College of the Redwoods Program Review Committee Executive Summary Adopted November 6, 2009 Mission Statement The College of the Redwoods’ Program Review Committee leads and facilitates authentic assessment as it relates to student success and planning at the institution for all subject and service areas. The committee reviews Annual and Comprehensive Program Reviews that provide the strong foundation upon which College of the Redwoods develops, identifies, states and documents quality improvement plans and goals including providing the direction of prioritization of funding, and support needs as organized under the strategic planning objectives. Objective: To provide an evaluative Executive Summary of this program’s review for authors, the Integrated Planning Committees, and the District. Program Review Subject/Service Area: __L. A.: Science Exploration___________________ Program Review Authors: ____Karen Reiss_____________________________________________________________________ Summary and Recommendations: Additional Comments: 1. Program strengths: Upswing in enrollments Higher online course enrollment 2. Program challenges/obstacles: Program is too broad (according to dept. review); narrower (RAQ) 3. Commendations & Recommendations: Consult with IR for a clear definitive way to identify majors in science exploration 4. Program Budget/Funding Sources: Looking at individual programs, most needs have been assessed Red Flag: for equipment renovations and replacement needs; equipment repair and replacement is critical for this program, the biology needs addendum list is long Inadequate budget for repair, replacement of technology and other equipment 5. Program Goals/Plans: Planning agenda, continue to develop PLOs; evaluate what level of math is needed for this level of degree 6. Program Outcomes Assessment (PLOs/SLOs): New program (2009) and new component; developed baseline information which will be assessed in the future; Consider challenge of development PLOs for such wide variety of classes for this attempt is well designed Process: Completed Executive Summary forms will be sent to program review authors. PRC will forward Executive Summaries to the appropriate integrated planning committees. 7. Student Success/Achievement/Basic Skills obstacles/challenges: Poor success rates (50%) for on‐line courses. CIS 18 has a low success rate, but an explanation is not provided (outlier course) Retention rates are normal overall, but up to 20% lower for on‐line courses. Retention rates for some Chemistry and CIS courses are lower Basic Skills have predictable patterns Evaluation for Math and English preparedness is ongoing (33 degrees were noted as conferred, but this number is artificially inflated, says the author) Process: Completed Executive Summary forms will be sent to program review authors. PRC will forward Executive Summaries to the appropriate integrated planning committees.