Combined Mathematics Task Force

Minutes, 2-28-97

Present:

RVS: Lenor Eklund, Irie Glajar, Susan Hord, Janet Bickham, Linda Guzzardo, Bob Byrom, Louise Hasty, Abdol Daghighi, Tessa Henry, Mary Gilmer, Jerry Caples

CYP: Bob Quigley, Kimberly Kelton

NRG: Mary Parker, Nancy Miller, Bob Leibman, Mike Huff, Phil Owens, Rosemary Kelley, Elgin Schilhab, Lori Rosenthal, John Thomason, Clarence McGuff, Vera Preston

PIN: Sue White, Constance Elko, Paul Wright

RGC: Ferne Mizell, Dennis Allison, Irene Doo, Terry Moser, John Stormberg, Mary Wilson, Corinne Irwin, Tony Vance, Mary Hannigan, Wayne Rogers, Steve Rodi, Mike Dellens

1. Logistics - Next meeting, Friday, March 28, 1997 in DAO 107 at 2:00 p.m. Committee meetings before it in the same room at noon and at 1:00 p.m. Martha Hogan, one of the part-time faculty representatives from CYP, has left the college. She is replaced on the Task Force by Alex Kolesnik.

2. The minutes of the October 25, 1996 meeting were approved as submitted.

3. Committee reports

  1. A. Catalog requirements.

(1) Last year, the Curriculum Committee recommended, and the Academic Council approved, several changes in the requirements for all degree plans. One is that they decided to allow other alternatives for students to demonstrate fundamental mathematical competence, computer literacy, and oral proficiency than by courses in math, CIS, and speech. However, the Academic Council said that we need plans for how these competencies could be demonstrated besides courses before the courses could be dropped from the degree plans. The Vice Presidents were supposed to set up some committees. In September, our Task Force appointed a committee to deal with these if our Task Force gets asked for input about these. Mary Parker is the chair. She reported that she has checked periodically and found that no committees have been appointed and nothing is happening on these. Bob Quigley is on the Curriculum Committee and he confirmed this.

(2) A second change was to eliminate the requirement for an Unrestricted Elective, since the Coordinating Board has eliminated that requirement. It was agreed that would be done right away. Bob Q. asked that the Task Force formally express our agreement about the Unrestricted Elective in the Math Degree Plan. We passed a motion to leave it in the degree plan.

  1. The Task Force reaffirmed our earlier decision to eliminate the II from the title of MTH 1583, making it just Technical Mathematics.
  2. Bob Quigley reported that we have been asked to delete various courses that we have not offered in several years from the course inventory. We passed a motion to delete 1311, 1312, 1321, and 1322. Separately, we passed a motion to delete 1423, which has been changed to PAR 1193.
  1. B. SACS-strategic planning process.

John Thomason, chairperson of our committee, reported that their committee had met and reviewed the data and attached summary, and developed the recommendations for our plans for improvement. We exceeded the criteria we had set in all categories and the plans for improvement are to extend this type of data collection and analysis to four more categories during the next year. (The complete report of the subcommittee is included as Attachment B of these minutes.) The Task Force approved the report and the recommendations for the Plans for Improvement and asked John and Bob to submit them to Dr. Friedman.

Bob Leibman presented some data about TASP passing rates. Our percentage of passing is high for all categories, when compared with that for all universities or all community colleges. These data are not broken down by students who have taken remediation or not, by whether it is their first time to take the test or a retest, etc. Bob is trying to get more detailed data.

  1. C. Algebra Sequence Committee.

This committee met at noon on 2-28-97. Bob Quigley, co-chair, reported that the committee decided to take two topics (Factoring and Graphing) and clarify what should be taught for each of these topics in each course. They talked about making more connections among the topics in a course, and trying for less overlap in the courses. The Task Force suggested that the committee consider an additional topic as well - Solving Equations. The committee will meet again on Friday, March 28, at noon. In this committee a subcommittee was formed to prepare a flyer to advertise PAR 1163. Members of that subcommittee are: Nancy Miller, Bob Leibman, Mary Parker, and Vera Preston. They will prepare a flyer, circulate it among the algebra sequence committee for feedback, and have it ready for use by early April for summer registration.

4. Textbook Committees

  1. Prealgebra: They have narrowed down to 8 books, which are available on the various campuses. They will meet again at 1:00 on March 28. New members added to the committee are John Stormberg, Sue White, and Susan Hord.
  2. Calculus I/II. Several people have met and found a number of books that they would be interested in our considering. Other people feel that we should stay with the current book another year, partly because there will be more calculus books in new editions next year, and partly because the Hughes-Hallett text will be in a new edition then as well. After lively discussion, the Task Force decided to not review texts for Calculus I and II this year, but to definitely form a committee to do so next year.
  3. Calculus III: The current text has just come out in the first edition. We have been using the preliminary edition. Several people would prefer to change it, and pointed out that, if we change the Calc I and II book beginning in 1998, we will be using the Calculus III portion two years past now, and that is a long time to use a book that many people aren't happy with. It is clear that there are a number of calculus books that have the multivariate part bound separately, so we would be able to choose them without having students spend extra money. A motion to not form a committee this year, but to eliminate a phase-in period for a new book, failed. The Task Force appointed a Calc III committee of: Dennis Allison, chair; Jerry Caples; Lenor Eklund; David Fonken; Clarence McGuff; Mary Parker; Lori Rosenthal; Tom Vawter; Paul Williams; and Mary Wilson.
  4. Modern Math: This book is coming out in a new edition. The committee includes: Mary Hannigan, co-chair; Vera Preston, co-chair; Dennis Allison; Susan Hord; Rosemary Kelley; Kimberly Kelton; Nancy Miller; Barbara Montalto; Bob Quigley.
  5. Precalculus: We can use the current book this summer, but it is not clear how much longer it will be available. We need to get this committee started.
  6. Business Calculus: Ferne reported that, although the text is going into a new edition, since we and UT use this special edition, a special deal has been arranged for us to continue to get this special edition for one more year. We will do that.
  7. College Algebra: Some people think that our new College Algebra book isn't very good. However, others think it is as good as any out there, and pointed out that we're never very happy with College Algebra books. The Task Force decided not to form a textbook committee for College Algebra this year.

5. Textbook Committee Guidelines

The Task Force agreed that a committee should meet at least once even if the recommendation is to use the new edition of the same text, and, if the recommendation is to change from one author to another, the committee should meet at least once to discuss what they want in a new book and a second time to discuss the various books available. Also, we agreed that the textbook committee, or a subcommittee of it, should prepare the information for the Math Manual for a new text or a new edition.

6. Scheduling

The following motion was passed: "The Task Force recommends that the Department Heads and Division Chairs meet to develop a coordinated plan for scheduling math and Parallel Studies math courses college-wide."

Attachment A: Summary of committees, as amended February 28, 1997:

Mathematical Competencies: Mary Parker, chair; Bob Quigley, John Thomason, Irie Glajar, Paul Wright, Ferne Mizell, Steve Rodi.

SACS Assessment Issues: John Thomason, chair; Constance Elko, Martha Hogan, David Fonken, Bob Leibman, Mary Parker, Vince McGarry, Janet Bickham.

Algebra Sequence: Vince McGarry and Bob Quigley, co-chairs; Janet Bickham, Constance Elko, Irie Glajar, Linda Guzzardo, Tessa Henry, Mary Parker, Louise Hasty, Lenor Eklund, Bob Leibman, Nancy Miller.

Prealgebra: Bob Quigley, chair; Linda Guzzardo, Irene Doo, Constance Elko, Nancy Miller, Lucy Farid, John Stormberg, Sue White, Susan Hord

Topics in Developmental Math: Bob Leibman, chair; Mary Parker, Irene Doo, Clarence McGuff, Nancy Miller, Bob Quigley, Irie Glajar.

Modern Math: Mary Hannigan and Vera Preston, co-chairs; Dennis Allison; Susan Hord; Rosemary Kelley; Kimberly Kelton; Nancy Miller; Barbara Montalto; Bob Quigley.

Trigonometry: David Fonken, chair; Paul Wright, Mary Parker, Lenor Eklund, Mary Wilson, Bob Quigley

Precalculus: Mary Wilson, chair; Tony Vance, Louise Hasty, Kimberly Kelton, Tessa Henry, Clarence McGuff, Paul Wright.

Multivariate Calculus (Calc III): Dennis Allison, chair; Jerry Caples; Lenor Eklund; David Fonken; Clarence McGuff; Mary Parker; Lori Rosenthal; Tom Vawter; Paul Williams; and Mary Wilson.

Math for Health Sciences: Mary Parker, chair; Louise Hasty, Nancy Lehmann, Paul Wright, Cleaburn Zwernemann, Sue White, and Bob Quigley.

Attachment B: Report from the committee on Strategic Planning Process

Summary and Analysis of Data

  1. Two hundred forty-one (241) students were in the group targeted for study: students who completed the TASP test during the summer or fall of 1996 and who had previously completed PAR 1173 (Elementary Algebra) at ACC in the fall of 1995, the spring of 1996, or summer of 1996 with a grade of A, B, or C, and who did not complete a subsequent math courses prior to taking the TASP test. Of these 241 students, 169 or 70.1% passed the math portion of the TASP test. This result exceeds the criterion of 50% set by the Mathematics Task Force.
  2. Two hundred and forty-nine (249) students were in the group targeted for study: students who took MTH 1743 (College Algebra) for the first time in the spring of 1996 after completing PAR 1193 (Intermediate Algebra) at ACC in the summer or fall of 1995 with a grade of A, B, or C and who did to take an intervening math course. Of these 249 students, 160 or 64.3% passed MTH 1743 with a grade of A, B, or C. This result exceeds the criterion of 50% set by the Task Force.
  3. Forty-one (41) students were in the group targeted for study: students who took MTH 1674 (Business Calculus I) for the first time in the spring of 1996 after completing MTH 1743 (College Algebra) at ACC in the summer or fall of 1995 with a grade of A, B, or C, and who did not take an intervening math course. Of these 41 students, 25 or 61.0% passed MTH 1674 with a grade of A, B, or C. This result exceeds the criterion of 50% set by the Mathematics Task Force.
  4. Forty-eight (48) students were in the group targeted for study: students who took MTH 2164 (Differential Equations) for the first time in the spring of 1996 after completing MTH 1864 (Calculus II) or MTH 2154 (Calculus III) at ACC in the summer or fall of 1995 with a grade of A, B, or C. Of these 48 students, 37 or 77.1% completed MTH 2164 with a grade of A, B, or C. This result exceeds the criterion of 50% set by the Mathematics Task Force.

Plans for Improvement

A preliminary form of these minutes was circulated to the Task Force members and then the final form was circulated to the entire mathematics faculty in early March 1997. These minutes were approved at the next meeting on March 28, 1997. This Web document was prepared by Mary Parker on April 9, 1997. mparker@austin.cc.tx.us