Whereas, Statewide Career Pathways: Facilitating School to College Articulation and the Course Identification Numbering System (C-ID) are faculty-led initiatives that facilitate student advancement, provide faculty with a forum to discuss curriculum, and are working to address other system-level needs;
Whereas, California community colleges and local senates are working toward well thought out planning and decision-making processes;
Whereas, Sound practice along with the 2002 Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) Accreditation Standards 1.B. 6-7 require institutions to improve upon these planning and resource allocation processes using evidence to assess their "institutional effectiveness;" and
Whereas, The California Educational Policy Grant has been given to Central Valley colleges in the “C- 6 Consortium,” which have “agreed to work together to pilot a series of innovative approaches to educational policy reform efforts focused on college readiness” that will “determine a best practice for the entire state”;
Whereas, The grant includes the following components:
Whereas, Many colleges are struggling to address the needs of students who face obstacles in achieving success in academically challenging courses;
Whereas, Different terms, such as learning instruction and supplemental instruction have been used interchangeably; and
Whereas, Supplemental Instruction (copyrighted by the University of Missouri-Kansas City) is a proven method for student success, involving faculty-driven, peer-to-peer learning in conjunction with a course;
Whereas, Supplemental Instruction (copyrighted by the University of Missouri-Kansas City) is a defined approach to student success that is targeted toward courses that are traditionally difficult, uses specially trained peer (student) learning leaders, uses faculty-developed material, and is designed to address retention, transfer rates, degree or certificate completion, and the disconnect that can occur between disciplines, such as specific math skills needed to pass a chemistry course;
Whereas, The recommendations (as of September 30, 2011) of the California Community College Student Success Task Force (established in response to Senate Bill 1143, Liu, 2010) calls for a refocusing and reorienting of institutions towards student success;
Whereas, Faculty are deeply concerned and offended by the document’s suggestion that we need to refocus on student success; and
Whereas, Student success has always been a focus of faculty and our efforts;
Whereas, The California Community College’s CalWORKs program currently provides or is directly responsible for service coordination with local counties and college student services units, academic counseling and vocational planning, matriculation guidance, childcare services, job preparation and search, subsidized work placement both on and off campus, instruction, document completion, data management, post-employment, and other services, which are used by California counties to meet their federal required work participation rates;
Whereas, Many California community colleges have locally established, researched, vetted, and validated placement tests that place students into classes in which they are most likely to be successful;
Whereas, Assessment for placement is closely related to matters of prerequisites and curriculum and is therefore clearly an academic and professional matter; and
Whereas, Assessment instruments that do not align with established curricula are liable to increase misplacement of students into courses and therefore hinder student success;
Whereas, At its October 15, 2011, meeting the California Community College Independents (CCCI) passed a “Resolution in Response to the Draft Recommendations of the California Community College Task Force on Student Success”;
Whereas, The positions expressed in the CCCI resolution are fully consistent with those of the Academic Senate; and
Whereas, The CCCI resolution highlights in clear, articulate, and detailed terms both the positive aspects of the task force recommendations and the areas in which the recommendations are problematic;
Whereas, Due to severe fiscal constraints and perceived abuse by students, continuing-student registration priorities are being restricted locally to give low registration priority to students who have attained excessive units, and a regulatory priority limit of 100 units has been recommended (September 30, 2011, recommendation 3.1) by the California Community College Student Success Task Force (established in response to Senate Bill 1143, Liu, 2010);