History
2018-2019 Program Review

The History Department offers students an Associate in Arts degree for Transfer. Beginning in the spring of 2019, a guided pathway for students majoring in History will be available to students. The History Department offers students a rich diversity of courses, in a variety of modalities that include on the ground, hybrid, and entirely online. Survey courses in world history, western civilization, and United States history help students fulfill General Education transfer requirements. Additionally, the History Department offers courses that address specific regions and populations around the world that also fulfill graduation and transfer requirements. Courses include the study of African-American history, Asian/Pacific Islander history, Chicano/Mexican-American history, Native American history, Women in American history, and California history. The department’s global focus includes courses addressing the history of Asian Civilization, Latin America, Mexico, Russia, and women in western civilization. Further, the History Department offers honors courses in United States history and the history of Western Civilizations. The department’s courses help nurture a global perspective while emphasizing the study of our world’s diverse population reflected in American River College’s student population. History Department curriculum promotes sharpening critical thinking, enhancing creative problem solving, evaluating evidence, and developing clear communication skills. History Department faculty offer students expertise in the subjects they teach. While minimum job qualifications call for a master’s degree in an area of history, American River College historians specialize in the specific fields of history they teach. The History Department’s greatest strength is our faculty. Faculty members are committed to serving our students and college community, both in and outside the classroom; contributing to the discipline of history; and promoting connections with our regional community.

The History Department contributes to the mission of American River College by providing an impressive breadth of courses that address our world’s diverse population. The History Department’s curriculum nurtures a global perspective by offering students the opportunity to study a wide range of courses taught by faculty with expertise in specific content areas. History courses facilitate the development of cultural awareness and nurture a culturally competent and inclusive college community. By nature, history is an analytical discipline. The study of history promotes the development of critical thinking. The study of the past informs our understanding of the present and supports wise and creative planning for the future. The History Department is devoted to making our program accessible to residents of our region by offering courses in a variety of modalities, locations, and times. (Access, Benefit of Education, Diversity).

The History Department made excellent progress toward achieving the established goals and objectives articulated in the previous Program Review cycle 2011. Although we are beginning a revised Program Review and new Annual Unit Planning program, the History Department’s progress toward achieving previously established goals and objectives deserves attention and inclusion in the revised format. Progress toward achieving the Goals and Objectives of the History Department’s 2011 Program Review: Goal/Objective 1: Development of a History Transfer Degree – Accomplished History was in the first wave of ARC departments to develop an AA for transfer degree, the Associate in Arts degree in History for Transfer (AA-T) in alignment with the state’s Transfer Model Curriculum. Goal/Objective 2: Develop new curricula to reflect ARC’s diverse student population – Accomplished/Ongoing Curriculum developed during the previous cycle includes two courses in Latin American History. Both courses are approved for the History AA-T degree, the new History Pathway, and for CSU/UC transfer articulation. From the American River College catalogue: History 374 History of Latin America to 1830 – Accomplished General Education: AA/AS Area V(b); AA/AS Area VI; CSU Area D6; IGETC Area 4F Course Transferable to UC/CSU This course is a general historical survey of Latin American history from the pre-contact indigenous civilizations to the 19th-century nationalist movements in the region. The focus is on the influence of political, economic, cultural, and demographic factors that shaped Latin America. History 375 The History of Modern Latin America and Caribbean – Accomplished General Education: AA/AS Area V(b); AA/AS Area VI; CSU Area D; IGETC Area 4 Course Transferable to UC/CSU This course offers a general survey of Latin American history from the 19th century to the present, with focus on social, political, economic, and cultural developments. Issues include Latin America and the Caribbean in the global economy, dictators and democracy, African and indigenous cultures, feminism and gender, cultural politics, social movements and revolution, and relations with the United States and the world. Courses in African and Middle Eastern History – In progress Goal/Objective 3: Commitment to a global curriculum by hiring a full-time faculty member with expertise in Middle East/African history – Underway/In Progress The History Department was approved for a full-time hire for the spring, 2019, a hiring search that is currently underway at the time of this report. The job description for the new hire includes teaching of African and Middle Eastern history, making it now possible, pending the new hire, to develop the requisite curriculum/courses in those fields. Goal/Objective 4: Coordinate History courses with campus student services designed to foster student success - Accomplished and Ongoing During 2010-2011 History undertook a joint research project with Humanities, the RAD Program, and the college Research department to explore the efficacy of literacy support services for students in History and Humanities courses. This pioneering study produced a statistically significant correlation between student success in history courses and students who might benefit from literacy support, who were enrolled in RAD. In sum, those RAD students were more likely to pass their history courses than unsupported students who were not enrolled in RAD and did not receive literacy support services. During the previous Program Review cycle the History Department was also a campus leader in fostering literacy supportive classroom instruction, particularly in the adoption of the highly successful nationwide literacy framework known as Reading Apprenticeship (RA). RA was first developed in California as part of the Strategic Literacy Initiative sponsored by WestEd and the California Community College Support Network (3CSN). History faculty underwent special training in Reading Apprenticeship, and then developed professional development models which were supported by the ARC Basic Skills Committee and CTL. From 2014-2018 over 200 instructors and instructional support staff from all disciplines throughout ARC and the LRCCD completed the 1-day RA workshop offered during the fall and spring Flex weeks. One of the history faculty was featured in a publication, Leading for Literacy [https://readingapprenticeship.org/book/leading-for-literacy/], which touted the development of faculty training models in support of literacy enhanced classroom instruction. A history faculty has served as Faculty Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning during the previous and current review cycle. Goal/Objective 4: Develop support resources for study abroad and the Study in Italy program – Accomplished and Ongoing Professor Bill Wrightson continued to organize and lead ARC’s summertime study abroad in Florence, Italy in partnership with the American Institute for Foreign Studies. Professor Wrightson developed the program to provide students with an opportunity to live and study abroad who might not otherwise have the financial means or the time for a full semester abroad program. Professor Wrightson is scheduled to teach the summer study abroad course in Florence during the summer of 2019. The department is awaiting the opportunity to discuss the program’s future with campus study abroad coordinator and Goal/Objective 5: Upgrade classrooms – Accomplished Early in the 2011-2018 cycle all four of the history classrooms in Davies Hall became equipped with multimedia digital technology and banked lighting that optimizes the viewing of projected images and enhances the Smart Classroom components, including featured document cameras. One history classroom, Davies 105, is equipped with a permanent document camera in support of classroom technology, and the BSS Division has also purchased two portable document cameras at the behest of history. Goal/Objective 6: Campus, Community, International, and Professional Outreach – Accomplished and Ongoing History faculty have served in the college’s shared governance commitment by serving in the Academic Senate and on various college committees, including the Professional Leave Committee and the G.E. Committee. One faculty member served as co-chair of both the Technology Committee and the Basic Skills Committee during the recent review cycle, and another participated on the Institutional Equity Plan committee. Two of the most recently hired history faculty completed the New Faculty Academy, while two went on to complete training in the Equity Action Institute. The other became faculty advisor for the Latinos Unidos club. History faculty are frequent participants in the various college Noon Hour and Flex events, including the recent symposium on Misinformation in the Public Sphere. From 2011-2015 the Department organized and facilitated a series of annual Noon Hour presentations on the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. Both adjunct and full-time history faculty have regularly taught in the California Early College Academy through the ARC Natomas Center. The History Department supported the college’s goal of community outreach and global citizenship by partnering with the UC Davis History Project in 2011 to host a summer institute for 6th, 7th, and 10th grade teachers of world history. Building on that effort, in 2012 & 2013 the History Department hosted the World History Teachers Summer Institute. Full-time and Adjunct history faculty staffed the summer institutes, which saw public school teachers from dozens of schools around Sacramento and Placer Counties attending a 3-day course of world history instruction and pedagogy. History faculty have also been active in partnering with other institutions, including UC Davis, Casa Robles High School, the Natomas Charter School for the Performing Arts, the Sacramento Public Library, and AIFS Study Abroad on various history projects, lectures, workshops, and Study Abroad. John Allen currently serves as a research historian at the State Capitol Museum, in addition to teaching part-time for the History Department. History faculty remain active in their various professional organizations, and in spring 2018 two history faculty were featured on a panel discussion Teaching Historical Thinking in the Digital Age, at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians (OAH), the nation’s premier professional organization dedicated to the teaching of American history. The panel was organized by one of the history adjunct faculty members [https://networks.h-net.org/teaching-historical-literacy-digital-age] During the conference, one of the history faculty was also interviewed for a segment on history pedagogy as part of the OAH Amplified Initiative and sponsored by H-Net: Humanities and Social Studies Online, an interdisciplinary online forum that reaches over 200,000 subscribers in more than 90 countries [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67PMDxhgyD0] Goal/Objective 7: Coordinate more closely with the counseling area to help expand our enrollment and better respond to student concerns – Accomplished and Ongoing In two significant ways, the History Department has sought to integrate program offerings with counseling and program services. First, by developing the Associate in Arts for Transfer Degree, and second, by developing a Pathways Model Curriculum. In 2016 one history faculty traveled with a group of ARC counselors, faculty, and support staff to Pasadena City College to observe the award winning Pathways Program, the goal of which was to develop improved services and higher rates of student success for incoming students. Goal/Objective 8: Encourage and support faculty professional development, such as attending academic conferences and workshops devoted to innovative teaching methods. In a host of ways history faculty, both full-time and adjunct, have deepened their commitment to effective teaching. Every full-time faculty member and several adjunct faculty completed literacy training through the Reading Apprenticeship workshops. Several history faculty have undertaken training in online course instruction, and either completed the Online Training Institute or participation in the Online Education Initiative Rubric Academy. One history faculty member serves as Faculty Director for the Center for Teaching and Learning.

We found that student success rates in history classes have been fairly stable since completing our previous program review. Over the last three years, success rates averaged 58.8%. Student success rates improved slightly from a low of 56.8% in 2014-2015 to 60.5% in 2016-2017. Spring semester student enrollment in history courses declined over the past five years, from a high of 2,714 in the spring of 2014, dipping to a low of 2,285 in the spring of 2017, and climbing to 2,290 in the spring of 2018. Notably, spring student enrollment in history courses experienced slight growth from 2,285 in the spring of 2017 to 2,290 in the spring of 2018, representing a 0.2% increase, while the overall college enrollment at American River College declined by 1.4% in the same period. Student enrollment in fall semester history courses has also declined over the last five years. Beginning with 2,647 students enrolled in the history courses in the fall of 2013 to a low of 2,429 students in the fall of 2017. Student enrollment in history courses declined by 2.9% from the fall of 2016 to the fall of 2017, while overall student enrollment at American River College declined by 2.4% Enrollment data for fall 2018 history courses was not available. Women comprise the largest segment of the student population enrolled in history courses. Female students numbered 1,386 in the fall of 2013 and declined to 1,263 in the fall of 2017. Male student enrollment declined from 1.234 in the fall of 2013 to 1,120 in the fall of 2017. By examining the data, we found that African American, Hispanic/Latino, and multiracial students in history classes are disproportionately impacted to a significant degree, while Native American and Pacific Islander students are disproportionately impacted, but to a lesser degree. We found that multiracial students are not disproportionately impacted in the following courses: History 302; 310; 311; and in a number of courses that emphasize the study of marginalized populations and regional histories. We also found that Hispanic/Latino students are not disproportionately impacted in either of the Latin American History courses, History 374 and History 375. Unfortunately, these courses have been subjected to cancellations at the start of semesters due to budget-driven decisions requiring a minimum of 22 students to be enrolled in the courses. Our department is very concerned about the negative impact such cancellations have on students enrolled in the courses and the broader message cancelling Latin American History courses sends to our campus community. We understand, from research that has been conducted on equity in instruction, that there might be various causes that explain the rates of disproportionate impact. Among these might include, for example, a curriculum that is not adequately student-centered, textbook bias, variations in forms of assessment, strict expectations on the part of instructors, an insufficient number of faculty of color, and so on. We will request additional data, guidelines for sharing data, and training for understanding and using data to make decisions affecting our department. Additional data would help us better understand the particular needs of history students from marginalized backgrounds, such as: 1) How many students of color and white students are enrolled in our online courses compared to our face-to-face courses, and how do success rates compare for our online and face-to-face classes? This data would help us understand if we need to help students succeed in our online classes better, and whether or not we need more online classes to accommodate the schedules of students from marginalized backgrounds. 2) We will request data documenting student enrollment by ethnicity in each history course (not section). 3) We would like similar data for our early morning and evening classes for the same reasons as stated in number 1. These classes are more likely to be canceled, and we would like to understand if students from marginalized backgrounds rely on these courses in higher numbers. 4) We would like success rate data from Social Science Areas and departments at ARC as a point of comparison. If other Social Science departments have better success rates for marginalized students, this data would move us to be in conversation with our colleagues about their teaching methods and practices in order to improve our own success rates. 5) Finally, we would like data on the demographic makeup of students in classes that have been canceled due to under-enrollment to understand if class cancellations are affecting student success rates. The History Department’s greatest strength is our faculty. Faculty members are committed to serving our students and college community, both in and outside the classroom; contributing to the discipline of history; and promoting connections with our regional community. Chris Padgett serves as a leader in promoting and improving students’ reading skills. Since 2011, he has served as a Reading Apprenticeship Facilitator/Instructor. Because of his efforts, Los Rios faculty are better trained and equipped to help students complete content-specific reading assignments in our disciplines. History faculty members regularly present College Hour and Flex events at American River College. Topics include examinations of historical events, such as the Civil War and establishment of Columbus Day; the Royal Chicano Air Force; Black History Month topics; Women’s History Month topics; and Misinformation in the Public Sphere. Ed Hashima is completing a two-year term of service as Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. Three faculty members serve as club advisers on the ARC campus. Sara Smith serves as adviser to Transcendence. In November, Smith plans and presents the Transgender Day of Remembrance on campus that draws a standing-room only crowd. Ricardo Catón serves as adviser to Latinos Unidos. Together with students, Catón volunteers at the annual Southside Park César Chávez March in Sacramento. Josh Weiner serves as the adviser to Phi Alpha Kappa honors club. Faculty members planned and presented informative sessions about the study of history, as part of the ARC mentoring program. John Allen, Paul Bethel, Ricardo Catón, Abigail Feely, Sara Lee, Camille Leonhardt, and Sara Smith contributed directly to this program. Rudy Pearson facilitates the James Wotherspoon History scholarship program through the Los Rios Colleges Foundation. History faculty members contribute to and sustain the scholarship. The History Department serves students both near and far. Each summer, Bill Wrightson leads a study abroad program in Florence. Paul Bethel taught students in London in the fall of 2011 Northern California Study Abroad Consortium. History Department faculty members are committed to serving the campus community. In the past review cycle, they represented the Behavioral Social Sciences Area on the Academic Senate, Building and Grounds Committee, the Technology Committee, and Basic Skills Committee. Josh Weiner currently serves on the Student Learning Outcomes committee. Paul Bethel currently represents the BSS Area on the Facilities Master Plan committee. Sara Smith currently serves on the Institutional Equity Plan committee. History faculty members are committed historians. During the past Program Review cycle, John Allen published Sacramento’s Capitol Park, Arcadia Publishing, 2013. More recently, Sara Smith presented at the National Women’s Studies Association conference in Atlanta. Her presentation addressed a chapter she authored on queer labor history, which was recently published in The Routledge History of Queer America. Josh Weiner published assessment materials for the Pearson World History textbooks: The World: A History, volumes 1 and 2. Paul Bethel serves as an evaluator for the Advanced Placement US History exams. In the spring of 2018 when the prestigious Organization of American Historians came to Sacramento for its annual conference, American River College historians contributed to the success of the conference and very ably represented ARC. Abigail Feely planned and facilitated a well-attended panel discussion entitled “Teaching Historical Literacy in the Digital Age.” Chris Padgett contributed as a panelist. John Allen led OAH historians on a guided tour of the State Capitol. The History Department establishes valuable connections with the greater Sacramento area. During the past Program Review cycle the History Department offered World History Summer Institutes to area social studies teachers in 2011 and 2012. Chris Padgett, John Allen, Claire Eberhardt, and Josh Weiner worked with teachers to enhance content knowledge and develop curriculum. Historian John Allen also serves as a research historian at the State Capitol Museum. He supervises California State University, Sacramento Public History interns. Chris Padgett serves as a mentor to Casa Robles High School world history teachers. Camille Leonhardt presents guest lectures to the local branch of the Bureau of Reclamation “Diversity Awareness” days. History faculty members serve as volunteer judges for K-12 History Day competitions in both Sacramento and Placer Counties. Josh Weiner presented a lecture on the East India Company in India at through the UC Davis Distance Education program. Chris Padgett presented “Created Equal: Abolitionism in America,” at a National Endowment for the Humanities event for the Natomas charter school and Sacramento Public Library in February 2015. Padgett also presents to the local Carmichael Sertoma Club. History faculty members are committed to sharing with and serving our community

The History Department found that our culturally rich curriculum is one of our key strengths. We offer courses in African American, Native American, Chicano, and Asian/Pacific American History, as well as courses on Latin American History, History of Asian Civilization, Women’s History, Russian History and World History, among other topics. Research shows that a curriculum reflective of the experiences of marginalized students is one important way to decrease the racial achievement gap. We will request additional data, guidelines for sharing data, and training for understanding and using data to make decisions affecting our department. Additional data will help us better understand the particular needs of history students from marginalized backgrounds. Our department’s greatest strength is our faculty. Faculty members are committed to serving our students and college community, both in and outside the classroom; contributing to the discipline of history; and promoting connections with our regional community.

The History Department aspires to protect our culturally rich curriculum and maintain our commitment to excellence. We would like to improve the success rates of our all our students, paying particular attention to the status of disproportionately impacted students. Our ideal future is to close the racial achievement gap in history classes. Our ideal future involves hiring more full-time faculty to improve faculty working conditions and better serve our students. History faculty want be a part of planning new learning spaces as Davies Hall is replaced to ensure that learning spaces accommodate a variety of learning styles and student needs. Given the heavy emphasis upon critical thinking and writing skills in history classes, and our need to promote equity, our ideal future consists of smaller class sizes. This will help us to utilize more student-centered teaching methods and focus each student, which would ultimately help improve our success rates.

Program-level objective: Teach culturally relevant curriculum. Protect culturally rich curriculum: ensure that we are offering enough classes to satisfy the demand of disproportionately impacted students, including early morning and evening classes, times when marginalized students might need to attend classes in higher numbers. Further, pursue strategic scheduling using the Ad Astra system to ensure that classes are being offered at times when disproportionately impacted students are able to attend and succeed. We will vigorously defend courses against cancellations. We will determine our success based upon the number of culturally relevant courses offered to students each semester. Program-level objective: Utilize innovative, high-quality instructional methods and technologies o improve the success rates of disproportionately impacted students. Our next step is to be in conversation with each other about how we can improve our pedagogy to better serve marginalized students, taking into account research about promoting equity in the classroom. We’ll develop a concrete plan together to improve the success rates of disproportionately impacted student. The plan may include the following: 1) Pedagogical workshops: With financial assistance from the college, we would like to hire trainers to facilitate workshops on promoting equity in the history classroom specifically; 2) Form an Equity sub-committee: This will further ensure that our department supports suggestions gleaned from our pedagogical workshops, and that there exists a dedicated handful of faculty in the department promoting equity at department meetings and in the department generally. The committee could propose actions such as: a) readings for the department to discuss; b) conferences on equity for history faculty to attend; c) conversations with each other about pedagogy and equity; and d) peer observations in classes where marginalized students are succeeding at higher rates; 3) Academic skills: Continue to emphasize instruction of academic skills, such as writing thesis statements for history essays, using MLA and Chicago-Style citations to cite historical evidence, structuring history essays, teaching reading comprehension for history texts, primary document analysis, taking lecture notes, study habits, and time management. All department members will be invited to participate in each step. We will measure our success by requesting course-level data on student success rates annually, at the end of the Fall semester. If the data indicates that the success rates of disproportionately impacted students have improved, we’ll continue with our efforts. If the success rates haven’t improved, we’ll reevaluate our strategies.

First, we would like, as a department, to assess the disproportionate impact data together. The data requested above will help us do this, but we also encourage individual faculty to request data about success rates in their own courses. Our next step is to be in conversation with each other about how we can improve our pedagogy to better serve marginalized students, taking into account research about promoting equity in the classroom. We’ll develop a concrete plan together to improve the success rates of disproportionately impacted students. The plan may include the following: 1) Pedagogical workshops: With financial assistance from the college, we would like to hire trainers to facilitate workshops on promoting equity in the history classroom specifically. 2) Equity sub-committee: This will further ensure that the department is following the suggestions gleaned from our pedagogical workshops, and that there exists a dedicated handful of faculty in the department promoting equity at department meetings and in the department generally. The committee could propose actions such as: a) readings for the department to discuss; b) conferences on equity for history faculty to attend; c) conversations with each other about pedagogy and equity; and d) peer observations in classes where marginalized students are succeeding at higher rates. 3) Strategic scheduling: using the Ad Astra system, to ensure that classes are being offered at times when disproportionately impacted students are able to attend and succeed. 4) Protect culturally rich curriculum: ensure that we are offering enough classes to satisfy the demand of disproportionately impacted students, including early morning and evening classes, times when marginalized students might need to attend classes in higher numbers. 5) Communication: Point students toward resources that exist for students suffering from food insecurity, students who need access to more affordable childcare, students who may benefit from mental health services, announce student clubs, resource centers, programs for marginalized students, and so on, by making announcements in class, putting this information in our syllabi and/or our Canvas course sites. 6) Pursue communication paths through public relations to promote history courses, particularly those that emphasize a culturally rich curriculum. 7) Academic skills: Encourage the history faculty to teach basic academic skills to students, such as writing thesis statements for history essays, using MLA and Chicago-Style citations to cite historical evidence, structuring history essays, teaching reading comprehension for history texts, primary document analysis, taking lecture notes, study habits, and time management.