Recommend that an effective working group be assembled to pursue these issues. Working group formed in 2003, chaired by the Accrediting Liaison, failed to function as chaired called no meetings.
We have taken this position over and over.
Whereas, The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) has adopted a new set of Accreditation Standards which will radically alter the way institutions of higher education are evaluated in the State of California while refusing to produce quantifiable evidence indicating that the imposition of learning outcomes assessment will contribute to any meaningful improvement in the delivery of instruction at the community colleges;
Whereas, Faculty bodies at the state level, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, and the Community College Council of the California Federation of Teachers (CCC/CFT), have recommended that faculty not participate in activities involving the development of learning outcomes as a part of accreditation self-studies;
Whereas, The new Accreditation Standards may be interpreted as interfering with the collective bargaining process, may be inconsistent with the shared-governance provisions of Title 5 53200, and may lead to infringement of academic freedom; and
Whereas, The above groups have raised concerns that the level of emphasis on learning outcomes and the associated amount of record keeping mandated by the new Standards will be costly and time-consuming, diverting scarce resources away from classrooms, libraries, and counseling;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate resist and recommend that local senates resist any attempt to have the measurement of learning outcomes imposed upon faculty by the Standards of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC); and
Resolved, That the Academic Senate vigorously reject the notion that faculty evaluation be based on the measurement of student learning outcomes as defined by the Accrediting Commission's new Standards. MSC Disposition: Accrediting Commission, Local Senates