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I. CALL THE MEETING TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 2:10 p.m.
II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
M/S/P (R.Moyer/O.Valeriano) to approve the minutes of the April 19, 2005
with one change to IV-a “…block the motion to raise graduation requirements” to
“…raise objections to raising graduation requirements”.
III. STUDENT PREPARATION:
R. Martinez, co-chair of the Technology Plan Sub-Committee, reported that the
District is currently involved in negotiations to produce an FTES—per
person--formula to increase the number of computer technicians at each college.
The District is also finalizing the list from the personnel commission for tech
support (the college is unable to hire techs until this list is updated). She
informed EPSC that the Technology Plan Sub-Committee has discussed online
assessment and that the task to review different systems is on Gonzalo
Mendoza’s agenda. A demonstration of any of these systems can be given to EPSC.
The Technology Plan Sub-Committee meets on the fourth Thursday of each month in
the President’s Conference Room.
- R.C. Williams reported that East is currently looking at online assessment
programs from four colleges and indicated that hopefully, within a year, East
will move from our present system to an alternative form of assessment. He
further informed the committee that East does not currently have a designated
place for orientation, so new takes on space and philosophy need to be
presented.
- S. Morales stated that the problems with orientation revolve around how we
can logistically handle things now, whether orientation is person- to-person or
online. The college needs to know that IT support will be there before any
decisions are made on what the college actually wants and from which vendors.
She further stated that any changes to the current process of assessment need
to be initiated through and supported by the Math and English Departments.
- D. Beaulieu, in reference to a discussion on English advisories at the last
Senate meeting, claimed that the counselors’ statement regarding East’s English
Department’s use of an assessment test as inappropriate for East’s students
(since it is also used at Santa Barbara City College) was a mistake. The fact
that the publisher of the assessment test is from Santa Barbara is irrelevant
to whether or not it is useful for assessing East’s students. The assessment
test was chosen in consultation with the Dean of Research and by an agreement
from the Math, English and Matriculation directors, R. Moyer and himself. D.
Beaulieu also reported that East has opted to enter into an LACCD/CSU pilot
program. Students in the 11th grade who are placed in college-level English or
college-level Mathematics through the CSU assessment process will be deemed to
have challenged and met the prerequisites for LACCD first- semester,
college-level English courses and/or college-level Math courses. His initial
understanding was that only East and Pierce would be part of the pilot program,
but Chancellor “Rocky” Young recently decided that the entire district will
participate. This became a point of contention for many, as more people should
have been consulted (as a courtesy and formality) before this decision was
made, and so the DAS President is challenging the decision.
- S. Morales indicated that the Chancellor initially sent the agreement only
to college presidents. She has only just received it and will soon distribute
the directive to the counselors. She further informed the committee that the CSU assessment student report contains very little information about the
student (no social security number, birthday date, etc.), just the name of the
student and the high school they come from. She confirmed that Matriculation
was not consulted in the directive.
- D. Ornelas suggested that 11th grade testing is a sign that the CSUs really
do not want to remediate and are palming off this job to others. Assessing so
early is a message to students interested in entering a CSU that they need to
bone up on English and Math skills.
- R. Moyer asked, if East is now accepting CSU assessment tests taken in the
11th grade, why not accept the same CSU assessment from people who already
graduated from high school? S. Morales responded that this was only a yearly
assessment student report, and the list of allowed college assessment
instruments for community colleges does not include the EPT and ELM. She
questioned why colleges need to continue to pour resources into research for
assessment tests if, in the end, the colleges can be mandated by the Chancellor
to accept other assessment results.
IV STUDENT SUCCESS:
D. Beaulieu reported that by the fall semester, the District Student Success
Taskforce (formerly called the Remediation Committee and now the Basic Skills
Committee) will have a set membership. The purpose of the Taskforce, although
still a bit open-ended, will probably be to act as a prod to all campuses to
address student success. He further informed the committee that the TRUCCS data
(going back at least five years within the District) showed that 80% of LACCD
students aspire to transfer, but less than 9% are actually transferring after
four years throughout the District. Questions regarding the accuracy of the
TRUCCS data are now answered, and so the District can go full steam ahead.
East’s local Student Success Committee (a subcommittee of EPSC and an analog to
the District committee) will meet for the first time tomorrow at 1:30 in E-7
315 and will forward specific goals to EPSC. He specified that the Social
Science and Counseling Departments have been very helpful in bringing different
perspectives to the committee, and that the committee was open to all.
- R. Martinez asked if the District is considering non-credit as one of the
stepping stones to student success. Non-credit is an option for the student to
review skills and retest without earning a grade, and it is free.
- D. Beaulieu replied that he thinks the District group will be more of a
steering committee with sub-groups focusing on specific areas such as English
issues or Math issues, etc.
V STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES:
A. Samad reported on a 2-day SLO conference he attended as the
senate/faculty representative of East’s SLO team (which included two academic
administrators and one service contract administrator). He has been granted
released timed through the Academic Senate to introduce the discussion of SLOs
and SLOAC (Student Learning Outcomes Assessment Process) to the campus. During
his PowerPoint presentation, he expressed a need to shift faculty and union
activists away from the perspectives that SLOs are a form of compliance and an
accountability measure toward a view that they are a commitment to student
success. Faculty should have control over the SLO process and he recommended
for East to start the process by creating a Student Assessment Learning Team
(SALT). This team would enlist those faculty who teach specific academic
“gatekeeper” courses, or the courses most students need to take before they
transfer or graduate, to develop models for establishing SLOs for the rest of
the campus (English 101, Math 120, Biology 3, Political Science 1, Psychology
1, Health 11, Anthropology 101, and Spanish 1 were identified by the team as
“gatekeeper” courses). The presenters at the SLO conference recommended
colleges to obtain a collective campus commitment to assessment and learning,
and to establish effective faculty governance, released time and stipends for
an SLO lead person and faculty in SALT, campus support resources, and specified
time for the process.
- R. Moyer asked why the team did not also suggest certain vocational courses
to be included in the SALT process. K. Burke-Kelly, one of the attendees of the
conference, responded that since vocational departments have separate
accreditation agencies, most have been already writing measurable learning
outcomes. R. Martinez and R. Moyer recommended that perhaps those vocational
courses with high enrollments (such as Administration of Justice 1 and Child
Development 1) should be added to the list.
- L. Perez emphasized that since this is a campus-wide effort, SALT members
should also include representatives from student services and administrative
services.
- D. Beaulieu stated that, in regards to the SLO process, he was not worried
about being behind other colleges in the District, because the other campuses
are before East in the Accreditation cycle. D. Beaulieu also clarified that the
concerns the Senate had initially about SLOs were that faculty evaluations will
be tied into the process, that it would be difficult to quantify learning
outcomes for a number of disciplines, and in general the peculiar way the
Accreditation Board was formed (as it is independent of scrutiny and its
members work under an independent agent). He further stated that talk on the
implementation of SLOs has softened since the concept was introduced three
years ago, probably in response to faculty pressure.
- A. Samad informed the committee that he is currently compiling SLO
information from various colleges including Glendale, Rio Hondo and Pierce.
What is consistent with each of these campuses is that they went slow and
allowed faculty to give their own definitions to SLOs. Colleges need to ensure
that SLOs are not measurements of faculty performance, but of student
performance, and that the assessment process is not an accountability process
nor will it be connected to faculty job performance. A. Samad further clarified
that student success is not just about curriculum learning, but also life
management which itself can not be quantified in a course outline or in a
program review.
- K. Burke-Kelly added that Glendale is behind East in the Accreditation
process, but yet are ahead of East in the SLO process.
- L. Perez stated that SLOs can be considered as a liberating experience for
East, because previously East has always been confined by how others measured
success. SLOs will give East the freedom to create its own measurements of
student success.
VI. Distance Education:
K. McMahan reported that the current Distance Education platform works fine and the new system will not be ready until June 2006.
She reported that there are no major issues in security or quality, and speculated that more growth will take place by people taking
advantage of the availability of Web support to non-online courses (although offering new Distance Education courses will still be an
important aspect of the program). Currently, there are about 40 Distance Education courses out of a total of 2000.
- R. Martinez informed the committee that the Library is currently assisting students in having access to reference sites.
- R. Gust reported that the library is exploring ways to integrate resources into ETUDES and other means that can further enhance an online course.
- K. McMahan stated that the Chancellor wanted students to be able to have access to library resources without requiring the student to come onto the campus, and that East is moving in this direction.
Meeting adjourned 3:25 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Karen Daar
EPSC Co-chair
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