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RESEARCH & INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

As part of the  Instruction Team , the Research and Institutional Effectiveness  (RIE)  Office supports the mission of the college by providing accurate, timely, and reliable information to respond to the research needs of the various institutional constituencies. It engages in and supports processes for determining and documenting the effectiveness of programs and services and the institution as a whole in order to foster continuous quality improvement.

Office: Bldg. 4 Room 2435
Phone: (909) 274-4109

Recent Research Projects (last updated March 1, 2013)
The following is a brief sampling of some research and planning projects that our team completed. While our listing of projects each year is already filled with mandatory projects (e.g., Chancellor's Office Basic Skills Survey) we are also fortunate to have time to spend with faculty and administrators to answer their questions on their programs and services in order to improve student success and time to degree/transfer. 

Maria Tsai, Senior Research Analyst
My recent completed projects were the Disproportionate Impact studies on Mt.SAC reading (Degree of Reading Power) and writing (Assessment of Written English) assessment tests. Disproportionate impact refers to the negative effect that a testing instrument may have on students when differential placement rates by students’ ethnicity, gender, age, or disability into highest possible course(s) are observed.  All assessment instruments used by California Community Colleges to place students into sequential courses are required to go through an extensive validation process and must be approved by the Chancellor’s Office.  In collaboration with the Assessment Center, two studies were conducted in accordance with Title 5 and Matriculation regulations investigating whether the use of Mt.SAC’s reading (DRP) and writing (AWE) placement tests have any disproportionate impact on the college’s tested population.  These studies are a key component of the test validation process being evaluated for approval by the California Community College Chancellor’s Office for use in course placement.

Daniel Lamoree, Educational Research Assessment Analyst
Most recently, I was involved in a research request that examined two cohorts of students: (1) students that scored within a ten point band of the cut score for the READ 90 placement test and did not enroll in READ 100, and (2) students that scored within the cut score for the READ 90 placement test and successfully passed READ 90. The two cohorts were then compared using a binary logistic regression to examine the differences, if any, in their success rate in core coursework. The results of this study are still in the preliminary stages but it appears the data supports the notion that students scoring above the READ 90 cut score succeed more frequently than those students that enroll and successfully completed READ 90.

Annel Medina, Educational Research Assessment Analyst
As the new Educational Research Assessment Analyst, I have enjoyed learning more about the campus in committee meetings (Institutional Effectiveness Committee member and Guest Member in Outcomes Committee) and RIE team meetings as well as interaction with others on campus.  During the Fall 2012 semester, I met with faculty to discuss student learning outcomes (SLO), collaborated with the Outcomes Coordinator, and completed planning for GEO assessment.  As I am becoming accustomed to campus reporting procedures, I have also been learning to utilize the appropriate Mt. SAC databases/software to perform tasks.  With the guidance and support from my department colleagues, I recently completed a research project with Professor Gary Long.  The research request involved examining students longitudinally that have enrolled in a Math Skills Course (Math 96) and then understanding their progress and success in related Math Courses as well as academic history.  In the future, I am looking forward to working on additional research projects and assisting with the institutional and student learning outcomes on campus. 

Lisa DiDonato, Educational Research Assessment Analyst (ARISE Grant)
More than 1,400 high school seniors from over 40 local high schools benefit each year from the efforts of Mt. SAC's High School Outreach department (HSO).Through application workshops, placement testing, testing results review sessions, assistance with student account set-up, one-on-one advisement and other specialized presentations (DSPS, AB540) the HSO staff strive to prepare local high school seniors for the transition from high school student to college student at Mt. SAC. Due to a temporary out-of-class assignment, I generated individual reports for each of the HSO high schools. These reports summarized the outcomes of HSO efforts during the 2011/2012 academic year, as well as data on how the students who completed HSO's Connect 4 program during the previous year (2010/2011) are progressing. In addition to individual high school reports, district reports were also created for the school districts with more than one participating high school. The data revealed that 97% of the 1,476 students from the HSO high schools who completed all four steps of the Connect 4 program registered for classes in the Fall 2012 term, and 71% (n=1,009) enrolled in 12 or more units. The overall data also showed that term to term persistence is higher among the students who completed the Connect 4 program during the previous year than those who did not. The reports also demonstrated that each school has it's own unique data, and therefore service needs. These reports are now being reviewed and utilized by the HSO staff along with the district superintendents, high school principals, and counselors in order to better prepare their students for college.

John Barkman, Professional Expert (Perkins)
I provided data to evaluate the recent redesign of the Interior Design program by looking at student course taking patterns. This started with simple counts of enrollments by course. More complex analysis was also done which looked at the sequence in which students took courses within the Interior Design program, as well as finding the most common courses from the rest of the Mt SAC curriculum which were taken by Interior Design students.

Barbara McNeice-Stallard, Director
My leadership, management, and research endeavors vary. In fall 2012, I coordinated the completion of the College's accreditation report to the Commission regarding its progress in outcomes assessment (aka student learning outcomes). I am finalizing a research paper on a qualitative review of a mentoring program in collaboration with Citrus College's researchers Dr. Lu (Sunny) Liu and Mr. Claire Stallard. I am working with Daniel Lamoree and Dr. Liu to conduct predictive statistics on a few programs within the College (e.g., see Dan's READ 90 description). My biggest projects, at the moment, are the College's accreditation Midterm Report, setting up an Institutional Review Board, and evaluating students' employment post-graduation. 

Research Program Review

RIE  participates in continuous program review through the College's Planning for Institutional Effectiveness model (RIE-PIE 2011-12).

 

All documents are provided in Adobe PDF format unless otherwise indicated. Click here to download Acrobat Reader if you do not have a PDF reader already installed.

 

Office Location: Bldg. 4 Room 2435 • Phone:  (909) 274-4109  • Office Hours: 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., weekdays