Chabot College
Academic Program Review Report
Year Three of
Program Review Cycle
Final Summary Report
Early Childhood Development Program and Early Childhood Lab School
Submitted on March 4, 2013
Hilal Ozdemir, Edna Rodriggs, Michelle Sherry and Kathy Kelley
Final Forms, 1/18/13
Table of Contents
Section A: What Have We Accomplished? 1
Section B: What’s Next? 2
Required Appendices:
A: Budget History 3
B1: Course Learning Outcomes Assessment Schedule 4
B2: “Closing the Loop” Assessment Reflections 5
C: Program Learning Outcomes 9
D: A Few Questions 11
E: New Initiatives 12
F1: New Faculty Requests 13
F2: Classified Staffing Requests 14
F3: FTEF Requests 15
F4: Academic Learning Support Requests 16
F5: Supplies and Services Requests 17
F6: Conference/Travel Requests 18
F7: Technology and Other Equipment Requests 19
F8: Facilities Requests 20
A. What Have We Accomplished?
Complete Appendices A (Budget History), B1 and B2 (CLO's), C (PLO's), and D (A few questions) prior to writing your narrative. You should also review your most recent success, equity, course sequence, and enrollment data at http://www.chabotcollege.edu/ProgramReview/Data2012.cfm.
In year one, you established goals and action plans for program improvement. This section asks you to reflect on the progress you have made toward those goals. This analysis will be used by the PRBC and Budget Committee to assess progress toward achievement of our Strategic Plan and to inform future budget decisions. It will also be used by the SLOAC and Basic Skills committees as input to their priority-setting process. In your narrative of two or less pages, address the following questions:
· What program improvement goals did you establish?
· Did you achieve the goals you established for the three years? Specifically describe your progress on goals you set for student learning, program learning, and Strategic Plan achievement.
· What best practices have you developed? Those could include pedagogical methods, strategies to address Basic Skills needs of our students, methods of working within your discipline, and more.
· Are these best practices replicable in other disciplines or areas?
Improve success rate for ECD students in underperforming courses. We asked for funds to offer a ½ unit study class for these courses and we were not funded. The budget constraints of the last few years have impacted the ability to meet our goals which required additional funding. We are still seeing that the trend is continuing and so for this 3 rd year of our Review we have asked for student assistants to support a Community Learning group where students would be able to meet after class and get the support that they need. We would have support available for daytime and evening students.
Our success rate by ethnic group is generally the same as that for the college. However, the success rate is higher and the withdrawal rate is lower for Latino students in ECD. This may be attributed to the fact that we have a Spanish Cohort where course are taught in their home language as well as tutoring support. African American students withdrew at a higher rate than that for the college. We have requested funding to hold a focus group for our African American students who are withdrawing and not succeeding in ECD classes. We did not receive financial support for this endeavor.
· What were your greatest challenges?
· Were there institutional barriers to success?
· Cite relevant data in your narrative (e.g., efficiency, persistence, success, FT/PT faculty ratios, CLO/PLO assessment results, external accreditation demands, etc.).
Explain: ECD students are slightly more successful, with fewer withdrawals than Chabot students overall. Since ECD is an applied discipline and the courses are required by workforce legislation, students have a stronger motivation to complete the courses. The highest success is found in ECD 63 and 90 which have prerequisites as well as a LAB requirement. If students are successful in the “core” classes (ECD 50, 56, 62, 63), the likelihood of success in the more advanced classes (ECD 65, 68, 83, 90) is great.
ECD is predominantly female (11% male). Female success rate is higher than the college overall; male success rate fluctuates from F. 2007-Sp. 2010 between 40%-73%. Female success rate stayed consistent (70%). The challenge is helping male students to commit and feel comfortable in such predominantly female classes. The pay scale for early childhood educators is historically among the lowest wages paid for professionals in our country and therefore attracting men to the field is difficult. We have hired a male part time instructor and look for ways to provide male role models for students. We also advocate in all our classes on issues of gender equity as well as low wages.
One of our greatest challenges we have had around our ECD student’s completion rate of the program is that we have a large evening program because most of our students are working either part time or full time in the field and so in order to complete their course of study they need to come to evening or Saturday classes. Because the evening Early Childhood Lab school was not operating due to severe budget constraints on the EC Lab school, for the school year of 2011-12 students were not able to complete required lab hours for their courses in the evening. This impacted their ability to complete the program and for Fall 2011 we had 50% drop out rate. Evening programs do not exist in the community. Not having an evening program available is a huge barrier to our working students completing their certificate or degree. We revitalized our evening lab model for the school year 2012-13 as the demand from our working students is very high. Challenges of the evening program is that it has been difficult to recruit children because there is no staff member specifically assigned to help prospective families complete required paperwork etc.. We have requested a 40% observation scheduler who would be able to serve this function.
We face the continuing challenge of the lab school being considered a tertiary service of the college. In the past it was housed under Student Services and 3 years ago it finally was established as part of the Social Sciences Division. It is vitally important for our students that we have a fully functioning Early Childhood Lab which meets the needs of our students. Because of the severe budget reductions to the lab and other barriers presented by the district the ECD faculty along with the Manager of the EC Lab School have been consumed with coming up with temporary solutions to stabilize the lab instruction under such dire circumstances. Having an EC Lab school for our students is a primary goal of our faculty. We cannot meet our employability standards without the college financially supporting the EC Lab school as they do many other programs such as Dental Hygiene, Welding, auto shop, chemistry etc…
The process of accountability for CLO’s, PLO’s and College Level Learning Outcomes has been very disjointed with last minute changes to forms and process which has created frustration in actually completing the work and benefitting from the analysis. Adjunct faculty were not supported in being a part of the group assessment process and so this in itself presented another barrier to having reliable results.
In the past year we were one of the first program to be approved for the Early Childhood Development AS-T degree. This was in part because we had been participating in the state wide effort of articulating courses Curriculum Alignment Project (CAP) and we had already started the process.
Learning Communities
ECC (Every Child Counts First 5 Alameda County) funded the planning and implementation of Learning Communities (cohorts). ECC funded 2 Professional Development Coordinator positions. PDC’s coordinate cohorts and provide academic and professional support to Early Childhood students who are working in early childhood settings. Support includes recruitment to ECD cohorts, advise students on their career path in ECD and develop an ECD Educational Plan, provide information and processing of: college certificates and California Child Development Permits, overseeing text book loaning program, promoting PDC’s services and support by visiting ECD classrooms, facilitation of cohort meetings, and aiding students with issues in Admissions and Records such as: applying for admission, pre-requisite waivers, course substitutions, late adds, change of grade, registration and securing space in classes through class holds (this action assures cohort students seamless continuation of required classes). In addition PDC’s make appropriate referrals to all students services on campus.
During this past year the PDC’’s have formed 5 cohorts of ECD students who meet ECC’s requirements. In these 5 ECD cohort 32 students are pursuing an AA Degree in Early Childhood Development; 24 students are pursuing a permit or ECD certificate; and 97 students are in the ELL Spanish cohort. The PDC’s have also processed 60 CA Child Development permits and developed 270 ECD Educational plans.
As part of the grant from Every Child Counts Alameda County First 5 they have funded 14 student tutors to support ECD student in their cohorts and funded 3 ECD classes needed by the students in the cohort.
The funding of the PDC positions is in jeopardy and during the next few months the PDC’s and Dean of Social Science and School of Arts will be meeting with ECC to determine if there will be funding for next year. These services provided by ECC are a major factor ink the success rate of students completing the ECD program.
B. What’s Next?
This section may serve as the foundation for your next Program Review cycle, and will inform the development of future strategic initiatives for the college. In your narrative of one page or less, address the following questions. Please complete Appendices E (New Initiatives) and F1-8 (Resources Requested) to further detail your narrative and to request resources.
1. What goals do you have for future program improvement?
1. Develop cohesive plan which meets the needs of ECD Lab students and the ECD pedagogical philosophy which includes collaboration with Chabot EC Lab school
2. Develop an internship course for advanced ECD students
3. Analyze CLO data and develop strategies which target at risk students and increase their success rate
2. What ideas do you have to achieve those goals?
1. Work collaboratively with college administration, manager of Chabot EC Lab School and ECD faculty to implement the developed EC Lab School proposal.
2. Studying other internship community college models in the state in order to develop the internship course at Chabot.
3. Add one unit laboratory to those classes that are prerequisites and create study groups for higher student/faculty contact
4. Faculty mentoring -via TBA units supervised by faculty
5. Develop Community Learning groups for at risk students.
3. What must change about the institution to enable you to make greater progress in improving student learning and overall student success?
1. Laboratory school must be recognized and treated as an integral part of ECD instruction
2. Allocation of some additional FTEF resources to implement the above proposals in order to increase success rates and student retention.
4. What recommendations do you have to improve the Program Review process?
1. Make it less cumbersome
2. Reduce amount of required documentation in order to make positive changes
3. Forms and reports seem to be in a constant stage of revision and sometimes with minimum number of weeks before deadline.
Appendix A: Budget History and Impact
Audience: Budget Committee, PRBC, and Administrators
Purpose: This analysis describes your history of budget requests from the previous two years and the impacts of funds received and needs that were not met. This history of documented need can both support your narrative in Section A and provide additional information for Budget Committee recommendations.
Instructions: Please provide the requested information, and fully explain the impact of the budget decisions.
Category / 2011-12 Budget Requested / 2011-12 Budget Received / 2012-13 Budget Requested / 2012-13 Budget ReceivedClassified Staffing (# of positions) / N/A
Supplies &
Services / N/A
Technology
/Equipment / Replace computer and LCD projector in student classroom 3521 / Received
F12
Other / 1. Refurbishing student classroom room 3521 (replace tables chairs, floor)
2. Request $5000 for ECD faculty to review, revise and align 3 courses with the CAP project and meet all of their guidelines
3. Financial support for developing FIG focusing on ECD 56 success rate compared to other courses
We request $3,000.
4. Funding for a focus group to look at success rate of ECD African American students
5. Lab student assistants to support ECD faculty and lab students.
Requested
$122, 000. / Not received
Not received
Not received
Not received
Received
$8,500 / 1. Refurbishing student classroom room 3521 (replace tables chairs, floor)
2. Request $2500 for ECD faculty to review, revise and align 3 courses with the CAP project and meet all of their guidelines
Financial support for developing FIG focusing on ECD 56 success rate compared
to other courses. We request $2,000.
4.Funding for a focus group to look at success rate of ECD African American students
4. Lab student assistants to support ECD faculty and lab students
Requested
$ 22, 600.00 / Not received
Not received
Not received
Received
$13,000
TOTAL / $130,000 / $8,500 / $27,600 / $13,000
1. How has your investment of the budget monies you did receive improve student learning? When you requested the funding, you provided a rationale. In this section, assess if the anticipated positive impacts you projected have, in fact, been realized.
Projector and computer enhanced teaching and student learning since the new one is reliable and working properly.Received partial lab student assistant funding which enhances student’s ability to integrate theory and practice and get immediate feedback in the Chabot EC Lab. They worked collaboratively with the ECD faculty Lab instructor to provide one on one support to lab students as needed. ECD Lab students have expressed appreciation for the extra support that enables them to have a more successful experience in this complex environment. Comments from ECD Lab students: “gives me feedback on my interactions with children”, “ give advice when I encounter situations with children” , “preschool teachers need to give their top priority to the children and the lab student assistant can answer my question on the spot in a teachable moment” and “periodically checks in with me, which gives me comfort”. This has been a very successful model to use for the success of our ECD lab students and we observed measurable competencies that students developed which has increased their success. This model has become vital since the EC lab school’s budget has been reduced significantly and the EC Specialist teacher in the classroom has multiple tasks and this significantly reduced their ability to assist and guide lab students in the EC Lab.
2. What has been the impact of not receiving some of your requested funding? How has student learning been impacted, or safety compromised, or enrollment or retention negatively impacted?