Strengthening Student Success Conference

Breakout Session 4

Thursday, October 8 | 10:40 am – 11:55 am

2026

Transforming Math Success: Community of Practice & Standards-Based Grading

Strand: Achieving Equity in the Classroom

Room: Garden 1

What if grading could drive learning instead of just measure it? In this dynamic session, we’ll showcase how our faculty Community of Practice is rethinking assessment through Standards-Based Grading (SBG) across both STEM and non-STEM math courses.

See how SBG comes to life in an innovative precalculus course with integrated support—where students get multiple opportunities to demonstrate mastery and build confidence. Walk away with practical strategies you can implement immediately, plus compelling student success data that shows this approach works.

Knowledge Level: Beginning to Advanced
Subject Focus: STEM and Non-STEM Mathematics (featuring a supported precalculus model)

Presenters: Matt Calfin, Claudia Guiterrez, and Rena Weiss, Moorpark College

- Beyond Major Selection: Using Student Voice to Understand Belonging, Barriers, and Supports

Strand: Advancing Equitable Institutions

Room: Garden 2

This session explores students’ lived experiences across three core areas: belonging, barriers to persistence, and supports that help them stay on track. Drawing on student-generated posters and participatory activities, findings highlight both strengths in Crafton Hills College’s supportive culture and gaps that impact equity and student success.

Participants will better understand how student voice can reveal differences between institutional intentions and student experiences—and inform more equitable practices. Participants will leave with practical ideas and tools to center student voice and strengthen support strategies that improve engagement, persistence, and outcomes.

Presenters: Sebastian Lopez, Jared Shaw, Giovanni Sosa, and Diana Vaichis, Crafton Hills College

Combined Session:

Calculus Placement and Beyond: Institutional Practices and Student Experiences in STEM Calculus (30 minutes)

Strand: Advancing Equitable Institutions

Room: Garden 3

Calculus is a gateway course for all STEM majors, yet placement practices and student experiences vary widely across colleges. This session brings together findings from two complementary studies. The first documents statewide variation in local placement practices, including how colleges determine calculus eligibility and whether they recommend or require additional support. The second uses survey data from STEM students to examine perceptions of readiness, placement, and challenges in calculus. Together, these findings reveal misalignment between institutional practices and student experiences. By linking placement policies with student perspectives, this session highlights actionable opportunities to improve advising, placement, and support strategies to promote success in calculus and persistence in STEM pathways.

Presenters: Lauren Ilano and Brandon Lo, The RP Group

Statistics in Context: Success for All Through Applied Learning (30 minutes)

Strand: Achieving Equity in the Classroom

Room: Garden 3

Students exhibit high success rates in statistics courses when abstract statistical concepts are embedded in their field of study, such as psychology or business. This session presents findings from a large-scale analysis of California community college students. First, we provide an overview of statistics courses within our college system, exploring trends in contextualized offerings by department. Then, we compare outcomes from traditional math department statistics with contextualized courses. We will explore how contextualized learning uniquely benefits students with lower math preparation and those from minoritized groups. Participants will engage with interactive data visualizations and inclusive data practices as they consider how contextualized offerings may advance equitable outcomes.

Presenters: Mallory Newell, Foothill-De Anza Community College District; Lauren Ilano and Chloe Rickards, The RP Group

In Response to Joy: Culturally Responsive Student Supports

Strand: Creating Support Systems for Students and Employees

Room: Garden 4

Improving student success requires more than access to services; it requires support systems that recognize students’ culture, identity, and lived experiences. This session explores an emerging approach to culturally responsive student support developed through equitable counseling work and partnerships with community colleges.

Presenters will share examples of how colleges are redesigning onboarding, advising, and student services to be more relationship-centered, accessible, and responsive to the students they serve. Participants will engage in a student journey activity and identify practical changes they can make in their own roles to improve student belonging, persistence, and success.

Presenters: Byron Reaves, Career Ladders Project; Tommy Reed, Chabot College; Monique Green, Riverside City College

Belonging as the Bridge: Connecting Identity, Culture, and Academic Agency Through Umoja

Strand: Advancing Equitable Institutions

Room: Harbor

This session centers belonging as the critical bridge in Umoja’s Theory of Change, connecting culturally relevant self-concept development to academic self-efficacy and success behaviors. Drawing on 2024–2026 student assessment data, we demonstrate how culturally sustaining pedagogy strengthens student identity, which in turn produces belonging as a mechanism for academic engagement. Findings show that belonging is the most consistent predictor of academic self-efficacy, translating identity into action. The session integrates research, practical application, and live student voice to illustrate how culturally affirming environments shape student success. Participants will explore strategies to intentionally design belonging as institutional infrastructure that drives measurable outcomes.

Presenters: Nicole Blake, Ahmed Naguib, and Julian West, Umoja Community Education Foundation

- From Insight to Impact: Multi‑Year, Cross‑Segmental Lessons From a Parenting Student Community of Practice

Strand: Sustaining Partnerships and Networks for Student Success

Room: Pacific

Participants will learn promising practices from two intersegmental Community of Practice cohorts that included Long Beach City College, Golden West College, and CSU Dominguez Hills, led by The California Alliance for Student Parent Success. Colleges used focus groups, survey insights, and campus data to understand parenting student needs and strengthen supports such as communication about resources and family‑friendly spaces. Teams also explored GAINS Act requirements, including improving student‑parent data collection and aligning campus processes with state expectations.

The session will introduce practical equity tools, including positionality reflection and equity guardrails, that help colleges design more inclusive and responsive supports. Attendees will leave with strategies they can adapt on their own campuses.

Presenters: Jamila Espinosa, EdTrust-West; LeeAn Gomez and Carla Martinez, Golden West College; Christina Barrios, Long Beach City College; Lorena De La Cruz and Mayra Soriano, CSU Dominguez Hills

Adaptive Socratic AI for Equitable Student Success

Strand: Navigating Disruption in a Shifting System

Room: Salon 1

Generative AI often triggers “cognitive offloading,” where students bypass the struggle necessary for true learning. This session changes the student–AI relationship by introducing Socratic AI Tutors—tools engineered to refuse direct answers and instead guide students through “Explain It Back” protocols. Drawing on field tests at the Santa Ana College School of Continuing Education, we demonstrate how adaptive “Socratic Guardrails” match an AI’s questioning style to a student’s immediate linguistic and emotional capacity. This approach decouples critical thinking from English fluency, creating a “safe confessional” for ESL and nontraditional learners to iterate without judgment. Participants will engage with a live Socratic agent and leave with a “Prompt Contract” to transform AI from an answer-machine into a tireless thinking partner.

Presenters: John Tashima, Santa Ana College School of Continuing Education

Reclaiming Joy in an AI Era: A Human-Centered Sandbox for Faculty, Staff, and Equity Practice

Strand: Creating Support Systems for Students and Employees

Room: Salon 7/8

As AI enters classrooms and student support services, educators face a critical question: How do we use these tools without losing human connection?

This interactive session brings a cross-functional lens across instruction, counseling, and student services, offering a human-centered, equity-focused approach to AI. Through a hands-on “sandbox,” participants work with student personas and real tools to assess benefits, risks, and guardrails.

Grounded in culturally responsive practice, the session reframes AI as a way to extend connection, reflection, and access, not replace them. By centering purpose and reclaiming joy in our work, participants leave with practical strategies and a clear framework to guide equitable, relationship-centered use of AI across campus.

Presenters: Luis Chavez, Chabot College; Alicia Cardenas, West Valley College

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