Corinna Evett, Santiago Canyon College
ECCTYC Report for Region VIII: South Los Angeles and Orange County
Fall 2009 Board Meeting in Pasadena, CA

Santiago Canyon College:

As many across the state, our college, including our department, has had a few blows as a result of the dismal statewide budget situation. First, we have had to cut back our class offerings, which has proven detrimental to our adjunct faculty. In addition, we have lost the LHE funding for our Honors Coordinator as well as a portion of LHE for our Writing Center Coordinator. The most difficult thing has been watching friends lose their jobs and/or having to change positions and move from our campus to either the district or to our sister college. We are also facing a difficulty with our Library times and resources as a result of the budget situation. It seems that we might be losing our Literary Reference Center, which will adversely affect our literature students. Likewise, as we’ve lost staff and funding, the library hours have drastically diminished, which makes it difficult for instructors to schedule classroom bibliographic instruction for morning and evening classes as well as for students to utilize library services.

Despite the budget difficulties, we are still doing our best to meet the needs of our students and maintain a comprehensive English program. We have been able to fill all of our literature offerings as well as all of the classes in our writing class sequence this semester.

In regards to SLOs, we have completed our first round of SLO assessments in spring 2009. The assessment process has proven instructive: it has caused us to reconsider our SLOs as well as the assessment tools/models that we’ve chosen to use to determine student success. We have discovered that although we have seen moderate to clear student success, some of the questions may be flawed in that we may be asking students to utilize a skill other than the skill set forth in our SLO for which we are assessing. This semester, we have implemented a pre and post assessment model as well as reconsidering the questions that we’re asking, and we’ll see if they provide any difference in measuring student success.

Also, we continue to innovate our Writing Center (WC). This semester, we have incorporated a customized workbook and a My Writing Lab component into the WC curriculum. Thus far, the addition of group work, practice exercises and writing assignments have proven fruitful for students.

Our department continues to participate in Basic Skills Initiative advancement by participating on a number of BSI committees. We have participated in leading and attending a number of Best Practices Seminars, Writing Center Evaluation Committees, and Mentor Programs for students and faculty. We have also participated in a number of norming sessions with the ACE and English faculty members. The data collected at the norming sessions was shared with the Counseling department, which assisted counselors with student placement.

Our department plays a large role in our campus’ Learning Community program. Many of our classes are linked with other disciplines, which continues to assist students and create a deeper sense of community that crosses disciplines.

Keeping community building in mind, we are thinking about ways to improve adjunct faculty participation in the department. Especially during this time when so many adjunct faculty members are losing their classes/jobs, as a department, we want to communicate our level of concern and appreciation for adjunct faculty. Therefore, we are considering a mentor program for tenured faculty to reach out to adjunct faculty more as well as better ways to communicate department happenings and needs to our adjunct faculty such as re-implementing our department newsletter and monthly updates.

Golden West College:

Dibakar Barua provided the following information:

The English faculty plays a pivotal role in the advancement of the basic skills initiative at Golden West College. Our department has two basic skills lead faculty members. They are responsible for working with respective departments to increase campus-wide awareness of basic skills students and their needs. In this role, the lead faculty planned and implemented a workshop series related to effective teaching strategies and this semester they will offer an additional workshop on technology. The spring workshop was widely attended by full-time and part-time faculty. Workshop evaluations were also overwhelmingly positive. In addition to the support provided by lead faculty, our department has completed a course wide assessment for English 009, Developmental Reading and Writing, and is working on a similar assessment for English 010, Reading and Writing Essentials. This assessment will be used to tailor curriculum and improve student learning. Also in English 010, a valuable learning community has been established linking this intermediate course to counseling. Our English department is committed to collaborative learning efforts and we are looking into future pairings. Moreover, the sense of community fostered by learning communities will advance the success of basic skills students. Lastly, the English department will host a faculty retreat that focuses on basic skills, student equity and academic accessibility for students with learning disabilities. This retreat will inform an ongoing study focused on student equity and disproportionate impact.

Our department was among the first on campus to establish viable Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs), and we are currently working on developing and implementing methods of assessment, tracking and analyzing data using the five-column model, and assisting other departments on campus with their efforts in this area. In addition to recently updating the SLOs for all of our courses, our Content Review subcommittee is revising the outlines for each of the four composition courses to reflect the language and intent of SLOs rather than course objectives. Last year, we began including SLO assessment in an exit exam for our entry-level composition course, and we are now expanding that effort to cover all sections of our pre-transfer level courses, as well as one level of ESL. We are tracking the data we have collected in eLumen; we are employing this information to make instructional improvements and reflect our dedication to student success. Several of our department members are also using their knowledge of SLOs and related assessment techniques to assist others on campus through teaching and assessment-related workshops. English faculty support SLOs not only in our own courses, but we are also extremely active on campus committees such as Institutional Effectiveness, Academic Senate, Student Success, and Basic Skills – Lead Faculty.

Saddleback College: Long Beach City College:

No Response No Response

El Camino College: Cerritos College:

No Response No Response.

Coastline Community College: Cypress College:

No Response. No Response.

Fullerton College: Irvine Valley College:

No Response. No Response.

Marymount College: Orange Coast College:

No Response. No Response.

Santa Ana College:

No Response.

Labels: Region_8

Northern California – Region 1

Butte College, Clear Lake College, College of Redwoods, College of the Siskiyous, Feather River College, Lassen College, Mendocino College, Shasta College, Woodland College, Yuba College

San Francisco Bay – Region 2

Chabot College, City College of San Francisco, College of Alameda, College of Marin/Indian Valley, College of San Mateo, Contra Costa College, Diablo Valley College, Laney College, Las Positas College, Los Medanos College, Merritt College, Napa Valley College, Ohlone College, Santa Rosa College, Skyline College, Solano College, Vista College

San Francisco South Bay & Monterey – Region 3

Cabrillo College, Canada College, DeAnza College, Evergreen College, Foothill College, Gavilan College, Hartnell College, Mission College, Monterey Peninsula College, San Jose City College, West Valley College

North Valley – Region 4

American River College, Columbia College, Cosumnes River College, Deep Springs College (private), Humphreys College (private), Lake Tahoe College, Merced College, Modesto Junior College, Sacramento City College, San Joaquin Delta College, Sierra College

South Valley – Region 5

Bakersfield College, Cerro Coso Community College, College of the Sequoias, Fresno City College, Porterville College, Reedley College, Taft College, West Hills College Coalinga, West Hills College Lemoore

Central Coast – Region 6

Allan Hancock College, Cuesta College, Moorpark College, Oxnard Community College, Santa Barbara City College, Ventura College

North Los Angeles – Region 7

Antelope Valley College, Citrus College, College of the Canyons, Don Bosco Technical Institute (private), East Los Angeles College, Glendale College, L.A. Harbor College, L.A. City College, L.A. Mission College, L.A. Pierce College, L.A. Southwest College, L.A. Trade-Technical College, L.A. Valley College, Mt. St. Mary’s, Doheny (private), Pasadena City College, Rio Hondo College, Santa Monica City College, West Los Angeles College

South Los Angeles & Orange County – Region 8

Cerritos College, Coastline College, Compton College, Cypress College, El Camino College, Fullerton College, Golden West College, Irvine Valley College, Long Beach City College, Marymount Palos Verdes (private), Orange Coast College, Sadivleback College, Santa Ana College, Santiago Canyon College

San Bernardino – Region 9

Barstow College, Chaffey College, College of the Desert, Copper Mountain College, Crafton Hills College, Mt. San Antonio College, Mt. San Jacinto College, Mt. San Jacinto College-Menifee, Palo Verde College, Riverside Community College, San Bernardino Valley College, Victor Valley College

San Diego – Region 10

Cuyamaca College, Grossmont College, Imperial Valley College, MiraCosta College, Palomar College, San Diego City College, San Diego Mesa College, San Diego Miramar College, Southwestern College

Labels: Region_1, Region_10, Region_2, Region_3, Region_4, Region_5, Region_6, Region_7, Region_8, Region_9