Immediate Supervision in Foreign Language Labs

Whereas, Legal Opinion 08-02 (2008 October 1) established new strictures by which districts can claim apportionment for “TBA” (To Be Arranged) hours, strictures that many community college labs, including foreign language labs, did not or simply cannot meet;

Whereas, The foreign languages discipline universally recognizes labs as necessary, successful delivery modes for improving student learning outcomes;

Whereas, Meeting the new strictures would entail staffing foreign language labs with instructors from all languages at any given time, even though instructors with minimum qualifications in any foreign language possess knowledge of the pedagogy of foreign language teaching and learning, and can thereby assist students with lab materials and activities that have been assigned by and will be assessed by the instructor of record; and

Whereas, The Board of Governors amended Title 5 §58055 (“Immediate Supervision”) to allow exemptions for health science education, for the Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship programs[1], and for early childhood education programs to allow them to meet the new strictures;

Resolved, That the Academic Senate for  California Community Colleges collaborate with the Chancellor’s Office to develop a recommendation to the Board of Governors that Title 5 be amended to allow an exemption for foreign language labs so that immediate supervision can be shared by people who meet the state minimum qualifications for teaching any foreign language taught at the college.

MSC