Mt. Hood Community College is located in Gresham, Oregon, serving students from urban, suburban and rural communities in the Portland area. The college enrolls approximately 12,000 students per year with the following ethnic breakdown: 90% Caucasian, 3% African-American, and less than 1% American Indian. The college has a mathematics division and technical programs in communication and performing arts, business and computers, engineering and industrial technology, and science. The mathematics department has ten regular full-time instructors.
Traditionally Mt. Hood Community College (MHCC) had separate mathematics tracks for technical and academic students. Transfer between tracks was not possible: Students who wished to change tracks lost ground. In general, the technical track acted as a sieve, straining an entire group of students from the pool of those considering future math and science studies. Students with undecided majors typically chose the academic track. The technical math track lacked the depth of conceptual understanding needed for future application in varied settings. Students saw both of these tracks as hurdles to overcome, rather than as the beginning of lifelong learning. Clearly something had to be done. In 1986, MHCC organized a series of meetings between representatives from professional technical fields and all district high schools, faculty, and key stakeholders in the community. The meetings' mission was to find ways for MHCC to establish more productive connections with the feeder high schools. As a result, the Mt. Hood Regional Cooperative Consortium (MHRCC) was formed with local feeder high schools, business, government, and community-based organizations. Its goal was to develop an improved framework for implementing 2+2 Tech Prep programs. The Consortium's first step was to organize articulation agreements and to develop career pathways. In 1995, MHCC reported that "eighty-one written articulation agreements have been established between MHCC and the eight high schools. These agreements cover seventeen different professional-technical areas of the college and all six of the high school Certificate of Advanced Mastery (CAM) areas." Other career pathways under development are arts and communications, business/ management, health services, human resources, industrial/engineering systems, and natural resource systems.
Another critical component of the Consortium's work was to nurture collaboration between faculty, administrators, board members, and support staff from participating district high schools, from the Multnomah Education Service District, and from MHCC. Indeed, administrators reported that much of MHCC's successful collaboration with high schools is attributed to the quality of these connecting activities. These exchanges involving MHCC and high school faculty are also used to review and update articulation agreements.
A third strategy for articulation was the collaborative development of 2+2 curriculum guides and marketing materials. Presently, curriculum guides have been developed for each of the seventeen professional-technical areas of MHCC. These guides are used by counselors, students, and parents at each of the participating high schools. Creating pathways required drastic restructuring changes to provide a series of coherent courses for all students, from middle school through the first year of college. While a series of technical courses could be aligned with career pathways, academic disciplines such as mathematics were well entrenched in traditional tracks (e.g., remedial, general, advanced). The creation of an Application-based, Technology-supported, One-track (ATO) mathematics curriculum was a bold response to integration of mathematics and technical areas. The curriculum was the result of four years of curriculum revision and experiences with alternative pedagogy and assessment. During this time, the mathematics faculty were supportive of these reform efforts. In 1994, they received a four year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support the refinement and implementation of the ATO mathematics curriculum. The ATO model provides a "balanced, coherent mathematics program for all students (tech prep and baccalaureate prep) in entry-level mathematics courses. It acknowledges the challenges of education reform in mathematics that are common to all schools that teach the mathematics addressed in the NCTM Standards and SCANS documents." To facilitate mathematics teaching under this model, a series of interactive mathematics courses replaced traditional track courses (e.g., remedial mathematics and intermediate algebra). The interactive nature of the mathematics course is defined in three ways:
[First,] students are actively involved with other students and the instructor in their learning of mathematics. [Second,] algebra, geometry, probability, data analysis, and statistics are integrated in each level of interactive mathematics. [Third,] applications from other disciplines are incorporated to establish a strong connection between mathematics and the real world.
Under these restructuring efforts, students participating in the 2+2 Tech Prep programs can benefit from advanced placement course work at affordable tuition rates. Based on the Consortium's 1995 Summary Report, student participation in transcripted credit had increased 1446% since 1986. Additional benefits include potential participation in a manufacturing Tech Prep internship developed in collaboration with the Portland's Boeing Company and the Consortium. Students interested in careers in retail and hospitality industries can participate in a Management Development Academy to acquire work-based experience in that field. To date, MHCC has focused on developing integrated curriculum, teamwork, realistic applications for mastering academic skills, and work-based learning opportunities for all students.
The MHCC integration approach is supported by strategies facilitating the development of career paths through a series of coherent technical courses. Technical and academic content is also integrated in support of career pathways. In the mathematics program, integration is a department-wide approach nurtured by flexible and focused professional development activities and an institutional climate conducive to effective implementing education reform.
Integration Formats
Prominent in the MHCC integration efforts is the integration of secondary and postsecondary education through career pathways. Students can participate in coherent sequences of technical and academic courses in programs related to the humanities and performing arts, business, health sciences, human resources, technology, and natural resources. The industrial and engineering systems career pathway, for instance, involves the study of "related technologies necessary to design, develop, install, or maintain physical systems. These may include engineering and related technologies, mechanics and repair, manufacturing technology, precision production, and construction" (from MHRCC's 1995 Summary Report). In alignment with the development of these career pathways, academic departments have attempted to restructure their curriculum by eliminating traditional tracks and integrating academic content into realistic contexts. The English and mathematics departments have worked assiduously to connect with the professional technical groups on campus. A college administrator indicated that integration is occurring in various ways all the time to infuse "academic material into the minds of professional technical people."
The mathematics department's integration approach is characterized by
program-wide efforts. First of all, mathematics courses were restructured to
serve all
students, regardless of their career pathways. This vision is
being implemented through a
common-core baccalaureate and Tech Prep course
sequence under an interactive mathematics curriculum involving four levels of
mathematics. These courses integrate the use of technology and emphasize
practical examples of real-world problem situations drawing from technical
fields of interest to the students (see MHCC ATO mathematics curriculum on page
64). Under this program-wide approach to integration, all faculty in the
mathematics division participate in developing curriculum for the restructured
courses as well as in articulation activities with high school faculty to make
sure courses are properly aligned and sequenced. Involving all faculty in a
continuous conversation on the need and reasons for change was an important
strategy to establish this program-wide approach. In particular, teachers were
encouraged not to feel resentful or fearful about abandoning the
integrity of their discipline. It was made clear that integration of
mathematics and technical subjects was not about watering down the material. It
was about providing all students with common foundations so that, if a job
changes or disappears, students still have the academic and technical skills
foundations to enable them to learn on the job.
Professional Development
At MHCC, integration is tied to the notion of effective pedagogy that engages students and motivates them to demonstrate their learning to others. To develop a common understanding of how to improve mathematics teaching, full-time and part-time instructors participate in course teams, which meet regularly. When restructuring efforts began, Tech Prep conferences played a major role in administrators' professional development. These conferences were very effective in interesting instructors in education reform and integration issues.
The math division is active and has developed a collective understanding of the need for effective professional development. The entire mathematics division participates in faculty workshops during fall in-service time. These workshops include full- and part-time instructors and focus on issues of the ATO curriculum and pedagogy. Instructional teams facilitate ongoing discussions of these issues. These faculty training opportunities are funded in part by NSF. MHCC is currently working with Portland State University (PSU) to create a course/seminar for mathematics graduate students interested in teaching at the community college level. This seminar would be jointly taught by PSU and MHCC faculty. This seminar should help develop a pool of applicants who are more prepared to teach effectively in the reformed setting after grant funding ends. A related strategy has been to provide release time for instructors, so their professional development can take the form of collaborative work to develop curriculum since available packages did not align well with the NCTM Standards. For example, a team of teachers wrote a math textbook, which is currently published in a preliminary edition. This work, in turn, creates opportunities for instructors to conduct workshops, present at conferences, develop reports and information brochures, and so on. In short, a combination of professional development activities, including conference participation, curriculum writing, and participation in demonstrations, provide ample opportunities for teachers to gain conceptual and practical understandings of integration issues as well as to network with peers in the field.
Institutional Climate and Support
The institutional climate and support for integration at MHCC is nurtured by educational changes mandated by the Oregon legislature, emphasizing real-world skills and contextual learning. However, much of MHCC's success is the result of the leadership provided by college officials, who have established a climate of effective collaboration internally and externally. The Consortium appears to be an exemplary partnership assisting in developing a vision for current and future work. All key Consortium stakeholders (e.g., feeder high schools, business/industry) are invited to participate in conversations and decisions about restructuring changes. For instance, business and industry (e.g., Boeing and Fujitsu) frequently send representatives to Consortium meetings to provide examples of real-world situations for contextual learning. Further, college faculty and leaders in mathematics and English curriculum reform conduct frequent hands-on training and assist in developing materials for high school and college faculty. This collaborative climate established by college administrators is perhaps the most important factor supporting restructuring efforts. The administrators provided constant conversation and feedback until all parties involved were convinced of change's necessity and that actions must follow. A mathematics teacher explained,
The dean came in with a vision, but backed off for a while to see if we would come to that vision. She wanted a cohesive program, but it wasn't forced. It wasn't `here's a philosophy, do you guys buy into it?' It really was brain-stormed one year and put together as a document the next year. A lot of people contributed to the vision and [we] tried to get other people on board. [The dean] really facilitated our work and elicited our ideas. She knew when to ask us the right questions, and she had a vision for working with the administration, because you have to have the administration buy in when you make such a radical change.
By 1991, everyone in the mathematics division decided to participate in restructuring efforts. The strength of the mathematics division, according to another math instruction, is that "once somebody tries something and it works, then we get together and talk about it and decide whether that's good for all our students and whether it's a direction that we all need to go."
To fully align restructuring and integration efforts with the principles of education reform, the Consortium reviewed the SCANS report and NCTM Standards. This effort was led by the dean of mathematics division, who, at the time, was highly influenced by the book Everybody Counts, a report articulating NCTM and SCANS ideas. She was invited to review the SCANS report and saw how it correlated with the vision of the NCTM Standards. Thus, she arranged to meet with the associate dean of engineering and industrial technology to secure his interest in curriculum redesign proposals. At the same time, she was also communicating her ideas to high schools in the area and trying to influence the manner in which they were preparing students. The results of her efforts are reflected in the ATO model, an integrated, single-track, problem-solving mathematics program available at MHCC and participating district high schools. The ATO model's principles reflect the vision of the NCTM Standards and emphasize discovery learning. The following components are characteristic of the interactive mathematics classes taught in the ATO model: problem solving as the context for applying a variety of strategies for possible solutions; communicating (written and oral) to help students reflect and clarify their thinking; connecting mathematics to the real world, to underscore the value of mathematics in the workplace and society in general; using technology to model complex realistic problems; encouraging team activities and projects to promote interpersonal skills; relying upon guided discovery learning activities to promote critical thinking; and presenting mathematics as an integrated whole, to help students understand the connections among mathematics concepts.
Initially, discovery learning was "terribly uncomfortable" for many of the instructors because the methods are time-consuming and require active student participation as opposed to traditional modes where teachers do all the talking. Thus, initial professional development activities focused on developing a common philosophical understanding of teaching. The NCTM Standards were particularly useful in shaping the conversation on pedagogical matters and were embraced even when they were still in draft version. "[The NCTM Standards] were really the backbone and the guidelines we used all the way through," recalled one math instructor. Newer teachers were already familiar with the standards, upon which many of their college methods classes were based. Eventually, everybody was thinking at the same level. Further, instructors have discovered many benefits from using contextual learning. Students who traditionally felt incapable of doing mathematics have appeared now more comfortable with applied concepts and more confident solving problems because they could understand the context and interpret the information in ways relevant to them.
Regarding assessment, students receive constant feedback through in-class assessment worksheets, in-class and take-home tests, and observation of group work. Students' work is documented using journal writings and ensuring that different concepts and skills are assessed (e.g., use of technology, knowledge of concepts, and communication skills). Exams are sometimes written collaboratively and shared among members of the department. In general, faculty members are willing to try new things, evidenced by their early use of graphing calculators and discovery-based calculus. An instructor reported that there is a willingness to "leap in there and try something new and then come back and assess whether this is good for all of our students."