Statement for Compliance

Palo Alto College identifies student learning outcomes for each of its educational programs, assesses the extent to which students have acquired these outcomes, and uses the results of this assessment to make improvements.

This statement for compliance is structured as follows:

1. Definition and description of the educational programs offered at Palo Alto College.
2. Program learning outcomes, description of assessment instruments, benchmarks, and collection of data.
3. The use of program assessment results to improve educational programs.
4. Indirect measures and improvements to educational programs. 

Definition and Description of Educational Programs

Palo Alto College currently offers, for the 2016-2017 academic year, one Associate of Arts (AA), two Associate of Arts in Teaching (AAT) specializations, 18 Associates of Applied Science (AAS), five Level Two Certificate programs, 38 Level One Certificate programs, one Marketable Skills Award, and one Advanced Technical Certificate.  These programs are the following:

The 2016-2017 academic year marked a transition year for the programs offered by the college. The Board of Trustees for the College, in order to create programming more consistent with effective transfer, revised policy E.1.3 Core Curriculum and Degrees[1] in 2015 to combine all major-specific AA degrees and AS degrees into one AA and one AS degree.  The combined AA degree requires a completed core curriculum (42 credit hours) and 18 semester credit hours of additional academic transfer courses, which provides sufficient flexibility for each student’s transfer plan.  The AS, when offered, would also require a completed core curriculum plus 18 additional semester credit hours, but would be differentiated from the AA by specific requirements in the areas of science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. Palo Alto College has not yet defined AS degree requirements, but does offer, in the College’s 2016-2017 catalog, the general AA. During academic years prior to 2016-2017, as may be seen in the 2015-2016 Catalog Program List[2], Palo Alto College offered 15 Associate of Arts (AA) and eight Associate of Science (AS) programs, each differentiated by major and assessed individually. 

The requirements for associate degrees in Texas are defined by Texas statute and by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), and their properties are also addressed in the Fifth Year Report narrative for FR 4.4. All associate degrees require a minimum of 60 semester credit hours, and semester credit hour requirements that are greater than 60 must be approved by the THECB (see document titled 60-Hour Limitation[3]). The Certificate semester credit hour requirements vary: Level One Certificates require 15-42 semester credit hours, Level Two Certificates require 30-51 semester credit hours, Marketable Skills (re-named Occupational Skills by the THECB, effective Fall 2017) Awards require 16-45 semester credit hours, and the Advanced Technical Certificate requires 16-45 semester credit hours beyond the AAS.

The purpose of associate degrees and certificates also vary by type of award, and this is summarized in what follows. 

Associate of Arts and Associate of Science 

The AA and AS degrees are designed for transfer into a baccalaureate program.  The curriculum of the AA and AS programs are required by Texas statute (see Title 19, Chapter 9, Subchapter A, Rule 9.1[4]) to align, as nearly as possible, with the freshman and sophomore requirements of a baccalaureate program. 

Associate of Arts in Teaching

The AAT degrees are designated by the THECB as “fully transferable associate degrees,” (see document titled Associate of Arts in Teaching[5]) and provide precisely the courses required in the freshman and sophomore years of a bachelor’s degree leading to a Texas teaching certificate.  The course requirements for both AAT degrees are the result of collaboration between Texas public community colleges and Texas public universities and four-year colleges.  All community colleges offering the AAT require the same courses for completion and all Texas public colleges, and universities will apply the entire degree (60 credit hours) toward the teaching baccalaureate. 

Associate of Applied Science

AAS degrees are designed to prepare students for entry into the workforce.  These degrees do not require a complete core curriculum but must include the 15 hours of general education required by SACSCOC (see GIPWE Chapter 3[6]).  Each AAS program is supported by an advisory committee comprised of professionals in the career field the AAS graduates will enter.  The advisory committee share curriculum oversight with the program faculty, ensuring that graduates are fully prepared for their career field. 

Certificate Programs 

Like AAS programs, Certificate programs are designed for entry into the workforce. Certificates require fewer hours to complete and are generally associated with an AAS award. When associated in this way, students earning the Certificate will also have completed a subset of the requirements for the AAS.  Level 1 and Level 2 Certificates are designed for entry-level positions in the workforce but are also designed to encourage students to return to complete an AAS. The Occupational Skills Awards, like the Level One Certificates, are short job-entry programs. The Advanced Technical Certificates are designed to provide an additional set of skills for students who have completed their AAS. 

Programs Offered at Off-site Locations and through Distance Education

Palo Alto College has offered an Aviation Associate of Applied Science offsite, at Stinson Municipal Airfield, San Antonio, TX, an offsite location approved by SACSCOC in December, 2009.  However, in April, 2017, the College notified SACSCOC of the closure of the aviation program, requesting approval of the associated teach-out plan.

As noted in the Institutional Summary, the College has received approval from SACSCOC to offer, beginning in January 2018, 50% or more of a program at twelve different offsite high school or Early College High School locations (see Table for 50% or more Sites[7]).  SACSCOC has also been notified of the College’s intent to offer, with an August 2017 implementation, 25-49% of a program at ten offsite high school or Early College High School locations(see Table for 25-49% sites[8]).  Program assessment during academic year 2017-2018 will include the programs offered at these offsite locations.

As also indicated in the Institutional Summary, 34 programs at Palo Alto College are available 50% or more online (see Table for Programs 50% or More Online[9]). The direct assessment of these program learning outcomes is done across both online and face-to-face sections of the relevant courses. 

Program Learning Outcomes, Description of Assessment Instruments, Benchmarks, and Collection of Data

In order to provide evidence of program learning outcomes, assessment methods, and program improvements as a result of assessment, a sample of the programs offered at the College is provided.  The sample is stratified to include programs that are high-enrolled as well as programs that are low-enrolled, programs that are offered online, and programs of each type (AA, AS, AAS, AAT, and Certificates) offered by the college.  This sample consists of the following Associate Degrees and Certificates:

• AA in English
• AA in Humanities
• AA in Speech
• AS in Pre-Professional
• AS in Pre-Nursing
• AAS in Veterinary Technology
• AAS in Logistics and Supply Chain Management
• Level I Certificate in Administrative Assistant
• Level I Certificate in Warehouse Management
• AAT: Associate of Arts in Teaching, Concentration in 8-12 Specialization (Note: Name changed to Associate of Arts in Teaching, Concentration in 7-12 Specialization in Fall 2015)
• General AA: An Associate of Arts without major designation, effective Fall 2016.

Faculty have assigned measurable learning programs to each program offered by the College.  Please see the document entitled Program Learning Outcomes[10] for a complete list of learning outcomes for each program.  Please see Table 3.3.1.1-1[11] for the program learning outcomes assigned to the sample programs. 

The Associate of Arts

Beginning in Fall 2016, resulting from policy change by the Board of Trustees, the general Associate of Arts (AA), without major designation, is the only AA offered by the College. The program requires a completed 42 semester-credit-hour core curriculum (the Texas general education requirement) and 18 hours selected from the College’s inventory of academic transfer courses.  Because the core curriculum forms both the largest and the only common part of this AA, the six learning outcomes assigned to this program are the six learning outcomes assigned to the Core Curriculum. These are:

1. Communication
2. Critical Thinking
3. Empirical and Quantitative Skills
4. Personal Responsibility
5. Social Responsibility
6. Teamwork

Please see the document entitled Core Curriculum Student Learning Outcomes[12] for the complete statement of each learning outcome. 

Description of Assessment Artifacts, Benchmarks, and Collection of Data

When determining how the program learning outcomes would be assessed, faculty for each program chose for each learning outcome the course(s) within the program that best allowed students to demonstrate their acquired knowledge and skills.  For the AAS programs, the course chosen for program learning outcomes assessment is most generally the capstone course, which is designed to integrate and synchronize all skills and knowledge acquired in that program of study. Certificates were assessed through the course judged by faculty to best synthesize the certificate learning outcomes.  For the AA, AS, and AAT programs, assessments were made through student work done in the course (or courses) faculty judged to be most demanding or most critical to transfer success within that discipline or major.

Benchmarks were first set at the expectation that 70 percent of students assessed would be judged as proficient in that learning outcome, aligning the judgement of success for the program with the judgement of success for a student.  This expectation was often raised to a higher percentage as assessment results were collected and reviewed through succeeding cycles.

Program assessments are completed every spring term of each academic year (please see document titled Program Assessment Calendar[13]).  Assessment results are reviewed and the assessment report is written, within each department by the program faculty, during the first month of the following fall term.  In preparation for review of the 2015-2016 results and to assist with improving the Program Assessment Reports and the action plans associated with them, the Coordinator of Measurement and Evaluation has provided program faculty with an updated program assessment document: Reporting Program Assessment Results[14].  Please see the diagram of the PAC Assessment Cycle[15].

Provided in Table 3.3.1.1-2[16] are the 2015-2016 assessment instruments and the benchmarks for each of the learning outcomes in the sample programs. Each of the following items provides a three-year cycle of program assessment reports.

• AAT 8-12 Specialization[17]
• AA English[18]
• AA Humanities[19]
• AA Speech[20]
• AAS Logistics-Supply Chain Management[21]
• AAS Veterinary Technology[22]
• AS Pre-Nursing[23]
• AS Pre-Professional[24]
• Administrative Assistant, Certificate Level 1[25]
• Warehouse Management, Certificate Level 1[26] 

The Associate of Arts

The one general Associate of Arts (AA) that is offered in the 2016-2017 catalog is assessed for core curriculum learning outcomes.  That assessment follows the College’s core curriculum (general education) assessment cycle.  In this cycle, two of the six core curriculum learning outcomes are assessed each year.  In academic year 2016-2017 personal and social responsibility were the two outcomes assessed, with analysis and planning occurring in Fall 2017 (see General Education Assessment Calendar[27]).

The core curriculum learning outcomes are directly assessed through “key assignments” assigned to all students in each course responsible for core curriculum learning outcomes (see documents titled Student Work for Personal Responsibility[28], Key Assignment for Personal Responsibility [29]and Key Assignment with Student Work for Social Responsibility[30]). Those assignments, designed to allow students to fully demonstrate their competency in the given learning outcome, are collected through a random sampling process.  They are then assessed by cross-disciplinary faculty using the rubric for that outcome.  The rubrics for personal and social responsibility have outcome levels from one to four, and the benchmark for both of these learning outcomes is to have 70% of the student artifacts score a three or four in all rubric criteria.  Please see the document labeled General Education Assessment Fall 2016[31] for a summary of these results and the document labeled Personal [32]and Social Responsibility Rubrics[33] for those assessment rubrics.

The assessment of core curriculum learning outcomes also includes the following indirect measures:  the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE), which provides students' assessments of their engagement at the Palo Alto College, and the College's graduation survey, capturing students' assessment of their experience at PAC at the time of graduation (see documents titled CCSSE-Gen Ed Crosswalk[34], Graduation Survey-Gen Ed Crosswalk[35], and Graduation Survey Results[36] for the alignment of these questions with the core curriculum learning outcomes)

Program assessment of the AA is the shared responsibility of all faculty who teach core curriculum courses. 

How the Results of Program Assessment are Used to Improve Educational Programs

The direct assessment of program learning outcomes each year is summarized in the Program Assessment Reports, created by faculty early in the fall term after review of the assessment results. These reports include, as previously indicated, the learning outcomes, the benchmarks, and the assessment instrument (student artifact) to be assessed. The Program Assessment Reports also include the data produced by the assessment and an action plan for the program based upon the review of that data. The action plan addresses improvements for the program and may also include an improvement for the assessment method itself. Summarized in the following tables, one for each of the sample programs, are three cycles of assessment outcomes and the improvements based upon those outcomes.

• AA English, Table 3.3.1.1-3[37]
• AA Speech, Table 3.3.1.1-4[38]
• AA Humanities, Table 3.3.1.1-5[39]
• AS Pre-Professional, Table 3.3.1.1-6[40]
• AS Pre-Nursing, Table 3.3.1.1-7[41]
• AAS Veterinary Technology, Table 3.3.1.1-8[42]
• AAS Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Table 3.3.1.1-9[43]
• AAT Concentration in 8-12 Specialization, Table 3.3.1.1-10[44]
• Level 1 Certificate, Administrative Assistant, Table 3.3.1.1-11[45]
• Level 1 Certificate, Warehouse Management, Table 3.3.1.1-12[46] 

Improvement Plans Based on Indirect Assessments

High Risk Courses

In addition to direct assessment of the program learning outcomes, summarized in the previous tables, faculty also use indirect measures to assess students’ acquisition of program student learning outcomes. The first of these indirect measures is the productive grade rate (PGR: the percentage of students who complete a given course with a C, B, or A) for the courses within the program.  Courses with a PGR below 70 percent and an enrollment greater than 100 are labeled High Risk. Faculty create action plans for these courses, designed to improve the success rate by addressing the issues that underlie students’ failure to thrive within that curriculum. (See I 4.0 (Procedure) High Risk Course Evaluations and Improvement Strategy[47].)

Faculty have targeted High Risk courses for several years; the College moved from 18 high risk courses in Fall 2010 to a low of 11 in Fall 2012.  Since Fall 2013, however, the College has had a persistent thirteen High Risk courses, eight of which are in mathematics.  Although progress has been made in raising the PGR for several of these courses, the PGR remains below the 70% threshold.  Please see documents titled Table of High Risk Courses[48] and High Risk Courses[49] for longitudinal data.

In what follows, improvement strategies for the High Risk Courses that materially affect one or more of the sample programs are provided. 

High Risk Plans for the English Program

INRW 0420 Integrated Reading and Writing II is the developmental reading and writing class that precedes English Composition I and II and is material to the success of students in those college level courses. English faculty oversee this course, recognizing its importance to the program.  High risk strategies for this course include:

• Prompt, early intervention at the first signs of student difficulties; referral to tutoring, counselors, and the Writing Center.
• Required visits with the instructor for each student, at a minimum just before the midterm and again just before the final.
• Incorporate learning community best practices, to include mentoring, use of a cohort model, and co-curricular activities.
• Adopt strategies for increasing retention.

INRW 042 PGR has moved between a low of 52% and a high of 64.7%, and now sits at 60%, the PGR for Fall 2016.  This developmental course is in fact integral to every academic transfer program at the College.

ENGL 1301 Composition I and ENGL 1302 Composition II were high risk courses until Spring 2015; both courses have been off the list since that time. (Please see INRW 0420 High Risk Plan[50] for complete details and the document High Risk Courses[49] for longitudinal data). 

High Risk Plans for the Speech Program

SPCH 1311 Introduction to Speech Communication was not a high risk course until Fall 2016.  The speech faculty have, in response to this decline in PGR, created an action plan for the course that includes the following strategies:

• Noting lower PGRs for online speech students, faculty decided to require the College’s online preparedness modules for all online speech students (OLRN 0001 is strongly recommended to students who register for online courses; the note appears below the course title in the online registration site.  As an example, the note for Fall 2017 online sections reads: “If you are new to internet courses, you are strongly encouraged to enroll in a free “Orientation to Online Learning” mini–course. Register for OLRN 0001 now.”).
• Faculty resolved also to make better use of tutoring resources and to create an academic preparedness resource for speech students available through Canvas.
• Speech faculty will create an intervention for at risk students, to include collecting qualitative data that will provide a better understanding the difficulties students are encountering.

(Please see SPCH 1311 High Risk Plan[51] for complete details and the document High Risk Courses[49] for longitudinal data). 

High Risk Plans for the Pre-Professional Program

BIOL 1406 Biology for Science Majors strategies included

• Instructors will attend training in Carol Dweck’s Growth Mindset approach to teaching and use that strategy in all sections of this course.
• Required tutoring for students failing to be successful with their lab practicals.  Tutoring will include practice with the practical format.
• Required tutoring for students failing a lecture exam.  The instructor will assign five additional questions to the student and meet with that student to discuss the answers provided.

BIOL 1406 was high risk during Fall 2014 and 2015 terms, and moved off of the list in Fall 2016. (See BIOL 1406 High Risk Plan[52] and for complete details and the document High Risk Courses[49] for longitudinal data).

CHEM 1411 General Chemistry I strategies included:

• Identify bottlenecks to student success: mathematics; abstract nature of the material, handling laboratory equipment, interpreting data.
• Early math assessment, to be followed by required and focused tutoring where need is indicated.
• Active learning strategies to improve acquisition of abstract concepts.
• Provide opportunities for students successfully completing the class to become TAs for the lab.
• Provide chemistry faculty with professional development opportunities that address hands-on, active experiences in the classroom and lab.

CHEM 1411 became high risk in Fall 2015 and remains during Fall 2016 with a PGR of 63%. (See CHEM 1411 High Risk Plan[53] for complete details and the document High Risk Courses[49] for longitudinal data). 

High Risk Plans for the Pre-Nursing Program

BIOL 2401 and 2402, Anatomy and Physiology I and II strategies have been extensive, as these courses have long had residence on the high risk list. Progress has been made, however, with a slowly rising PGR.  The current strategies include the following:

• Requesting funds for additional models and weekend hours for the science learning center.
• Review of all course materials.
• Revisions for all lab exercises and worksheets, reserving anatomy topics for the lab and physiology topics for lectures.
• Software, Mastering A&P, was added as additional review and practice material linked to Canvas.

Faculty teaching BIOL 2401 Anatomy and Physiology I have struggled to balance course rigor with student support for many years.  The course remains, without question, high risk, but the PGR has fought its way up from 38% in Fall 2013 to 54% in Fall 2016. (See BIOL 2401 High Risk Plan[54] for complete details and the document High Risk Courses[49] for longitudinal data). 

Indirect Measures and College Action Plans 

The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) results are used as an additional indirect measure of student learning.  The survey is administered in odd-numbered years and obtains students’ impressions of their level of engagement with their college education. Table 3.3.1.1-13[55] provides the CCSSE categories that are of specific interest to faculty. These address active and collaborative learning, student effort, academic challenge, student-faculty interaction, and support for learners.  See the document labeled CCSSE-Gen Ed Crosswalk[34] for the questions within these CCSSE categories and the outcomes for each.

CCSSE results, course-level PGR, and other measures of student success and student learning combine as drivers in the creation of College Action Plans (CAPs).  College Action Plans emerged after the implementation of the College’s QEP, a journey that fostered innovative thinking throughout the college community.  College Action Plans were created to fill the gap between the college’s overarching strategic plans and plans made at the program or unit level. The College Action Plans typically incorporate high impact practices and are created when the data pertains to more than one program or discipline, and the related activities enlist the aid of units across the institution.

Summarized in the narrative that follows are the College Action Plans that provide strategies for greater success in teaching and learning, thus providing strategies for all academic and workforce programs.  Please see documents labeled CAP-Learning Communities[56], CAP- STEM[57], CAP-Required Tutoring[58], CAP- Honors Program[59], CAP- Open Educational Resources[60], and CAP- Career and Technical Education Programs[61] for greater detail.

• Learning Communities College Action Plan: The initial goal for this plan was to form a learning community for all Learning Frameworks courses (EDUC 1300: a student success course required of all first-time-in–college students), each paired with one of these challenging, first term courses: MATH 0410, 0320, 1414, 1314, or 1324, or ENGL 1301.  This learning communities/cohort model produced improved completion rates and PGR, and next steps include faculty professional development and greater integration of learning community curriculum.
• STEM College Action Plan:The College initiated a focus on STEM courses, bringing together all STEM faculty to design a plan to improve student outcomes (PGR, retention, persistence, completion), provide highly engaging instruction, and strengthen ties with transfer institutions, industries, and the College’s industry partners. The College has allocated resources for a One Stop STEM Center, faculty have designed projects for undergraduate research, and grant funding has been obtained to support additional co- and extra-curricular STEM activities.
• Required Tutoring College Action Plan: Originally designed to improve student success in high risk math courses, which directly impacted success within all STEM disciplines, the required tutoring was quickly institutionalized and the CAP changed its focus.  Although under the same name, the faculty leading this CAP created voluntary refreshers for the mathematics and vocabulary necessary for success in Introductory and General Chemistry.  Those results were promising (see Refresher Results[62]), and refreshers were subsequently added for high risk Anatomy and Physiology, College Algebra, and Statistics.
• Honors Program College Action Plan: The Palo Alto College Honors program incorporates a learning community, cohort model with course design principles focused on active learning, reflection, and community engagement.  The CAP is relatively new; the Honors Program held a soft launch in Spring 2017, with a full launch scheduled for Fall 2017.  The College expectation is that the faculty focus on exemplary course design, student support, and extra- and co-curricular activities will not remain localized to this program but will also serve to inculcate these principles across all programs and areas of study.
• Open Educational Resources College Action Plan:  The use of Open Educational Resources (OER) began solely to counter the exponentially escalating costs of instructional materials (certainly a factor reducing student success). However, as greater numbers of faculty immersed themselves in the growing compendiums of OER materials, a second goal for this CAP emerged.  Faculty discovered that OER materials could be more current, more interactive, and have a flexibility that, combined, made them more engaging than traditional instructional materials. Student surveys have indicated a clear appreciation for these materials (see Fall [63]and Spring[64] OER Survey Results).
• Career and Technical Education Programs College Action Plan:  Associate of Applied Science and Certificate programs indirectly measure their success through student completion (graduation) and successful placement in the workforce.  Palo Alto College began serving its community as a resource for transfer into baccalaureate programs; the career and technical programs have opened as a second focus for the institution.  This CAP is designed to provide additional focus for oversight of all career and technical programs, the goals include improved completion and placement rates, as well as greater community awareness of these opportunities as reflected in greater enrollment. 

Program Review

Faculty overseeing academic and workforce curricula at PAC also conduct, on a five year cycle (see Program Review Calendar[65]), a comprehensive assessment of their respective programs or areas of concentration through the process of Program Review.   Program review entails the review and analysis of several measures of program and discipline integrity, alignment, and student success.  The number of full-time faculty, the number of graduates, persistence rates, graduation rates, and course-based success are among the measures collected and reviewed. Emerging from this process is a SWOT analysis followed by a set of five-year goals and an accompanying action plan for the program.  Summarized in the narrative that follows are the action plans from the most recent Program Reviews.  Please see documents titled Program Review College English[66], Program Review Speech Communication[67], Program Review Pre-Professional and Pre-Nursing[68], Program Review Veterinary Technology[69], Program Review Logistics and Supply Chain Management[70], Program Review Teacher Education[71] for the complete details.

• English Action Plan Recommendations:  The English faculty decided to review and revise the curriculum for Composition I and II.  Specifically, goals were “to better prepare students in the critical reading of literary texts, the techniques of academic research, and the process of constructing research-based expository and persuasive texts.”  Steps included researching comparable course curriculum at other community colleges and at transfer institutions, piloting a new lab component, collaborating with the Writing Center to create interventions for at-risk students, and working with Institutional Research to track the impact of department initiatives.   
• Speech Action Plan Recommendations:  Speech faculty goals included collaborating with feeder high schools to expand dual credit and Early College High School offerings, providing additional faculty development in problem-based learning, in open educational resources, in the use of portfolios, and other high impact practices.
• Pre-Professional and Pre-Nursing (Biology) Action Plan Recommendations:  These programs include persistently high risk courses. Action items for the faculty to address success in these courses remains the focus of interventions for these classes.  Action items include the following: review syllabi for each course to ensure clarity in course requirements, pursue additional faculty development in order to maintain currency, create opportunities to establish ties with local industry, implement new opportunities for undergraduate research, request additional evening hours for the Science Learning Center, actively communicate with at-risk students, and continue to hold office hours in the Learning Center to increase accessibility.
• Veterinary Technology Action Plan Recommendations:  The Veterinary Technology program has demonstrated consistently excellent results in state and national certification pass rates but have faced challenges with student retention.  Their goals included increasing retention and graduation rates and maintaining their licensure rates.  Their actions to reach those goals included the following: fully developing both a tutoring program and a peer mentoring program, and pursuing additional grant funding to support the currency of equipment and supplies.  Additional action items focused on additional recruiting efforts, maintaining the current licensure success rate, and maintaining the program’s accreditation through the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).
• Logistics and Supply Chain Management Recommendations: The faculty lead for Logistics set the following goals after conducting program review: working with the program’s advisory committee, secure a commitment from the program’s industry partners to provide additional student internship opportunities; create a simulation warehouse on campus to provide students with real world logistics and supply chain management experiences; work with Texas A&M University, San Antonio, to increase the number of program graduates who transfer into their Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences (BAAS) program; and work with local high school partners to increase dual credit opportunities in Logistics.
• Teacher Education Action Plan Recommendations:  The Teacher Education program review produced a comprehensive set of goals and action items.  They included the following: creating a Palo Alto College Education Advisory Committee, to be charged with assessing curriculum, identifying professional trends and professional development opportunities for both faculty, students, and alumni; creating a partnership with high school Ready, Set, Teach programs, increasing the number of problem-based learning assignments, the opportunities for collaborative learning, e-portfolio assignments, and the use of open educational resources; and offering a section of speech designed for teachers in training: Fundamentals of Speech for Teachers.

As articulated in Board Policy A.1.1[72], the College District is known by the assumed names of “Alamo Colleges” and “Alamo Colleges District” or the “Alamo Community College District.” References to these assumed names in the narrative and any supporting documentation are equivalent.