TCCTA Blog

Colleges Use Grants to Reach Baby Boomers

A new "Plus 50 Initiative" has been announced by the American Association of Community Colleges. Ten community colleges (including Richland College in the Dallas County Community College District) will launch novel demonstration programs for students over the age of 50, with the help of seed grants from AACC and The Atlantic Philanthropies.

From the Press Release:

Organizers say the project is designed to help with one of the largest generational shifts affecting our nation, as baby boomers approach retirement and consider how to keep their lives active, healthy and engaged in careers and projects that matter to them.

"The baby boomer generation wants to stay active in retirement and holds a wealth of knowledge and experience that society cannot afford to see leave the talent pool," said George R. Boggs, AACC President and CEO. "By retooling educational programs and adjusting for the needs of plus 50 students, community colleges can empower baby boomers to continue give back by leading the vibrant and fulfilling lives they desire."

The official announcement, including more details, is available here.

Florida Moves Toward "State Colleges"

Although there are now three Texas community colleges that offer four-year degrees in certain select fields, the state of Florida is considering a more elaborate conversion.

According to Texas Government Insider, Florida's community colleges may "also might become hybrid schools to offer four-year degrees in certain fields of particular need, such as teaching or nursing. The goal is to produce more affordable four-year degrees in specific-need areas than can be earned in a traditional four-year higher education setting."

It's a plan currently being proposed in the Florida Legislature. Eight schools offer bachelor's degrees there presently. The article reports that such a move is unlikely in Texas, based principally on an interview with Rey Garcia, president of the Texas Association of Community Colleges.

From the article:

Florida legislators offer that this would take pressure off the state's existing state university system and provide a more affordable education closer to home for many would-be college students. The goal would be more students obtaining four-year degrees and potential savings to students and taxpayers.

Eight Florida community colleges already offer bachelor's degrees, but the goal of Florida legislators is to better serve geographical gaps and meet both workplace and workforce needs with specialized baccalaureate degrees. The expectation would be that regional "state colleges" could serve a larger area than just a traditional local community college district.

But Texas is a much larger state than Florida, and "regional" in Texas is a much wider space than it is in Florida. Garcia also noted that three community colleges in Texas already offer baccalaureate degrees - Brazosport Community College, Midland College and South Texas Community College. The statute that allowed the three to offer baccalaureate degrees specified only three such institutions, so for other Texas community colleges to do the same would require additional legislation. And the baccalaureate degrees offered at these Texas community colleges are "very specialized," said Garcia.

Board Adopts Commissioner's Recommendations

After a brief but spirited discussion, the Coordinating Board unanimously endorsed the recommendations of Commissioner of Higher Education Raymund Paredes on the key issues of performance funding and developmental education. The Board made its decision during the panel's quarterly meeting on April 24, following a report from its Strategic Planning Committee, which deliberated over the past several weeks since the proposals were made public.

The recommendations will go to the governor's office and Legislative Budget Board for their consideration in the Regular Session that convenes in January. While the Legislature is under no obligation to follow the recommendations, the Coordinating Board's action guarantees that they will be considered carefully by lawmakers and discussed abundantly in hearings of the House and Senate.

As pointed out in previous TCCTA posts on this site, the commissioner's proposals differ dramatically from the recommendations of the Community and Technical College Formula Advisory Committee (consisting of presidents and other educators from the schools) in two key areas.

First, the commissioner—and now the board—recommend that formula funding be based on "completers" of courses, rather than contact hour enrollment as currently practiced. This fundamental change is designed, the commissioner said, to encourage schools to focus their efforts on retainment and persistence of students. According to the plan, students will not be required to pass courses in order to count as "completers." Degrees and certificates conferred and successful transfers will also be rewarded if the proposal becomes policy.

The commissioner did follow the CTCFAC recommendation of 100 percent formula funding, minus tuition and fees (which are retained locally by schools). This amount would, according to comments by Coordinating Board staffers, boost the funding level to 67 percent of the "full formula." The biennial appropriation is currently funded at 52 percent.

It is always important to keep in mind that the formula is a means of distribution only, while elected representatives and senators determine the appropriated amount through the vagaries of the legislative process.

According to the commissioner, a four-year transition period would be funded along traditional lines as colleges adapt gradually to the new rules. Extra funds would also be allowed for "dramatic" enrollment growth. The "base year" calendar would have to be adjusted as a tool of measurement to accommodate the time span between enrollment and completion.

For background and a full comparison between the recommendations of the commissioner and the CTCFAC on formula funding, visit this site from the Coordinating Board. Please note that this is a "draft" document and has undergone changes since its release.

The text of a letter sent from TCCTA President Terry Mouchayleh to CTCFAC chair Gregory Williams is available here.

A second key recommendation generated controversy as well as several pointed questions by Coordinating Board members. Rather than appropriate an extra ten percent for developmental education, as recommended by the CTCFAC (to allow schools to fund non-course programs such as tutoring and laboratories), the commissioner recommended that $30 million above the formula be trusteed to the Board.

Commissioner Paredes told the members and audience that the trusteed funds would be distributed to community colleges in pilot programs using a completely different format. First, experts would be brought in from around the country to provide the latest innovations and technical assistance. Money would be granted for demonstration projects. A conference funded by Houston Endowment would be used to assemble the best evidence for success. Subsequently, appropriated revenue would be distributed on a competitive basis for implementation.

During this period, developmental courses at community colleges would still be funded through the formula.

Some Board members complained that the planning process for changing the entire focus of developmental education was inadequate. One wondered why it would be necessary to assemble national experts when the Coordinating Board routinely offers STAR awards to Texas schools documenting great success in developmental education.

The commissioner insisted that "We are trying to find ways to break the mold." He repeatedly cites a grim statistic: Only eleven percent of developmental students go on to pass the first college-level credit math class.

Coordinating Board chairman Bob Shepard asked, "Can you show us a plan? What about the advisory committees?" Since the commissioner first made his recommendations, many observers have wondered if there are any states with demonstrated success in developmental education.

Commissioner Paredes responded that there are many successful models such as those advocated by the Achieving the Dream organization, but "We don't have an institution-wide model for overhauling all developmental education."

Coordinating Board Meets Today

"Incentive funding" and the Commissioner of Higher Education's proposal to fund "completers" are two important topics to be taken up today at the quarterly meeting of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

The "incentive funding" item has implications for the current biennium. In October, 2007, the Coordinating Board was informed by Legislative leadership that there were going to be changes to the Performance Incentive Initiative for universities to include the community colleges and Texas State Technical Colleges. Notification was received subsequently, in January 2008, that the Task Force on Higher Education Incentive Funding would be established, with members appointed by state leaders to address incentive funding for all higher education. A recommendation from the Strategic Planning Committee will be provided to the Board for consideration.

The commissioner's recommendations on formula funding item on the agenda is available here.

The full agenda of the Coordinating Board for tomorrow's meeting is available here.

You can access the live broadcast from the main site, under "Events."

Commissioner Presses Funding Proposals

Yesterday, Commissioner of Higher Education Raymund Paredes reiterated his support for fundamentally altering the funding process for colleges and universities to reward "completers" rather than contact hour enrollment. In testimony before the House Committee on Higher Education, Dr. Paredes also stressed that developmental education needs a "major overhaul."

As reported previously, both views are in contrast to the recommendations of the Community and Technical College Formula Advisory Committee and the Texas Association of Community Colleges.

Given the language of the charges at this particular hearing, more attention was paid to funding than developmental education.

The commissioner drew a distinction between "Performance Funding," to reward the number of graduates and "Incentive Funding" to reward success in particular fields or with "at risk" students. He favors both. Successful transfers would also be rewarded. He said to count as a "completer," it is not necessary for a student to pass, but to "hang in there." The Legislature is under no obligation to enact these recommendations, but will most certainly consider them.

Rey Garcia, president of TACC, also testified before the panel, which heard from agency and invited witnesses on several interim charges. Dr. Garcia pointed out that, since the Legislature is only funding the current formula at 52 percent, funding "completers" would not accomplish anything if total support from the state does not go up significantly.

He also told the group that some students just want to take the courses they need and go right back to the workforce, citing a welding student who gets a job in the oil field using his or her newly-acquired skill. These courses should count as contributing to the economy of Texas, Dr. Garcia said, even though no certificate or degree is awarded.

Under current law (known as "Rider 55"), $100 million is set aside to establish a program of "incentive funding." A task force consisting of executive and legislative leaders is currently considering a plan on how the funds will be distributed, according to testimony.

The House committee is chaired by Rep. Geanie Morrison (R-Victoria). Prior to the remarks of Dr. Paredes and Dr. Garcia, the group heard from Aims McGuinness, senior associate with the National Center for Higher Education Management, a private non-profit group based in Boulder, Colorado, whose "mission is to improve strategic decision making in higher education for states and institutions in the United States and abroad."

Mr. McGuinness told the panel that rewarding outcomes is the most difficult task in setting higher education policy. Interestingly, he also noted, "No state does it particularly well." However, he said that the status quo is a "recipe for disaster," given the long-term financial situation of states. He said that dollars should fund "increases" in degrees awarded, not just raw numbers, but added that the legislative process can "destroy any good plan" due to pressure from institutions and their lobbyists.

Commissioner Paredes will address his formula recommendations at the forthcoming quarterly meeting of the Coordinating Board tomorrow, on April 24.

Study Focuses on African-American Retention

A new study from Education Sector, an independent think tank that "challenges conventional thinking in education policy," analyzes practices of colleges and universities that seem to produce higher graduation rates for black students. Historically, poor and minority students don't graduate at the same levels as white students. Interestingly, some schools profiled in the study (Florida State University and the University of Alabama) have posted higher rates for blacks than for whites.

Two recommendations are of particular note here in Texas. The report says that "learning communities" are effective in keeping minority students in school. This seems to validate other studies published recently. Learning communities are small groups of, say, 25 who proceed through coursework together. The idea is that a more personal relationship is established with students so they are less likely to fall through the cracks.

The report recommends that states fund higher education based on "completers" rather than enrollment. As reported here previously, Commissioner of Higher Education Raymund Paredes has recommended such a shift for Texas formula funding.

The entire report from Education Sector is available here.

Campus E-Mails Plagued by "Phishing"

An epidemic of sorts is attacking campus e-mail systems in the U.S.

Known as "phishing," bogus e-mails sent by con artists attempt to entice individuals into giving out personal information. Most such scams in the past have involved banks and credit card companies. Now they are targeting colleges and universities.

The new development is reported in the April 18 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required). According to the piece, tens of thousands of recipients at dozens of schools have been affected in the past few weeks.

From the article:

Students, professors, and staff members at the affected colleges received e-mail messages that purported to come from the colleges' help desks, asking users to reply with their log-in and password, and in some cases other personal information including birth date.

At least 86 colleges and universities have been hit by the scam messages, says Douglas Pearson, technical director of the Research and Education Networking Information Sharing and Analysis Center at Indiana University at Bloomington. He took an informal survey of college-security administrators last week via an e-mail list. "It seems to be growing."

Comparative College Tax Information Online

In addition to the TCCTA Survey of Faculty Surveys discussion in the previous blog entry, community college educators may find it worthwhile to examine the property tax information that pertains to each college district. Districts vary tremendously in size and tax base—factors driving, for the most part, their ability to pay employees at higher salaries. So "apples to apples" comparisons are always problematic.

Furthermore, many colleges have reached their taxation "cap," which was established by law when the district was formed. In other words, these schools are precluded from raising taxes, even if the elected trustees wished to do so.

The Tax and Valuation Information chart is published annually by the Texas Association of Community Colleges.

Salary and Benefits Information Available

It's springtime, and college trustees, administrators, and faculty organizations are assembling data and other useful information to build next year's budgets.

You'll find a wealth of material in the 2007 TCCTA Survey of Faculty Salaries. The site includes articles and charts on compensation, retirement programs, and college-specific "additional" benefits for the current academic year.

A cost of living calculator and information from the Department of Labor about the Consumer Price Index are also listed on the site. With inflation going up recently, it may be advisable to have the most current information.

In a separate post, the tax rates at each college will be offered, courtesy of the Texas Association of Community Colleges.

Accountability Nothing New for Colleges

Based on comments by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and others, you'd think America's colleges and universities haven't tried the whole accountability thing.

However, as noted in an interesting article by Doug Lederman for Inside Higher Ed., schools have been engaged actively in the process of evaluating student outcomes for years. Mr. Lederman surveyed the program at a recent conference of the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, a regional accrediting body similar to the Southern Association, to which Texas institutions belong. He found that, while some of the emphasis on measurement and assessment may have been driven by Secretary Spellings and other critics, most of the programs go way back.

From the article:

…In session after session — with titles such as “Starting and Promoting Learning Outcomes: One College’s Story,” “Faculty Ownership of Academic Assessment,” and “Student Learning Outcomes Assessment: Creating Change in Pedagogy") — officials from colleges (in the aforementioned cases, Indiana’s Holy Cross College, Terra State Community College, and Columbia College Chicago) described for eager colleagues their various, diverse attempts to figure out what they want their students to learn and to measure how well they have learned it. The presentations were replete with examples of changes made to curriculums in response to the results of the experiments, and of occasional false starts and missteps that required new tacks.

The volume and earnestness of the efforts was particularly jarring in the context of the mantra that has been heard so much from Education Secretary Margaret Spellings and other policy makers in Washington in the last two years, suggesting that colleges have been doing far too little to measure and make publicly available results about how much, and how effectively, their students are learning.