021 to incorporate the General Education Core Competency of Continued Learning Information Literacy as well as the Diversity Requirement into the course outcomes, description, and topics outline. This new course will play a vital role in the Guided Pathways work in Connecticut, and beginning in Fall 2023, will serve as the primary vehicle in CT State Community College degree programs to ensure that every student has the strategies and skills to succeed in college, an introduction to diversity, and a clear, well designed individual academic and career plan.