Department Chairs Council Minutes
16 February 2012
Attendance: Richard Yang, Chris Seddon, Amy Zannakis, Ann Lewis, Bill Doonan, Alan Keys,
Tom Cappelletti, Carl Sjovold, Daniel Styer, Melodi Randolph, Laurie Perry, Craig Davis,
Gabriella Nuttall, Mel Duvall, Rick Woodmansee, David Wyatt.
Agenda:
12:00-12:20 Alan Keys – SCC GELO Assessment – Update and Future Directions
12:20-12:50 Jeff Knorr – Recent changes to English Writing Curriculum
Alan Keys & Rick Woodmansee – SCC GELO Assessment
First draft of the mid-term Accreditation Report will be up on Inside SCC very soon. Please
provide feedback as soon as you can. A second draft will be coming out in March as well.
There will be some open forum (Feb 29, March 1) discussions about this first draft too.
There are about 200 reports now on the SCC GELO Assessment site on the Inside SCC page.
These are accessible for our review now. All of the GELO SLO activities are related to
accreditation.
SCC GELOs: 1. Communication; 2. Quantitative Reasoning; 3. Depth and Breadth of
Understanding; 4. Cultural Competency; 5. Information Competency; 6. Critical Thinking;
and 7. Life Skills and Personal Development.
Alan showed example alignments and success ratings for two courses.
Conclusions from the GELO Assessment Pilot Project – Depth and Breadth of
Understanding: Students achieved at least “Moderate” success for 82% of all course SLOs
aligned with that GELO; Critical Thinking – Students achieved at least “Moderate” success
for 80% of all course SLOs aligned with that GELO (Most of the Critical Thinking data
(65%) came from SLOs that also applied to Depth and Breadth); Combination of
D&B/Critical Thinking – Students achieved at least “Moderate/High” success for 69% of all
course SLOs aligned with both of those GELOs.
Things to do: Feedback on the process itself (GELOs) to see if it is working well and if there
could be more consistency in how they are applied and evaluated (particularly as
associated with the rating rubric). Increase the number of courses and number of SLOs
used in future assessments. Align individual course SLOs with the appropriate GELO
Category. Develop a more streamlined process for alignment of course SLOs and
determination of level of success.
Jeff Knorr – English (Writing Sequence)
Over the years, found that English 40 and English 300 weren’t working particularly well.
This led to conversations between English and other disciplines. This led to an evaluation
of the prior sequence in the English Composition Curriculum. This led to a decision to “tear
down” the various English Composition levels and to develop a new vision of these levels
that would provide the greatest benefit to our students. Nationwide, it has been found that
the lowest levels of English correspond to the least successful students. Thus the trend has
been to add even lower levels to try to address issues. However, the success level
continues to trend downward. Thus, SCC English looked at how to build a new and better
sequence.
Through this semester is the current (old) sequence: English Writing (ENGWR 40) -->
Developmental Writing (ENGWR 50) --> College Writing (ENGWR 100) --> College
Composition (ENGWR 300) --> College Composition and Literature (ENGWR 301) and
Advanced Composition and Critical Thinking (ENGWR 302). However, there are no areas
that address Research competency at the ENGWR 300 level.
The new sequence gets rid of the very bottom level (ENGWR 40 and 49) and folded those
FTEs into the 100 and 300 level courses. Developmental Writing (ENGWR 51),
Developmental Writing Workshop (ENGWR 52), and College Writing (ENGWR 101) now
implement the most recent research on acceleration at the developmental and pre-transfer
levels. Thus, if ENGWR 51 is not passed the first time, then the student needs to take
ENGWR 51 and ENGWR 52 simultaneously. They cannot take ENGWR 52 simultaneously
with ENGWR 51 the first time around. ENGWR 52 is designed to help students that were
not successful in ENGWR 51 the first time through. College Writing (ENGWR 101) will be
more units than the prior ENGWR 100 and will also include a research component so that
students would be proficient with research. They essentially get an introduction into
evaluation formats, citations, ethical obligations in their research and writing, etc. The
students will come out of 101 with research skills that are not currently done in ENGWR
100. Students would then move up into College Composition and Research (ENGWR 308)
where they will have further instruction in Research Skills (Mastery of Research Skills).
ENGWR 308 will have an increased focus on college-level research and will address student
needs for stronger research and writing skills across disciplines. IF 308 goes through
curriculum this spring, then it would be first taught (at the earliest) in Summer 2013 – and
ENGWR 300 will disappear from our catalog. ENGWR 308 will be four units.
Next Meeting:
Thursday March 15, 2012 – Noon