AB 705 & GP Stories from the Field

The English department at City College of San Francisco (CCSF) was well prepared to address the curricular changes required by AB 705, the state legislation requiring colleges to provide incoming students the opportunity to complete transfer-level English and math in their first year. They reached compliance early by building off existing work with developing accelerated courses to revise their composition sequence. With these changes, all students entering the college receive an English placement in either English 1A or the combination of English 1A and 1AS, a two-unit support class. The combination of revising course sequences to remove remediation, building supports into transfer-level English, and changing placement using multiple measures increased throughput of students by large percentages across all student groups. While the success of the English 1A and 1AS combination has allowed far more students to complete their college composition requirement, the equity gaps in completion rates between student groups are persisting. Like other English, math, and ESL departments across the state working both intensely and intentionally to meet AB 705 compliance, CCSF English faculty were surprised by this data. After years spent revising their course sequence, increasing participation in professional development in acceleration and equity, and embarking on a journey towards being an anti-racist English department with nearly every faculty member in the department working in a small community of practice focused on increasing equity, English faculty decided to learn more about the experience of students in their classes and how to design further interventions.