II-A.2a. The institution uses established procedures to design, identify learning outcomes for, approve, administer, deliver, and evaluate courses and programs. The institution recognizes the central role of its faculty for establishing quality and improving instructional courses and programs.

 

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

 

All Courses and programs (Question? isn't the Unit Assessment aimed at the Unit and not at individual courses - probably need some description of what the Unit Assessment covers) offered through the college are driven by the discipline unit assessment plans in accordance with the college mission and the educational master plan. The 2005 EMP (Is the EMP history and format discussed earlier in the standards?) made specific recommendations regarding recommended updating of courses and enforcement of pre and co reqs . Faculty determine course content is determined by faculty , approved by department chairs and overseen by the curriculum committee through established procedures. (Ref.) Several disciplines have established student learning outcomes for their courses and are engaged in the assessment of these outcomes.

 

The Curriculum Committee is a subcommittee of the Academic Senate, and with the exception of one voting administrator, the voting membership is composed exclusively of faculty. Curriculum development procedures are well documented in the Curriculum Committee Policies and Procedures Manual (Ref IIA.X), which is available on the Curriculum Committee website. This website also provides all the necessary forms, as well as a comprehensive set of links to curriculum resources. Department chairs and the office of academic affairs are responsible for monitoring the quality of instruction through regular faculty evaluations. (Ref. contract)

 

SELF-EVALUATION

 

The LAMC curriculum committee has evolved considerably since the last Accreditation Self-Study.was completed. The Curriculum Committe -has- updated all of its forms, All forms have been updated and made accessible through the curriculum website, allowing for electronic submission and review. A technical review subcommittee has been established to further streamlines the procedures and allows faculty and department chairs the opportunity to make needed changes to the courses before the entire Curriculum Committee reviews and votes on the course. The office of academic affairs began to take a more took an active role in supporting the curriculum committee by monitoring the approval status of courses within each department and enforcing the pre and co reqs more vigorously. Within the last five years, two-thirds (Ref. Said) of the courses listed in the LAMC catalog either have been revised, updated, or archived. All approved course outlines are posted on the curriculum website.

 

Although some disciplines are actively engaged in the development and assessment of student learning outcomes More college wide participation is necessary in the development and assessment of student learning outcomes.(ref)

 

PLANNING AGENDA

 

2.1 The office of academic affairs and the curriculum committee will continue to monitor the cycle of course updates and incorporate student learning outcomes into the course outlines of record.

2.2 add who will do this? here Academic Affairs and the curriculum committee will evaluate Evaluation of= courses and programs -will be more actively to ensure they are aligned with the educational master plan and the unit assessment plans. (keep the same terminology "unit assessment plan")

 

 

II-A.2b. The institution relies on faculty expertise and the assistance of advisory committees (required by Federal law - REF. xx) when appropriate to identify competency levels and measurable student learning outcomes for courses, certificates, programs including general and vocational education, and degrees. The institution regularly assesses student progress towards achieving those outcomes. (how does it do this?)

 

(College) College Offices of Academic Affairs, Academic Senates, Curriculum Committees, SLO “taskforces,” researchers, department chairs and faculty fulfill this function.(how do they do they, what evidence? REF. xx)

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

 

Program faculty (state which VTEA programs, more specifics here but not too detailed) initiate standardized tests, assessment measures, program advisory meetings, articulation agreements, and licensing exams to regularly evaluate and assess competency levels. (ref advisory minutes)

 

All Our college occupational programs have advisory committees, which meet with varying frequency. These advisory committees provide valuable information, recommendations and evaluations regarding the college occupational programs pre- and in-service education for success in industry. In addition to the advisory committee resource, Occupational programs also use the statewide C-core -I-indicators -available statewide, which are important criteria for continued Vocational Technology Education Act (VTEA) funding. (Ref IIA.X) The State establishes goals for each of the four Core Indicators for which each occupational program monitors its progress and improvement in the areas of achievement, completions, placement etc. Disciplines receiving VTEA funding each academic year between 2000 and 2006 have met the eight required criteria for VTEA funding. (I thought there were four?)

Mission College has started to develop and implement recently begun the development and implementation of student learning outcomes in all departments. This has been implemented as part of our unit assessment process, and disciplines are in varying stages of development and assessment of student learning outcomes. Some disciplines are also in the process of using external measures of student progress towards student learning outcomes and competencies; however, these have not yet been institutionalized. (Ref IIA.X NAEYC?) Currently two of nine vocational programs are using student learning outcomes to identify competency levels. (identify which ones, REF xx)

 

SELF-EVALUATION

 

While in many cases student learning outcomes are stated as objectives at the course level and are a basis for student evaluation, the college is still working on a more comprehensive approach to standardizing the format and inclusion on Proposed New Course Requests (PNCR’s) and syllabi. Several disciplines (such as Art and Multi-media) have already implemented student learning outcomes and appropriate assessments in their courses. The Health and P.E. discipline has identified SLO’s and has a planned equivalent assignment for all sections that needs to be assessed to measure its effectiveness. The life sciences have identified SLO’s and are in the process of developing assessment tools. The establishment of measurable student learning outcomes is also being addressed at the certificate, degree and program levels for some programs. The Math Department and the Computer Applications and Office Technologies are two examples of disciplines that administer common final exams as assessment tools for student learning. Child Development Discipline is currently exploring a common assessment approach to the students completing occupational certificates.

 

PLANNING AGENDA

 

2.X The college will continue addressing the need for the establishment of student learning outcomes and assessment strategies for all disciplines, departments, certificates, degrees, programs and units. Program review and unit assessments will reflect progress and goals related to the completion of this process.

 

II-A.2c. High-quality instruction and appropriate breadth, depth, rigor, sequencing, time to completion, and synthesis of learning characterize all programs.

 

College Specific: College Offices of Academic Affairs, Academic Senates, Curriculum Committees, department chairs and faculty fulfill this function.

 

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

 

The college ensures high quality instruction through a rigorous hiring process (Ref Senate and Contract), the four-year tenure review process, and the student-peer-administrative evaluations of its faculty. The 2006 Student Survey included student responses about the quality of instruction received at the college. 90.7 percent of students responded that they either strong agreed or agreed that instructors are up to date in their field. Internal evidence of instructional quality includes retention rates, completion rates of degrees, certificates and skill certificates, and grade distributions. External evidence of instructional quality includes student achievement as measured by transfer rate and student success in licensing and certification exams. (Ref VTEA data: Eloise Cantrell and ND Ondoy)

 

The breadth and depth of college programs is demonstrated by offering 38 associate degrees, 32 certificates, 25 skill certificates, and active courses in 65 different disciplines (Ref. catalog 2006-2007)

 

LAMC has extensive articulation agreements including majors and lower division courses, general education patterns, and course-to-course agreements with XX California State Universities, XX University of California campuses, and XX private or out-of-state four-year institutions. (Ref. )

 

SELF-EVALUATION

 

[to be place elsewhere: Currently all programs have completed or are working on individual unit assessments to be reviewed by the curriculum committee for accuracy and updates All departments are continually engaged in the process of revisions, updates and archival of courses offered.]

 

 

The college catalog lists a large variety of courses. However, the actual course offerings in the schedule of classes are not as large or diverse because some courses are not offered every semester. Furthermore, classes with low enrollment are subject to cancellation by the administration (Ref contract). Based on FTES (full-time equivalent students), Mathematics is the largest discipline on campus, followed by English as a Second Language (ESL), English, Child Development, and Chicano Studies. The mathematics department offers the most sections per semester with 61 offered in the fall of 2005. ESL and English offered the second largest number with 44 sections each. The large number of students enrolled in ESL and Chicano Studies reflects the community demographics and needs.

 

NUMBER OF COURSE SECTIONS AND STUDENT ENROLLMENT IN 40 LARGEST DISCIPLINESFALL 2005

Number of

Sections Students FTES

1. Mathematics 61 1871 265.2

2. E.S.L.-Credit 44 905 171.7

3. English 44 1354 143.6

4. Child Development 41 1111 123.4

5. Chicano Studies 20 753 76.4

6. Developmental Communication 25 681 71.1

7. Biology 13 321 71.0

8. Food Service Management 27 435 70.8

9. Psychology 19 653 67.7

10. Physical Education 27 615 61.6

11. Sociology 15 505 54.2

12. Health 15 496 53.3

13. Law 18 431 51.5

14. Art 38 434 50.6

15. Computer Science 24 385 50.1

16. Political Science 15 437 46.8

17. Speech 22 413 44.1

Vocational Education 4 429 N/A

Sections Students FTES

18. Administration of Justice 16 384 41.6

19. Spanish 22 237 40.8

20. Multimedia 20 310 39.6

21. History 10 354 38.5

22. Computer Applications Office Technology 31 262 36.8

23. Philosophy 12 334 36.3

24. Chemistry 6 137 35.6

25. Geography 10 277 29.4

26. Cinema 9 224 28.3

27. Family Consumer Studies 18 261 27.4

28. Accounting 9 154 25.6

29. Anatomy 4 112 24.0

30. Business 10 219 23.1

31. Humanities 7 207 22.1

32. Anthropology 8 206 22.0

33. Physiology 4 99 21.2

34. Astronomy 4 141 15.1

35. Interior Design 5 127 14.1

36. Physical Science 7 137 13.0

37. Music 13 106 11.0

38. Management 4 103 10.7

39. Engineering-General 27 101 9.9

40. Italian 3 53 9.3

 

 

charts to insert

1. grade distribution LAMC vs. district

2. degrees and certificates awarded compared with stated majors

 

LAMC currently offers courses in 65 active disciplines (Ref. Table 1 above plus EMP pp. 8-10 64 plus Asian American studies). Another 32 disciplines are inactive at this time. (EMP). Since the last self study, the college lost its addiction studies program (2001) and also stopped offering classes in Chinese.

 

The college monitors its course rigor and sequencing within disciplines through discussions with faculty and department chairs, and district discipline committees. The sequencing of courses is also determined through the curriculum process by identifying prerequisites and corequisites as outlined in the Curriculum Procedures Manual. (Ref.) The enrollment management system automatically enforces valid prerequisites and corequisites. Additionally, courses are “swept” several week after the start of the semester to verify that students who enrolled before grades were submitted have passed the necessary prerequisite and/or corequisite courses. All incoming English, math, and ESL students must take an assessment test prior to registering for one of these classes.

 

Insert

1. English assessment

2. Math assessment

 

LOS ANGELES MISSION COLLEGEENGLISH PLACEMENT DISTRIBUTIONFALL 2000-FALL 2005

Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Total

CourseLevel PercentStudents PercentStudents PercentStudents PercentStudents PercentStudents PercentStudents PercentStudents

Eng. 101 7 6 7 23 12 14 11

Eng. 28 11 12 14 20 16 16 15

Eng. 21 27 32 28 26 24 21 27

DC 1 or LS 2 34 30 31 13 34 35 30

ESL 1 5 5 6 4 3 3 5

ESL 2 5 6 6 4 4 4 5

ESL 3A 4 6 5 6 4 4 5

ESL 4A 4 2 2 2 3 2 2

ESL 5A 2 1 1 0 0 0 1

ESL 6A 1 0 0 0 0

100 100 100 100 100 100 100

 

As can be seen from the chart above, in 2005, 86 percent of incoming LAMC students place in lower-level English, ESL or Dev. Com. courses that are not transferable. Only 14 percent of students place in English 101, college reading and composition, which is transferable to University of California and California State Universities. The rest of the students placed below English 101 as follows: 15 percent placed one level below (Eng. 28), 27 percent two levels below (Eng. 21), 30 percent three levels below (Dev. Com 1), and 18 percent placed in ESL courses.

 

LOS ANGELES MISSION COLLEGEMATHEMATICS PLACEMENT DISTRIBUTIONFALL 2000-FALL 2005

Year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Total

CourseLevel PercentStudents PercentStudents PercentStudents PercentStudents PercentStudents PercentStudents PercentStudents

Math 105 41 9 9 60 13 11 22

Math 112 N/A 38 38 5 62 66 36

Math 115 37 33 34 18 13 13 25

Math 125 20 18 17 15 10 9 15

Math 240 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Math 260 0 0 0 1 0 0 0

Math 265 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

100 100 100 100 100 100 100

 

 

The table above illustrates the placement data for incoming math students. Almost all incoming math students, 99 percent, place in lower-level math courses that are not transferable. In 2005, 11 percent of incoming students placed in Math 105 (arithmetic), 66 percent placed in Math 112 (pre-algebra), 13 percent placed in Math 115 (elementary algebra), and 9 percent placed in Math 125 (intermediate algebra). Only one percent of incoming math students placed in Math 240 (trigonometry) and a negligible number placed in Math 260 (pre calculus) or Math 265 (calculus). The abnormal placement distribution in 2003 was caused by a change in the assessment tool, which was subsequently adjusted to more accurately reflect student abilities. One of the major changes that has occurred in the last few years is a substantial increase in the number of Math 112 sections that are offered. This was done to address the low success rates in Math 115. Another option available to students placed in elementary algebra is to take Math 113 and 114 (Elementary Algebra A and B) over two semesters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All available internal and external measures indicate that the quality of instruction is high. In the 2006 Student Survey) over 75 percent of respondents indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed [agreed with what?] with the overall quality of instruction. Students surveyed reported that 79 percent came to LAMC as a result of the college’s reputation for good teaching. According to the 2006 Student Survey 91 percent of the students would encourage others to attend LAMC. Those who felt these descriptions do not apply, disagreed, or strongly disagreed were fewer than 10 percent. The California State University system provides student data in the CSU’s California Community College Academic Performance Reports. The reports for the most recent three years for which data are available indicate that Mission College students enter the CSU system with a slightly higher GPA than the system wide population, have slightly lower persistence rates, and maintain a slightly lower GPA than the system-wide population. (Ref IIA. X)

 

Some programs are unable to offer a timely sequence of courses or sufficient sections at a variety of hours to allow students timely completion. The 2006 Student Survey showed 20 percent felt there were not enough general education courses offered, and 21 percent felt advanced courses were not offered frequently enough. As a result, students sometimes opt to complete their coursework at other institutions. Inadequate numbers of offerings may be the result of a lack of available qualified instructors, insufficient funding available to instructional programs, and the reluctance to allow low enrollment classes.

[Slark - You may want to look into timely completion a little more, and if it’s indeed a problem, establish a more certain planning agenda item.]

 

The College Office of Academic Affairs is committed to offer courses traditionally low in enrollment if they meet sequencing requirements for program completion. Departments have put an increased emphasis on archiving courses no longer offered to maximize course offerings and program completion.

 

PLANNING AGENDA

 

2.X The College will continue to examine its College Catalog, class offerings and scheduling of classes to ensure that students are able to take the required sequence of courses in order to be able to complete their certificates and degrees within a reasonable period of time.

 

II-A.2d. The institution uses delivery modes and teaching methodologies that reflect the diverse needs and learning styles of its students.

 

College Specific: College Offices of Academic Affairs, Academic Senates, Curriculum Committees, department chairs and faculty fulfill this function.

DESCRIPTIVE SUMMARY

 

 

 

SELF-EVALUATION

 

Individual departments and divisions review and recommend the sequencing of courses. Currently all programs have completed or are working on individual Unit Assessments to be reviewed by the curriculum committee for accuracy and updates. All departments are in the process of revisions, updates and archival of courses offered.

 

All available internal and external measures indicate that the quality of instruction is high. In the 2006 Student Survey) over 75 percent of respondents indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed [agreed with what?] with the overall quality of instruction. Students surveyed reported that 79 percent came to LAMC as a result of the college’s reputation for good teaching. According to the 2006 Student Survey 91 percent of the students would encourage others to attend LAMC. Those who felt these descriptions do not apply, disagreed, or strongly disagreed were fewer than 10 percent. The California State University system provides student data in the CSU’s California Community College Academic Performance Reports. The reports for the most recent three years for which data are available indicate that Mission College students enter the CSU system with a slightly higher GPA than the system wide population, have slightly lower persistence rates, and maintain a slightly lower GPA than the system-wide population. (Ref IIA. X)

 

Some programs are unable to offer a timely sequence of courses or sufficient sections at a variety of hours to allow students timely completion. The 2006 Student Survey showed 20 percent felt there were not enough general education courses offered, and 21 percent felt advanced courses were not offered frequently enough. As a result, students sometimes opt to complete their coursework at other institutions. Inadequate numbers of offerings may be the result of a lack of available qualified instructors, insufficient funding available to instructional programs, and the reluctance to allow low enrollment classes.

[Slark - You may want to look into timely completion a little more, and if it’s indeed a problem, establish a more certain planning agenda item.]

 

The College Office of Academic Affairs is committed to offer courses traditionally low in enrollment if they meet sequencing requirements for program completion. Departments have put an increased emphasis on archiving courses no longer offered to maximize course offerings and program completion.

 

PLANNING AGENDA

 

2.X The College will continue to examine its College Catalog, class offerings and scheduling of classes to ensure that students are able to take the required sequence of courses in order to be able to complete their certificates and degrees within a reasonable period of time.

 

 

II-A.2d. The institution uses delivery modes and teaching methodologies that reflect the diverse needs and learning styles of its students.

 

College Specific: College Offices of Academic Affairs, Academic Senates, Curriculum Committees, department chairs and faculty fulfill this function.