Before the holidays, the Senate Committee on Higher Education, chaired by Sen. Judith Zaffirinni (D-Laredo), published its biennial Interim Report, in anticipation of the Regular Session that convenes on January 11. The entire document is available here.
The report deals with all aspects of higher education policy, and includes recommendations for lawmakers to consider in a host of areas. During the interim between Sessions, the panel conducted numerous hearings featuring testimony from invited and public witnesses, including Fred Newbury, Richland College, president of TCCTA.
The report analyzes policies of particular concern to two-year college educators. One relates to community colleges generally and another focuses on developmental education. Below are the charges given to the committee on each of these two subjects, followed by official recommendations of the Senate panel. Readers are urged to examine the entire document for background and insights.
On Community Colleges
Charge:
Review community college service areas to ensure that student needs are being met in the most effective and efficient manner. Study and make recommendations to improve the productivity and cost- effectiveness of the community college/university model for producing baccalaureate degrees, including identifying proven best practices; analyzing success rates of similar cohorts of students by comparing those who begin at community colleges with those who begin at four-year institutions; and analyzing transfer issues including dual admissions programs and academic advising services to facilitate a seamless transfer from two-year to four-year institutions. Include an assessment of the role of technical and vocational training programs and their impact on jobs.
Recommendations:
- 01. Institutions of higher education should have a logical process and a single institutional point of contact for transfer problem resolution.
- 02. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board should implement a statewide policy for reverse transfers between four-year and two-year higher education institutions.
- 03. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board should continue to facilitate comprehensive transfer agreements between two-year and four-year institutions.
- 04. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board should enforce acceptance of all core curriculum transfers between two-year and four-year institutions.
- 05. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board should work with higher education institutions to improve the existing Transfer 101 website by adding elements that are more essential for students (handbooks, college catalogs, transfer universities, course equivalency guides, FAQs, and support services).
- 06. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board should create a clearinghouse for research and proven best practices (strategies for increasing number of baccalaureate graduates).
- 07. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board should enhance the existing common course numbering system to make the transfer and transcription of credit from one institution to another simpler and more effective.
- 08. The Texas Legislature should continue to fund the Jobs and Education for Texans (JET) program.
On Developmental Education
Charge:
Study and make recommendations regarding improving developmental education, which costs the state over $100 million per year, with a focus on enhancing student success in these courses.
Recommendations:
- 01. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board should ensure a uniform placement-assessment policy dedicated to improving developmental education outcomes that target the specific needs of each student.
- 02. The Legislature should disaggregate developmental education courses from college-level courses and create formula funding rates to allocate state appropriations to developmental education courses more accurately.
- 03. Higher education institutions should distinguish and remediate Adult Basic Education students from Developmental Education students.
- 04. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board should develop statewide best practices that help students transition successfully through developmental education courses into college credit programs.
- 05. The Legislature should ensure that modularized shorter-term courses receive state funding, even if the courses do not meet minimum requirements of contact time to generate reimbursement revenue.
- 06. The Legislature should continue to focus, whenever possible, on the delivery of developmental education where the cost of delivery is lowest, such as at public two-year institutions.
- 07. Higher education institutions need to consider a more precise threshold for developmental education, with better initial diagnostic assessment of students’ needs, and greater support for alternative paths to education and training thereafter.
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