Art
2021-2022 Program Review
1
Unit Profile
1.1
Briefly describe the program-level planning unit. What is the unit's purpose and function?
The Art Department serves the American River College population with both GE and degree specific courses covering diverse subject matter such as Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Ceramics, Photography and Art History. GE transfer courses are as follows: Art 300, Art 304, Art 320, Art 370, Art 372, Art 390, Arth 300, Arth 302, Arth 308, Arth 310, Arth 318, Arth 333, Arth 334 and Arth 335. We offer the following degrees and certificates: Art HistoryA.A. for Transfer (AA-T) Degree, Art A.A. Degree, Studio Art A.A. for Transfer (AA-T) Degree, Sculpture Certificate, Freelance Photography Certificate, and Gallery Management Certificate.
1.2
How does the unit contribute to achievement of the mission of American River College?
ARC Mission: American River College places students first in providing an academically rich, inclusive environment that inspires critical thinking, learning and achievement, and responsible participation in the community.
The Art Department contributes to the Mission of the American River College by offering a variety of culturally diverse and inclusive courses. Our Art History courses introduce students to many cultures and historically significant events through Art. Our Art Studio courses inspire problem solving and critical thinking.
ARC Mission: American River College, serving the greater Sacramento region, offers education and support for students to strengthen basic skills, earn associate degrees and certificates, transfer to other colleges and universities, and achieve career as well as other academic and personal goals.
The Art Department offers clear Pathways to earning an AA transfer degree in both Art History and Art Studio for students who pursue the AA Transfer degrees.
The Art Department offers numerous General Education transfer courses for non art majors.
The Art Department offers advancement of career goals with clear pathways to certificates that feed directly into the local arts community. Many of our classes and certificates connect students directly to the local art community giving them opportunities to achieve careers goals as working artists. Many of our students go on to be vital members of the local arts community exhibiting their work, receiving arts grants for murals and projects and becoming active members of the arts community. The local arts community in Sacramento brings in millions of dollars to the economy both directly and indirectly through educational programs and by creating a magnet for tourism.
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?
Many of our previous goals have been achieved. The Art Department is much better equipped than before, and we have expanded and diversified our offerings. However the department is still in need of better/newer facilities. In the past we have seen an decrease in enrollment due to the removal of repeatability and creation of Pathways. The desire to stabilize our enrollment and need to increase our retention rates will be reflected in our new unit goals and objectives.
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
Disproportionate Impact
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).
Department Set Standards
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
SLO Data Set
The faculty's continuous review of student achievement of course SLOs is documented using the Authentic Assessment Review Record (AARR), which involves a review of student work demonstrating achievement of the course SLO. Faculty record student achievement for a randomly assigned course SLO based on one or more authentic assessments that they regularly perform in their classes. The aggregated results are then reviewed annually as part of Annual Unit Planning, in which the results may serve as the basis for actions and, if applicable, resource allocation, and are aligned with college goals and objectives.
The AARR summary link provides an aggregate of the results of the most recent AARR implementation. The AARR results by SLO link provides a more detailed view, including the specific ratings assigned by faculty to each randomly assigned course SLO, and what, if any, actions were taken.
Note: Established thresholds (i.e., green/yellow/red indicators) have yet to be developed for SLO data.
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.
Program Strengths include: Over half of our full time faculty have had equity training through the Equity Action Institute and various flex activities such as Actionable Equity and Diversity training, Applied Allyship Training Series-American Indian Tribal Citizens, and an increase community outreach with the locals arts community through development of internships, exhibition and grant opportunities. Updated equipment for various lab classes. The Art Department collaborated with other departments such as Tech Ed. Photography students were hired to compliment for the computer information science component for the Ad Astra project. Art students have also been hired to create a mural for the Aerospace museum.
Program Challenges:
Program Challenges include a need for updated rooms and facilities for our various studio classes. Many of our classrooms are out of date and some currently do not have functioning heat and hvac systems.
Equity Gaps in a higher drop rate and lower success rate among males and african american males in particular in GE courses is one of our main challenges.
We currently have a need for one full time faculty for our Art History Program.
Taking a way of Repeatability and Narrow Pathways have had a negative impact on the Art Departments enrollment over the years.
The cost of computers or other equipment is a barrier to some students. The college has a chromebook program but that is insufficient for the programs that are required for the arts. The expense of software is problematic for many of our DI populations as it creates a barrier to success. Many students do not know the difference between a chromebook and a pc until past the drop date. A more nuanced campus donation program would increase retention with DI students in many online classes in our program.
?Free access to supplies and materials for all of the art classes would create a positive impact on our student populations.
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 Art Department has achieved success rates with DI populations in Art 300 and in the majority of our Art History classes. We have increased art related internship opportunities and have been a direct pathway to opportunities in the local arts community. We have hosted a number or workshops, lectures and mural opportunities that have given students a chance to meet and work with professional artists who come from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Many non-majors take our GE courses to help fulfil their degrees and to allow them to transfer in a timely manner.
The Art Department still needs to increase is success rates in with certain DI populations. There are several classes that have lower than desirable success rates with populations such as African American males and males in general.
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 Art departments ideal future would be a continuation of creation of opportunities for students that lead to success in the local arts community.
A continuation of a depth of offerings that give students the chance to engage in problem solving while exploring a variety of material with the goal of increasing critical thinking.
The department will improve institutional effectiveness and increase academic quality by offering the following:
An opportunity to learn about culturally diverse populations through the visual arts.
An opportunity for non-majors to explore the visual world through transfer GE courses.
The Art Department would also like to see an increase in success and retention rates among certain DI populations.
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 Art Department would like to see a significant increase in retention rates among DI population. Certain populations still have a much larger drop rate than others in numerous art classes.
By diversifying our offerings, we hope to see an increase in our retention rates that will then lead to an increase in success rates.
Success will be measured through close analysis of Disproportionately Impacted yearly data reports.
4.2
How will the unit's intended enhancements support ARC's commitment to social justice and equity?
The Art Department creates opportunities for our students to take part in direct community engagement by connecting our students to the local arts community. We offer culturally diverse courses, workshops, and guest lectures that support ARC mission to equity minded education. We support and promote student success by offering numerous general education courses that transfer to both the CSU’s and UC’s.