Program Mission and Philosophy

Developmental education in the English/ESL department is part of Los Medanos College’s decentralized yet highly coordinated model of developmental education. Developmental education within the department is coordinated by the Developmental Education faculty lead position, who acts as a liaison between the instructors of developmental education in the department, and the college-wide Developmental Education committee (which is, in turn, part of the college-wide Teaching and Learning Center Committee).

The English/ESL Department has three full-time faculty members specifically hired to teach developmental reading and writing, as well as many instructors (full-time and adjunct) who have taken advantage of further education and training opportunities in curriculum and pedagogy particular to working with students enrolled in developmental education courses.

Along with our pursuit of the developmental education mission “to provide students with a coordinated curriculum and comprehensive support services that will engage, challenge and support them as learners," members of the department have been actively involved in the pursuit of greater educational and institutional equity and access for traditionally underserved student populations (such as, but not limited to, students of color and low-income students) through collaborating in thematic learning communities, creating and participating in programs such as Puente, Umoja, and Avid, and taking leadership roles in academic support services such as departmental tutoring programs.

Our instructors have opportunities for professional development each semester. Our teaching communities meet during the semester to focus on integrating research-based pedagogy into the classroom, and assessing results in terms of how they improve student outcomes.

Ongoing Assessment for the purpose of program improvement

Different stages of the developmental sequence participate in ongoing program assessment. The Counseling Partnership in English 70 completes a student and instructor survey each semester. And all instructors in English 90 participate in a holistic scoring of essays in order to formulate action plans for curricular and instructional change to improve student success. Information about the Counseling Partnership as well as as the holistic scoring reports can be found on the Program Evaluation page of this website.