Whereas, AB 1705 (Irwin, 2022) [1] goes beyond ensuring that students who have successfully completed prerequisite coursework not be required to repeat that work and requires that all students be allowed to bypass transfer-level prerequisite courses for calculus beginning July 1, 2024 for business calculus and July 1, 2025 for STEM calculus unless colleges are able to validate these pre-requisites using a metric that has not yet been determined as of April, 2023;
Whereas, Any new guidelines for prerequisite validation should be thoroughly vetted by discipline faculty and viewed not only through the lens of throughput and course success but also course and program attrition, mastery and retention of student learning outcomes, long-term career and transfer outcomes, and the equity impact of all of the above;
Whereas, Inherent difficulties are involved in creating a study to determine the effectiveness of transfer-level prerequisite coursework that is both statistically sound and fair to students, and thus expecting each college district to complete such a study in a short timeframe is unlikely to lead to reliable data, and using this data could have lasting negative impact on the academic success, retention, and mental health of the students involved, especially since failing to prove the benefit of a prerequisite using narrowly defined metrics is not equivalent to proving the prerequisite does not improve success in subsequent courses; and
Whereas, Students, faculty, and colleges are still grappling with the academic, social, mental health, and personal struggles caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and would benefit from additional time to gather data and flexibility to address changes to educational policies and practices;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges seek an amendment to California Education Code that would extend the timeline for the AB 1705 (Irwin, 2022) data validation by at least two years;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges seek an amendment to California Education Code that would remove the language that says that colleges that fail to justify their transfer-level prerequisite courses may not recommend those courses to students and shall notify students that the prerequisite, “does not improve their chances of completing calculus for their STEM program”;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges work with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office to ensure that discipline faculty are involved in the process of identifying sensible data and metrics for prerequisite validation and to encourage that any data validation include a review of the current placement standards employed by the California State University and University of California system so that, should the data show that modifications are needed in the current placement system, these modifications not be so sweeping as to put the community colleges out of alignment with these transfer institutions; and
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges work with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office to develop examples, models, and professional development of counseling practices that would, while working within the mandates of AB 1705 (Irwin, 2022), allow colleges to empower all students to self-advocate in making decisions regarding course selection and enrollment that are best for their educational goals.
ACCLAMATION
1. AB 1705 (Irwin, 2022): https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB1705