Noncredit education is gaining recognition in the California Community College System as more colleges understand laws and regulations around the development and use of noncredit curriculum. Equalized funding for career development and college preparation (CDCP) noncredit courses means more colleges can choose to offer noncredit curriculum in situations where it is best for students or for a program without sacrificing apportionment funding.
In October 2017, Governor Brown signed AB 705 (Irwin) into law and fundamentally changed how assessment, placement, and basic skills instruction would happen in the California community colleges. At the time of the law’s signing, no one really knew how it would be implemented and what the impacts would be on colleges. While many unanswered questions still remain, we now have a much better sense of what colleges are required to do and the different options that they have available as they implement the law locally.
Placement in Mathematics and English
Anyone who grew up watching Schoolhouse Rock has a pretty straightforward idea of how bills become laws – an idea is proposed, a legislator brings it forward, and it is either voted up or down. While the truth is much messier and contains far more steps, this basic sequence reflects how legislation travels through the cycle to end up on the governor’s desk to either be approved or vetoed. Over the past few years, the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges has been much more involved in tracking and supporting or opposing legislation, and with the end of the two-year le
The Student Centered Funding Formula was enacted through the Governor’s 2018-19 Budget Trailer Bill on June 27, 2018.[1] The formula retains 60% of the total allocation to a district based on full-time equivalent students, or FTES. It then has 20% of the allocation based on Pell Grant eligibility, nonresident tuition exemptions, or eligibility for a fee waiver. The new funding formula uses the remaining 20% to reward college districts for progress on student success measures.
The Greek philosopher Theophrastrus once said: “Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.” As faculty, we often spend our time on professional development activities. Workshops, research projects, and sabbaticals support our personal and professional growth and lead to improvements in our students’ achievement and learning. One way to invest our professional development time is to work toward the implementation of Open Educational Resources (OER) in your classes.
In 2002, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) moved from ten standards to four standards with subsections. One of the major changes was a focus on student learning outcomes (SLOs). At that time, SLOs and the idea of SLO assessment were new to California community colleges; even though assessing student learning was not new to faculty, the systematic cycle of documenting SLO assessment was.
With the inception of the California Community College’s Doing What Matters for Jobs and the Economy initiatives, an urgent emphasis has been placed on maximizing all things related to career technical education (CTE), including efficiently run advisory committee meetings. While this emphasis may seem like yet another hoop through which faculty are asked to jump, these meetings can provide some valuable insight into program need and industry trends. This article will provide suggested practices and tips to maximize the use of your advisory committees.
For the benefit of mankind, can someone please man-up and agree to man this table, which is man-made, because we are one man down and need more manpower tomorrow.
Students always face challenges at the start of the fall term: what courses to take; where to find parking; how to ensure that they receive financial aid, or Board of Governors (BoG) fee waivers; or whatever else they may require to be able to balance college and life. This fall, many of our students face an additional challenge: the threat of arrest and/or deportation due to the United States’ Attorney General’s announcement of the government’s intent to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, within the next six months.
With the fall term in full swing, local senates are developing their recommendations for faculty hiring priorities. Given the recent attention to expanding career education[1] in the California community colleges, it is increasingly urgent that we address the need to recruit and hire more career education faculty with industry experience, including any challenges associated with fulfilling that need. When used effectively, the equivalency process should play an important and complementary role to the hiring process.