STRATEGIC PLAN

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

 

This Strategic Plan represents an updating and revision of our Strategic Plan of 2003. In that document, the department committed itself to using the Strategic Planning process and to considering the plan itself as a living document, an on-going refinement of our goals and objectives. The goals that have been met or altered since the last Plan are detailed in each section below.

 

The Strategic Plan has evolved into a regular biennial project, is used for programmatic and curricular decisions, and forms the basis for short and long term planning within the department. It will be the benchmark and guideline for the next seven-year Academic Program Review (2008).

 

The following pages identify specific departmental objectives and ongoing strategic initiatives that are being pursued to realize CSU Stanislaus institutional and departmental goals. Within seven broad objectives, several specific strategies are presented. These numbers do not represent a ranking of department priorities. We conclude this plan with an Action Strategy for 2005-2007 that prioritizes specific objectives and assigns specific responsibilities.

 

 

 

 

CSU Stanislaus Institutional Goals

 

The key factor in the fulfillment of this multi-faceted University Mission is the dedication of the faculty to the teaching/learning process. As stated in our campus Strategic Plan Pathways to the Future (1999), our university’s “learning-centered” mission must be accomplished through the delivery of high quality academic programs taught by a faculty dedicated to student learning.

 

CSU Stanislaus has won a reputation for providing a positive learning environment for a highly diverse student body. Student surveys cited in the 1998 Self-Study for WASC and the campus Strategic Plan point out that Stanislaus faculty and staff have been rated by students as “significantly more supportive than at comparable campuses across the nation,” and students consistently praise our campus commitment to “the quality of personal interaction among the faculty and students” (Pathways to the Future, 1999, page 6). The faculty of the English Department recognizes these learning-centered qualities as fundamental to the achievement of our goals. Among the institutional goals expressed in Pathways, the goal that is central to the vision of the English Department is the first — achieving excellence in teaching and learning, and creating within the department an environment that is conducive to that goal. The other nine goals are, to a great extent, consequences of that primary goal. This dedication to the continuous improvement of teaching and learning is reflected in recent campus discussions on the continuing vision and strategic objectives of the University.

 

The English Department recognizes its central mission as ensuring that Stanislaus graduates 1) demonstrate appropriate levels of proficiency in both oral and written expression, and 2) demonstrate a broad range of interpretive abilities and literary awareness. These core skills are essential for the academic success and life-long learning of all students, but particularly for English majors. Ensuring that all Stanislaus students learn how to write well is especially central to our mission when considering that, over the last decade, more than half of the department courses provide direct support to academic programs across the University. Thus, promoting the development and assessment of students' academic writing skills has evolved into one of our major institutional responsibilities.

 

The following plan places emphasis on developing the personnel and other resources required to deliver high quality literature, language, and writing courses, and to assess, thoroughly and accurately, student learning outcomes--especially those that address writing skills--in those courses.

 

Department Mission Statement

 

The Department of English supports the university’s mission by providing opportunities for our students to develop literacy, critical thinking, and communication skills, as well as the knowledge of literature and aesthetic appreciation expected of culturally literate citizens and future teachers in our public schools.

 

The work of the English department is multi-faceted, offering instruction in literature and language courses for English majors, single-subject (secondary education) students, general education, liberal studies, honors, and humanities. The department also provides university-wide composition and writing programs, academic support (remedial) programs, concentrations for pre-credential students, a certification for Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESOL), courses in service to international students, and graduate concentrations in Rhetoric and the Teaching of Writing, TESOL, and Literature that produce master teachers for our secondary schools and colleges.

 

In Fall 2004, programs offered or supported by the English Department served hundreds of CSU Stanislaus students. The programs and services currently provided on campus by the English Department are listed below with the number of students served by each in Fall 2002, Fall 2003, and Fall 2004.

 

 

 

 

Some numbers above reflect institutional changes; some, however, are due to improved research methods and accounting procedures. We do not, for example, have a reliably hard number for participants in the Single Subject Matter Preparation Program (SSMP), which prepares English teachers for our middle and secondary schools. The SSMP Program is an integral part of the English Department, and efforts to make that integration more transparent are underway.

 

 

Department Faculty by the numbers (Spring 2005):

 

Full-time tenured or tenure track faculty: 11

Pending searches for FT/TT faculty: 2

Full-time lecturers: 8 (6 on multi-year contracts)

Currently FERPing: 3

2003-04 Retired: 3

2003-04 FERP: 1

2005-06 Retired: 1

2006-07 Retired: 3

Part-time teaching faculty (2004-05): 16 carrying 151 WTU

 

Released Time:

2003-04: 86 WTU (50 external, 36 department)

2004-05: 63 WTU (42 external, 21 department)

 

Travel Support:

2003-04: 8 requests granted; ALS funded 3. ALS funds: $2085; Dept: $3526.

2004-05: 3 requests granted; ALS funded 1. ALS funds: $1600; Dept: $1565.

 

Awards:

2003-04: RSCA and IRA Grants totaling $7369.25

2004-05: RSCA, IRA, and SL Grants totaling: $10,400

 

 

 

 

 

 

Department Objectives

 

Objective 1: Ensure the continuation of a dynamic, diverse, and caring teaching faculty.

 

Objective 2: Offer classes and programs that align department priorities with student and university needs.

 

Objective 3: Maintain advising strategies to ensure that they are responsive to student needs and that they closely track student progress.

 

Objective 4: Enhance enrollment in the English major, minor, and graduate programs, with particular attention to enhancing diversity and quality through recruitment and retention efforts.

 

Objective 5: Provide leadership and support for the development and assessment of writing programs across the university.

 

Objective 6: Increase the number of contacts and partnerships between the department and area community colleges and school districts.

 

Objective 7: Create and codify assessment strategies that identify programmatic and curricular priorities and track student learning outcomes.

 

 

History and Strategies for Objectives

 

Objective 1: Ensure the continuation of a dynamic, diverse, and caring teaching faculty.

 

2002-2005: In 2002-03, the department hired three full-time tenure track faculty (in American and Multicultural Literature and English Education), and in 2004-05, hired an additional two (in Medieval and Renaissance Literature and Rhetoric and Composition). In the same period, we also lost two full-time VL positions (one to retirement, one was converted to a TT line). One tenured member is retiring in 2005; two others are in the midst of FERPs; one will complete a FERP; others are considering either retirement or FERP this year. In Fall 2005, there will be 13 full-time tenured or tenure track faculty. While the new junior faculty members—in Rhetoric and Composition (2), American Literature (2), British Literature (1), and English Education (1)—form a strong and mutually complementary cohort, the department should continue its full-time tenure-track build-out, based on the strengths of its members and the opportunities of the future.

 

Strategies:

 

1.1 Continue the build-out of junior faculty by recovering FTEF losses resulting from retirement, and by exploring new directions.

The department will apply to conduct searches for three additional FT/TT faculty in the next three years, from the following areas: Colonial and Early Republican American Literature, 20^th Century and Contemporary British Literature, Global and Post-Colonial Literature in English, Poetry, Drama, Creative Writing, Assessment, Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. There is continuing interest in expanding our Graduate Program to include either an MFA or a Writing emphasis, as well as interest in developing a publishing/editing emphasis at the undergraduate level. Furthermore, the department will prioritize the recruitment of a more diverse faculty.

 

1.2 Revise department RPT elaborations to provide incentives and rewards for professional development, especially in the area of the scholarship and practice of teaching and learning.

The department RPT committee is currently revising RPT elaborations (Spring 05) to ensure that retention, promotion, and tenure cases are evaluated fairly, and that the process balances the interests of individual faculty members, the department, and the university. The revised RPT elaborations should give consideration to the scholarship of teaching and learning, including curricular development and ongoing assessment, as suggested by WASC Standard 2 (2005).

 

1.3 Ensure that the faculty workplace environment is fair, appropriate, and collegial.

The department will adhere to the MOU with respect to faculty workloads. Any changes to this agreement requiring changes in faculty workload will be negotiated within the department through open discussion and decision-making. All faculty will be provided adequate computing and other technical support, in accordance with the campus Academic Technology Plan (2003). Website development will continue to expand by providing technical support and through department investment in site-licensed software.

 

1.4 Support and validate non-tenure-track faculty contributions made to the department by integrating members more fully into the department.

The department will increase efforts to support full-time lecturing faculty by additional attention to mentoring and professional development, and by ensuring appropriate representation in department decision-making. The department will consider the possibility of WTU release for committee membership and university service, and increase efforts to diversify the part-time instructional faculty by expanding recruitment outreach to scholars trained outside the immediate community.

 

 

Objective 2: Offer classes and programs that align department priorities with student and university needs.

 

2002-2005: The modification of the English BA (2004) was completed with this objective in mind. The department has not expanded course offerings on Saturdays, nor in Stockton. Curricular development has stalled, in part due to the changing nature of the department, in part due to pressures from the budget crisis. In 2004-2005 the number of sections of 4800 (Second Language Acquisition, which has become a Liberal Studies requirement) was expanded to three per semester, soliciting help from Kathlin Davis of Liberal Studies, who taught a 4800 course in spring 2005. The hiring of an English Education specialist has facilitated the increase in offered sections of impacted courses in the SSMP Program; for example, offerings for both 4620 (Children’s Lit) and 4630 (Adolescent Lit) have greatly expanded. The TESOL and RTW masters programs were revised to improve the viability of the degree, to facilitate entry, and to help ensure timely student completion of the programs. Starting in 2002-2003, graduate students have been encouraged to complete a dual concentration to make themselves more marketable to the community colleges. More than half of the TESOL and RTW graduate students have taken this option. Furthermore, the thesis/project has been made optional in both concentrations. The result has been the increase in the number of graduate students enrolled and completing their degrees in the English MA since 2002-2003.

 

Strategies:

 

2.1 Maintain student-faculty ratios at desirable levels.

Maintain enrollment in classes at numbers that facilitate a “process approach” to writing, small group discussion, effective feedback, and assessment. To provide these four learning-centered components in English courses, ESL, and ILE-type courses are capped at 12-15 students and WP writing-intensive courses are capped at 25.

 

2.2 Offer courses at times that are most convenient to students.

In order to ensure timely completion of programs, develop more opportunities to offer more night, weekend, and distance learning courses. The department should consider offering certain courses on Saturday, offering more courses during Winter Term and Summer Sessions, and increase the number of offerings at the Stockton Center. Part of this work will be to determine the optimum times to offer courses.

 

2.3 Develop courses that will attract non-majors.

Literature for non-majors, fiction-to-film courses, an upper division-writing course, and a course in Film Appreciation are currently being considered. There has been a manifested demand by Liberal Studies students for an upper-division course for a creative non-fiction. This course would combine literary study of creative non-fiction, such as the literary or reflective essay, meditation, or memoir, with the practice of such forms of writing to develop student appreciation for and facility with a genre with an outstanding pedigree and renewed commercial appeal.

 

2.4 Respond to the new requirements in Liberal Studies.

Six 4800 (Second Language Acquisition) courses per year are still insufficient for the growing demand. In 2006-2007 the number of 4800 classes should be expanded to 4 per semester. Hiring in 2005-2006 should consider this need as part of the criteria of new tenure-track hires.

 

2.5 Respond to new demands of the CCTC regarding the SSMP Program.

CCTC feedback suggests that the area most crucial to develop is recent prominent global literature—like our current 3920 (Masterpieces), but more non-European and more contemporary (e.g., Naipaul, Garcia Marquez)—as well as developing a curriculum more inclusive of ethnic and minority discourses and voices.

 

 

 

Objective 3: Maintain our advising strategies to ensure that they are responsive to student needs and that they closely track student progress.

 

2002-2005: Of the seven objectives of the original Plan (2002), this objective was most thoroughly addressed. The position of Director of Advising (DOA) with released time to compensate was created in 2004-05, and filled immediately (Anna Bolling). Advising workload was adjusted and redistributed such that all tenure-track faculty (with exceptions for the first year of new hires) are equally included in the distribution of advisees. Students are now notified that advising is mandatory. A series of “road maps” were produced that guide both advisor and advisee through the process, and were posted on the Department website.

 

Strategies:

 

3.1 Establish a once-a year required advising meeting for every major, minor, and concentration student.

Enforce the “mandatory” part of “mandatory advising,” by placing a hold on registration until advisees are checked through the process. This will require the continued attention of the administrative assistants in the department and cooperation with Enrollment Services.

 

3.2 Set up a process by which faculty advisors will be mentored.

In 2005 the advising duties were divided systematically among tenure-track faculty. A training/monitoring process will require the continuing attention of the Director of Advising. The faculty advising booklet should include all pertinent policies, “road maps,” and directions, and be distributed to new (and continuing) faculty. Faculty orientation meetings on advising should be held bi-annually, including career advising for students.

 

Objective 4: Enhance enrollment in the English major, minor, and graduate programs, with particular attention to enhancing diversity through recruitment and retention efforts.

 

2002-2005: Due to CSU systemwide response to the budget crises, enrollment increases at CSU Stanislaus have been halted. We therefore neglected this Objective in formulating and prioritizing Department action during 2003-05. This halt will be lifted shortly. The department should pay additional attention to, and prioritize, the second part of the objective: enhancing diversity. Of the strategies below, #2 was actively addressed through the hiring of an additional faculty member in English Education, Dr. William Foreman, who has taken a leadership role in revising the SSMP program and in advising; and #3 was addressed through the redevelopment and revision of the BA in English program: prerequisites were streamlined, core requirements revised, and an enhanced emphasis in World Literature was built in.

 

Strategies:

 

4.1 Enhance and diversify enrollments in the major and in the SSMP program.

Strategies that should be pursued in order to increase the number of male, black, Asian, and Hispanic students in the major and SSMPP include: 1) prepare a flyer to be distributed to the University Outreach Program on the benefits of the major and program for these students, 2) participate in student orientations more actively, and 3) ask English faculty members (in their roles as teachers and advisors) to spot and recruit potential candidates for the SS program and advise them to consider high school teaching as a career. The department also will extend its outreach to local community colleges, both to update Program requirements and to recruit.

 

4.2 Ensure that Liberal Studies advisors emphasize our programs.

Program coordinators in English should maintain close contacts with the directors of the Liberal Studies program, as many of our students are recruited from their ranks. The SSMPP and the TESOL concentration coordinators will participate actively in Liberal Studies Orientations.

 

4.3 Offer students courses that they want and need.

Program advisors will continue to look carefully at state requirements, student feedback, and enrollment figures to determine what these needs are. In addition, new department assessment procedures will help the department identify potential action in this area. In the MA program, the graduate committee will reevaluate the entry-level course required of most of our graduate students (ENGL 5000), perhaps splitting it in two to accommodate both the history of criticism requirements (especially for the Literature track) and the research and writing requirements.

There have been continuing requests from TESOL graduate students that the department add at least two 5000-level classes that are relevant to TESOL. Beginning in fall 2005, the department will re-instate ENGL 5850, Linguistics for Teachers, and offer that course alternatively with ENGL 5020, Assessment in English. Another consideration (if potential enrollments justify) is to create a new course in the History of the English Language.

 

4.4 Increase scholarships and awards.

The department currently offers two scholarships. The department goal is to double the number of scholarships for our English graduate students, in part by conducting outreach through University Development to explore extramural funding opportunities. The department also will develop an undergraduate essay contest that parallels the current contests at the graduate level.

 

 

Objective 5: Provide dynamic leadership and support for the development and assessment of writing programs across the university.

 

2002-2005: The department received approval to fund a tenure position in Rhetoric and the Teaching of Writing in 2004; a search was conducted and the position filled in spring 2005. The department requires an additional tenure-track position in Rhetoric and the Teaching of Writing for a candidate in ’05-’06, who will bring expertise in writing assessment, basic/developmental writing, and expertise working in second language acquisition and the special needs of English Language Learners. This new hire should play an active role in the campus writing committee and the administration of the WPST.

 

Three department members play a leadership role in the University Writing Committee that meets bi-weekly (Dr. Stephanie Paterson, Director of Composition, Dr. William Foreman, Coordinator of the Single-Subject Program, and Mary Ann Simoneau, Coordinator of the WPST). Paterson, Foreman, and Simoneau have collaborated from 2003-2005 to offer Writing Proficiency Workshops for faculty six times in the academic year. In 2003-2004 full-time lecturer, Mary Ann Simoneau took over as the Coordinator of the Writing Proficiency Screening Test. In Fall 2004 the Department Composition Committee created a survey for instructors to receive information about perceptions and attitudes about the writing program. This is the first step in the process of preparing for a team of (WPA) or Writing Program Administrators’ site visit and external program review, anticipated to occur in 2006-2007.

 

Strategies:

 

5.1 Create tenure-track position in Rhetoric and the Teaching of Writing.

The department hopes to create one more tenure-track position in Rhetoric and the Teaching of Writing in 2005-2006. This person should bring expertise in writing assessment and second language learning, taking a leadership role in assessment and be qualified to teach sections of English 4800, Second Language Acquisition, recently made a required course of all Liberal Studies students.

 

5.2 Support the continuing growth of the Campus Writing Center.

The department would like to see the WC director receive the assigned time necessary to meet the diverse needs of writers across the university who seek tutoring in the Writing Center. Since AY 04/05 the WC director position has been cut 40%. Advisors should encourage graduate students and pre-service teachers to enroll in English 4600: Tutorial Projects. The department seeks undergraduate and graduate students with ESL pedagogical backgrounds to tutor and assist with the work of the Writing Center through incentives such as individual study units, and internships. The Writing Center is in the process of shaping a “Mission Statement” and seeks assistance in developing a web presence.

 

5.3 The Writing for Success Book Group

There is a university-wide interest in and need for learning strategies for teaching second language learners in content areas. In an effort to facilitate conversation about practical ways to ensure our ESL learners become full members of the academic community, the department co-sponsors the Spring 2005 dialogue about the book Generation 1.5 (Harklau et. al.). A broad invitation was extended to faculty, instructors, TA’s, staff, and administrators to attend book discussions on Generation 1.5 Meets College Composition. Participants received a copy of the book through mini-grant funding.

 

5.4 Provide the resources to carry out the existing plan for assessment of the competencies in the First Year Composition program.

Spring 2005, the DOC and the Department Composition Committee will collaborate to create a “Request for Assessment Funding” to assess how well we are achieving our General Education Program Goals, our First-Year Composition Competencies, and Standard 2 in the WASC Handbook of Accreditation.

 

5.5 Take leadership in supporting and monitoring the upper-division-writing programs.

Many students delay taking the WPST (and WP class) until very late in their academic programs; thus, they may not be prepared for upper-division work. To address this problem, the following policy will be in place by Fall 2006: 3150 (Approaches to Literary Study, WP) will function as the gateway course to the major. All students in the major will be required to pass the WPST prior to enrollment. Students who are not able to do so will be advised to enroll in the following courses in order to develop the required skills: 1) ESL 1000/ESL 1005, 2) an upper-division writing course (to be developed), and 3) WPST Revised Portfolio Option conducted through the Writing Center.

 

Objective 6: Increase the number and quality of contacts and partnerships between the department and the community.

2002-2005: One of the ways the English Department supports the work of area teachers is through its partnership with the Great Valley Writing Project. Stephanie Paterson has joined Carol Minner as Co-Director of the Great Valley Writing Project. Paterson assists with recruiting exemplary teachers to participate in the GVWP Summer Institute that occurs over four weeks in July. After the institute these local teacher leaders provide professional development programs, teaching their colleagues at all levels K-16 using research-based strategies to promote students’ writing development.

 

Since our last Strategic plan, funding for the CAPI and PAD programs was eliminated. CSU, in collaboration with the Department of Education, the State Board of Education, and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, announced in Nov. 2004 an early assessment program that will assess high school juniors’ readiness for college English and mathematics.

 

Paula Barrington-Schmidt, Writing Center Director, is a member on the Early Assessment Program (EAP) Advisory Committee.  In her role, she meets with English teachers from high schools in the CSUS service area.  The meetings provide information about of the EAP, the Academic Preparation Program (AAP), and the English Department's Composition Program.   In addition, Barrington-Schmidt and adjunct Heather Lanser, in partnership with San Joaquin and Stanislaus County Offices of Education, have conducted workshops for area high school teachers for the 12th Grade Expository Reading and Writing Course that the EAP Task Force developed to help students become prepared for college reading and writing.  Some districts have already adopted the course or will use the current modules throughout senior college preparation English to ready their students for the EPT.  This was a pilot year for the 12th Grade Expository Reading and Writing Course.

 

The Great Valley Writing Project at CSU, Stanislaus provides the Reading Institute for Academic Preparation (RIAP) for area high school teachers. This 80-hour institute is funded by the CSU Chancellor’s Office to increase the passing rate of EPT Writing Assessment. CSU faculty Stephanie Paterson and Joan Wink collaborate with Writing Project teacher consultants, who facilitate this Institute. The GVWP’s proposal has been funded by the Chancellor’s Office for the past three years.

 

 

Strategies:

 

6.1 Support Early Assessment Program (EAP)

Our department serves a leadership role in the implementation of the 11^th Grade Early Assessment Program that includes an augmented California Standards Test (CST) in English. Since fall 2004 Paula Barrington-Schmidt and Part-Time Instructor, Heather Leather have provided training and support to participating area teachers. Results of this pilot program will be released in spring, 2005: http://www.calstate.edu/pa/news/2004/proficiency.shtml).

 

6.2 Support Reading Institute for Academic Preparation.

The department will continue to offer support, expertise and collaboration with area teachers to help to improve high school students’ skills in critical reading and academic writing.

 

6.3 Create service-learning opportunities for English students.

Department faculty are encouraged to continue to think of ways to implement service-learning pedagogy in their course designs.

 

6.4 EL Mini-Grant Funding.

With a $4,000 grant from the English Language Learners Network of the National Writing Project, Stephanie Paterson, co-director of GVWP, and Chris Condon from the San Joaquin County Office of Education will collaborate to develop an EL program in Spring 2005. The focus will be to explore and assess how a genre-based pedagogy can improve English Learners’ academic literacy.

 

6.5 Pursue cooperative activities initiated with MJC regarding possible internships, tutoring support, and graduate projects.

 

 

6.6 Normalize outreach to feeder CC departments.

Enhance communication to update departments on changing prerequisites and to provide more consistent and efficient advising and recruitment.

 

Objective 7: Create and codify assessment strategies that identify programmatic and curricular priorities and track student learning outcomes.

 

History: A department evaluation form was created, piloted in Spring 03, and is currently being assessed and revised (Spring 05). This revised instrument (see Appendix E) will be returned directly to the instructor. Data from this instrument may be included in the WPAF at the instructors’ discretion upon consultation with the department RPTC Chair. The Exit survey was developed in 2003-04, and piloted that spring; data were disseminated and discussed in Fall 04 (see Appendix F). The assessment of student learning process has been slow and tedious, as well as (we hope) deliberate and informed. In revising the BA program, we deliberately factored into the new program opportunities for assessment of program objectives and for student learning in the program. We are currently (Spring 2005) piloting new versions of the gateway course, ENGL3150: Approaches to Literary Study, and ENGL 4990: Senior Seminar. Faculty working with both courses will meet to discuss specific approaches and to recommend to the department any alteration to current practice; these recommendations will be incorporated in item 4 below.

 

Strategies:

7.1 Continue to develop a culture of assessment in the department.

The Department recognizes that establishing and maintaining a culture of assessment of student learning requires committed faculty who work closely with the Faculty Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, whose work is guided by the University Principles of Assessment of Student Learning, approved by the Academic Senate and the President in 2004 (6/AS/04/UEPC). These principles have been attached as Appendix A, and will also be posted on the Department website, distributed to all current faculty, and be included in all orientation packets to new faculty members.

 

7.2 Create a new Department position, Coordinator of Assessment.

Contingent on continuing funding from the Office of the Vice-Provost, the Department will create a Coordinator of Assessment, to partially offset the labor of coordinating and organizing Department assessment efforts, particularly at the outset. The Coordinator will be appointed by the Chair to a one-year term (for a maximum of three continuous years), and will be charged with the following tasks:

• initiate formal assessment as outlined below;
• Enlist the Curriculum Committee in carrying out the tasks of assessment outlined in item 2 below;
• keep abreast of developments in the field of assessment of teaching and learning, by participation in workshops, conferences, and other activities;
• maintain faculty awareness of useful and pertinent changes in the scholarship and practice of assessment by distributing articles, books, and/or references;
• submit to the Chair by the start of the Fall semester a summary of activities conducted the previous year, and
• recommend to the Department Strategic Planning Committee any changes to this section of the Strategic Plan.

 

7.3 Assess learning goals in the major.

English majors are required—in addition to the prerequisite Surveys of British and American Literature (9 units total) — to take 3150: Approaches to Literary Study, 4300 (Shakespeare), 4990 (Senior Seminar), 3 units each of British, American, and World Literature, and a minimum of 13 units of upper-division English electives. In these courses, students are required to demonstrate proficiency in a broad variety of learning goals that include close reading skills, breadth of reference, literary history, critical and technical vocabulary, background and context, intellectual and professional issues, essay composition, research and bibliography, grammar and language, and oral communication skills.

 

Appendix B shows the Department Program Objectives, drawn from the 2001 APR. The distribution chart in Appendix C, compiled with input from the English faculty, summarizes which classes address these skills in particular.

 

Implementation of assessment:

 

1. The Chair will appoint an ad hoc committee charged:
1. first to review the distribution chart of learning goals and recommend to the department any changes
2. upon agreement on the distribution chart, to recommend to the department a draft single rubric for common assessment of writing traits central to the goals selected for ENGL3150 and ENGL4990 in the distribution chart
3. to make explicit the relationship between the distribution chart and the rubric
   
   
2. In preparation for fall 2005, faculty teaching ENGL3150 or ENGL4990 familiarize themselves with the learning goals for those classes and with the rubric.
3. Each instructor incorporates a major writing assignment for the course which can be assessed according to the rubric
4. At the end of the fall term, each instructor selects a set of papers exemplifying each level of performance on the rubric (or as many levels as are represented in the class) and will make available a copy of the assignment and the selected papers to other instructors for their perusal.
5. Instructors will meet to:
1. discuss how selected essays reflect the differing levels of performance (a calibration discussion).
2. based on the calibration discussion, discuss the overall performance of students in ENGL3150 and ENGL4990 in relation to the rubric
3. draft a brief report to the department on findings, including teaching and learning concerns, any suggestions for refinement of the process or the rubric, and any suggestions for additional areas of assessment.

 

 

7.4 Develop an exit evaluation tool for the SSMPP.

CCTC guidelines imply that content-oriented programs such as our SSMP Program should require some evaluation of student learning beyond grades in coursework. An end-of-program evaluation is common in training programs, not only in California but also across the nation. The CA will forward data from 4990 assessment activities to the SSMP Program Director for this use. The SSMP Program Director will also develop an exit interview targeted specifically at SSMPP participants, to be given at exiting the program, and again in a follow-up version after five years.

 

 

English Department: Action Strategy and Budgetary Priorities: 2005-2007

 

1. Hire three new tenure-track faculty: Colonial and Early Republican American Literature, 20^th Century and Contemporary British Literature, Global and Post-Colonial Literature in English, Poetry, Drama, Creative Writing, Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, Technical Writing, and Reading. Three potential positions could be:

 

• 20^th C. British with Non-Anglo-American English Language Literature, Creative or Technical Writing.
• World/Postcolonial Lit, with Technical or Creative Writing or Poetry.
• RTW with Second Language Acquisition and TESOL or Linguistics.

 

 

2. Increased funding for undergraduate and graduate scholarships.

 

 

3. Implement the assessment plan outlined in this document.

 

4. Expand and redevelop curricula in Literature and Writing, particularly in response to CCTC suggestions.

 

5. Produce adequate and regularized orientation packets, together with mentoring and advising procedures, for all full-time and part-time faculty, as appropriate.

 

Appendices

Appendix A: Principles of Assessment (per 6/AS/04/UEPC)

Appendix B: Department Learning Objectives (Dean’s response to APR 2001)

Appendix C: Distribution of learning goals in the major

Appendix D: New advising "roadmaps" for students

Appendix E: Revised departmental course evaluation form

Appendix F: Exit survey and report from S04 survey results.