Attending: Frank J. Garrahan, Task Force Chair, Stefan Haag, Lynn Lehle, Hugh Moore, Jonathan Buckstead, Cecile Durish, George Finan, Paz Pena, Jim Fowler, Rick Collis, Margaret Dahl, Susana Aleman, Amber Archuleta-Lucero, Judy Nwachie, Gaye Lynn Scott

1. Report from John Hastings, Faculty Development Office, on the Spring 1999 Faculty Evaluation process.

In its major elements, the evaluation process will be much as it was last year, with a couple of significant changes. First, faculty members should have received a summary student evaluation report for each section taught last Fall. This summary also includes course, discipline, and college averages for comparison. In addition, this summary page provides each faculty member with a student summary rating (a single number between 0 and 5) which will be used as part of the Faculty Evaluation Summary Report.

Note: The student evaluations are based on a six-point scale. The single summary rating is converted to a five point scale.

Second, the evaluation components will in future years include Teaching (made up of the student evaluation report and professional evaluation of a mini-portfolio and student written comments), Professional Development (supervisor's rating of previous year's goals and actions), and Professional Service (non-teaching activities such as curriculum development, committee service, etc). For this year only, Professional Development will not be part of the evaluation process for either adjunct or full-time faculty. In future years, professional service will be part of the evaluation of full-time faculty only.

A single overall numerical rating will be calculated based on a weighted sum of the evaluation components. The point values are as follows: excellent 4.5-5.0, very good 3.5-4.4, good 2.5-3.4, needs improvement 1.5-2.4, unacceptable 1.0-1.4

Note: Adjuncts will be evaluated this year solely on the basis of the two teaching components. The Student Evaluation Report will comprise 33% of the final evaluation and the Professional Evaluation will make up the remaining 67%. For full-time faculty, the Student Evaluation Report will comprise 33%, the Professional Evaluation 47%, and Professional Service 20%.

For more information, check out the Faculty Development Office website at www2.austin.cc.tx.us/fdo/faceval/fy99/

2. Content of the mini-portfolios.

Each faculty member should have received a separate memo outlining the required components of the mini-portfolio to be submitted as part of the evaluation process. Each Government faculty member must submit a course syllabus and course handouts from a representative unit (including a unit exam) for each course taught.

3. Spring 1999 projects for the Government Task Force.

Scheduling: The Task Force Chair will soon begin work on the course schedule for Fall 1999 and Spring 2000.

The Task Force Budget committee is beginning work on the budget proposal for FY 2000. Any particular funding requests should be conveyed to Lynn Lehle, chair of this committee.

Professional development. The Faculty committee is planning a colloquium for all ACC Government faculty on municipal government. In addition, there is a possibility of hearing from a Longman textbook author such as Edward Greenberg, Benjamin Page, or George Edwards. More information to come.

Course Assessment. A preliminary report was provided by the Task Force Chair on the results of our Fall 1998 assessment of student learning. While there was movement in the scores when the pre-test results were compared with the post-test results, student scores were not as high as we might hope. The Academic Committee will analyze the results and report to the Task Force in our next meeting.

4. Datatel Training. All Full-Time faculty are asked to sign up for training on the new Datatel system as soon as possible.

5. The Task Force approved a travel request for Dennis Plane, Adjunct, NRG, to help defer costs of travel to the Southwestern Social Science meeting in San Antonio and the Midwest Political Science meeting in Chicago.

6. Upcoming meetings and agendas:

March 5:

Textbook selection for 1999 academic year
Assessment of student learning outcomes

March 26:

Professional development colloquium on municipal government

Presenters: Ed Mullen, PIN, city council, Harker Heights; Bob Hart, Georgetown City Manager

Check the Government Department Homepage for updates: http://www2.austin.cc.tx.us/govtdept