Curriculum

Whereas, The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office has issued a call to action, to look with fresh eyes at the limitations and barriers to educational equity in California Community Colleges;

Whereas, Educational equity is in the requirements of the California Education Code and Title 5 Regulations, and educational equity requires understanding the unique challenges and barriers faced by individual students or by populations of students and each student having equitable access, guidance and support in pursuing educational pathways and career goals;

Whereas, the current wording in Title 5 §55063 (b) (2), which states that "Ethnic Studies will be offered in at least one of the areas required by subdivision (1),” is written in such a way that it does not clearly define ethnic studies, allowing for different interpretations and inconsistent applications of this requirement across the state of California;

Whereas, Ethnic studies is an interdisciplinary and comparative study of race and ethnicity with special focus on four historically defined racialized core groups—Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Latina/o Americans—offered through various disciplines including Ethnic Studies, Chicana and Chicano Studies, Latina and Latino Studies, African-American Studies, Black Studies, Asian-American Studies, Native-American Studies, Africana Studies, Mexican-American Studies, Indigenous Studies, Filipino Studies, La Raza Studies, and Central American Studies;

Whereas, Local curriculum committees play a critical role in the California Community College system;

Whereas, The role of local curriculum committees has expanded tremendously with the dynamics of local governance, demands for curriculum that is responsive to the needs of our diverse student populations, changes in regulations, and local and statewide emergency and crisis situations; and

Whereas, Resolution 13.01 S19 asked that the “Academic Senate for California Community Colleges develop suggested guidelines, policies, and practices for implementation of SB 1359 (Block, 2016) no later than Spring of 2020”;

Whereas, The mission of California Community Colleges specifically includes providing remedial education for those in need of it (Education Code Section 66010.4);

Whereas, In response to the implementation of the requirements of AB 705 (Irwin, 2017) colleges are creating credit and noncredit support courses for English and mathematics, including required credit co-requisite courses;

Whereas, The regulatory language in Title 5 section 55041 on repeatable courses did not foresee the requirements of AB 705 (Irwin, 2017), and thus does not address the repeatability of credit support courses for English and mathematics;

Whereas, Title 5 §56000(e) states that academic accommodations for students with disabilities may “not include any change to curriculum or course of study that is so significant that it alters the required objectives or content of the curriculum in the approved course outline, thereby causing a fundamental alteration,” and Title 5 §56001(b) defines a fundamental alteration as “any change to a course curriculum or course of study that is so significant that it alters the required objectives or content of the curriculum in the approved course outline of the course;”

Whereas, Publishers have been developing approaches to monetize open educational resources and, in some instances, are providing textbook solutions that dramatically decrease the costs of such resources but may have unintended negative consequences;

Whereas, “Inclusive access” strategies have been introduced by publishers in various formats as an approach to decrease the cost of course resources by providing access to low-cost digital resources;

Whereas, SB 1359 (Block, 2016) requires all segments of public higher education in California to “Clearly highlight, by means that may include a symbol or logo in a conspicuous place on the online campus course schedule, the courses that exclusively use digital course materials that are free of charge to students and may have a low-cost option for print versions” (California Education Code §66406.9) as of January, 2018;