TCCTA Blog

More GIFTS Sessions Than Ever

The Professional Development Committee has arranged for an unprecedented number of the highly popular GIFTS (Great Ideas for Teaching Students) sessions to be held at the TCCTA convention, March 1-3, in Frisco. The GIFTS programs will be offered on Friday, March 2, at 8:00 a.m.

These brief presentations offer specific ideas for teaching and are designed to be of practical use to educators in all disciplines. Each session will last approximately ten minutes, allowing participants to sample a variety of useful teaching techniques. They are offered for teachers, by teachers.

Chair of the Professional Development Committee is Essie Childers, Blinn College–Bryan Campus.

Here's the link. Please consult the site frequently for updates or additions.

ACC President Addresses Graduation Rates

Those notorious freeway billboards sponsored recently by the Texas Association of Business, bashing local community colleges for low graduation rates, have generated plenty of heat. For background, see previous posts, here and here.

Richard Rhodes, president of Austin Community College, discussed the issue recently in an interview with the Texas Tribune. As the product of a community college himself, he points out that, since he transferred to a university before graduating, he would not be counted as a "success" using the statistical metric cited by TAB in the billboards.

Here's the interview. Please read the entire article, as it frames the discussion nicely.

So far, such billboards have been put up by TAB in Austin and Dallas, but reportedly have already been taken down. Bill Hammond, the group's director, said their intent was to draw public attention to the need for performance funding.

Dr. Rhodes suggests alternative means of measuring the efficiency of two-year schools, reflecting the various circumstances of students who enter the open door. He also flatly rejects the idea that community colleges should become more selective in admissions.

Salary and Benefits Survey Now Online

For the fifth consecutive year, the annual TCCTA Survey of Faculty Salaries is offered totally online, allowing more features and information than printed previously in the Messenger.

The survey includes the same important data as always, plus responses to many new questions. Most importantly, the 2011-12 survey asked colleges to report supplemental benefits such as release time, sabbatical leave, on-site child care, and paid dependent insurance coverage. College officials had requested this opportunity, allowing their schools to explain benefits that do not lend themselves to quantification and ranking.

The components of the survey can be downloaded and printed conveniently. Be sure to click on the "Plus" sign beside each school for additional benefits that may be offered.

TCCTA began conducting the annual Survey of Faculty Salaries in 1976. Since 2002, the association has collected and tabulated salary figures from Texas community colleges using four distinct “ranges,” from “lowest quarter” to “highest quarter” paid. The lowest and highest actual salaries for bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees are presented for each range.

Ranges were based on the total salary range for each degree, subtracting the lowest salary from the highest, then dividing the result into four equal monetary quarters.

Here's the link.

Meningitis Vaccinations Required by Jan. 1

A law passed by the 82nd Texas Legislature requires that all incoming Texas college students must receive a vaccination or booster against bacterial meningitis. This law goes into effect on January 1, 2012. Here is the official bill analysis of SB 1107 from the Senate Research Center.

The meningitis vaccine is required for the following individuals under 30 years of age:

• All new students (including dual credit students) for the Spring 2012 term
• All returning students who have had a break in enrollment for one or more fall or spring semesters
• All incoming transfer students
• All continuing and professional development (CPD) students taking "linked" courses. A linked CPD course is any course held in conjunction with an academic/credit course.

The student or parent or guardian of the student must provide evidence showing the student has received the bacterial meningitis vaccination or booster during the five-year period prior to enrollment, and not less than 10 days before the first day of classes.

AP and IB Programs Create Underclass

A new study raises a red flag regarding Advanced Placement courses and International Baccalaureate programs in public schools.

Researchers say the programs contribute to a new underclass of students. This lower cohort would consist of the group that "dwells below the level of AP and IB study, in lightweight, second-tier courses that might be called 'honors' or AP but lack rigor. If you have a child taking AP courses at a high school where few students ever pass AP tests, then your kid is probably a member of the underclass," according to an article in the Washington Post by Daniel de Vise.

As parents know, many high school students sign up for AP classes (perhaps due to prodding at home), but don't take the exam to receive AP credit. They know they won't pass it. It's tough.

Here's the study. The authors are Regina Deil-Amen at the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona, and sociologist Stefanie DeLuca at Johns Hopkins University.

This controversy will sound familiar to those who recall a previous generation's contentious debate over "tracking" of students into vocational programs. It might also ring a bell with those who casually observe that many students in "Gifted" or "Talented" programs are definitely not gifted nor especially talented. (Okay, we're all gifted and talented in our own way, but please. This is way beyond All the Children Are Above Average.) In some school districts, the majority of seniors graduate with high grade point averages. Unfortunately, way too many of these same students need developmental education.

The solution, the authors write, is to "abolish tracking altogether and to re-imagine high school as a tool to prepare all students for both college and careers," according to the Post article. Students would choose from several academic “pathways” that “include both academically rigorous, college-preparatory requirements and challenging professional and technical knowledge grounded in industry standards,” the scholars say.

Easier said than done, of course, but certainly worth examination. The challenge involves avoiding discriminatory outcomes based on income and ethnicity when students (and parents) "choose" a curriculum.

Group Behind Billboards Examined

The notorious billboards in Dallas and Austin bashing community colleges for their low graduation rates have attracted national attention. (For background on this controversy, please see this previous post.)

An interesting article by Paul Fain in Inside Higher Ed. explores the Texas Association of Business (TAB) and its role in sponsoring the billboards. The article also includes a link to a letter written in response by Dallas County Community College District chancellor Wright L. Lassiter Jr., which was published since the post mentioned above.

Please read the entire piece and the linked material.

Those looking for a shadowy cabal to blame will be disappointed in the article, but the report does enumerate a cast of characters in the movement to raise graduation rates, including the Lumina Foundation and Complete College America. As Dr. Lassiter and Steve Johnson of the Texas Association of Community Colleges point out, the billboards betray a fundamental lack of knowledge about community college students. Also, apparently, there has been little contact between the business groups and two-year college leaders. This is hard to understand.

Given the prominence of these signs on Texas highways, not to mention the ensuing media attention, it is possible that considerable damage has been done. Imagine trying to pass a bond election right now, or urging higher taxes, tuition, or fees—all reasonable actions in the wake of historic budget cuts by the Legislature. The timing for misinformation could not be worse.

The reporter interviews Bill Hammond, president of TAB, who has no regrets about stirring up the controversy. “I consider myself a critical friend of public higher education,” he said.

According to the article, the billboard in Dallas is about to be taken down after three days, and the one in Austin was up for one day only. However, more may be on the way, the piece concludes.

"All Failure Occurs at the Front Door"

Valencia College in Florida is the winner of the first Aspen Prize, "an honor bestowed on the institution mainly due to the strength of its graduation and transfer rates, especially among minority students, as well as its employment rates among all graduates," according to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education by Jennifer Gonzalez. The competition was announced by President Obama at the White House Summit on Community Colleges in October 2010.

Valencia's president is Sanford C. ("Sandy") Shugart, former president of North Harris College (now Lone Star College–North Harris) in Texas.

Valencia will receive a $600,000 prize to support its programs while each “finalist with distinction” will receive $100,000. The Finalists with Distinction are: Lake Area Technical Institute (Watertown, SD); Miami Dade College (Miami, FL); Walla Walla Community College (Walla Walla, WA); and West Kentucky Community and Technical College (Paducah, KY).

It is interesting to note the strategies Valencia used to increase its graduation and transfer rates. Faculty members are often leery of plans that may threaten to reduce rigor or interfere with the professional judgment of teachers in assigning grades. However, it's hard to imagine instructors having any problem at all with these winning strategies, as reported in the Chronicle piece:

In selecting Valencia for the top prize, Aspen officials noted that more than half, 51 percent, of the college's full-time students, most of whom pursue associate degrees, complete them within three years of enrolling. That's a graduation rate significantly higher than the national average of 39 percent at community colleges. Valencia offers more than 700 courses a term to its 50,000 for-credit students.

Nearly half of that population is minority students, and many are below the poverty line, the Aspen Institute noted. Still, two-thirds of Valencia's minority students return for a second year, the institute said, and more than 40 percent transfer or graduate within three years, compared with one-third of minority students at community colleges around the country.

Mr. Shugart has said that "all the failure occurs at the front door." To ensure students, once enrolled, succeed quickly, Valencia changed some policies and procedures that peer institutions tend to see as fixed, the Aspen Institute pointed out. The college instituted earlier advising and orientation, and with that shift, earlier application and admission deadlines. It minimized chaos by assigning courses to adjunct professors a year before they were scheduled to begin and by no longer adding last-minute course sections. It examined data showing that students who start classes late struggle and stopped allowing students to register for courses that had already met, except "flex start" sections designed for newcomers.

Valencia has also helped prepare students for transfer. Three in 10 students who enroll at Valencia end up transferring to a four-year college, with four in five going on to the University of Central Florida. Students aiming for UCF get counseling from both institutions, and if they earn an associate degree from Valencia, the university will automatically admit them.

For a long time, Valencia concentrated on "volume," just enrolling students, Mr. Shugart said, but over the years officials began to think more about how to help students succeed. Rising enrollments no longer defined success, he said: "Enrollment became a means to an end."

Valencia’s innovations also include, according to the school's Web site:

• LifeMap, launched in 1998, empowers students to chart their own paths through college to achieve career and life goals through connections with advisors, faculty, staff and interactive tools.
• Supplemental Learning, which bolsters traditional courses with small-group study sessions, led by a student who has already successfully taken the class. Since 2006, almost 32,000 students have taken SL courses – one of the largest scale learning experiments to ever take place in a U.S. community college.
• Bridges to Success, which offers disadvantaged high school students free tuition if they enroll in Valencia immediately after high school graduation, keep their grades up and participate in Bridges activities.
• DirectConnect to UCF, which has streamlined the admissions, financial aid, advising and transfer processes for Valencia students continuing their education at UCF.

Cal State Launches Early Start for DE

The California State University System plans to require students who need developmental education to enroll in a summer Early Start program to get them ready for fall. Reportedly the system is overwhelmed with students who are not prepared for college-level work, and budget cuts have eliminated or cut back many traditional DE classes.

Faculty leaders are skeptical that a brief "intervention" will get the job done, according to an article in the Contra Costa Times, by Matt Krupnick.

The dilemma in California may sound familiar to Texans. Some two-year colleges here have conducted Early Start programs for years, reporting good results. Obviously success depends upon the level of student proficiency and the degree to which they are able to participate fully in a summer program. The article says students in California are allowed to participate in Early Start online. Many educators believe that online education and DE are a bad fit, however.

It's clear the policy change in California is related to the financial situation. It's also hard to separate what students actually need from what policy makers think they can afford. Some Texas lawmakers have suggested in recent legislative sessions that universities should not offer developmental education at all. In fact many selective universities already contract with community colleges for DE courses.

In California, "The remedial numbers are staggering, given that the Cal State system admits only freshmen who graduated in the top one-third of their high-school class," the article reports.

A quote from a practitioner:

"I'm not at all optimistic that it's going to help," said Sally Murphy, a communications professor who directs general education at Cal State East Bay, where 73 percent of this year's freshmen were not ready for college math. Nearly 60 percent were not prepared for college English.

"A 15-hour intervention is just not enough intervention when it comes to skills that should have been developed over 12 years," Murphy said.

Billboards Slam Community Colleges

A major business group is sponsoring giant billboards on Texas freeways, drawing attention to what they see as abysmal graduation rates at community colleges. A new sign displayed on North Central Expressway in Dallas says:

8% OF DCCCD STUDENTS GRADUATE IN 3 YRS. IS THAT FAIR TO THE STUDENTS? TX ASSN OF BUSINESS.

The figure refers to the Dallas County Community College District—one of the largest two-year schools in the nation. Here is the Web site of the Texas Association of Business, the sponsoring organization.

A billboard put up by the same group was also placed in Austin recently. You can see it here, as part of an article on the signs in the Texas Tribune by Reeve Hamilton. From this site you can also connect to a podcast in response by ACC President Richard Rhodes. Here is the transcript.

The data cited by TAB is based exclusively on "first time, full time students." That's a problem, to put it mildly. For one thing, many students simply want to transfer and don't have any interest in graduating from a two-year school, or perhaps wish to take a course or two to beef up their skills. For another, full-timers tend to be a small percentage of the community college population.

From Dr. Rhodes:

I use myself as an example when we talk about that group of students. When I graduated from high school, I started as a first-time, full-time student at a community college in Alamogordo, New Mexico. I attended that institution for one full year, and I took about 36 college credit hours during that year. Then I transferred to a university and ultimately then received a bachelor’s degree. So if you take a look at those two institutions – the community college that I started at, and that gave me my best start; when I think back about my greatest teachers who inspired me to higher learning, it happened at the community college, that very first year. So I look at that and say if we look at graduation rates, those two institutions, Alamogordo (the community college) and New Mexico State University where I received my bachelor’s degree, at the community college I started as first time, full time and did not graduate; so therefore I’m in the denominator but I’m not in the numerator. So I actually count against them in their graduation rate computation. At New Mexico State University, since I was a transfer student, I don’t count at all. I’m not in the numerator; I’m not in the denominator because I was not a first time, full time student at that institution.

Dr. Rhodes points out that, at his school, only about 5.5 percent of the student body matches this first time, full time description.

Community college leaders nationwide are searching for a metric that reflects reality better, as reported in this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription).

From the Tribune article:

"People really have to understand the metrics and the data behind the metrics," Rhodes said in his podcast. "There's a much larger story when we think about community college students and what their intent is and why they come here."

[TAB President] Hammond is unsympathetic to assertions that the activity on community college campuses can't be measured; he calls it "complete BS."

Hammond said the Texas Association of Business hopes that by raising awareness through this campaign, graduation rates could rise as much as 60 percent. He said his group hasn't decided whether to erect similar messages in other parts of the state.

 

 

ERS to Lose Long-Term Care with Hancock

The Texas Employees Retirement System (which administers health benefits for community and technical college educators) will lose its long-term care provider soon. Here's the official announcement. If you already have a contract with John Hancock, your coverage will not be affected, but the company is terminating the arrangement in the future. Later this year, ERS will issue a request for a new provider.

Many individuals choose to purchase long-term coverage to help pay for costs associated with nursing care. There are arguments pro and con about such coverage, and a wise decision may depend upon an individual's financial situation. Those who apply for such a plan can be denied based on health issues. Premium rates should also be examined carefully and are dependent upon age.

Here is a "Shopper's Guide" from the Texas Department of Insurance.

The key points from ERS:

Our group Long-Term Care Insurance provider John Hancock Life Insurance Company recently informed ERS that enrollment for this coverage will be discontinued effective January 1, 2012. John Hancock will not accept new enrollments after December 31, 2011. If you wish to apply for Long-Term Care Insurance through John Hancock, your application must be postmarked by December 31. If you apply for coverage before December 31, and you are accepted for coverage, your premiums may increase in the future.

Closing enrollment to new enrollees does not in any way affect employees or dependents who already have Long-Term Care Insurance coverage through John Hancock. If you have questions about this decision or your Long-Term Care Insurance coverage, please call John Hancock at (800) 400-9396.

ERS will issue a Request for Proposal for a new Long-Term Care Insurance provider later in the year.