Whereas, Senate Bill (SB) 850 (Block, 2014)[1] creates a baccalaureate degree pilot program that authorizes the creation of one baccalaureate degree per college if that degree is not offered by any California State University (CSU) or University of California (UC) campus;
Whereas, On September 29, 2014, the governor signed Senate Bill (SB) 850 (Block, 2014), authorizing a baccalaureate degree pilot program in which 15 community colleges in 15 separate districts can be authorized to develop and offer one baccalaureate degree if that degree is not offered by any California State University (CSU) or University of California (UC) campus;
Whereas, Assembly Bill (AB) 1943 (Nava, 2006) amended California Education Code §§70901-70902 to allow California community college districts to offer credit courses that are not part of an approved educational program (stand-alone credit courses), requiring approval only by local curriculum committees and district governing boards and eliminating the requirement for approval by the Chancellor’s Office for the period Fall 2007 through December 31, 2012;
Whereas, Title 5 §§55070-55072 allow colleges to create certificates of less than 18 units, with those between 12 and 18 units eligible for submission at the option of the district to the Chancellor’s Office for approval as Certificates of Achievement, while those below 12 units may not be submitted for such approval but may be conferred on students as a recognition of reaching an academic goal; and
Whereas, The mandate of using only the California State University (CSU) Breadth or Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) patterns for a local degree[1] that has the local program goal of transfer began with the 5th edition of Program and Course Approval Handbook (PCAH), with the result that a local degree with a program goal of transfer will not be approved by the Chancellor's Office if a college uses its local general education pattern;
Whereas, The California Community College Chancellor’s Office tool Data Mart Basic Skills Progress Tracker is used to compile the Basic Skills Report for the State of California, integrating data from all basic skills/English as a Second Language (ESL) courses at all California Community Colleges (CCCs) for the purpose of measuring quality of programs at a college level;
Whereas, The establishment of infrastructure to support the coordinated development of curriculum (either intra or inter-segmentally) and corresponding efforts to identify comparable curriculum is a valuable mechanism for increasing student pathway efficiency because it permits students to readily transition across and among the public and private segments of education and into viable careers;
Whereas, California community colleges have built extensivedepth and breadth of educational programs for over 50 years, responding to the educational needs of their respective communities, contributing to a skilled workforce, fostering a more engaged citizenry and creating a diverse, multi-generational component in the social and cultural make-up of our state, and in November 2012 voters passed Proposition 30, signifying state-wide, taxpayer support for maintaining access to this high quality public educational system;
Whereas, In 2013 the legislature passed and the governor signed AB 86 (Education Omnibus Trailer Bill, 2013-2014) that amended California Education Code §84830 to create regional consortia to implement a plan to “better serve the educational needs of adults” in areas that include basic skills, ESL, and short-term CTE educational services;
Whereas, AB 86 further requires an evaluation and integration of faculty professional development to achieve greater student achievement;
Whereas, Many California Community College ESL departments report inaccuracies in the California Community College Chancellor’s Office Basic Skills Progress Tracker (Datamart) that have resulted in inaccurate measuring and reporting of student success to campus administrations and outside entities;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges request that California community colleges review data collection processes for accuracy in CB 21 coding before the data is publicized and disseminated to inform programmatic and policy decisions.