Reading Apprenticeship Community College STEM Network

Note: This WestEd project was completed in 2017.

The Reading Apprenticeship Community College STEM Network (RACCSN) is a three-year effort funded by a grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust to increase retention and success of all community college STEM students, including student populations underrepresented in STEM careers.

Within an ongoing and sustained community of practice, instructors will learn how to deepen students’ ability to analyze STEM texts through metacognitive conversation, and will learn how the Reading Apprenticeship framework, developed by WestEd’s Strategic Literacy Initiative, creates a context for building students’ academic confidence and competence.

A faculty “think tank” will collaborate with RACCSN and Strategic Literacy Initiative staff in the development of STEM-focused workshops, seminars, an online course, and cross-campus exchanges. About 160 community college faculty from 16 California campuses will participate in these learning opportunities.

Faculty will also be supported to spread the use of Reading Apprenticeship to colleagues on their own campuses and beyond, reaching more than 1,000 instructors and 160,000 students during the grant period.

The California Community Colleges Success Network (3CSN) will partner with the Strategic Literacy Initiative to develop the network and to disseminate RACCSN’s work throughout California.