2014-15 Service Area Program Review

DEPARTMENT/PROGRAM	Math Lab
DESCRIPTION/PURPOSE	Provide tutoring services and resources to help IVC students succeed in math.
SUBMITTED BY:	Caroline Bennett
AREA DEAN/DIRECTOR	Tina Aguirre
AREA VICE PRESIDENT	Dr. Nicholas Akinkuoye

INSTITUTIONAL GOAL 1	INSTITUTIONAL GOAL 2	INSTITUTIONAL GOAL 3	INSTITUTIONAL GOAL 4
INSTITUTIONAL MISSION AND EFFECTIVENESS – The College will maintain programs and services that focus on the mission of the College supported by data-driven assessments to measure student learning and student success. 1.1 Develop systems and procedures that establish the mission of the college as the central mechanism for planning and decision making. 1.2 Develop an institutional score card to assess student learning that drives integrated planning and resource allocation. 1.3 Develop systems and procedures to ensure that the college maintains a collegial and self-reflective dialogue that improves effectiveness. 1.4 Develop systems that are inclusive, cyclical, and understood by all stakeholders.	STUDENT LEARNING PROGRAMS AND SERVICES – The College will maintain instructional programs and services which support student success and the attainment of student educational goals. 2.1 Ensure that all instructional programs, regardless of location or means of delivery, address and meet the current and future needs of students. 2.2 Review program learning outcomes annually (or biennially) to assure currency, improve teaching and learning strategies, and raise student success rates. 2.3 Ensure that all Student Services programs, regardless of location or means of delivery, address and meet the current and future needs of students. 2.4 Ensure that all Student Services programs engage in a process of sustainable continuous quality improvement by annual review of Service Area Outcomes, and annual Program Review. 2.5 Ensure that the Library meets as closely as possible that “Standards of Practice for California Community College Library Faculty and Programs” of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. 2.6 Ensure that instructional labs continue to collaborate in sharing financial and human resources, thus maintaining continuous quality improvement.	RESOURCES – The College will develop and manage human, technological, physical, and financial resources to effectively support the College mission and the campus learning environment. 3.1 Develop and implement a resource allocation plan that leads to fiscal stability. 3.2 Implement a robust technological infrastructure and the enterprise software to support the college process. 3.3 Build new facilities and modernize existing ones as prioritized in the facility master plan. 3.4 Design and commit to a long-term professional development plan. 3.5 Raise the health awareness of faculty, staff, and students.	LEADERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE – The Board of Trustees and the Superintendent/President will establish policies that assure the quality, integrity, and effectiveness of student learning programs and services, and the financial stability of the institution. 4.1 Review all Board policies annually to ensure that they are consistent with the College mission statement, that they address the quality, integrity, and effectiveness of student learning programs and services, and that they guard the financial stability of the institution. 4.2 Maintain a clearly defined Code of Ethics that includes appropriate responses to unprofessional behavior. 4.3 Ensure that the Board of Trustees is informed and involved in the accreditation process. 4.4 Ensure that processes for the evaluation of the Board of Trustees and the Superintendent/President are clearly defined, implemented, and publicized. 4.5 Establish a governance structure, processes, and practices that guarantee that the governing board, administration, faculty, staff, and students will be involved in the decision making process.

I. INSTITUTIONAL GOALS

II. PROGRAM GOALS

PAST – EVALUATION OF PREVIOUS CYCLE OBJECTIVES/PROGRAM GOALS (SET IN PREVIOUS YEAR)

List your previous objectives/goals and associated Institutional Goals. All program goals must address at least one of the institutional goals.

1	PAST PROGRAM GOAL #1	INSTITUTIONAL GOAL(S) (Select one primary goal.)
Identify Program Goal and Budget request, if any, from the Program Review completed in 2013-2014 (Section II C): Math Lab needs updated computers. Math Lab needs student (peer) tutors.	1 Mission & Effectiveness 1.1 1.3 1.2 1.4 2 Student Learning Outcomes 2.1 2.4 2.2 2.5 2.3 2.6 3 Resources 3.1 3.4 3.2 3.5 3.3 4 Leadership & Governance 4.1 4.4 4.2 4.5 4.3
Met	Partially Met	Not Met
Describe how this program goal increased student achievement and/or program effectiveness in 2014-2015: Math Lab computers have all been updated to new models with all relevant software installed, enabling students to work on math homework in the lab. Additional funding for peer tutors was acquired through a Basic Skills proposal, which implemented embedded peer tutors in select Math 61, 71, and 81 classes, as well as additional hours for those tutors to spend working in the lab. Also, a new IVC Foundation account was created, allowing employees to earmark their IVC donations specifically for the Math Lab. The need for student tutors was inadvertently overlooked entirely in the 2014-2015 budget. The necessary tutor salary funds will come from the IVC Foundation and an appropriate CTE account.

PRESENT – DATA ANALYSIS AND PROGRAM HEALTH – ACCREDITATION

Use data pertinent to your program/department. Include qualitative and quantitative data. Use survey-evaluation results and other relevant data to assess program/department effectiveness. Evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, challenges and opportunities, providing thorough interpretation of data. Narrative only. Attach electronic excel file with graphs or trend data, do not include them in the narrative below.

Strengths

Discuss what you do well in your program/department.

The Math Lab has considerable flexibility in who it helps and how. Students in developmental-level math courses, all the way up through transfer-level math courses, have access to free tutoring and other resources during a broad range of days and hours (up until 9 pm Monday through Thursday, until 5 pm on Fridays, and until 1 pm on Saturdays). Students can walk in without appointments, and receive help with homework, exam preparation, and other academic needs. This accommodates students not only from all levels of math offered at IVC, but also with all kinds of busy personal schedules (with work, daycare needs, etc.).

Weaknesses

Discuss areas in your program/department that need improvement.

There are some math topics that only certain tutors can help with (e.g., Statistics and Calculus). On occasion, students will come in and request help in one of these subject areas at a time when none of those tutors are present. In these situations, we direct the student(s) to the posted tutoring schedule, and help them determine the best days/hours for them to come back for help. We make every effort to spread the tutors’ work schedules out in a way that maximizes students’ access to help, but we are limited both by funding and by the fact of our student employees having busy class schedules as well.

The Math Lab offers a number of workshops each semester, mostly for students in developmental-level courses (Math 61, 71, 81, and 91). While these tend to be appreciated by students who do take advantage of them, workshop attendance has been generally low, especially considering the large number of students who are enrolled in these courses each semester, and considering the success rates.

Opportunities

Discuss opportunities for program improvement.

The embedded tutor pilot program has been benefitting the Math Lab, in that it supplements our tutor staff, thereby allowing more flexibility in our tutor schedule. Although some of our embedded tutors only tutor up to Math 91, they are very useful in that they can be helping the developmental-level students, which frees up the other tutors who can then focus more time on students who need more specialized help (Statistics, Calculus, etc.). This has been one opportunity for us to decrease situations such as those described in part (c) above, and we intend to keep pursuing such opportunities. [It should be noted, however, that the Basic Skills grant money used to pay the embedded tutors’ salaries is restricted to being supplemental to an already-existing funding source; it is not permitted to be the sole source of tutor funding. Therefore, if we were to lose our district funding that pays our regular tutors’ salaries, we would simultaneously lose all of our regular tutors and embedded tutors as a result.]

One of the more common student remarks about our math workshops is that they want to attend, but cannot due to a schedule conflict. IVC is considering (and likely to adopt) changing our Campus Hour to 4 days per week. We could use this opportunity to offer at least two workshops per week during Campus Hour, when most students do not have a class. This may significantly increase our workshop attendance. We also have department meetings, part-timer orientation meetings, and other opportunities to confer with math faculty with the goal of having faculty more actively involved in promoting the Math Lab’s services in their classes, and regularly encouraging their students to utilize our services. We feel that more faculty involvement will be a key to increasing attendance at our math workshops (in addition to our usual steps of sending out workshop schedules to counselors, posting fliers around campus, etc.).

IVC is also in the process of implementing a new system called Starfish, which is said to be a tool for integrating and more closely aligning different areas of campus (e.g. counseling, admissions, faculty, and tutoring) so that we can more effectively work together toward student success. For example, an instructor could refer a student to a tutoring lab, and then have online access to tracking that student’s attendance at that lab. We look forward to learning more about the tools that Starfish has to offer, and then using those tools to help us improve our services.

Challenges

Discuss obstacles/barriers that may influence program improvement.

Our biggest obstacle, by far, has been obtaining adequate funding so that the tutoring portion of our services can function at its optimal level. When budget restrictions result in a smaller-than-adequate staff, this affects not only students’ access to help (the number of hours at which tutoring is available decreases, and the amount of wait time to see a tutor increases), but also the quality of the tutoring can suffer. When a tutor is struggling to meet the needs of several students at once, he or she must spend smaller amounts of time with each student, and therefore cannot go as deeply into the underlying concepts behind each problem, which would ultimately help the student increase their comprehension and perform better in the class.

Another obstacle we face is the omnipresent challenges of student apathy and poor study skills. Very often, the attitudes of students prevent them from understanding the importance of seeking tutoring, workshops, or other supplemental help outside of the classroom. The result is that the students who could benefit the most from the Math Lab’s services are the very ones who are not using it. We must therefore stay diligent in working closely with counselors and faculty to keep encouraging students to take advantages of the help and resources we offer.

Program changes

What program changes, if any, do you expect to have a positive effect on students?

[Reiterate the embedded tutoring program?]

Summarize revisions, additions, deletions, and alternate delivery methods to your program based on the last program review.

C. FUTURE – LIST OF “SMART” (SPECIFIC MEASURABLE ATTAINABLE RELEVANT TIME-LIMITED) PROGRAM OBJECTIVES FOR NEXT ACADEMIC YEAR TO ADDRESS PROGRAM IMPROVEMENT, GROWTH, OR UNMET NEEDS/GOALS. ALL PROGRAM GOALS MUST ADDRESS AT LEAST ONE OF THE INSTITUTIONAL GOALS.

FUTURE PROGRAM GOALS (Describe future program goals. List in order of budget priority.) You are not required to list 3 goals. Only list/identify goals that are viable in one year’s time or can be carried over a number of program cycles. Objectives should either: 1. Increase work efficiency; 2. Reduce costs; or 3. Contribute to student enrollment and/or success.	INSTITUTIONAL GOAL(S) (Select one primary institutional goal)
1	2015-2016 PROGRAM GOAL #1 Budget Priority #1	INSTITUTIONAL GOAL(S)
Identify Future Global Goal: Provide adequate tutoring services to students	1 Mission & Effectiveness 1.1 1.3 1.2 1.4 2 Student Learning Outcomes 2.1 2.4 2.2 2.5 2.3 2.6 3 Resources 3.1 3.4 3.2 3.5 3.3 4 Leadership & Governance 4.1 4.4 4.2 4.5 4.3
Objective: Institutionalize the student tutor wages into the annual budget
RESOURCE PLAN (Check all that apply.)
Task(s)
Describe task and select the resource committee that will review your enhanced budget request (if applicable) Incorporate the wages for student tutors into the annual budget Facilities Marketing Technology Professional Development Staffing
Timeline: July 1, 2015
Expense Type	Funding Type	Budget Request
One-Time Recurring	General District Categorical (Specify)	$_17,500________
Describe task and select the resource committee that will review your enhanced budget request (if applicable) Facilities Marketing Technology Professional Development Staffing
Timeline:
Expense Type	Funding Type	Budget Request
One-Time Recurring	General District Categorical (Specify)	$________________
C. Describe task and select the resource committee that will review your enhanced budget request (if applicable) Facilities Marketing Technology Professional Development Staffing
Timeline:
Expense Type	Funding Type	Budget Request
One-Time Recurring	General District Categorical (Specify)	$________________
How will this objective be measured? Yes or No
How will the completion of tasks identified improve work efficiency, reduce costs, or improve student success?. With the wages permanently incorporated into the annual budget, the Math Lab will no longer have to worry about the potential of having NO tutors and/or funding available to offer its core service.
Who are the responsible party(ies) and assigned user(s)? Allyn Leon