1. The Math/English Computer Lab

The computer resources of the Math/English Computer Lab have become significantly dated in that they do not have the memory, the hard disk storage nor sufficient computing power to handle the newer and larger programs that are steadily becoming available. The computers and printers have also been used enough to be steadily in need of repair so that several are not working at any given time. To reduce the cost of having to purchase multiple sets (25 sets currently) of educational software or sometimes, expensive, site license, a dedicated server with a "key" system to allocate access to legal copies of software is needed. Additional software for arithmetic, trigonometry, pre-algebra, and functions should be acquired so we can better serve our students. Also in the computer lab, vertical blinds for the outside windows are necessary.

Recommendation: New, mid-range computers (with larger screens), computers containing CD-ROM drives, a server. software, and printers be acquired to bring the lab back to a current level of usefulness. Vertical blinds should be installed for the outside windows. (Estimate: $79,000)

2. Math Tutoring Lab

The Math Tutoring Lab, understaffed due to the layoff of a half-time instructional aide, has had to reduce the hours available to students for tutoring and remains very short on space. This problem was reflected in the student surveys; students complained about the reduced hours in the evening and the reduced help. Two new VCRs would be useful so students could more easily watch math video tapes in the lab.

Recommendation: The return of a half-time math instructional aide, expanded hours, an increase in the number of tutors hired and additional space. Two VCRs need to be acquired. (Estimate: $25,500)

3. Classrooms

Many classrooms are currently unsuitable for math classes.

Recommendations: Math classes need to be in rooms where there are at least three side by side blackboards of good quality. They also need to be in rooms that are large enough for the number of students math classes have. There should be a classroom designated for primarily math courses with a built in computer and projector. There is a lot of computer software appropriate for aiding the teaching of mathematics and this would encourage associate as well as full-time faculty to use a computer in the classroom. The instructor could demonstrate software as well as teach using the software as an aid. It would enable the department to have a place to store graphing calculators that could be used in the classroom. Also some carts set up with a Macintosh power book and projector would be useful. The trend towards teaching mathematics is towards more use of computer and calculator technology, and this would help the math department move forward in this direction. It would be nice if these rooms could be in close proximity of the math lab and math/English computer lab.

4. Counselors

Counselors provide considerable advice to students as to which classes are necessary for their programs and what is an appropriate place to start.

Recommendation: The math department would like to work on continuing to improve communication with counselors about placement, etc., in math courses. Perhaps a yearly meeting with counselors to explain our views would be useful.

5. Miscellaneous Needs

a. Need for release time and effective reimbursement for handling the growing contract education load.

The department needs a more effective means of receiving reimbursement for time spent working with contract education. At present the department fronts the expenses for arranging classes and instructors, normally by using department chair release time. Release time should be granted to the department for this work (since contract education is not considered in calculating how much release time a department chair receives). In addition, compensation can often take up to two years to be credited to the department's account. This is unacceptable. Credit should be received by the beginning of the following semester.

The department also needs to internally examine its procedure for spending contract ed money. At present the department chair does the work and funds are spent on general department activities.

It is hoped that adoption of the Senate guidelines for expenditures from contract ed accounts will solve earlier difficulties and restrictions on expenditures.

b. Funds for Readers/Graders.

Most of our students need the feedback of having large amounts of homework assigned and corrected. With current class sizes, this is impossible in most classes. Many colleges, including West Valley's math department, have funds to hire student readers for papers. (estimate $10,000/year)

c. Copier

There is an awareness in the department that the current procedure for making copies imposes constraints which seem antiquated given the current copier technology and prices. Faculty time is wasted and service to students is effected. Having a copier inside the department would make a copying facility available for QUICK, practically on the spot, sharing of information with classes.

d. Need additional FTE to offer new courses and replace lost FTE.

In order to add new classes such as: Math 19, Math 505, and New Math Computer Lab Courses the department needs additional FTE. The department also needs additional FTE to replace FTE that was cut in the college-wide cuts.

e. Department Release Time

The department needs more release time. It has grown considerably since the initial allocation of release time in 1990. This has happened in response to college requests for additional WSCH. The number of part-time instructors also remains high. This constitutes a considerable increase in the workload of the department chair.

The new college structure will also increase the responsibilities of the chair.

6. Library

The department will continue to work with the library to find new resources appropriate for our students. These may be in the form of periodicals, books, videos and possibly CD-ROMs.

Although purchases continue to be made in the math area, the library collection needs improvement. All math journals have been dropped, in part because of the difficulty of finding material at a suitable level. There is a catch 22 situation: library statistics show that math students do not use the collection much. Students relate that the selection of material is poor. In particular, in the Math G sections where several papers are written, students routinely recount the need to use libraries in adjacent cities and colleges.

The current course list is a very standard community college math course offering with few variations. A survey of the offerings of surrounding colleges shows a bewildering variety of individual approaches to courses we already teach.

Current WSCH/FTE goals continue to discourage expansion into new areas or experimental courses since the FTE must be taken from already full courses. Concerns about WSCH/FTE have inhibited our ability to experiment with course offerings; a substantial modification of the geometry course was canceled due to low enrollment. However, in the event that FTE does become available, the department is continuing to develop new courses such as Discrete Math and Math 505.

Since mathematics is a difficult subject for many people, both the amount and the quality of instructional time are important for optimum student learning. An area where math instruction at Mission College could be improved is the number of hours students spend in class for certain courses. The increase in units for Math A and Math 12 has been beneficial to our students. However, there is still a need for an increase in meeting time for Math C and Math 1, as many students find the pace overwhelming. In each of these courses, the material must be covered very quickly leaving little or no time for discussion or student questions. Also, in light of the computer component that was added to Math 10 for articulation, this course could use an increase in meeting time. The department is also considering this for Math 4A. There are complaints from both teachers and students about the pace of the courses and the amount of time that must be spent outside of class to cover the course content. Because of the accelerated pace, a number of students do not learn some of the material covered in these courses, and, in Intermediate Algebra, a higher proportion of students drop. These conditions are frustrating for both instructors and students because they force some students to take more than one semester to complete a semester's work or they leave some students under-prepared for successive courses.

A survey of the catalogues of other two-year schools in the bay area -- Canada, Evergreen Valley, Gavilan, Cabrillo, West Valley, Diablo Valley, Hartnell, DeAnza, and Foothill Colleges -- has provided some alternative approaches for offering these courses.

These alternatives are summarized below.

• Offer the course for one more unit than Mission College currently does.

• Offer a review version of the course for one unit less than Mission does and a fuller version of the course for one unit more than Mission does.

• Meet one or two more hours per week than the number of units.

• Offer a lab at additional units/hours.

• Split the semester course into a two semester course at fewer units per semester.

It is important to the math faculty that this issue be addressed, in particular for Intermediate Algebra and Pre-Calculus Algebra. Possible approaches have been listed above or other approaches could be developed. The benefits of improving this situation for the students would far outweigh any costs that might be incurred.

Almost half of Mission College's math students attend Mission primarily because of the convenience of it's location, with another 20% attending because of positive experiences at Mission or the positive recommendation from a friend.

Once here, close to 80% of the students indicated that the mathematics program met their learning needs all or most of the time, with only 2% indicating that they felt that their needs were not met at all. Nearly sixty percent of the students felt either their math anxieties had decreased or their appreciation for mathematics had increased. Among the advanced students, 42% of the students indicated that their appreciation of mathematics had increased.

Factors which contributed to this included:

• Over 80% of the students rated their math instructors good to excellent and rated their willingness and availability to help at about the same level. Less than 5% of the students found their instructors unsatisfactory in these areas.

• A large majority of the students find that math courses are offered at convenient times and they have adapted to the larger class sizes.

• Of those students who used the math tutoring program, almost eighty percent expressed satisfaction with the program. (We found it interesting that a higher proportion of the advanced students use the tutoring lab than the beginning math students.) Approximately 36% of all math students use the math tutoring lab and about 18% of the math students are unable to use the lab because of schedule conflicts. (The loss of the classified position in math tutoring to cover the evening hours has resulted in a significant decline in the usefulness and attendance in the lab during the evening hours.)

• About 80% of the students using the Math Computer Lab considered it useful to their learning. This percentage rises to over 85% for the advanced students.

• 85% of the advanced students felt that the department prerequisites prepared them very well or adequately for the course they were taking. 76% of the beginning students and 78% of all students felt that the prerequisites prepared them for the course they were taking.

• About 70% of math students reported having taken the math placement test. Of those students, over two-thirds felt that their placement was accurate. A smaller percentage of the advanced students were satisfied with the results of the placement test.

• Finally, almost 80% of all math students surveyed expressed satisfaction with their math texts, indicating that the time and effort put into textbook selection by faculty is in a large part successful.

Over the last five years there has been a slight increase in the percentage of female students (in Spring 1994 49.2% of our students were female). This is slightly higher than the percentage school wide.

From Spring 1991 to Spring 1994 there was a shift in the age groups we serve. In Spring 1994, we had more students in the 18-25 yr. category and fewer in the 26-40 yr. old range, with almost 33% of our students being between 21 and 25 years old.

Ethnic distribution shows that Vietnamese students now make up almost 29% of our math students, while white students have decreased to about 29%. Other ethnic groups have stayed about the same over the last several years.

The unit load distribution shows an increase in the number of students taking a full load. About 40% of math students in the Spring 1994 semester took 12 or more units.

The GPA distribution by Day/Eve shows a slightly higher GPA for our evening classes.

There has been a steady increase in the unduplicated headcount since Spring 1991. Math students now make up about 24% of the college unduplicated headcount.

The duplicated headcount figures show our daytime enrollment has been growing, although most semesters it is still lower than our evening enrollment. The exception to that was in the Fall 1993 semester when 51.3% of our students were daytime students.

Retention has been slowly increasing over the last few years, so that now it is about 60% for daytime enrollment and slightly higher for evening enrollment. It is still about 10% lower than the college retention rate. Productive grades have gradually been increasing.

The average GPA for math classes (by course) lies mostly between 2.7 and 3.1. It's difficult to comment on the variation of GPA by section as there are so many factors involved. Different teachers have different policies on grading, i.e. some give Ds and others give NC instead of a D. Math 102 (arithmetic) and Math C (intermediate algebra), in particular, showed a lot of a variation. The department has been addressing this issue, but recognizes that there are many factors beyond the departments control, i.e. the preparedness of individual students.

Department WSCH and FTES (Full Time Equivalent Student, a basis for funding allocation) have both been increasing over the last four and a half years (see I-1). FTES was 567.61 in the 90-91 school year and in 93-94 was 667.71.

The total program WSCH/FTE has been steadily growing, with Fall numbers consistently larger that Spring. This is largely due to the fact that the math department currently is teaching classes which are consistently too large for good communication of mathematical concepts to our students. The large size has been tolerated by the department because of the desperate financial situation in which the college and district find themselves. This has led to all of the math faculty doing consistently more work for their classes with no compensating change anywhere else. Even though it is recognized that factors outside the department apparently have made this necessary, it is increasingly difficult to maintain this level of workload. In addition, this is hard on students as they don't get as much individual attention from the instructors.

The program still uses a large number of associate faculty, but the figures for the Full-Time/Part-Time FTE Ratios are a little distorted as there were several semesters when full-time faculty used banked leave. In F93 one faculty member was on leave, in S94 three full-time faculty were on leave and two members were on leave F94.

The math departments cost/student is about one third of the college average.

The mathematics program is experiencing slow, steady growth with no particularly unusual trends apparent at this time. There are many interesting small features and issues which have been examined in detail in Part I of this review.

The mathematics department is in a strong position. Enrollment is steady and classes tend to fill. There is a large choice of future expansion possibilities related to new classes and integration of technology into the existing curriculum.

1. Needs for Math Tutor Lab: The return of a half-time math instructional aide, expanded hours, an increase in the number of tutors hired and some additional space. Two VCRs are needed. (Estimate: $25,500)

2. Equipment for Math/English Computer Lab: New, mid-range computers (with larger screens), computers containing CD-ROM drives, a server, software, and printers should be acquired to bring the lab back to a current level of usefulness. Vertical blinds should be installed for the outside windows. (Estimate: $79,000)

3. Need additional FTE to offer new courses and in order to replace the FTE that was cut. In order to add new classes such as: Math 19, Math 505, and new Math Computer Lab Courses the department needs additional FTE. There is also a need to replace the FTE that was cut in the college-wide cuts.

4. Designated Math Classroom: Math classes need to be in rooms where there are at least three side by side blackboards of good quality. They also need to be in rooms that are large enough for the number of students math classes have. There should be a classroom designated for primarily math courses with a built in computer and projector. There is a lot of computer software appropriate for aiding the teaching of mathematics and this would encourage associate as well as full-time faculty to use a computer in the classroom. The instructor could demonstrate software as well as teach using the software as an aid. It would enable the department to have a place to store graphing calculators that could be used in the classroom. It would be nice if these rooms could be in close proximity of the math lab and math/English computer lab.

5. Need for some carts with a Macintosh Power Book and Projector. Some carts set up with a Macintosh power book and projector would be useful and would encourage associate as well as full-time faculty to use computer aids in their teaching. The trend towards teaching mathematics is towards more use of computer and calculator technology, and this would help the math department move forward in this direction.

Department Release Time: The department needs more release time. It has grown considerably since the initial allocation of release time in 1990. This has happened in response to college requests for additional WSCH. The number of part-time instructors also remains high. This constitutes a considerable increase in the workload of the department chair. The new college structure will also increase the responsibilities of the chair.

Need for effective reimbursement for handling the growing contract education load. The department needs a more effective means of receiving reimbursement for time spent working with contract education. At present the department fronts the expenses for arranging classes and instructors, normally by using department chair release time. Extra release time should be given for the time spent working with contract education (since contract education is not considered in the calculation of how much release time is granted to department chairs). Currently, payment of the department incentive can often take up to two years to be credited to the department's account. This is unacceptable. Credit should be received by the beginning of the next semester. Notice that these payments were designed as incentives to participate (as were the college president and chancellor's payments), not as reimbursement for work done.

Funds for Readers/Graders. Most of our students need the feedback of having large amounts of homework assigned and corrected. With current class sizes, this is impossible in most classes. Many colleges, including West Valley's math department, have funds to hire student readers for papers. (estimate $10,000/year)

Copier: There is an awareness in the department that the current procedure for making copies imposes constraints which seem antiquated given the current copier technology and prices. Faculty time is wasted and service to students is affected. Having a copier inside the department would make a copying facility available for QUICK, practically on the spot, sharing of information with classes.

Working with counselors: The math department would like to work on continuing to improve communication with counselors about placement, etc., in math courses. Perhaps a yearly meeting with counselors to explain our views would be useful.