Early Intervention (Continued)

Pilot Goals: Training and Evaluation
The pilot project is the first opportunity to test the project’s procedures and to set up needed interventions for students identified by instructors. The primary goal of this pilot project is, to verify, through real life operational implementation, the capability of the EI program to support both the faculty and the students referred for intervention. When needed, analyses of results obtained (in terms of effectiveness and benefits) may lead to modifying the plan in the direction of its ultimate research design and methodology.

A secondary, but essential, goal is to train the EI program team. It is the first time that these procedures will be applied in this way, therefore, the needs-analysis methodologies, the development methods and tools, and the users’ training methods will be continually reviewed and analyzed for effectiveness and best practices.

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Principles: Simplicity and Rigorous Tracking
During the pilot semester it is imperative that implementation procedures and data collection methods be clearly defined. To that end, the principles of the pilot are that at LSC-Kingwood we have:

  1. a simple project;
  2. a project that can be implemented without major difficulties;
  3. a short project (3 months);
  4. one “case” (student) at a time;
  5. careful tracking in the EI case management database;
  6. maximum use of results for internal communication.

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Working Collaboratively
From the outset it was implicit in the implementation of the EI program that it will be a collaborative effort across the LSC-Kingwood campus to support our students and faculty. We do not work in a vacuum; we capitalize on the expertise of our colleagues. For instance, regarding the:

  1. Infrastructure of the project: the EI program team works in conjunction with the Office of the VP of instruction.
  2. Central support: math instructors are supported by the EI coordinator. The EI coordinator supports the coaches and campus resources by tracking and recording all data.
  3. Organization direction: the work flows from the instructor to EI coordinator to EI coach to Student/Campus Resources.

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The Main Steps
To implement the pilot this term in an expedited manner, procedures were developed, reviewed, written down and followed regarding the project’s timeline and steps. We followed the procedures to stay on task and ensure that we included all stakeholders. A condensed version of procedures, tools used and expected outcomes is offered here.
Procedures

  1. Team building—EI team consulted with the Chair of the Math department to collaborate on the procedures regarding the involvement of the math faculty. The philosophy of the pilot period is that we are providing a service to our faculty rather than imposing another responsibility on them.
  2. Participants training–coaches attended training sessions with the EI Coordinator and will attend more formalized MyWorkshops training.
  3. Procedure refinements--along with the student tracking in the EI database, the EI coordinator will document all procedures during the pilot process to review and analyze for best practices at term’s end. Discussions will be ongoing with the Early Intervention pilot committee.
  4. Analysis of aggregate data and design for full implementation.
  5. Full implementation.
  6. User training.
  7. Data collection and review.

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Tools

  1. EI program database
  2. Project management tools
  3. Coaches training workshops
  4. Campus resource manual/directory

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Outcomes

  1. An evaluation of procedural:
    1. impediments and delays
    2. benefits
  2. An operational team ready for fall 2008
  3. Definition of research design and methodology for fall 2008

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