News Press Releases @ TCC

The National Council of Teachers of English/Two Year College Association, in partnership with College Composition and Communication Conference (CCCC), has awarded Tidewater Community College (TCC) the 2003 Outstanding Program in English award. Responding to national concerns about the educational system's failure to prepare high school seniors for college, TCC has created a focused approach for collaboration between high schools and colleges.

Directed by Chris Jennings, Associate Professor of English, TCC, the Consortium for Innovative Instruction: Aligning Writing Instruction in Secondary and Postsecondary Institutions was selected as the Exemplary Program in the category of Enhancing Developmental English. This model is currently being used throughout the Virginia Beach City Public School System (VBCPS), and throughout the country, to create high school writing centers and sponsor professional workshops for college and high school faculties. Thanks to a grant award of $600,000 from the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), this program offers a creative response to the challenges of educating two-year college students. It demonstrates the power of institutional partnerships and provides a reform movement that supports teachers who identify and employ solutions to problems.

As a result of project activities at Salem, Landstown, and Kellam High Schools, graduating seniors' writing performances have improved. Students enrolling at TCC have also demonstrated greater success in college writing.

TCC has created a model for partnership that has been shared with colleges in seven states. Nine postsecondary dissemination sites include J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College, Richmond, Virginia; John Tyler Community College, Midlothian, Virginia; Forsyth Technical College, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Greenville Technical College, Greenville, South Carolina; Florida Community College, Jacksonville, Florida; Southwest Michigan College, Dowagiac, Michigan; Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona; and California State University, Fullerton, California. Working in a hub and spokes approach, each of these sites has adapted the TCC model to collaborate with high schools to improve student success in college.

If you have questions or would like to learn more about TCC's inroads to enhancing developmental English, please contact Chris Jennings, Director of TCC's FIPSE Writing Coalition, at 757-822-7145.

CONTACT: Kate Behnke
Marketing/Creative Services
PHONE: 757-822-1076
E-MAIL: kbehnke@tcc.edu

Tidewater Community College (TCC) is the second largest of the 23 community colleges in the Commonwealth of Virginia, enrolling over 34,000 students annually. It is the 37th largest in the nation's 1,600 community college network, and among the 50 fastest growing large community colleges. Founded in 1968 as a part of the Virginia Community College System, the college serves the South Hampton Roads region with campuses in the cities of Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach, and with a regional Visual Arts Center in Olde Towne, Portsmouth and the TCC Jeanne and George Roper Performing Arts Center in the theater district in downtown Norfolk. Forty-two percent of the region's residents who attended a college or university in Virginia last fall were enrolled at TCC. For more information about TCC, call 757-822-1122 or visit http://www.tcc.edu.