2018-19 Instructional Program Review
First name
Malathi
Last name
Iyengar
Email
iyengarm@smccd.edu
Program Name
Please select your program. For CTE programs, use the 2018-19 CTE Instructional Program Review form.
Ethnic Studies


Division
Please select your division
Creative Arts/Social Science


Submission Date
Oct-25-2018


1a. Provide a brief description of the program and how it supports the college’s Mission and Values Statements, its Diversity Statement, CSM’s and SMCCCD’s Strategic Plans, and the college’s Educational Master Plan. You may also discuss any factors that have impacted the program and its enrollment. Include changes in student populations, statewide initiatives, transfer requirements, advisory committee recommendations, legal mandates, workforce development and employment opportunities, and community needs.
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Description of Program
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2a. Describe the results of your previous Program Review’s action plan.
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Our previous program review noted that a “new full-time ethnic studies person is a must, if we are going to move the ethnic studies program into the 21st century.” This new hire has now been accomplished, meaning that the department for the first time in its history has more than one full-time faculty member. With two full-time professors on board, we have been diligently working on updating all our course concepts and materials.

The previous program review also expressed the intention to create a new course “to introduce students to the foundational concepts and principles of Ethnic Studies.” We have indeed accomplished this goal, developing not just one but two new core courses: ETHN 108 (Rethinking Race, Gender, and Nation), and ETHN 109 (Borders and Crossings). In addition, we have gained approval for another UC-transfer course, ETHN 107 (Introduction to Native American Studies), to be offered as an elective.


2b. Program coherence and effectiveness: Explain any curriculum changes since last program review, including SLO alignments.
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As noted earlier, in order to introduce students to the fundamental concepts of ethnic studies, we have created and will offer in 2019-20 three new courses: ETHN 107 (Introduction to Native American Studies), ETHN 108 (Rethinking Race, Gender, and Nation), and ETHN 109 (Borders and Crossings). ETHN 108 and ETHN 109 constitute our new core intro sequence, while ETHN 107 will be offered as an elective.


2c. Student success and equity: Discuss what your program has done to address equity gaps between student populations and between modes of delivery (online, hybrid, and face-to-face), describing your successes, works in progress, and/or ongoing challenges.
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As part of our ongoing efforts to address learning gaps between different student populations, we have continued to work with the Learning Communities. In particular, we have updated the courses we offer to the Mana and Umoja cohorts. For our Mana students, we have established stronger reading schedules with a greater diversity of texts, while ensuring that we provide an appropriate amount of cognitive scaffolding so that students have the opportunity to grow intellectually and succeed at a UC-transfer level. We have also worked to update and add greater rigor to our ETHN 101 course, which, although not required for the Puente program, is relevant to this program’s focus and serves many of its students. In addition, we have had great success in working with students from Project Change, and would like to develop a more formal relationship with this program in the future.


2d. Provide an update on any long-term plans that are still in progress (if applicable).
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All long-term projects from our last program review have been completed.


3a. Course and program assessment. Discuss the results of your program assessment. Explain any strategies, research, initiatives, curriculum development or other activities intended to improve student learning and promote educational equity in your discipline, either at the course or program level.
If your answer is more than 2000 characters (approximately 300 words), please upload a Word document below (10 MB or less). If you’re not sure, please upload your answer. Please upload text only; we cannot ensure that non-text such as images, diagrams, or charts will be retained in the final submission.
As noted earlier, with regards to our ongoing efforts to address learning gaps between different student populations, we have continued to work with the Learning Communities. In particular, we have updated the courses we offer to the Mana and Umoja cohorts. For our Mana students, we have established stronger reading schedules with a greater diversity of texts, while aiming to provide an appropriate amount of cognitive scaffolding to ensure that students have the opportunity to grow intellectually and succeed at a UC-transfer level. We have also worked to update and add greater rigor to our ETHN 101 course, which, although not required for the Puente program, is relevant to this program’s focus and serves many of its students. We have had great success in working with students from Project Change, and would like to develop more formal links with this program in the future.


3b. General Education / Institutional assessment. Discuss participation in any General Education, Core Competencies, institutional or interdisciplinary assessment activities. 
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This year, our focus has been on reworking our courses and policies in order to ensure that our students are having a legitimate UC-transfer experience with ethnic studies. We look forward to participating in institutional assessment in the future.


4a. Provide a brief description, including actions, measurable outcomes, and timelines  
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Description of Planning
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4b. What will your program do to increase student success and promote student equity in the next two years? What kind of professional development and institutional support will be engaged and enacted to meet these goals?  
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Our discussion in section 4a describes plans for equitable resource access for our students. With regards to institutional support, the requested funding for our pilot study and text acquisition will be essential. We also anticipate that ethnic studies faculty will use professional development resources to stay abreast of new developments in the field, in order to ensure that our students are experiencing a twenty-first century version of ethnic studies.


4c. Describe other professional development activities and institutional support and collaborations that would most effectively ensure that the program achieve its goals and plans.  
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As noted in previous sections, we currently have strong connections with the Umoja and Mana programs, and we hope to develop a more formalized relationship with Project Change. We also continue to work with the Multicultural Center/Dream Center. At the level of interdisciplinary faculty dialogue, we are particularly building our connections with the history department.