Whereas, Title 5 regulations concerning repeatability of classes in physical education, visual arts, and performing arts require colleges to place active participatory classes into families of courses that are related in content;
Whereas, Under Title 5 §55040 students are allowed to take only four courses from any given group, with withdrawals and substandard grades counting toward the enrollment limit;
Whereas, Statewide efforts are currently underway to align and integrate instruction for college preparation, including credit basic skills, noncredit basic skills, adult education, regional occupational programs, and both public and private K-12 education;
Whereas, The various approaches to college preparation lead to inconsistent expectations and standards across these systems, often causing incoming college students to be placed in lower levels before embarking on transfer-level study;
Whereas, The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges adopted the paper The Course Outline of Record: A Curriculum Reference Guide[1] in Spring 2008 and has not updated it since; and
Whereas, Numerous changes to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office curriculum requirements have occurred since Spring 2008;
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, Colleges are being held to completion targets and expectations of completion transfer to UC or CSU;
Whereas, UC and CSU are the only recognized “successful transfer” institutions, and many students have other educational goals that don’t count as success, such as health programs to gain employment or improved employment as a result of California community college education to complete low-unit certificates to improve their employability; and
Whereas, California community colleges play an essential role in language acquisition and preparation for citizenship;
Whereas, California community colleges are vital to communities for upgrading the skills of their local workforces and may increase earning potential;
Whereas, Students often attend California community colleges to brush up on skills that lead to employment; and
Whereas, There is tremendous pressure on California community colleges to measure success through completion, and skill-building students are often not included in such metrics;