Redwoods Community College District
Meeting of the Coordinated Planning Council
Friday, March 27th, 2009
3:00pm-4:30pm - Board Room
Present: Keith Snow-Flamer, Tony Sartori, Pam Kessler, Martha Davis, Jose Ramirez, Steve Stratton, Mike Wells,
Sheila Hall, Lynsey Parker
Guests: Doug Edgmon
Not Present: Carol Mathews, Geisce Ly, Judie Hinman, Tim Flanagan, Chris Romero, Tracey Thomas, Debbie Williams
1. Announcements/Additions/Adjustments to Agenda
A. No announcement or adjustments
2. Review/Approve Minutes for February 17, 2009 and March 13, 2009
A. Approved
Information Items
3. Report on Progress of Assessment Task Force (Steve)
A. Received a presentation on the system TracDat from the vendor Nuventive. First of several vendors.
Program has all the components CR is looking for, but was a bit complicated on the screen, many buttons,
etc.
B. Assessment Task Force is researching Clicker Technology and assessment report-out and tracking
software to help in Program Review, Assessment and SLOs in order to link information to the college
mission and the college learning objectives; this will also link them to divisions and courses.
i. This will measure learning objectives, this information can then be used to make changes and
reassess the changes and put results back into program.
C. Clicker technology will be available to use in classrooms and by those instructors who are interested; pilot
test is being performed at this time.
i. It is important that other groups, such as technology group, be made aware of the Clicker
Technology being used/tested in case any problems come up.
D. A concern came up about whether or not we are we putting technology in place before we figure out how
we are assessing. It is important that we decide which direction to go in terms of assessment before the
technology is put into place. Technology could define and shape the direction the college goes in.
E. How are the new programs being discussed among staff and faculty throughout campus? Dialog is an
important standard in accreditation and there should to be more dialog with the college community.
F. Assessment Task Force is there to see what technology is made available, but not to impose the
technology upon faculty.
G. The Assessment Team will be looking in depth about how technology will be implemented in all
classrooms.
i. Clicker Technology has not been accepted or approved at this time, and has not been discussed
widely at the senate.
ii. When Fred Trapp was asked about what type of software or program that CR should look for, he
advised to find software that is best for CR and what CR needs out of it.
H. Clicker Technology is a tool that can be used to gather information and offer diversity in classrooms.
Clicker Tech is good for testing some things, such as foundational knowledge, but much more difficult to
test critical thinking.
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I.
J.
K.
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O.
Assessment team is looking at different software. Senate will request a presentation on the software
options. Plan is to have the correct software in place by fall in order to learn new software along with
learning assessment process.
It’s important to note this assessment software (TracDat and others) doesn’t evaluate, it just records the
information that is entered.
How will Clicker Technology integrate into other systems?
i. Different method of assessing knowledge
ii. Needs to be researched to be sure data will be compatible with other systems
The goals of the Assessment Task Force are to have three to five software programs evaluated and
brought before the CPC by the end of May.
i. This would not give enough time to get the software to the Senate
ii. Don’t want to rush in choosing software
iii. Suggestion to look at clicker tech and assessment software during convocation
iv. Evaluate clicker technology and assessment software in a larger scale in the fall.
It is important to look at more than just technology; it is only one part of the process.
Future update from Susan Nordlof on assessment and the technology software.
Would like to see the Barbara Beano Rubric - two of them - that CR should stay aware of throughout
process.
i. Looking to have these posted on the web
4. Report on Progress of Enrollment Management Group (Keith)
A. Enrollment Management committee has been mapping how we admit, process and orientate students on a
mapping process.
B. Brian Van Pelt and Karen Nelson have been visiting high schools in the area to walk students through the
process of enrolling.
C. Enrollment Management will be online in order to satisfy an accreditation issue.
D. There is a process in place to prevent students from enrolling in courses that require the placement test.
But students can enroll in many classes that do not require a placement test or have prerequisites.
E. Students may be enrolling in classes without prerequisites that they are not prepared for.
F. More advising and counseling is necessary to help students choose the courses where they might best
succeed.
G. A suggestion would be to offer a pre-test at the beginning of a course or a sample test during advising
orientation to give students an idea of whether or not they are prepared for a course.
i. This gives students an option to withdraw from a class with no penalties or to choose a better
option while in the registration process.
ii. It is often difficult for a student to get another class after the semester has already started.
iii. By the time the student gets into a class the process has already failed them.
H. College should go through the process of adding prerequisites to many of the courses.
5. Report from Jose Ramirez on tech themes recognized in program review
A. See Appendix A
B. Sub-committee felt that placing all the PR’s into “buckets” or categories wasn’t the best process, but that
more information should have been given in how the technology would fit into rooms and the sub
committee to give suggestions and alternatives to requests.
C. Steve believes there should be an avenue or venue for technology requests. A replacement plan is being
worked on and there should be a way for programs to explain what they need and reasoning for it.
D. Many problems with the program review requests are that there are barriers that may keep additional
technology from being feasible in each classroom.
E. This sub committee’s concern seems to echo what Barbara Beano stated – Program Reviews seem to be
used to “get stuff”.
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i. The request for resources should be tied to student learning and how it will benefit student
learning.
F. Jose questions whether or not PRs are finished, and what the next step will be.
i. At this time Program Reviews are not finished, waiting on some PRs that have not been received
6. Budget Planning Committee Update from Dan Calderwood
A. Dan not present.
B. Dan previously reported to the senate and has useful information on the preliminary budget for next year.
i. Will be invited back
C. Might want to invite Ruth Bettenhausen to give the update.
7. Report on status of ACCJC Response Letter (Keith, Cheryl)
A. Currently putting final touches on ACCJC Response Letter to be sent on Monday or Tuesday
B. PR Committee had chance to go over response letter since it deals significantly with PR and Assessment.
Also had a chance to go over PR with Fred Trapp.
C. Faculty present at PR meeting with Fred Trapp: Cindy Hooper, Vinnie Peloso, Hilary Reed, Bill Hansel,
Dave Banducci, Toby Green
D. Letter will be available to college community once it has been sent.
E. Part of the Response Letter is going to include a timeline and activities that need to be done and who will
be working toward those goals.
F. Pam comments that the letter has not been seen by the college community at all, when in the past ACCJC
letters were shared.
G. Fred Trapp has had an opportunity to look at our current templates and forms for PR and Assessment, and
has commented that the new draft is much clearer than previous one. He stated that the data and
information of the form is asking questions in the right way and the flow of the form is much better.
H. Pam feels that as part of the faculty, she does not know what is going on with accreditation, doesn’t know
how the school is responding and also isn’t sure how she personally would respond, as a faculty member,
to address some of the concerns of accreditation.
I. There is not enough dialog and collaboration throughout the college.
i. This is important to address, need participation from everyone.
8. Progress of Program Review Resource Request Database (Doug)
A. All requests that have been made have been entered into a database. Looking to draw some conclusions
on what programs are looking for.
B. As soon as the rest of Program Reviews are received, reports will be run to generate some themes within
program reviews.
Action Items
9. Vision Statement Revision, Identify Next Steps (Sheila)
A. See Appendix B
B. Reviewed definitions and feedback throughout the process (from the beginning) and took it all under
consideration. (Vision statement attached)
C. Definition - present tense statement that looks at a future condition
D. The length of vision statement may have been confused with a mission statement in some of the feedback.
E. Changed some terms and did some word-smithing on the statement, making the statement more concise.
F. Mission statement may come up for evaluation.
G. Motion to adopt current vision statement
i. Approved
H. Vision statement being sent back to EMPC
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10. Identify Agenda Items for next meeting (April 10th, 3:00 PM-4:30 PM)
A. Susan Nordloff with Assessment Update
B. Budget update from Ruth Bettenhausen
C. Arrange to have Fred Trapp to speak on Program Review and Assessment
D. Discussion about program review documents, instructional and non instructional
E. Program Review Process
F. Scorecard discussion/presentation
G. Reports from other subcommittees (Facilities, Staffing, Budget, etc)
H. Action Plan
Minutes submitted by:
Lynsey Parker
Ext 4273
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