Peralta Community College District
ATECH UNIT PLAN (March 1, 2008)

I. OVERVIEW

Date Submitted: / 3-1-08
Discipline / ATECH / Dean: / Simon
Department
Chairs / Rick Greenspan and Ed Jaramillo (co-chairs)
Mission/
History
Brief, one paragraph / The Automotive Technology curriculum is designed to prepare students for employment as apprentice auto mechanics or to allow students to continue toward a Baccalaureate degree in other advanced schools of technology in preparation for future management and teaching careers in the automotive industry.
The College of Alameda ATECH program is certified by the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF), College of Alameda is also part of the Toyota Technical Training Network (T-TEN) Program, providing COA ATECH students with specialized Toyota training and affording them special opportunities towards job placement in local Toyota dealerships. The program also works with the Apprentice program to meet their training needs, as well as with the Calif Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) in supplying required update programs for certified California Smog Mechanics.

II. EVALUATION AND PLANNING

Please review the program review data and the CSEP review criteria and complete the following matrix.

Baseline Data / Sections / Enroll. / AVG Class Size / FTES/FTEF / comments
Fall 2006 / See attachments
Spring 2007
**SEE ATTACHED** / 2002 / 2003 / 2004 / 2005 / 2006 / CODE / Comments
Quantitative Assessments (Fall to Fall) / See attachments
  1. Enrollment (CW1)

  1. Sections (master sections)

  1. Average Class Size

4.  Productivity (FTES/FTEF)
  1. Student Success (Grades A,B,C,Cr/all grades)

  1. Program Cost (Cost methodology under development. Please complete the remaining items. This step to be completed later.)

Qualitative Assessments / Narrative
7. Community and labor market relevance
Present evidence of community need based on Advisory Committee input, industry need data, McIntyre Environmental Scan, McKinsey Economic Report, etc. This applies primarily to career-technical (i.e., vocational programs). / There is a shortage of trained automotive technians nationally and locally and it is an expanding job market.
8. College strategic plan relevance
Check all that apply
q  New program under development
v  Program that is integral to the college’s overall strategy
q  Program that is essential for transfer
q  Program that serves a community niche.
q  Programs where student enrollment or success has been demonstrably affected by extraordinary external factors, such as barriers due to housing, employment, childcare etc.
Other ______

Action Plan Steps to Address CSEP Results

Please describe your plan for responding to the above data. Consider curriculum, pedagogy/instructional, scheduling, and marketing strategies. Also, please reference any cross district collaboration with the same discipline at other Peralta colleges.

ACTION PLAN -- Include overall plans/goals and specific action steps.
Our highest priority is maintaining an excellent program, with a reputation for outstanding graduates in the community. Enrollment tends to rise and fall in relation to external economic conditions in the community. So when higher-paying jobs have been easily accessable in the East Bay (in the last few years, construction jobs were booming) enrollment has fallen (see attachment 1). Now that the local economy has constricted, Atech enrollment is again going up, as evidenced by the 47% increase in enrollment in our beginning classes in Fall 2007 and a 30% increase in Spring 2008 (see attachment 2). It would be nice to attribute the increase to a great marketing campaign, but the fact is that our recruiting and marketing has always been outstanding and intensive.
To paraphrase the movie "Field of Dreams," if we build (and market) an excellent training program, students will come. For that reason, our highest near-term priorities are to continue to work with Toyota in the T-TEN program and to prepare for our NATEF recertification site visit, which will take place in the spring of 2009. The NATEF recertification site visit will be our biggest challenge for 08-09, and it will take us an entire year to prepare for the site visit.

Additional Planned Educational Activities

Health/safety/legal issues: / .Continue to maintain an excellent program
Certificates and Degrees Offered / No changes planned
Student Retention and Success / Continue to maintain an excellent program. Continue to recruit and market. Continue to place students, particularly in Toyota dealerships. See also Attachment #3.
Progress on Student Learning
Outcomes. ( SLO % Complete) / Will complete and submit to curriculum committee two SLO addendums in Spring 2008; will complete additional SLO addendums to the rest of our course outlines in Fall 2008. All addendums will contain appropriate Basic Skills SLOs. See also Attachment #4

III. RESOURCE NEEDS

Personnel Needs

FT/PT ratio / Current / If filled / If not filled /

# FTE faculty assigned)

5 contract, (4 of whom teach extra service), plus 4 part-time
Narrative: are PT faculty available? Can FT faculty be reassigned to this program? Implications if not filled / Current staffing is stretched pretty thin, but it is sufficient.

Equipment/Material/Supply/ Classified/Student Assistant Needs:

Please describe any needs in the above categories.

Funding for equipment, materials, supplies, classified and student assistants is currently adequate, but 'keeping up' is a constant struggle as well. As new test and repair equipment replaced outdated units in the field, we need to do the same in our department. So we are continually requiring updated testers, scanners, analyzers, etc. In addition, NATEF and BAR supply and equipment requirements change, requiring us to purchase new items. And of course, heavy usage causes our equipment to break down and need repair and replacement as well.

Facilities Needs (Items that should be included in our Facilities master Plan) for Measure A funding:

Please describe any facilities needs.

Facilities are adequate, as long as they are maintained and updated. Specifically, the heating and ventilation system in our building is antiquated and inadequate. New compressors were ordered six month ago and they still have not been installed, due primarily to the arcane Measure A purchasingand ordering system.


ATTACHMENTS

1. QUANTITATIVE INFORMATION

FTEF BY DEPT

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

ATECH 7.3 7.0 7.0 7.4 7.6 7.8

FTES BY DEPT

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

ATECH 100.3 117.4 143.9 131.1 118.1 101.9

FTES/FTEF BY DEPT

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

ATECH 13.8 16.8 20.7 17.6 15.6 13.0

SECTIONS BY DEPT

ATECH 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

16 13 13 13 14 14


2.

Beginning Atech Students, Fall 06 vs Fall 07

FALL 2006

ATECH 021 TRANS TECH PRINCIPLS

MARKS FREDRIC H 1000 1200 WF 20 50 33 5 OPEN

ATECH 022 INTRO AUTO MECHANICS

PETERSON JOHN D 20 40 24 6 OPEN

ATECH 022 INTRO AUTO MECHANICS

NEAGU SORIN I 20 40 30 1 OPEN

TOTAL INTRO STUDENTS 87

FALL 2007

ATECH 021 TRANS TECH PRINCIPLS

MARKS FREDRIC H 20 50 44 0 OPEN

ATECH 022 INTRO AUTO MECHANICS

PETERSON JOHN D 20 40 43 1 CLOS08/27

ATECH 022 INTRO AUTO MECHANICS

FUNG WAYNE 20 40 41 1 CLOS09/05

TOTAL INTRO STUDENTS 128

Beginning Atech Students, Spring 2007 vs Spring 2008

SPRING 2007

ATECH 021 TRANS TECH PRINCIPLS

MARKS FREDRIC H 1000 1200 WF 20 50 23 1 OPEN

ATECH 022 INTRO AUTO MECHANICS

PETERSON JOHN D 20 40 26 0 OPEN

ATECH 022 INTRO AUTO MECHANICS

NEAGU SORIN I 20 40 27 3 OPEN

TOTAL INTRO STUDENTS 76

SPRING 2008

ATECH 021 TRANS TECH PRINCIPLS

MARKS FREDRIC H 20 50 28 0 OPEN

ATECH 022 INTRO AUTO MECHANICS

PETERSON JOHN D 20 40 40 1 CLOS02/07

ATECH 022 INTRO AUTO MECHANICS

FUNG WAYNE 20 40 31 1

TOTAL INTRO STUDENTS 99


3. How do you define 'student retention and success'? We believe that it is more than a set of numbers on paper. If a student goes through part of our program and then disappears, is that a failure? Or is it a 'success' -- because the student has gone to work?

Here is an email that I received last Fall:

From: alex balladares [mailto:

Sent: Tue 10/9/2007 8:22 PM

To: Richard Greenspan

Subject: Reference for Alex Balladares

Dear Professor Greenspan,

Greetings from Charlotte, North Carolina. I hope that this email finds you well. My family and I moved out east over the summer and now I am attending the autotech program at a local community college here called CPCC. They have a cooperative education program that allows me to work half the semester at a dealer (if I land a position) and the other half in the classroom.

I've had some luck this week in getting a first interview at a Honda dealership and now they are asking for a few references for people who have known me in this last year. I remembered that you said that you would write me a letter if I would need it. (If you ever have a moment for that, it would be a tremendous help to me but when it's a good time for you, of course.) But for now, I put your name and phone number at College of Alameda down in their application, in case Honda would like to call you for a personal reference. I think that they would very much value your opinion, as an instructor and professional who has observed me in the shop.

I am grateful for any positive feedback you can give them about my performance in your Engines/ Fuel Systems class last Spring. They don't expect me to already know everything about basic mechanics but it would be nice for them to know I have had some experience in the shop to show them that I am a good candidate for further training.

Thank you for all your support, Professor. I hope that you are having a great semester.

Yours truly,

Alex Balladares Espinoz

From our perspective, this is a success story. From the perspective of a 'retention spreadsheet,' it may be looked at as a 'failure.' For that reason, we believe that maintaining an excellent program is our highest priority, regardless of enrollment (and relocation) trends.

4. "These practices are echoed in Chickering and Gamson’s “Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education” (1991):

1. Good practice encourages student-faculty contact.

2. Good practice encourages cooperation among students.

3. Good practice encourages active learning.

4. Good practice gives prompt feedback.

5. Good practice emphasizes time on task.

6. Good practice communicates high expectations.

7. Good practice respects diverse talents and ways of learning."

Source: Basic Skills as a Foundation for Student Success in California Community Colleges,

p 54

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