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. With 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. Twelve students were awarded the AA-T in History in the 2015-2016 academic year. Currently, there are 110 students who have indicated History as their major.

The courses that comprise the AA-T degree are also for Butte and transfer General Education. With about eighty 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 2017, over eighty percent of courses offered in History/Humanities are taught by associate faculty. A contributing factor to this percentage, albeit small, is that one of the full-time History instructors has substantial reassign time for other duties on campus.

Student Learning/Administrative Unit Outcomes

The most recent deep dive assessment (Spring 2016) was focused on this PLO: examine the past from diverse perspectives. Findings specific to this PLO were generally favorable. However, instructors expressed frustration with many students' lack of reading and writing skills. This concern echoed Instructor Brief Reflections submitted for the Fall 2015 term. Specific problems mentioned in those were mechanics (grammar/punctuation), sentence structure, thesis development and clarity of thought, and use of quotes (how to use, how many to use, citation).
History has two major goals related to outcomes assessment for 2017-2018:

The Sociocultural Studies Department is planning a day-long workshop in Spring 2017 focused on teaching all aspects of the research process -- including posing a question, locating appropriate sources, reading and analyzing sources, formulating conclusions, and effective communication of ideas. Specifically, the department aims to build a toolkit that instructors can pull from for teaching various steps in the research process.
Re-conceptualize our deep dive assessment schedule to make it more sustainable and to be more focused on PLOs.

Standards/Goals for Student Achievement (OSLED Departments)

Indicator	Source	College			Program
		2014-2015	Standard	Six Year Goal	Fall 2011	Fall 2012	Fall 2013	Fall 2014	Fall 2015	Standard	Six Year Goal
Access
-          Unduplicated Headcount	PDR - HIS	12,691			1,271	1,182	1,292	1,308	1,302
	PDR - HUM	12,691			75	68	68	60	47
Course Success
-          Overall	PDR	70.6%	70.0%	73.0%
-          Transfer/GE	PDR - HIS	71.7%		73.0%	63.8%	64.7%	65.0%	62.9%	61.5%	60.0%	70.0%
	PDR - HUM	71.7%		73.0%	60.6%	64.7%	66.2%	61.7%	63.8%	60.0%	70.0%
-          CTE	PDR	75.3%		77.0%
-          Basic Skills	PDR	51.7%		55.0%
-          Distance Ed (all)	PDR	62.6%		64.0%
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 - HIS	71.8%	67.0%	75.0%	22.4%	25.5%	24.4%	24.0%	25.0%
	PDR - HUM	71.8%	67.0%	75.0%	11.9%	3.8%	1.7%	1.9%	5.1%	N/A	N/A
		(Three-Term) Scorecard	(Three-Term) Scorecard	(Three-Term) Scorecard
Degrees - annual	PDR - HIS AA-T / AS-T	1,421		1,475				7	13	5	15
Certificate of Achievement (CA) - annual	PDR	814		475
Developmental Strand Completion
-          English	State	43.7%		45.0%
-          Math	State	33.8%		35.0%
-          ESL	State	42.9%		45.0%
Licensure Pass Rates
-          Registered Nursing	SC
-          Licensed Vocational Nursing	SC
-          Respiratory Therapy	SC
-          Paramedic	SC
-          Cosmetology	SC
-          Welding	SC
Job Placement Rates	PIV

    The success rates of 61.5% for History and 63.8% for Humanities courses are at the low end of the five-year range. While we are reaching our standard, we are a long way from our six year goal of 70% success rates. In discussions of our low course success rates, History faculty easily identify a number of teaching strategies that might lead to improvement. However, an obstacle to the effective implementation of new techniques has been our large class size (45 in History). As a first step, History worked with the Curriculum Committee to lower History class sizes to 38 students, effective Fall 2017. Future steps will be to introduce new teaching strategies. Twelve students were awarded the AA-T in History in the 2015-2016 academic year. Currently, there are 110 students who have indicated History as their major. We have developed new outreach activities and expect the number of degrees earned to increase steadily. There are no degrees or certificates in Humanities; the two HUM courses are General Education electives. The focused persistence for History of 25.0% is at second highest of its five-year range (22.5% - 25.5%). Most students currently take courses in this discipline to meet General Education requirements. However, the AA-T may result in more students taking subsequent courses in this discipline.

Standards/Goals for Student Achievement (All Other Departments)

Strategic Direction

Current efforts in History are classroom centered. Faculty are committed to excellence in the teaching of rich and rigorous course content. Surprisingly, there does not seem to be anything in the Strategic Direction that directly speaks to this, our core mission. This comes closest:
Creating a culture of meaningful interactions with students. (2.a.1)
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 most recent forum, in October 2016, included presentations on "Facilitating Difficult Conversations in the Classroom," "Library Resources," and "GIS Applications in SCS Classrooms." 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)
Intellectual climate and teaching excellence. (2.b.4.a)
In Fall 2016, History helped to organize the first Sociocultural Studies Transfer and Career Fair. HIST, ANTH, GEOG and POS faculty hosted the event, aimed at declared majors, where we provided information about our programs and courses, transfer institutions, and career paths. The activity aligns with this part of the Strategic Direction:
Meeting standards and working to achieve goals for course success, retention, degree achievement, certificate completion, transfer, and credentialing. (1.e.1)
Encouraging and supporting students to make decisions that support their success and completion. (2.a.4)

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). There was hope that the Guided Pathways model under consideration by Butte College might introduce new avenues (and relevance) for theme-based history classes. However, the conservative approach to Guided Pathways thus far suggests that this will not be the case.
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 desired by some students seeking transfer to a UC. Low enrollments in HUM 17 and HUM 22 in recent semesters, though, suggest that further evaluation of the viability of HUM courses is needed.
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 has occur through assessments at the course level. A goal for 2017-2018 is to re-conceptualize our deep dive assessment schedule to make it more sustainable and to be more centered on PLOs.
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

Sustain a well-defined outreach 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, and collaboration with our Chico State colleagues.
Increase student achievement of course SLOs focused on finding, interpreting and synthesizing information by helping students to improve their research, reading and writing skills.
Identify root causes of History's lower than average course success rate, and introduce teaching strategies to make progress toward our six year goal.
Hire one full-time History instructor.
Enhance comprehensive SLO/PLO/GELO analysis and reporting by rebuilding the deep dive assessment schedule, and by increasing associate faculty participation in assessment activities and dialogue.

Future Development Strategies

Requested Non-Financial Resources

Current Financial Resources

Augmentation Requests

Original Priority	Program, Unit, Area	Resource Type	Account Number	Object Code	One Time Augment	Ongoing Augment
Description	Supporting Rationale		Potential Alternative Funding Sources		Prioritization Criteria
1	History	Personnel			$0.00	$109,877.00
Full-Time Faculty Hire	History has two full-time faculty. The last full-time hire in History was in 2002. That hire brought the total number of full-time faculty positions in History to four. Since then, a retirement and a resignation reduced the number of full-time History faculty by half. History had a one-year interim hire for 2006-2007. The interim position ended in May 2007. The discipline relies heavily on associate faculty. With another full-time instructor, we can better provide the kind of consistency and support for the discipline that is needed: to oversee curriculum matters; to steward the degree program and mentor students therein; to form and maintain relationships with high school and four year programs; to spearhead meaningful assessments and implement improvements; and to meet reporting requirements for Student Learning Outcomes, Unit Planning, and Program Review.				Maintaining core programs and services Directly supporting meeting department standards/goals for student achievement and/or supporting the college in meeting its student achievement standards and/or goals Supports Previous Program Review Recommendations Meeting standards and working to achieve goals for course success, retention, degree achievement, certificate completion, transfer, and credentialing Make progress toward 75% full-time faculty Completing the implementation of Learning Outcomes (Course, Program, General Education, Administrative and Student Services)