The mission of the Mathematics Department is to meet the mathematics needs of all Butte College students by offering quality mathematics instruction. Our department serves three primary groups of students: developmental, transfer, and STEM majors. Through our commitment to excellent teaching in a supportive environment, our students develop mathematical expertise, comprehension, and confidence. A corollary to our mission is to accelerate students in developmental math classes as quickly as possible, enabling them to finish their math courses with a passing grade in a transfer-level math class within two years of enrolling at Butte College.
The mathematics department offers a comprehensive two-year program leading to an Associate of Science Degree in Mathematics. The AS-T degree in Mathematics is designed for students who will transfer to a four-year institution to pursue a degree in mathematics. The program allows the students to transfer with all of their freshman and sophomore requirements completed. The mathematics department also offers courses designed as general education courses for other majors (complete list available) and a complete developmental and basic skills program for students who need remediation before entering a transfer-level mathematics course. Most math classes offered on the main campus are scheduled in the Technology (TE) building. The TE building has nine classrooms and a math-only computer lab, used as a drop-in lab open to all Butte students taking a math class, and is of particular value to those taking a class that requires online homework. We also have been given full access to a tenth classroom, LB-105. We have continued the use of Supplemental Instruction (SI) in many transfer classes and The Math Project in Math 217, 108, 124, and 18 for EOPS students.
Mathematics Instructor
As a result of our three new hires this year we have been able to staff nearly all of our classes. The enthusiasm of these new instructors rubs off on all of us and provides rich discussion as well as opportunities for increased collaboration. Almost our entire department participates in our Problem Solving Seminar and our new faculty members bring with them new and exciting methods of solving problems. The biggest benefit is to our students who have greater access to their instructors, as full time faculty members spend far more time on campus than Associate Faculty, holding office hours and helping in the Math Lab. One of our new instructors is also teaching two online classes that would not exist if she had not developed them. This is a benefit to a small number of students, but still greatly appreciated by those who are homebound. All of the instructors hired this year are participating in our Math 217 ALEKS pilot to improve retention and success in remedial math.
Mathematics Instructor
As a result of our three new hires this year we have been able to staff nearly all of our classes. The enthusiasm of these new instructors rubs off on all of us and provides rich discussion as well as opportunities for increased collaboration. Almost our entire department participates in our Problem Solving Seminar and our new faculty members bring with them new and exciting methods of solving problems. The biggest benefit is to our students who have greater access to their instructors, as full time faculty members spend far more time on campus than Associate Faculty, holding office hours and helping in the Math Lab. One of our new instructors is also teaching two online classes that would not exist if she had not developed them. This is a benefit to a small number of students, but still greatly appreciated by those who are homebound. All of the instructors hired this year are participating in our Math 217 ALEKS pilot to improve retention and success in remedial math.
Mathematics Instructor
As a result of our three new hires this year we have been able to staff nearly all of our classes. The enthusiasm of these new instructors rubs off on all of us and provides rich discussion as well as opportunities for increased collaboration. Almost our entire department participates in our Problem Solving Seminar and our new faculty members bring with them new and exciting methods of solving problems. The biggest benefit is to our students who have greater access to their instructors, as full time faculty members spend far more time on campus than Associate Faculty, holding office hours and helping in the Math Lab. One of our new instructors is also teaching two online classes that would not exist if she had not developed them. This is a benefit to a small number of students, but still greatly appreciated by those who are homebound. All of the instructors hired this year are participating in our Math 217 ALEKS pilot to improve retention and success in remedial math.
Chairs for the Math Computer Lab in TE 122
All chairs are now fully functional, not broken, or prone to causing accidents.
Student Lab Monitors/Tutors
The Math Lab in TE 122 continues to serve a growing number of students needing help with online homework. While CAS has help for students doing paper and pencil homework, it is difficult for students to get help with online homework in that environment. By keeping our lab open for 28 hours per week, we are able to provide necessary help for those with online homework.
We have seen a small increase in the success of students in Math 217 during fall 2016 compared to the previous year. This could be due, in part, to our grant-funded laptops enabling students to work in class using the adaptive program ALEKS. Both Math 217 and Math 108 continue to suffer from high attrition rates, which skew the success rates. When we include students who disappear after census in our data we see success rates hovering around 50%. If we look at those who persist until the end of the semester, the success rate rises to 75%. Those who persist to the end of the semester perform quite well on our SLO assessments. The areas we continue to see students struggle with are applications and the use of fractions. The biggest impact on student success in math, and the thing we have the least control over, is attendance. The students who make attendance a priority almost always succeed. We see the biggest change in attendance behavior from Math 108 to Math 124. Students in transfer level classes rarely miss class and this is part of why the success rates differ so greatly from Basic Skills classes to Transfer/GE classes.
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Indicator |
Source |
College |
Program |
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2014-2015 |
Standard |
Six Year Goal |
Fall 2011 |
Fall 2012 |
Fall 2013 |
Fall 2014 |
Fall 2015 |
Standard |
Six Year Goal |
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Access |
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- Unduplicated Headcount |
PDR |
12,691 |
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3,253 |
3,293 |
3,496 |
3,603 |
3,471 |
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Course Success |
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- Overall |
PDR |
70.6% |
70.0% |
73.0% |
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- Transfer/GE |
PDR |
71.7% |
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73.0% |
65.6% |
63.2% |
63.1% |
63.6% |
63.6% |
60.0% |
66.0% |
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- CTE |
PDR |
75.3% |
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77.0% |
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- Basic Skills |
PDR |
51.7% |
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55.0% |
60.1% |
57.1% |
54.4% |
47.3% |
52.8% |
50.0% |
55.0% |
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- Distance Ed (all) |
PDR |
62.6% |
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64.0% |
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Persistence (Focused). Note: The Persistence (Focused) that is included in the PDR is a different indicator than the three-primary term persistence indicator, from the State Student Success Scorecard that is used to measure institutional persistence. The Focused Persistence indicator measures the percentage of students that took a second course in a discipline within one year. There is no relationship between the college and program standards in this area. |
PDR |
71.8% |
67.0% |
75.0% |
51.5% |
50.9% |
51.9% |
51.4% |
51.6% |
50.0% |
53.0% |
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(Three-Term) Scorecard |
(Three-Term) Scorecard |
(Three-Term) Scorecard |
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Degrees - annual |
PDR |
1,421 |
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1,475 |
8 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
6 |
5 |
17 |
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Degrees - annual |
PDR AS-T |
1,421 |
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1,475 |
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3 |
5 |
6 |
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Certificate of Achievement (CA) - annual |
PDR |
814 |
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475 |
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Developmental Strand Completion |
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- English |
State |
43.7% |
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45.0% |
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- Math |
State |
33.8% |
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35.0% |
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- ESL |
State |
42.9% |
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45.0% |
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Licensure Pass Rates |
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- Registered Nursing |
SC |
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- Licensed Vocational Nursing |
SC |
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- Respiratory Therapy |
SC |
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- Paramedic |
SC |
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- Cosmetology |
SC |
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- Welding |
SC |
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Job Placement Rates |
PIV |
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The math department supports the college in meeting its Strategic Direction by:
- incorporating the use of laptops, student assistants and a retention specialist in Math 217. (1.a.2.)
- continuing to serve College Connection students in many math classes and encouraging 2+2 agreements with local districts. (1.b.1.)
- working with the assessment office on the implementation of the Common Assessment and Multiple Measures to ensure students' proper placement into math classes. (1.c.2.)
- providing an AS-T degree in Mathematics. (1.e.3.)
- increasing the number of Transfer/GE classes that are in high demand and decreasing the number of (and restructuring) Developmental Math classes as demand decreases. (1.f.1.) and (4.1.) Should that be (4.a.)?
- being ready to renovate the Technology Building since 2008, including multiple meetings with the state architect and promises from previous administration. However, it is absolutely misleading to list this as number one in Facilities Priorities and the members of our department feel let down once again. This is the kindest way I can word our frustration and doesn't even come close to expressing how we actually feel. Most of our department no longer believes that this is a priority and fully expects the money to run out before it happens. (1.h.1.)
- incorporating a retention specialist in Math 217, with the hopes of expanding to Math 108 in the near future. (2.a.4.)
The 13 recommendations from our validation report dated March 2014 are:
1. The Technology building renovation is at the bottom of the list for use of bond money, but we do have a remodeled women's restroom in addition to an all-gender restroom and new carpet.
2. We continue to ask for our building to be renamed and the signs changed in our Unit Plan, but this has yet to occur.
3. We were able to increase the number of full-time faculty members to 16, and have been approved for an additional full-time hire to start fall 2017. This will bring our department up to its largest ever at 17 full time instructors. We still continue to see a decrease in our associate faculty pool and remain concerned that we will be unable to staff the same number of classes that we currently offer. We hope this will increase with the return of the Master's in Math Ed. at Chico State.
4. All of our rooms in the Technology building (except 105B) were fitted with up to date equipment and other than the occasional glitch, it is working well.
5. We have developed a combined beginning and intermediate algebra course with the help of some grant funding, however it stalled in the Curriculum Committee Tech Review for so long that we will likely wait another year for implementation.
6. We hope to pilot additional multiple measures during spring 2017 to more accurately place students into their first math class.
7. We have been given access to evening classroom space in Chico for fall 2017, both at the Chico and Skyway Centers. This will minimize our courses held on Chico State's campus and eliminate many problems associated with that location. We hope this will also be the case for spring 2018 and roll into future years.
8. We continue to have a difficult time finding tutors for the Chico and Glenn Centers.
9. In our Unit Plan, we continue to ask for district funding for the math lab. However, since money continues to come to us from Basic Skills Funding, there is little incentive for the district to contribute.
10. This recommendation suggests that we look at our data for classes below transfer all together under the title "Developmental Math." This would group 200 level classes with 100 level classes. Currently, Math 217 is singled out in our data reports. This has not been resolved as we continue to get reports from our institutional research office that singles Math 217 out as remedial math.
11. During our last several large department meetings on Institute Day, we have held our meeting later than the rest of the campus to accommodate our Associate Faculty who have day jobs. The change in timing on Institute Day contributed to our Associate Faculty feeling marginalized and unimportant. Our recent meetings have included an hour to an hour and a half in break-out sessions where we specifically sought the contributions of ALL our faculty members. There will likely be one or two department meetings this spring where all will be invited to attend. However, since we offer classes from 7:20 am to 9:50 pm, the only time we can hope to all get together is on a Friday evening. The most convenient place for the vast majority would be at the Chico Center, which closes early on Fridays. We are looking into the possibility of holding a meeting at the Skyway Center, but it doesn't look promising.
12. We continue to praise and heavily use the print shop and are supportive of it being fully funded and fully functioning. We are in support of increasing the number of employees in the Print Shop.
13. We are happy to have our department secretary back to a 12 month position and ask that she not be required to relocate during summer and winter. We suggest scheduling classes in the Tech building during summer so that we can keep the air on and have her available to support both faculty and students. It is inconvenient and a waste of time and resources to continually pack up and move two to three times per year.
Our goals are to increase student success rates, particularly in developmental math, and provide students the opportunity to complete their math requirements in two years or less, by providing increased support to our developmental math students, offering accelerated and online options, as well as making maximum use of our facilities and personel.
Strategy 1 - Improving Success Rates in Developmental Math
In fall 2015, we reinstated the Math Project for Math 217 run through EOPS, as this has a history of increasing student success and in fall 2016 began to pilot the use of laptops and the adaptive program ALEKS. This resulted in a small increase in the success rate. This spring, 2017, we are more fully incorporating the laptops and have student assistants in each class where they are used as well as an upcoming retention specialist. We hope to see another increase in success rates following these measures. In fall 2016, we had hoped to bring back Math 216, Basic Math. This would better serve students who are underprepared for Math 217, as the elimination of classes below Math 217 has had a negative impact on all Math 217 classes. Students who need more remediation have become frustrated and have been withdrawing from the class early in the semester as their hopes of success dwindle. We do have Math 216 back in the schedule for fall 2017 pending approval by administration.
The return of Math 216 is based on feedback from current Math 217 instructors as well as data from our Math 217 SLO Assessment, which has been showing a decrease in overall scores. Student retention in these classes has also been decreasing, possibly due to the number of students who are finding the class is beyond their abilities. We hope that the return of Math 216 creates a bridge to success for underprepared Math 217 students. Other community colleges have seen increased success rate with the addition of technology-assisted assessment and student assistant availability. Bringing student assistants and technology into math classrooms has shown to improve student success at other community colleges.
Strategy 2 - Transfer Acceleration
Mark Mavis piloted our first accelerated classes in fall 2012. Registered students take Math 124 and Math 18, back-to-back, in the same semester, earning eight units, completing one developmental and one transfer-level math class. We added a second section of 124/18 at the Chico Center for 2013/2014 and a third section (held on the main campus) for 2014/2015. The pass rates for the accelerated model continue to be at or above the pass rates for our traditional Math 124 and Math 18 classes, confirming that the Math 124/18 class is valuable to students. A recent study by one of our institutional researchers comparing the success rates of Math 108 students who received an A or B and chose the accelerated model versus those who chose the traditional, semester-long model found the success rates of these two groups are not statistically different, suggesting that it is providing a valid path for students. We will expand this to one more section in the early afternoon on the main campus in fall 2016. For fall 2017 and spring 2018 we will have a total of 4 of these classes on the main campus and 1 at the Chico Center. If we see these additional classes lead to a lower fill rate, we will likely cut back by one offering each semester.
Because the success rate for this model is at or above the success rate for these classes taught in the traditional model, we will continue to offer several sections per semester. Students in these classes have a higher retention rate than the traditional model and are often able to transfer a semester sooner than they would without this offering. These Math 124 classes participated in SLO Assessment in spring 2015 which confirmed that their success on SLOs was indeed greater than or equal to our traditional Math 124 classes. The Math 18 portion will be assessed along with all other sections of Math 18 as scheduled in our SLO matrix.
Strategy 3 - Online Courses
Starting fall 2016, we now offer Math 108, Math 124, and Math 18 online. We are excited to be able to offer students a way to complete their Associates Degree online and at least one transfer level math class. However, we only support this model if all tests are given in a proctored environment so that the identity of the person receiving credit for the class can be verified. The success rates for these classes are well below the face-to-face classes. Therefore, we are not interested in expanding the number of online courses.
Some students find it impossible to come to class due to health, family obligations, and distance from campus. Although the success rate for this type of math class is much lower than a face-to-face class, online classes meet the needs of a small group of dedicated students.
Strategy 4 - Maximizing the Schedule
The math department needs to increase the number of Associate Faculty Members, however we are limited by the number of people who meet minimum qualifications in our area. Thankfully, Chico State is beginning its Master's in Math Education again this year, so we should be able to find new Associate Faculty and Interns through our connection to Chico State. This will allow us to offer an adequate number of sections to maximize FTES for the college and ensure students can complete their math requirements in 2 years or less. We continually need to be flexible with the number of courses we offer to respond to the changing needs of our student population. We are seeing an increasing number of students ready for transfer math. As a result, we will be offering more Transfer/GE classes during the 2017-2018 school year.
The math department continues to see high demand for classes at all levels, especially transfer math classes. Almost all students who attend Butte College for any reason need to take at least one math class. Several years ago there were 15 full-time instructors and nearly 40 associate faculty members in the department. We are now running the department with 16 full-time members, one temporary full-time instructor, and less than 20 associate faculty. In order to continue to meet the needs of the students of Butte College, we must increase part-time staff. We are excited to be hiring another full-time member to start fall 2017, bringing our department up to 17, its largest full-time membership ever. Of course this new faculty member will need a new computer and an office.
All classes in the math department have a pedagogical cap of 35 students. However, two of our classrooms have a room cap of 32, but need to be supplemented with folding desks, and two others have to be supplemented with folding desks to provide room for 35 students. It seems reasonable that classes with a pedagogical cap less than 35 (unless they have specific lab needs) should be scheduled in these rooms and our classes should be scheduled in rooms large enough to accommodate 35 students. It is unlikely that any department will willingly give up their large rooms to come into the depressing rooms in the Technology building, so the only way this will happen is if an administrator makes the decision. Two things prevent access to math classes for students, room availability in the peak times and lack of available faculty. As our department grows with additional full-time faculty, but loses associate faculty, there will be more people available to teach during the day. If we had access to larger classrooms as well as additional classrooms, we would be able to serve many more students. This is supported by our most recent program review, where students volunteered their feelings about this building, specifically that conditions make them feel unwelcome and undervalued.
Our budget is the only source of guaranteed revenue for the math department. We frequently benefit from funding through the Basic Skills Initiative and various grants, but this is generally temporary or one-time funding.
| Original Priority | Program, Unit, Area | Resource Type | Account Number | Object Code | One Time Augment | Ongoing Augment |
| Description | Supporting Rationale | Potential Alternative Funding Sources | Prioritization Criteria | |||
| 1 | Mathematics | Personnel | $0.00 | $104,000.00 | ||
| Full time faculty member | In order to continue offering the number and variety of courses currently available to students, the math department needs to increase the number of full time instructors. |
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| 2 | Mathematics | Equipment | $1,300.00 | $0.00 | ||
| Computer for new full time instructor | Our new faculty member will need a computer. |
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| 3 | Mathematics | Personnel | $0.00 | $16,065.00 | ||
| Students office assistants | The department office serves multiple departments and in order for our Administrative Assistant to be able to do her work, we need students in the office to answer phones and greet students seeking help. The cost reflects 45 hours per week, 17 weeks per semester and $10.50 per hour. This cost should be shared among the departments served by the office in TE 132. |
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| 4 | Mathematics | Personnel | 11.000.615.1.170100 | 52468 | $0.00 | $13,860.00 |
| Student assistant money for Computer Lab monitors/tutors. | Students are necessary to monitor and tutor math students in the Computer Lab. The amount requested reflects 40 student-hours per week, 16.5 weeks per semester, and $10.50 per hour. |
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| 5 | Mathematics | Personnel | $0.00 | $26,775.00 | ||
| Student Graders for full time faculty | Students need to receive feedback on their homework on a daily basis in order to succeed. The use of student graders makes this feedback possible, and gives graders, many of whom plan to become teachers, a chance to earn valuable experience. The cost is based on 17 full time instructors using a grader for 5 hours per week, 15 weeks per semester at $10.50 per hour. In the past we were able to offer each instructor 10 hours each week, so this reflects a decrease in grader use, partly due to some instructors choosing to assign online homework which is automatically graded, providing some of the necessary feedback to students, although this feedback is not as thorough as our students graders provide. |
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| 6 | Mathematics | Personnel | 11.000.615.1.170100 | 51391 | $0.00 | $34,000.00 |
| Associate Faculty Office Hours | Students do not have equal access to their instructors when their instructors are Associate Faculty, unless those faculty choose to donate their time. The ongoing cost was calculated by using $25 per hour, 2 hours per week, 17 weeks per semester for 20 instructors. |
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| 7 | Mathematics | Personnel | $0.00 | $18,900.00 | ||
| Student Graders for associate faculty | Students need to receive feedback on their homework on a daily basis in order to succeed. This should not be less frequent just because a student has an associate faculty member as their instructor. The use of student graders makes this feedback possible, and gives graders, many of whom plan to become teachers, a chance to earn valuable experience. The cost is based on 20 associate faculty using a grader for 3 hours per week, 15 weeks per semester at $10.50 per hour. |
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| 8 | Mathematics | Equipment | $103,422.00 | $0.00 | ||
| Graphing calculators and cases for twenty-two classes (Math 18 and Math12). | Students in Math 18 and Math 12 are required to have a TI-83 or TI-84 graphing calculator. Unlike students in STEM majors who purchase these calculators and use them in up to 6 classes, these students often need them for only one class. We have an increasing number of students who cannot afford the $120 cost for these calculators, and will be at a disadvantage in the class. This disproportionately effects students on the Dashboard. The cost reflects 22 class sets of 40 calculators ($91476), along with 22 cases ($4730) to transport them safely to class and store them when not in use. (Plus tax of 7215.45) |
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| 9 | Mathematics | Facilities | 11.000.615.1.170100 | 00000 | $8,000.00 | $0.00 |
| Independent thermostat for TE-110 and TE-111 | Two rooms attached to one thermostat does not work when there are no students in the room with the thermostat. No HVAC reaches the other room. |
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| 10 | Mathematics | Facilities | 11.000.615.1.170100 | 00000 | $13,100.00 | $0.00 |
| New signs for Technology building to read Mathematics | We no longer teach engineering or drafting in this building. It is dedicated to teaching mathematics and we'd like it to say so. |
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