TCCTA Blog

Make Hotel Reservations Now!

Room space is still available at the site of the TCCTA annual convention, February 21-23, 2013. The Westin Galleria and Westin Oaks at the Galleria in Houston are the official host properties for the conference. 

Both hotel towers of the Westin are connected to the Galleria Mall—an easy indoor walk to all sessions, not to mention the popular dining and shopping opportunities within the facility.

The TCCTA group rates will remain effective until January 29, 2013, subject to availability. Here's the link for for making reservations directly, as well as contact information and other details. Please contact the hotel should you have any questions.

Here's the TCCTA link for convention programs and registration information.

Here's a link for information on the General Session and banquet tickets.

Here's a link for maps, tips, and special offers in the area.

Join us!

Online Voting Now Open

Professional members of TCCTA may now vote for members of the Executive Committee, who will serve during 2013-14.

Members are allowed to vote at their convenience using the Internet. Candidate information and secure online voting instructions can be accessed at the link below.

No paper absentee ballots or mailing will be necessary. A computer will also be provided at the convention, on Friday, February 22, from 8:00 a.m., until 5:00 p.m., for professional members who have not had the opportunity to vote.

To tabulate the results and guarantee security and confidentiality, TCCTA has contracted with Alamark, a company with vast experience in providing secure communications and data collection. Professional members will vote using membership database usernames and passwords.

Under provisions of the TCCTA bylaws, candidates could have been nominated by petitions. The December 1 deadline for "nominations-by-petition" passed with no petitions being filed, according to Lola King, Trinity Valley Community College, chair of the Nominating Committee.

Provision is made also in the TCCTA bylaws for candidates to be nominated from the floor during the first general session of the convention, scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, February 21st. Only professional members are eligible to vote in the election. Voting privileges are not extended to associate, student, and unaffiliated members under the bylaws.

Here's the link for candidate information. Scroll down to bottom of the page for voting instructions.

2013 Budget Continues Improvement

The amount of revenue available to lawmakers when they convene next month keeps improving. However, as reported by Kate Alexander in the Austin American-Statesman, this good news will not necessarily translate into a rosy scenario for recipients of state appropriations.

There are a lot of budgetary holes to dig out of, and a lot of ongoing uncertainty, especially regarding Medicaid and pending law suits concerning the funding of public education. The present optimism mainly relates to revenue pouring into the so-called Rainy Day Fund—driven to a large degree by the boom in oil and gas exploration.

The 2013 Regular Session will craft a budget designed to cover the next biennium (2014-15).

From the article:

“It will be a tight budget, but we won’t be faced with making the kind of cuts we made last session,” said new Senate Finance Committee Chairman Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands.

Last session, lawmakers used just about every trick of the trade to make the books balance without having to make even deeper reductions to basic state services in the 2012-13 two-year budget. They left a giant Medicaid IOU; borrowed some tax dollars from 2014-15 while kicking some costs into that budget; and relied heavily on billions in fines and fees that have been accumulating for years in so-called dedicated accounts.

Talking Points on "Outcomes-Based Funding"

In anticipation of the historic and complicated issues facing the next Regular Session of the Legislature, TCCTA is updating its collection of Talking Points.

Included are a host of constructive assertions our association makes when discussing pertinent issues with public officials. Members may find them useful in communicating with lawmakers while they are “at home” in the districts.

The Talking Points are designed for individualized and selective use by educators who may also possess expertise or interest in a particular topic.

Posts on General Appropriations, TRS, and ORP have already been published.

The most important individuals to contact are your current members of the House and Senate. Here's a useful link to find out "Who Represents Me?" Here is the TCCTA Legislative Resources page.

IMPORTANT: Do not use college equipment, e-mail addresses, or stationery when communicating with state policy makers. Also, it is crucial to be constructive at all times.

Talking Points on "Outcomes-Based" Funding

Background: The Commissioner of Higher Education, the Coordinating Board, and the Texas Association of Community Colleges have endorsed a proposal to fund higher education based partially on measurable thresholds of success achieved by students, as they complete developmental education course work, gain credentials, transfer successfully, or accomplish various milestones of semester hours with passing grades. Under these proposals, ten percent of the instructional funding formula would be devoted to such achievement by colleges. The chair of the House Committee on Higher Education has introduced a bill, HB 25, to establish a higher level, up to 25 percent.

The proposals are a product of HB 9, passed during the 2011 Regular Session, which TCCTA opposed in testimony.

• TCCTA welcomes all valid documentation of college performance, including the measures reported under current law to the Coordinating Board.
• Students often take workforce training courses with no intention of certification or graduation, and part-time students (who constitute the majority of community college enrollment) may take many years to reach a personal objective. The complete mission of community colleges should be funded without penalty.
• Community colleges are held accountable by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the regional accrediting agency for professional standards. Faculty in many workforce disciplines must report to accrediting agencies at the state or national level. Colleges are also accountable to local taxpayers through policies enacted by elected trustees. Faculty members are evaluated routinely by college administrators under local board policies. Student evaluations are an important component of this process, and are now posted online under current law.
• No one wants students to succeed more than their teachers. Any proposal to reward student outcomes assumes that a new funding mechanism will create a novel motivation. We have seen no empirical evidence to suggest such a correlation.
• The current proposals could place the interests of students at odds with the financial interests of institutions. We believe a student should never be advised to choose a particular option simply because of the way the college receives its appropriation.
• There are times when advising a student to stay in class would be unethical, since a failing grade often closes the door on a fresh start later. These decisions are highly personal and complex and should not be subjected to a simplistic remedy.
• Outcomes-based funding potentially generates administrative pressure upon faculty members to pass students who may not have achieved the standards required for each course. This is especially problematic with part-time instructors, who are “at will” employees.
• If the Legislature wishes to pursue incentive funding, a better approach would be to reward schools for adopting strategies with demonstrable effectiveness in Texas pilot programs or in other states.

Report: DE Courses Should Be "Scrapped"

An "immediate and dramatic transformation in remedial education" is needed at the college level, says a report just issued by a coalition of education researchers and advocates, including the Charles A. Dana Center at UT–Austin.

The report is definitely worth a look—not only by those in the field of developmental education, but teachers of all subjects—as the group recommends embedding remediation in credit-bearing classes, especially mathematics.

Consequently, citing research on the causes of failure and reported "proven" successful practices, the Core Principles for Transforming Remedial Education recommends that "most remedial courses be scrapped," according to the official press release, issued Dec. 13.

Here is a key passage:

The multiple research studies that serve as the basis for the organizations’ joint statement conclude that far too many college students are referred to remedial education courses and few ever complete their assigned remedial sequences. The resulting attrition is severe: For every 10 students assigned to three or more semesters of remedial English, fewer than three ever complete the associated college-level gateway English course for which they were preparing.

The numbers are worse for those assigned to three or more semesters of remedial math, with only 1 in 10 successfully passing their first-year college-level math course.

The report also calls for better alignment between the content of required first-year gateway courses and students’ chosen programs of study or majors. When gateway courses contain material that is unnecessary or irrelevant to success in selected careers, the result is that many students are tripped up in their pursuit of a credential while studying content that they do not need.

“This is especially important in math, which is the most significant barrier to college success for remedial students,” said Uri Treisman, director of the Charles A. Dana Center at The University of Texas at Austin. “Too many students today are required to pass college-level algebra when statistics or quantitative literacy would be much more appropriate preparation.”

Seminars to Include Social Security

The highly popular TCCTA Financial Planning Seminars will include a presentation from the Social Security Administration on recent developments in Congress regarding the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), during the annual convention in Houston.

These aspects of federal law can greatly affect those who plan to retire from colleges that do not participate in the Social Security system.

Metropolitan Public Affairs Specialist Andy Hardwick will present an overview of the two policies and respond to questions. Nationwide those who have been urging Congress to repeal one or both provisions have been disappointed in recent years, as the budget deficit and partisan gridlock have frozen such efforts in House and Senate committees.

Other aspects of Social Security law pertaining to all prospective retirees will be featured in the presentation.

The Social Security meeting will be held on Friday, February 22, at 8:00 a.m.

A separate seminar will feature “The Three Biggest Retirement Mistakes...And Then Some,” with Craig Wear, CFP, an investment advisory representative with Game Plan Advisors, Inc., in Conroe.

This meeting, intended for all attendees and their guests, will be held on Saturday, February 23, at 8:00 a.m.

ERS Posts Year-End Reminders

As the calendar year comes to a close, it may be time for all HealthSelect members to have a look at a new post from the Employers Retirement System of Texas, the agency in charge of health benefits for community and technical college educators.

For instance, HealthSelect out-of-pocket maximums and HealthSelect Out-of-Area and Non-Network deductibles start over on January 1, 2013. This can be significant in planning optional treatments, check-ups and such.

The reminder will not apply to those in HMOs, which are only available in certain areas.

Here's a link with more information. Note the phone numbers in case you have any questions.

TEA Proposes New Definition of "College Ready"

The elusive definition of "college ready" continues to drift.

Gloria Zyskowski, the Texas Education Agency's director of student assessment, testified at the current trial on school finance that students who meet the “satisfactory” standard on the state’s standardized tests should be considered college ready.

Previously, TEA had said the “advanced” standard on the end-of-course tests amounted to college readiness, according to an article by Kate Alexander in the Austin American-Statesman. Please read the entire piece.

This could get interesting for community and technical college educators seeking ways to improve the success rates of students. One would think a firm definition of the base line would be the logical first step.

Students who are deemed not "ready" presumably enter remediation. Lowering the bar would, at least potentially, place more students who are unlikely to succeed into credit-bearing courses.

Ask any English or algebra teacher, for instance, and they will tell you that readiness is crucial, along with diligence and commitment by students. For community college students with a host of family and financial issues, a dose of good luck helps, too.

In the future, college funding may hinge upon such nebulous factors. Valid definitions should be the beginning, not the end, of the discussion—if nothing else to avoid confusion. 

From the article:

The definition of “college ready” matters because the students who meet that standard do not have to take a placement exam before starting college. That test establishes whether the student needs remediation.

The state’s commissioners overseeing higher education and public schools must agree on the definition. Both agencies said negotiations were ongoing.

David Thompson, a lawyer for one of the four school district groups suing the state, said Zyskowski had dropped a “bombshell” with her disclosure, which had not been told to school districts.

“You can make it look like not as many kids need remediation just by lowering your standards,” Thompson said in an interview. “It doesn’t change what kids really need.”

Humanities Added to Section Programs

Humanities will be among the discipline-specific Section Programs offered to members attending the annual convention in Houston. Organizers Jane England, North Central Texas College, and Karen Marcotte, Palo Alto College, successfully obtained the signatures required for new sections under TCCTA bylaws.

Instructors of all subjects and their guests are invited to attend.

Here's a link for the details.

Credit Hours and Twinkies: Discuss

The credit hour as a unit of measurement—like everything else in higher education—is under scrutiny. It's one of those comfortable items we simply take for granted, like Twinkies. It's hard to imagine a dystopian world without Twinkies, but something will undoubtedly replace them. Credit hours, too, shall pass. 

Some schools are already using competency-based instruction. But what would be the consequences if "doing time" faded as a valid way to gauge learning, financial aid, faculty workloads, and so many other benchmarks? Credit hours are a way of life.

A fascinating article by Dan Berrett in the Chronicle of Higher Education covers a new effort by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to examine the implications of shifting the paradigm to a whole new conception.

Picture teaching without grading, for instance. For most faculty members, it would be heavenly. But testing of some sort would presumably be needed. It's hard to imagine how this would work, but teaching-to-the-test would seem a likely outcome. And Texas stakeholders in the public schools (especially parents and teachers) are suffering from test fatigue as it is.

Those in nursing and cosmetology, for instance, are perfectly comfortable with qualifying examinations for students. Things get weird, however, for the liberal arts, humanities, and fine arts.

Who first thought up the credit hour? It was the Carnegie folks—the same outfit examining alternatives now.

From the article:

Instituted by the foundation in 1906, the unit is traditionally defined as one hour of faculty-student contact per week and two hours of outside work over a 15-week semester. Though it was initially invented chiefly to determine faculty members' eligibility to receive a pension, the credit hour has assumed an importance it was never meant to have. It has come to undergird much of the academic enterprise, including student and faculty workloads, schedules, financial aid, and degree requirements.

"That happened by default," said Elena Silva, a senior associate for research and policy at Carnegie, who noted that a time-based measurement has endured as the metric largely because its meaning can be universally understood. "We're at a point now where we could do better."

And:

Pamela Tate, president and chief executive officer of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning, a group that advocates for the use of measures that award credit based on prior learning, hailed Carnegie's announcement, calling it "long overdue."

"This move to competence and away from the credit hour holds tremendous potential for the adult learner because they bring so much life and work experience to the table when they return to college," she said in an e-mail. "We believe strongly that learners should be assessed based on what they know and can do, not just time spent in a classroom."