The Legislative Committee will monitor any legislation that appears to standardize higher education. Through the ASCCC and ICAS letter and Rostrum article.
Whereas, The Commission on the Future of Higher Education convened in San Diego February 2006, to focus on whether standardized testing should be expanded into universities and colleges, and Chair Charles Miller, a Texas business executive, has stated that the commission might propose making an institution's eligibility for federal student aid conditional on standardized testing;
Whereas, Standardized testing narrows textbook publication to the tests, holds instruction, curriculum, and learning hostage to tests that offer negligible value to the students, places oversight of educational systems in the hands of entities who are remote from the classroom, provides opportunities for powerful special interests to misuse collected data, and channels scarce revenues away from the classroom and into the pockets of consultants; and
Whereas, Any effort to standardize higher education may rightfully be construed as an effort to lessen the intellectual vitality of higher education and thereby squelch its ability to raise questions and offer alternatives to powerful governmental and industrial interest groups, and to diminish its ability to engender in students the critical skills necessary for responsible participation in a democratic republic;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges assert its conviction that any federally imposed standardization of higher education threatens the high quality, dynamic and innovative system of higher education that is a central component of American democracy and an inspiration to freedom loving people the world over;
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges oppose any federal attempt to standardize higher education; and
Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges determine the most effective manner to convey to the appropriate legislators, intersegmental groups, and the federal government the opposition of our 109 colleges and 58,000 professors to standardization of higher education. MSC Disposition: Local Senates