General Concerns

Reporting of How Feedback on Student Success Task Force Draft Recommendations was Addressed

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) are being vetted across the state through a variety of venues in which faculty can provide feedback on the recommendations; and

Whereas, Many of the recommendations of the California Community College Student Success Task Force fall within academic and professional matters;

California Community College Honors Program Completion Recognition on CSU Transfer Application

Whereas, At least 57 of the California community colleges offer official honors transfer programs with identified entrance and completion policies;

Whereas, Currently California community college students have no way to indicate completion of an honors transfer program, including at least 15 semester units in honors level work, on their California State University (CSU) application; and

Professional Concerns Related to California Community College Partnerships with MyEDU

Whereas, MyEdu is a commercial company that has recently expressed interest in collaborating with California community colleges in providing students with scheduling and educational planning tools;

Whereas, MyEdu aggregates publicly available scheduling data from college websites along with professors' grade distributions by course (data that districts are legally required to provide to the public) as well as student reviews of professors from third-party web sites;

Provide Guidelines on Significant Lapse of Time

Whereas, Title 5 §55043 allows districts to “permit or require repetition of a course where the student received a satisfactory grade the last time he or she took the course but the district determines that there has been a significant lapse of time since that grade was obtained”;

Whereas, No guidelines currently exist to help districts determine reasonable standards for course repetition due to a significant lapse of time, and therefore this concept is applied inconsistently throughout California community colleges; and

Support for Student Success Courses

Whereas, Many students lack effective time management and study skills when entering California community colleges;

Whereas, Student success courses provide students with valuable instruction in such areas as study skills, time management, and other student success behaviors; and

Whereas, Students without these skills often struggle to complete courses, and research1 has shown that completing a student success course improves student persistence and aids in the transition from basic skills to college level courses;

Support Centralized Assessment Instrument with Local Cut Scores for Placement

Whereas, California community colleges use an array of assessment for placement instruments, potentially resulting in duplicative costs and the needless retesting of students;

Whereas, The use of a standardized assessment for placement instrument for all community colleges would ensure the portability of assessment scores, yet permit local determination of cut scores, application of multiple measures, and additional assessment measures (e.g., a written component for an English placement);

Supporting Student Access

Whereas, An overlap exists between California community college’s noncredit and the California Department of Education’s (CDE) adult education programs;

Whereas, Community college noncredit education provides educational access to those students who are interested but lack the knowledge needed to gain entrance to college or do not see themselves as college capable and, while informing and engaging these students, noncredit education develops their capabilities and perceptions towards becoming college capable;

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