Creating the AANAPISI/ELL Success Coaching Model

The research clearly shows three major takeaways that were incorporated into the success coaching model for ELL courses: 

1. Building and sustaining relationships are crucial to fostering student success within a coaching framework.

2. The relationships work better for marginalized student populations when the staff who are coaching understand the students’ experience and use this understanding to inform their coaching techniques.

3. The type of success coaching model that the AANAPISI grant was asking for has never been done like this, at the scale it was asking for (serving 100% of ELL students within 5 years). 

In addition, the AANAPISI grant sought to increase graduation and persistence rates for AAPI and Pell-eligible students who make up on average 12-14% of the ELL population. The success coaches hired under the AANAPISI grant thus had to be mindful in addressing both of these goals in creating the new model of success coaching – scaling up to serve all ELL students and at the same time implementing more targeted support strategies for the sub-group of ELL students who are both AAPI and Pell-eligible.

The success coaching model for the AANAPISI grant has two essential components: in-class visits to each ELL course section and hiring culturally responsive success coaches who share and understand the experiences of AAPI students.

In-class visits: Conducting in-class success coach visits were essential for scalability. This ensured that if a Coach were matched to every section offered by the ELL Department, every student enrolled would receive in-class coaching. Given that the typical community college student spends most of their time on campus in the classroom and not in extracurricular activities, the in-class visit became an integral component of the success coaching model we designed. Moreover, the success coach needed to cultivate a strong working relationship with the faculty to build the success coach class visits into the course curriculum in a way that complemented instruction instead of competing with it. The rationale behind this thinking was that the more a student sees a coach during these visits, the more students are able to understand the support a coach offers and the variety of skills they have that can support student success (see Table A).

Table A

Outline of Success Coaching Visit Model: Purposes and Outcomes

We created a success coaching model made up of five different in-class visits spread throughout a semester. This reflected the initial success coaching model that was implemented under the previous Title III grant, but our coaching curriculum was more tailored to reflect the academic progression of students starting in ELL courses. Information that academic advisors traditionally presented often assumed that a student would start at college-level English and full-time studies. However, this assumption did not reflect the ELL and AAPI student experience. The unique needs of ELL and AAPI students prompted us therefore to design success coach visits that were scaffolded to deliver more pertinent information as students progressed through the term and ELL course levels. The nature and purpose of each visit was also timed with students’ needs at different points of the course, such as a success coach visiting a class to talk about on-campus resources at the beginning of the term. 

Hiring Culturally Responsive Coaches: The research from programs that provide targeted, culturally competent support have a common thread that recognizes the racial, ethnic, and cultural background of the students they serve. Each program uses a student’s identity to ground their program with the hope that equitable opportunities and a sense of belonging will increase student persistence and graduation rates. The research that highlights strategies for AAPI students notes that hiring AAPI staff is an important step because then a student can see someone who looks like them in their class (Kodama and Maramba, 2017). We enacted this hiring practice in the grant, so that, when a success coach from the AANAPISI model visited a classroom, the AAPI students in that class saw a staff member who looks like them and understands their experience. When that student would visit a success coach in-person for an individual advising meeting, the coach could also use more interpersonal, culturally responsive strategies to build a deeper relationship with the student. Specifically with our AAPI success coaches, these strategies covered a wide range: talking through familial influences on program and career choice, speaking in the student’s first language or language spoken at home, recommending resources that more appropriately address students’ well-being and academic needs, or simply affirming that who they are outside of campus is equally valued on campus. And as we learned while implementing the new success coaching model, this may have been the first time that our AAPI students experienced this type of culturally responsive advising at the college.

Success Coach Work and Additional Student Support Integration

The initial pilot of ELL courses integrated with a success coach model started in the spring semester of 2018 with seven sections. These sections were chosen in collaboration with the English Language Learning Department, then referred to as the English as a Second Language Department, and their curriculum reform also aligned with the AANAPISI grant outcomes. Each section implemented the new ELL curriculum as well as classroom integration of the AAPI success coach and additional student support services. 

On average, each coach devoted a maximum of around 30 hours per semester per course that they were coaching (see Table B), inclusive of one-on-one advising sessions held outside the class. As the course numbers grew in accordance with the ELL curriculum reform, coaches were naturally assigned to more sections. Success coach to student ratio was an important aspect when it came to sustainable growth, given that research confirms that strong relationships are the key to student success (Allen and Lister, 2012). Thus, in alignment with the grant directive and rapid expansion of the ELL success coach model, two more AAPI success coach were hired, one in fall 2018 and the other in spring 2019.

Table B

Success Coach Work Breakdown per Course Section

After the initial culturally responsive success coaching was piloted and as the number of ELL courses under the program were scaled up, the AAPI success coaches now had to address another important issue: How do we grow this new model in a sustainable way?

Table C below shows that sustainably growing the coaching model along with the scaling of ELL courses under the ELL Reform relied on two key components: (1) hiring more success coaches and (2) continued collaboration with the ACE Mentor program (see the following section on Introduction of the ACE Mentor+ Model for further information on this collaboration). Incorporating these two components in scaling the model allowed coaches to maintain an average caseload of 7-10 sections each term.

Table C

Success Coach Structure per Grant Years Two through Five

Note. Year 1 (2016-2017) was used to engage in research and design of the culturally responsive embedded success coaching model in collaboration with faculty of the ELL Department.

Additional adaptations were made each subsequent year to the initial coaching model in response to student inquiries and experiences.  For example, the AAPI success coaches noticed the need to tailor their advising content to the different levels of ELL.  Whereas Level 1 students require entry level support (e.g., navigating MyBHCC, learning how to register for classes, understanding one’s program of study, etc.), Level 2 and Level 3 students need support with complex academic and career planning.  In Level 3, the last level before College Writing l, students typically want more information about the transfer process as well as job opportunities. Thus, in spring 2019, we built one classroom visit into the coaching model for Level 3 courses that specifically introduced resources to address these common questions. These details are outlined in Appendix A. 

Another example of adapting the coaching model emerged as a response to the ELL Reform after it was successfully approved in spring 2020. In fall 2020 when the new ELL Program was fully implemented, the success coaches specifically created a coaching visit to explain to the students how this would affect their programs of study for all three levels of ELL.

We believe that part of the success of the model we developed is due to our efforts to continuously adapt to current student inquiries and institutional changes, especially at a community college where policy changes occur frequently. At the end of each semester, the AAPI Academic Coordinator and success coaches always met to determine if there should be any changes implemented in the next term. This iterative process continues and remains key to sustaining our culturally responsive coaching model.

In addition to coaching, other integrated support services were built out, including continued faculty collaboration with the college’s Language Lab. The Language Lab specifically supports language learners of English as well as Spanish and French who are enrolled in Global Language courses. To build out these student support services, the success coaching staff started by learning more about the local AAPI population, their skills, cultural backgrounds, and strengths. The staff also met with community leaders, organizations, and collaborated frequently with the Asian American Student Success Program and Asian American Studies Department at UMass Boston.

Another support service that was built out was the ACE Mentor program, a peer mentor program run by the Office of Learning Communities that was part of the original success coaching model in the Title III Grant. Students are hired to serve as ACE mentors to various learning community courses throughout departments to help students adjust to the academic, social, and personal environment at BHCC. The ACE Mentor program was introduced as part of the integrated support services of the AANAPISI grant and offered academic, personal, and social support to students enrolled in ELL level 1, 2, and 3 courses. Under the grant, the program hired eight to ten ACE mentors to deliver services in ELL courses every semester.

Introduction of the ACE Mentor+ Model (Pronounced ACE Mentor Plus)

After a significant growth in ELL course offerings in spring 2019 and to support the sustainability of the integrated support services, creating a more sustainable mentoring and coaching model became necessary. As seen in Appendices A and B, the senior special programs coordinator - who oversees the ACE Mentors program - and the AANAPISI success coaches collaboratively designed a mentoring and coaching model for ELL courses that maximized delivery of coaching support services. This collaboration further strengthened the partnership between the AAPI success coaches and the ACE Mentor Program and laid the groundwork for creating the ACE mentor+ model. From this convening, we also learned that all ELL levels have unique needs and require different levels of support as outlined in the previous section. This information helped us create a model where ACE mentors+ performed selected success coaches’ duties and visits in ELL level 1 courses. This structural adaptation relieved success coaches from attending all success coaching visits in Level 1 and enabled them to focus on supporting students in Levels 2 and 3, where their expertise is a better match. The ACE mentor+ model was created, revised, and approved by the Learning Communities director, grant coordinators, and LifeMap director.

ACE Mentor+ Model Defined

With the introduction of the ACE mentor+ model, ACE mentors assumed selected AAPI success coach duties, including in-class visits, and elements of peer advising in all ELL level 1 courses with the support of the AAPI academic coordinator. These duties were in addition to the regular ACE mentor responsibilities of building community and supporting students’ academic endeavors.

The ACE mentor+ model mirrored the success coach model of 5 visits and reflected the adaptations required for a student mentoring and peer advising model:

• During the first visit, ACE mentors+ introduced their role, began building relationships, and established their leadership role by facilitating an icebreaker with the students.

• During the second visit, ACE mentors+ provided first semester peer advising where they discussed how to stay on track and gave students a comprehensive guide to resources on campus. They capitalized on this time and began scheduling one-on-one meetings with students outside of class time to provide further personalized support.

• During the third visit, the AAPI success coach assigned to the class supported the ACE mentors+ in presenting an introduction to educational planning and understanding a student’s program of study. This visit provided an opportunity to dive more into specific steps that students should pursue after taking ELL courses. The AAPI success coach attended this session to answer more complex questions that ELL students had.

• During the fourth visit, the ACE mentor+ and AAPI success coach co-presented on educational planning and class registration for the upcoming semester.

• The final visit focused on answering any lingering questions from students and provided final reminders for the next semester.

Table D

ACE Mentor+ Model

ACE mentor+ Training

Students interested in becoming an ACE mentor+ were recruited from ELL classes and invited to apply initially to the general ACE Mentor program. During interviews, applicants were encouraged to express what class(es) they prefer to mentor. Naturally, students recruited from ELL classes often preferred to serve in ELL courses, as they relate directly to the students and offer their own experiences as an example for others. All hired ACE mentors were then required to attend a pre-semester training as well as bi-weekly training during the semester. This element of the program formed the core of the ACE mentor+ model.

However, in adapting our success coaching model to address the issue of sustainable scaling, we recognized that ACE mentors+ required additional training specific to perform the selected ELL success coach duties. We believe that a vital element in the successful execution of the ACE mentor+ model was the comprehensive training provided by the senior special programs coordinator and AAPI success coaches. The senior special programs coordinator focused on providing the general, personal, and professional development training, while the AAPI success coach focused on delivering the ACE mentor+ specific training. Merging both training models engaged ACE mentors+ in weekly trainings (See Table E).

Table E

Sample ACE Mentor+ Training Outline

As of fall 2020, the ACE mentor+ model was designed to train students one week before they were scheduled to visit the classes they were assigned to. This allowed ACE mentors+ enough time to practice and check in with the AAPI success coach regarding any concerns or clarifications about their upcoming class visits.