1
Unit Profile
1.1
Briefly describe the program-level planning unit. What is the unit's purpose and function?
The Paramedic/EMT Department began in 1994 with only eight students and one part time instructor. Today, the Department provides education to nearly 300 students annually and will soon have four full time instructors. The Department is currently assigned to the Health Education Division and collaborates with other health care disciplines. The department maintains National Accreditation and Sacramento County Health Department approval. The department is faced with constant challenges resulting from changes in health care practices, changes in third party credentialing standards, updates in career education best practices, employer demands, and an ever changing student population. The dynamic nature of the industry represents an opportunity for the program to remain relevant.
The program continues to achieve significant success as defined by the California Community College’s Student Success Matrix. The program has received 3 consecutive Gold Stars.
The primary purposes and functions of the unit is to provide students with current, mandated, and relevant curriculum. A curriculum that adequately prepares each student for certification or licensure and eventual employment in the emergency medical services or public safety sectors.
The Paramedic/EMT unit continues a long tradition of rigorous curriculum demands on the student with significant faculty support. The unit provides significant student-centered support in learning environments that require critical thinking, focus on clear outcomes, and ultimately result in graduates obtaining industry recognized certificates and credentials. Examples of the unit’s contributions include active leadership in high fidelity simulation experiences for students, frequent interaction with local and regional employer groups and dedicated faculty assignments focused on providing skills labs to maximize student success. These contributions are measured by National Certification exam results in the 95th percentile for the Paramedic program and in the 85th percentile in EMT program. The Unit also continues to achieve Gold Star status using the Student Success Metric.
2
Assessment and Analysis
The program review process asks units to reflect on the progress they've made towards achieving the goals they identified in each of the Annual Unit Plans they submitted since their last Program Review.
Follow this link to access your previous EMP submissions.
For Faculty support, please contact Veronica Lopez at lopezv@arc.losrios.edu.
2.1
Consider the progress that has been made towards the unit's objectives over the last six years. Based on how the unit intended to measure progress towards achieving these objectives, did the unit's prior planned
action steps (last six years of annual unit plans) result in the intended effect or the goal(s) being achieved?
After a detailed review of the past several annual reports, and the associated data provided, several elements suggest the program intended outcomes have been generally achieved. The success of the programs students continues to improve as faculty have continuously made changes to their classroom management, introductions of increased exposure to high-fidelity simulation and in some instances additional exposure to tutorial services. One major improvement in program outcomes stems from the changes made to the EMT program. Starting in 2013, Faculty consider the failure rate of many of our non-traditional students at the end of the course. Changes were made to the EMT program course outline of record and a new course, EMT 111 was added to the program. This new course provided student additional opportunity to apply what was learned in the primary EMT course to high fidelity simulated patient care scenarios. Faculty and students are convinced this change significantly increased the first time pass rates of a National Certification as well as better prepared them for gaining employment in the region.
In addition to increase student success, efforts have been implemented in the program to provide faculty with increased professional development opportunities. Adjunct faculty have completed additional training on high fidelity simulation inclusion, as well as a nationally credentialed pedagogy program.
One final consideration reflected in the data is the large spike in student grades by one specific ethnicity. In 2017 the program began a formal relationship with U.C. Davis Fire Department. With this relationship the college began providing EMT courses on the campus at U.C. Davis. Resulting from this new satellite course is a significant increase in the number of Asia students taking the EMT courses and also a significant shift in the number of A grades provided to one specific ethnicity. No significant changes in the ethnic blend of our ARC campus students has occurred. The specific impact on the overall student success rates can also be attributed to students taking the EMT course work at the same time attending U.C. Davis.
The standard data set is intended to provide data that may be useful in promoting equity and informing departmental dialogue, planning, decision making, and resource allocation.
Recent updates include (1) better integration with ARC’s Data on Demand system to provide users with more sophisticated and nuanced ways of exploring their unit’s data and (2) greater emphasis and access to disproportionate impact data
(how student achievement outcomes vary by gender, race/ethnicity, veteran, foster youth, disability, and income/poverty level status)
to enable users to engage in more advanced
student-centered
and
equity-centered
analysis, reflection, and planning.
To access the Enrollment or Disproportionate Impact data reports, you may be prompted to log in to ARC’s Data on Demand system. If so, click on “Log in with ARC Portal” and enter your Los Rios single sign-on credentials (same as Canvas or Intranet).
(To streamline the standard data set, the productivity data element has been removed, as has the green-yellow-red light icon system for all data elements except for department set standards.)
The two data sets show 5 years of fall or spring duplicated enrollment, disaggregated by gender and ethnicity. Note that ARC's data-on-demand tool will soon provide considerably more sophisticated ways of viewing and analyzing
your planning unit's headcount and enrollment trends.
- Green
- current fall/spring semester enrollment is equal to or exceeds the prior year's fall/spring enrollment.
- Yellow
- current fall/spring semester enrollment reflects a decline of less than 10% from the prior year's fall/spring enrollment.
- Red
- current fall/spring semester enrollment reflects a decline of 10% or more from the prior year's fall/spring enrollment.
The two data sets show 5 years of fall or spring productivity (WSCH per FTEF: the enrollment activity for which we receive funding divided by the cost of instruction).
Note that ARC's data-on-demand tool will soon provide considerably more sophisticated ways of viewing and analyzing your planning unit's productivity trends.
- Green
- current fall/spring semester productivity is equal to or exceeds the prior year's fall/spring productivity.
- Yellow
- current fall/spring semester productivity reflects a decline of less than 10% from the prior year's fall/spring productivity.
- Red
- current fall/spring semester productivity reflects a decline of 10% or more from the prior year's fall/spring productivity.
Precision Campus Report Links
The disproportionate impact (DI) links now direct you to your unit’s DI data in ARC Data on Demand. The DI data will show which student groups are experiencing disproportionate impact for course success rates (A, B, C, Cr, P), A-B rates, and course completion rates (students who did not withdraw) at the course level.
In addition, a new report on intersectional DI (e.g., ethnicity/race by gender) is available for assessing intersectional Di for course success rates. The intersection DI report defaults to the subject code level (e.g., all ENGWR courses). Use the org tree in the side bar to filter to individual courses (click on the right arrow next to American River College, right arrow next to your division, right arrow next to your department/discipline, then select the specific course to view).
If prompted to log in, click on “Log in with ARC Portal” and enter your Los Rios single-sign on credentials (same as Canvas or Intranet).
Shows course success rates (# of A, B, C, Cr, and P grades expressed as a % of total grade notations) compared to lower and upper thresholds.
Thresholds are derived using a 95% confidence interval (click the report link for details).
The lower threshold is referred to as the Department Set Standard. The upper threshold is referred to as the Stretch Goal.
- Green
- Most recent academic year exceeds the upper threshold
- Yellow
- Most recent academic year falls between the lower and upper threshold
- Red
- Most recent academic year falls below the lower threshold
Email Standard Data Set link
In addition to reflecting on the metrics shown above, it may prove useful to analyze other program-level data to assess the effectiveness of your unit.
For instructional units, ARC's Data on Demand system can be used to provide program and course
level information regarding equitable outcomes, such as program access or enrollment, successful course completion, and degree or certificate achievement
(up to 30+ demographic or course filters are available).
You might also consider pursuing other lines of inquiry appropriate to your unit type (instructional, student support, institutional/administrative support).
Refer to the Program Review Inquiry Guide under the resources tab for specific lines of inquiry.
2.2
What were the findings? Please identify program strengths, opportunities, challenges, equity gaps, influencing
factors (e.g., program environment), data limitations, areas for further research, and/or other items of interest.
Enrollment
Enrollment data provided shows strong growth in the program particularly given a very large 2017-18 cohort due to employer demand.
Enrollment by gender continues to show a significant increase in the number of female students entering our programs. Particularly encouraging is the significant number of female students preparing for, applying to, and accepted into the paramedic program. This significant increase is also encouraging as the typical graduate of the ARC Paramedic program is eventually employed by public safety agencies with a predominate male workforce.
Enrollment by ethnicity provides some insight into a few issues. As previously addressed, the significant increase of Asian students has occurred given a new course offering on the campus at U.C. Davis. Of particular note is the decline of African American student enrollment. Given historically low overall numbers (N) of enrollment of African American students in the program, a small change of one or two students has a big impact on the data. The same can be said for Native American students and other Ethnic groups given the small N.
Outreach efforts continue to work with various community stakeholders (high schools, charter school programs….) to make non-traditional ethnic groups aware of the opportunities available in the Public Safety and Health care sectors.
Productivity
Given California State mandated student to instructor ratios, the productivity numbers of the EMT and Paramedic programs are and will continue to be a challenge. There is no real opportunity to make the programs more productive and as such the faculty work primarily on ensuring quality instruction, employment readiness, and solid certification results.
Productivity numbers are never correct as a result in a program specific method of adjunct faculty lab assignment and timesheet payment.
Disproportionately impacted Groups
According to the current data set, the disproportionately impacted groups include African American, Latino, Multi-Race, Native American, and Unknown. Again as a result of the very low N for several different ethnic groups in the Department, the data is hard to use for planning purposes. The data is also skewed given the impact one particular ethnic groups has on the data. The Asian students attending the U.C. Davis EMT program are significantly different students academically as they are already attending a four year university and many are medical students. In additional analysis, with only slight increases in the number of enrolled students from disproportionately impacted students or student course completion the data will move to green.
Department Set Standards
While the data provided lacks PMED 120, the data reveals the Paramedic and EMT programs continue to meet and exceed the Department Set Standards. The Research department is investigating why the PMED 130 course lacks data (most likely given the high number of students who receive an “I” grade) at the completion of the course but subsequently complete the PMED 130 course requirements after the semester final grades are due.
While the data provided has limited description of the program outcomes, other data sets (Launchboard and NREMT) provide additional insights into program success in criteria of employment, living wage attainment, income increase and passing of National certification exams.
3
Reflection and Dialog
3.1
Discuss how the findings relate to the unit's effectiveness. What did your unit learn from the analysis and how
might the relevant findings inform future action?
The unit reviewed the outcomes on the data provided and saw a few areas that provide the faculty opportunities to improve outcomes. Particularly interesting is the low enrollment numbers of persons of color and female students. The unit continues to work closely with local and regional K-12 partners (in lower socio-economic areas) to increase the awareness of an enrollment in our EMT courses. Faculty also learned that with a slight adjustment in focus (increase success) we may be able to decrease the number of disproportionately impacted students in all segments. The data helps inform the faculty that they need to more closely monitor students with early signs of academic struggle, and attendance issues, and provide solutions and resources in an attempt to keep these students actively engaged in the course. One plan in motion currently is to retool the prerequisites for the paramedic program and combined courses into one course that is will be managed similarly to our EMT courses which show no DI data. The faculty strongly believe the overall support provided to the EMT students could be extended to the new course cohort and the DI data would be similar. The data also informs the department that additional work is required to increase the number of students (African American, Latino, Native American, Multi-race, and Unknown) who enroll in the program. The additional data provided by Launchboard and the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians suggests very strongly that the Paramedic program is achieving exceptional outcomes with the 2016 through 2017 program graduates successfully completing the National licensure exams at 100%. Launchboard data also suggests that programs outcomes demonstrate significant effectiveness on wages and employment in the industry.
3.2
What is the unit's ideal future and why is it desirable to ARC? How will the unit's aspirations support accomplishment of the mission, improve institutional effectiveness, and/or increase academic quality?
The ideal future of the unit is to be actively striving towards maintaining excellent outcomes as identified by local program data, Launchboard outcomes, and ultimately licensure data from the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians. The ideal future includes more time and energy focused on data analytics ensuring future unit decisions are informed using available data. This ideal future is desirable to ARC as the program continues to, or strives to, achieve the goals identified by the Vision for Success. Particular attention to student support services and improved teaching pedagogy are already underway in efforts to improve accomplishment of the college’s mission and institutional effectiveness. Professional development engagement, in play now, will undoubtedly improve the quality of instruction resulting in even stronger student success.
Particular attention and resources will be utilized to increase enrollment numbers and outcomes for students in our non-traditional and disproportionately impacted groups. Specific efforts will continue to build stronger pathways between K12 programs and the unit.
The unit will continue to look to build employer supported curricula, diverse course offerings, and student centered support projects in an effort to increase student success and ultimately employment.
4
Strategic Enhancement
4.1
Identify/define one or more program-level objectives which enhance the unit's effectiveness. What does your unit intend to do to work towards its ideal future? How will success be measured?
The unit has several goals towards improving effectiveness. One program level objective, of significant importance, is to update course offerings to better streamline student learning and ensure continued students success outcomes. Faculty continue to be concerned about the current matriculation for students entering our foundational courses (EMT 110 and EMT 111) and transition to and completion of the capstone course in the paramedic program. Ongoing curriculum efforts strive to bring course content into one prerequisite course. A comprehensive and foundational course totally under the control of the unit faculty. Faculty believe that through better alignment and more extensive focus on student-centered needs, employer requests, mandated accreditation standards, and enhanced student support services, the unit can increase outcomes for all students. The success of these efforts to drive down DI will continue to be measure using disaggregated MIS data on the local campus, Launchboard data provided by the Chancellor’s office, graduate and employer survey data, and certification data provided by the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians. These data sets will ultimately be compared to the systems goals found in the Vision for Success.
4.2
How will the unit's intended enhancements support ARC's commitment to social justice and equity?
After careful review of the DI report provide by and reviewed with Yujiro, it became evident that with only a change in one student outcome, in each of the DI groups would shift to meeting the standard (green). In many cases, the DI data revealed enrollment numbers too small to generate valid data. It is important to note that in our EMT courses (EMT 110 and EMT 111) no DI was found for both gender and ethnicity. In the PMED courses (PMED 110, and PMED 130) DI was reported for gender and with one more female successful in the program the DI would shift from yellow to green.
As the unit continues to work on matriculation issues, curriculum streamline, and focused pathways work, these enhancements should positively impact the success of our students and potentially impact the very small shift necessary to close the equity gap that currently exists. The unit is particularly encouraged by the success of our baseline group of EMTs where no DI exists at this point. Given the reduced student N in the PMED 110 course, the DI impact may remain despite faculty efforts. Continued data analytics and following best practices from other CTE programs the unit will continue to focus on any DI data that may change. Faculty will continue to participate in professional development that includes modules on cultural competency and a building a more inclusive learning environment.
The data provided by Yujiro was much clearer than the limited information provided by the color buttons. Thank you Yujro and your team for the details.
