Mission Statement

Housed in the Sociocultural Studies Department, History supports student success, completion and transfer. We strive to cultivate in students historical reasoning skills that facilitate life-long learning and that will help them to become contributing members of a diverse society.

Program Description

The History program creates a transfer pathway for students who plan to complete a four-year degree at a California State University. Upon completion of an AA-T degree in History, students will possess the requisite foundational knowledge as well as the practical skills necessary for subsequent completion of the baccalaureate degree. Upon successful completion of the History program, the student will be able to:
1. Identify major developments in the history of the United States and of the world, and to examine the past from diverse perspectives.
2. Apply historical reasoning to the study of the past and to think in terms of
causation, context, chronology, and change and continuity.
3. Utilize historical method through posing questions and conducting research, analyzing evidence, and articulating defensible conclusions

The AA-T degree in History is a fairly recent development, listed for the first time in the 2012-2013 catalog. To date, eleven students have earned the degree, and eight-five students have declared History as their major program.

The courses that comprise the AA-T degree are also for Butte and transfer General Education. With about seventy sections offered each school year, History serves a significant number of students and meets an array of important General Education and transfer requirements. History course offerings are complimented by two courses listed under the Humanities discipline title.

Currently, there are two full-time faculty in History, and twelve associate faculty. In Spring 2016, eighty percent of courses offered in History/Humanities are taught by associate faculty. A small contributing factor to this percentage is that one of the full-time History instructors has substantial reassign time for other duties on campus.

Student Learning/Administrative Unit Outcomes

A review of SLO Brief Reflections submitted by History instructors at the end of the Fall 2015 semester revealed two areas where student learning could be improved. 1) Multiple instructors mentioned that while students were successful at simple identification of major historical developments, they struggled to explain the developments in chronological and contextual relation to one another. 2) Several instructors suspect that insufficient reading and writing skills are significant obstacles to students achieving learning outcomes related to evaluating and interpreting sources, synthesizing information, and composing arguments.
Actions and recommendations related to these findings focus on the later concern, for now. Student struggles with their readings and writing is a persistent problem (see History's Fall 2013 SLO Report), and an obstacle to student learning. To this point, the only activity in the department around this problem has been for faculty to share their teaching ideas and strategies for helping students improve their skills. This Spring 2016, the faculty in the department will investigate and discuss very specific strategies and/or tools, and build consensus around one or two of them to be implemented in as many History sections as possible in Fall 2016. The results of this effort will be reviewed on Institute Night in January 2017, and next steps will be identified.

Standards/Goals for Student Achievement (OSLED Departments)

			College			Program
Indicator	Source	2013-2014 Performance	Standard	Five Year Goal	Fall 2014 Performance	Standard	Five Year Goal
Course Success
-          Overall	PDR	71.1%	70%	73%
-          Transfer/GE	PDR	71.5%		73%	62.8%	60%	67%
-          CTE	PDR	75%		77%
-          Basic Skills	PDR	51.7%		55%
-          Distance Ed (all)	PDR	62.5%		64%
Persistence (Focused).  Note:  The Persistence (Focused) that is included in the PDR is a different indicator than the three-primary term persistence indicator, from the state Student Success Scorecard, that is used to measure institutional persistence.  The Focused Persistence indicator measures the percentage of students that took a second course in a discipline within one year. There is no relationship between the college and program standards in this area.	PDR	72.6%    (Three-Term) Scorecard	67% (Three-Term) Scorecard	75% (Three-Term) Scorecard	22.5%	20%	27%
Degrees	PDR	1,455		1,600	7	5	15
Certificates	PDR	366		475
Developmental Strand Completion
-          English	State	42%	35%	45%
-          Math	State	30.7%	25%	33%
-          ESL	State	25%		28%
Licensure Pass Rates
-          Registered Nursing	SC
-          Licensed Vocational Nursing	SC
-          Respiratory Therapy	SC
-          Paramedic	SC
-          Cosmetology	SC
-          Welding	SC
Job Placement Rates	PIV

  The History Program is in compliance with the standard. COURSE SUCCESS: History faculty reviewed course success data at its January 2016 Institute Night meeting. Reactions to the Fall 2014 rate of 62.8% ranged from appalled, to perplexed about what to do about it, to proud (I'm sad to say) "because the low success rate reflects high standards." As the dialogue unfolded, many questions/theories arose as to the root causes of History's low course success rates. The consensus was that, until we better understand the problem and can rule out possible causes, any attempt at a remedy will be a shot in the dark. Over the next year, our work in this area will be research oriented. For example, can we identify any patterns (assessment level, international/ESL student, etc.) among our students who are not successful? Are there significant differences in success rates between specific courses and/or modalities? Does class size play a role? What similar disciplines, if any, have a notably higher success rate, and what might explain the difference? We feel that a clearer understanding of the contributing factors to History's lower than average success rate will help us to better identify possible improvements. DEGREES: History has already taken some steps toward degree promotion. Specifically, we have used the Reports Server to identify and contact declared majors -- to promote events such as a History Career Night at Chico State and special presentations by Chico State History faculty in Butte College classes. In conjunction with ANTH, GEOG, and POS, we plan to host a department "fair" where we can promote our programs, provide transfer/career information, and advertise special events in the department to current or prospective majors. FOCUSED PERSISTANCE: In addition to the AA-T, steps taken to improve course success rates might at the same time improve focused persistence. Students who have a positive experience in their History course for GE, might then elect to enroll in other History courses to fulfill other associate degree/transfer requirements.

Standards/Goals for Student Achievement (All Other Departments)

Strategic Direction

Current efforts in the History program are classroom centered. Committed to excellence in the teaching of rich and rigorous course content, discipline faculty play a key role in supporting the college to meet this Strategic Direction:
Ensuring that programs provide students with intellectual and analytical skills to effectively contribute to society. (1.c.3)
To support these classroom efforts, in conjunction with ANTH, GEOG, and POS faculty, instructors in History participated in the first two Sociocultural Studies Department Forums. The first forum was held in Spring 2015, and included presentations on Reading Strategies, Helping International Students Succeed, and Tried-and-Test Teaching Ideas. Held in Fall 2015, the second forum included presentations on Helping Student Athletes Succeed, No/Low Cost Textbooks, and Tried-and-Tested Teaching Ideas. Forum topics are "just-in-time" -- meant to help instructors with recent and/or ongoing teaching challenges. The next forum is scheduled for Fall 2016. The SCS Department Forum supports the college mission to meet this Strategic Direction:
Providing just-in-time and scheduled Professional Development opportunities. (2.b.1)

Program Review

History completed its most recent Program Review in May 2010, in conjunction with the Humanities and Philosophy disciplines. Of the Validation Team's ten Recommendations, eight are applicable to History/Humanities. Below is an abbreviated version of the Recommendations, with comments.

Continue and expand offerings of theme-based history classes.  *** History's experiment with theme-based classes was short-lived; the effort was abandoned after one semester. This was not due to lack of interest, though, on the part of students and instructors. Rather, there were logistical obstacles within our current systems (scheduling, classroom space, associate faculty seniority). It has occurred to program faculty that the Guided Pathways model under consideration by Butte College might introduce new avenues (and relevance) for theme-based history classes.
Two new full-time history instructors to replace retirement and resignations. *** Still to be addressed.
Evaluate the placement and viability of courses in the Humanities discipline. *** Done. All but two courses in the Humanities discipline have been deleted. The two that remain provide content in the history of Western Civilizations--areas no longer offered in History (due to changes at the CSU), but still needed by students seeking transfer to a UC.
Cross-list HIST 18 with MCS and reapply for HIST 18 to meet the U. S. History requirement for CSU and IGETC. *** Cross-listing of courses is now discouraged by the College's Curriculum Committee. Still to be considered/done is submitting HIST 18 to meet the U. S. History requirement.
Complete SLO assessments and Curriculum Review in the Humanities discipline. *** The Humanities curriculum is current. While assessments are conducted regularly in Humanities courses, there has not been follow through in terms of reporting of "deep-dives" in CurricUNET.
Continue to work on assessment of PLOs. *** History did not have true PLOs back in 2010, as we didn't have a program (degree). Since then, we have implemented the AA-T in History with specific PLOs. Our PLOs are aligned with course SLOs, and PLO assessment occurs through assessments at the course level.
Work with Administration to ensure adequate and appropriate work space for part-time faculty. *** At the time, associate faculty had just lost access to dedicated work space in the LRC building. Since then, several offices in the LRC have been designated as associate faculty offices.
Consider providing stipends for part-time faculty to help with department work. *** History had a much larger budget at the time of this Recommendation. It is no longer feasible with our existing budget. And besides, an institution-wide policy/fund for stipending associate faculty would be more appropriate and fair.

Department Goals

History has identified the following goals for the 2016-2017 academic year:

Identify root causes of History's lower than average course success rate or, at least rule out possible causes. This will help us to identify remedies and make progress toward our five-year goal.
Increase student achievement of course SLOs focused on finding, interpreting and synthesizing information by helping students to improve their reading and writing skills.
Develop and sustain a well-defined program to guide and support students who have declared or who are considering a major in History. These efforts will be informed by regular tracking of students who have completed the History program.

Future Development Strategies

Requested Non-Financial Resources

Current Financial Resources