TCCTA Blog

TCCTA Survey on Faculty Rank Available

TCCTA has conducted a new survey of community colleges, asking schools to report how they rank faculty. It's a complicated matter, as colleges treat this subject in a variety of ways. Some institutions follow what might be called a university model, with separate categories for assistant, associate, and full professors. Other schools don't rank faculty at all, labeling all teachers as instructors. Many fall in between these two approaches.

Not all schools responded to the survey, but a quick perusal can provide a nice snapshot of the current reality in Texas. Here's the link.

The new information will accompany the forthcoming annual TCCTA survey of faculty salaries.

Algebra II No Longer Required for All

The State Board of Education, despite some early controversy, has tentatively endorsed a plan that will no longer require all high school graduates to pass algebra II. Only high school students who pursue an honors plan or a diploma specializing in STEM fields will have to take the course.

It's reported by Morgan Smith and Jordan Gass-Poore in the Texas Tribune.

The move basically affirms the intent of HB 5, a new statute that made a number of significant changes to public education. Reportedly, organizations representing school administrators and trustees supported the new law and SBOE decision.

The vote was 14-1. Interestingly, prior to the vote, the board received an unexpected visit from House Public Education Committee Chair Jimmie Don Aycock, R-Killeen, and Senate Education Chair Dan Patrick, R-Houston. Both lawmakers were major players in the passage of HB 5.

It's not final yet, as there is another step required, but it's rare for policy makers to change their mind after a preliminary vote.

There were also opponents. From the article:

But opponents of the policy, including the Austin Chamber of Commerce, the Texas Association of Business and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, have continued to raise concerns that emerged during the legislative session about how the new graduation plans would affect the academic achievement of low-income and minority students.

“With all due respect, the notion that not all students are college material or that our school system should not have a college expectation for all students is not something that is coming from African-American and Latino parents,” former state Rep. Dora Olivo, D-Richmond, said in testimony Wednesday.

After a second vote Friday, the board will finally approve the requirements at its January meeting.  

Seminar to Focus on Student Success Data

If you want to get right to the heart of what is driving the student success movement of recent years, please attend the TCCTA Professional Development Seminar at the annual convention, Feb. 7, at 1:00 p.m.

Speaking will be Davis Jenkins, lead member of a team managing a group of studies funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation focusing on community college student success.

Dr. Jenkins holds a PhD in Public Policy Analysis from Carnegie Mellon University and a BA from Princeton University. He has more than 30 years of experience as a researcher, evaluator, consultant, and program manager on projects related to education for employment in the United States and abroad.

Here is a link for more information.

 

Algebra II Dispute Continues

The Texas Legislature, during the last Regular Session, enacted HB 5, which made a number of significant changes to public education. One of these modifications concerns the question of whether students must pass Algebra II to graduate. The new statute provides more flexibility for school districts and allows students to pursue academic plans that do not include Algebra II.

It's covered in a recent article by Ericka Mellon and Maria Luisa Cesar, in the San Antonio Express-News.

The State Board of Education is presently considering the extent to which this change will actually happen, as it implements the law. SBOE members are elected. How this issue is resolved could affect the educational pipeline to community colleges. Higher education is also in the midst of its own change regarding the importance, or lack thereof, of algebra. If you are unfamiliar with the New Mathways Project, please have a look.

According to the piece, most organizations representing school districts support the flexible standards. However, the business community is split. Please read the article for a full discussion.

Colleges Advance Competency-Based Programs

Community colleges are moving in the direction of competency-based education (CBE), according to an article by Katherine Mangan, in the Chronicle of Higher Education. The article covered a recent national broadcast sponsored by the New America Foundation.

From the Chronicle piece:

"There's a clear and clarion call for a new currency in higher education, one that ignores grade level and is built around what a student knows," said Daniel J. Phelan, president of Jackson Community College, in Michigan. He was one of several community-college leaders who described their efforts to find faster, cheaper, and more effective ways to equip students with credentials that will help them land jobs.

He said many employers are skeptical about the validity of college grades and even degrees, in part because of grade inflation. A competency-based approach allows students to build on their experiences through "stackable credentials of market value," Mr. Phelan said.

Based on the article alone it's hard to discern what CBE entails exactly, besides shorter modules rather than semester hours, and "stackable credentials." The piece mentions faculty skepticism about the idea, partly over corporate influences on higher education.

CBE may be one of those concepts that works better in workforce training, rather than the academic transfer curriculum, where learning is especially tough to measure.

As noted here before, there is nothing magical about the semester hour, which came about for reasons that have nothing to do with learning. However, if we focus on the discrete concept of shorter, modular credits, a troublesome question occurs.

Today's students have particular trouble concentrating on rigorous projects over a sustained duration. (Take, say, reading a book rather than a text message.) Their problem has many likely causes, a lot of which may be beyond their control. But our remedy is to accommodate a deficiency rather than teach students how to overcome it?

This seems disturbingly like what "enabling" parents do when terrified of being disliked by their kids. However, troubled parents are not encouraged by an entire cottage industry of wealthy foundations, start-up enterprises, and think tanks, telling them the kids are all right when they clearly are not.

NEH Summer Programs Announced

Each summer the National Endowment for the Humanities offers tuition-free opportunities for college and university educators to study a variety of humanities topics at a host of locations. Stipends of $1,200-$3,900 help cover expenses for these one- to five-week seminars.

Here is a link for more information. (You will need to click on the "College and University" category to view each program and location.)

The deadline for application is March 4.

From the official announcement:

These projects are designed primarily for teachers of American undergraduate students. Qualified independent scholars and those employed by museums, libraries, historical societies, and other organizations may be eligible to compete provided they can effectively advance the teaching and research goals of the seminar or institute. Applicants must be United States citizens, residents of U.S. jurisdictions, or foreign nationals who have been residing in the United States or its territories for at least the three years immediately preceding the application deadline. Foreign nationals teaching abroad at non-U.S. chartered institutions are not eligible to apply.

New Hires Lack "Soft Skills"

Employers believe that individuals hired right out of college are missing important skills, but it's not necessarily math and science. It's the "soft skills" of interpersonal communication that are lacking, as reported by Martha C. White in Time. Please check it out.

Recent grads, according to a survey of employers, are increasingly without the basic talents one needs to work with others cooperatively. In addition to deficiencies in teamwork, a lack of writing ability is cited. Dressing appropriately is apparently a real issue as well, according to a survey cited in the piece.

The article doesn't discuss it, but one can't help but wonder if social media may be having the opposite effect of what the name implies. Poking a hand-held device for long periods each day may appear to foster interconnectedness, but alienation could be the face-to-face result. We've all seen people texting sternly while at the dinner table with friends, colleagues, or family. Perhaps we are guilty ourselves.

The article points out that internships may help with soft skills development. This stands to reason, but the piece also says internships are declining.

Special Meetings Slated for 2014 Convention

The list of meetings is growing for the 2014 annual TCCTA convention at the Marriott Rivercenter Hotel in San Antonio, February 6-8.

Many educational organizations utilize the opportunity at the TCCTA conference to convene their membership. This link provides the list so far, listed alphabetically. Please note the Book Blitz and Legislative Update, which are already scheduled and on the page also. This site should be checked periodically for changes or updates. Meeting locations will be published in the convention program, available at registration.

Here is the general convention link, for information about conference registration, hotel information and reservations, over 100 disciplinary section meetings, and other noteworthy features.

Join us in San Antonio!

States Move to Performance Funding

Massachusetts is the latest state to attract attention for adopting a performance funding plan for its community colleges. It's covered in an extensive article by Liz Farmer in Governing, an influential publication that covers state and local governments.

The piece offers a nice survey of what the states are doing. Please have a look.

In reading the piece, at least on the surface it appears that the political process creating the plan in Massachusetts is similar to what Texas experienced in the most recent Regular Session. Here it's known as "outcomes-based" funding, with ten percent of revenue to be devoted eventually to that purpose.

Most states plan to spend a similarly small percentage of overall appropriations to reward schools for student accomplishments. Others intend to "go big," the article reports.

A few early state pioneers report impressive results, as measured by more degrees and certificates awarded. The celebration assumes, of course, that students are learning as much as before. Generally speaking, states have been careful to include "at risk" populations categorically, to avoid achieving positive results simply by excluding those most likely to fail.

Some authorities are concerned about the overall trend, however. From the article:

Some experts warn that performance funding should not be viewed as a panacea for the state’s job gap ills. One of them is Kevin Dougherty, an associate professor of higher education at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “States are rapidly copying each other,” Dougherty says. “There’s an element of fashion involved.” And with that push, he says, some may be tempted to rush into a new funding system without considering possible side effects.

That was the problem in South Carolina, which still represents the best-known disaster among performance funding experiments. It jumped into performance measurement for higher education in 1996, and it tried to change too much too quickly. The state did not phase in a new formula but instead leapt to 100 percent performance funding for colleges and universities using a complicated system with dozens of metrics. “They built a system they couldn’t deliver,” says Kazis of Jobs for the Future. The funding formula was never embraced by university faculty and administrators, who were not included in the process of designing it. Administrators who tried to implement the program were overloaded with unfamiliar demands. After seven years, the program was abandoned.

Managing Your Online Presence

Have you searched yourself by name online? If so, depending upon your geographic location and the digital history of the computer you are using, you may not be thrilled with what comes up at the top of the search results. Another wild card is the commonality of your name. If it's shared by thousands, the number of Linkedin or Facebook profiles that come up may be overwhelming.

Of course there is only one Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.

An interesting piece by Eszter Hargittai and Brayden King, in Inside Higher Ed., is worth a look. They are writing a book on the subject of managing your online reputation. Some of their suggestions may apply principally to university researchers or job seekers, but other tips can pertain to virtually anyone in education.

One idea of theirs is to create and maintain your own personal Web site. This allows you to have control over your presentation when, say, students want to know something about you. As we know, those rating sites of professors (such as the one with a "hotness" chili pepper) may not be what you're after. Not that "hotness" matters anyway. Not at all. Really. That's only for shallow people. Not people like us. Not at all.

As a test, the authors suggest searching your name on a "neutral" computer, with no personal history.

Many colleges provide Web pages for faculty members, but these may be out of date and/or incomplete. A personal site may be something to think about. Obviously, caution is in order when making this decision. Men may want to consider posting a photo of George Clooney, to boost the hotness thing. Not that this matters. Not at all.