Whereas, The principle of participatory governance in the California Community Colleges has long been established in practice and codified in law (California Education Code §70901 et seq.) which provides the framework whereby California’s community colleges actively practice and teach democracy;
Whereas, The 2018 California Budget Trailer Bill created the California Online Community College and named the California Community Colleges Board of Governors as the governing board for this new entity;
Whereas, Title 5 §§51025 and 53311 establish the full-time faculty obligation for each California community college, commonly known as the Faculty Obligation Number or FON, and colleges are penalized for failure to meet this obligation;
Whereas, Online Education Initiative (OEI) Pilot courses that have been reviewed and meet the OEI Course Design Rubric have an average success rate 4.9% above the statewide success rate for online courses,[1] correlating with the high quality of materials required to meet the OEI rubric and the resources (or online ecosystem) available to colleges in the OEI Consortium;
Whereas, The Social Justice Studies “Area of Emphasis” (AOE) Transfer Model Curriculum (TMC) was developed by an intersegmental Faculty Discipline Review Group, vetted by California State University (CSU) and California Community College (CCC) faculty and other interested parties, approved, and posted as final to the C-ID website on September 28, 2015;
Whereas, AB 705 (Irwin, 2017) stipulates that “Colleges shall use evidence-based multiple measures for placing students into English as a Second Language (ESL) coursework. For those students placed into credit ESL coursework, their placement should maximize the probability that they will complete degree and transfer requirements in English within three years”;
Whereas, AB 705 (Irwin, 2017) rightfully distinguishes English as a Second Language (ESL) students as “foreign language learners who require additional language training in English” with needs separate from those of native English speakers in California Community College English pathways, and therefore intentionally provides English language learners (ELLs) in credit ESL with up to three years to achieve language proficiency before and being mainstreamed into native-speaker transfer-level English;
Whereas, The changes to California Education Code Section §78213(d)(1)(E) resulting from the passage of AB 705 (Irwin, 2017) stipulate regarding multiple measures that “The board of governors may establish regulations governing the use of these and other measures, instruments, and placement models to ensure that the measures, instruments, and placement models selected by a community college demonstrate that they guide English and mathematics placements to achieve the goal of maximizing the probability that a student will enter and complete transfer-level coursework in English and mathematic
Whereas, California Education Code §66010.4 (a)(2)(A) stipulates that community colleges shall offer “remedial instruction for those in need of it”;
Whereas, Career Development and College Preparation noncredit instruction serves as an integral part of current and future student success efforts by providing pathways to college credit programs that lead to completion of degree and certificate programs in transfer and Career and Technical Education programs for students who are unprepared or underprepared for college; and
Whereas, Student success initiatives such as the Guided Pathways Award Program and Student Equity do not explicitly identify noncredit programs as integral components of such student success efforts;
