The information below was provided by Patti Burks, the faculty representative to the DISD Collegiate Academies Steering Team, on January 30, 2017
Here are some items of interest for faculty regarding the DISD
Collegiate Academies:
Cohort 1
- Over
300 students from the cohort 1 schools were enrolled in a college course
in Fall 2016. While final grades have not been tallied, preliminary
indications are that over 90% successfully completed their college
course.
- Revisions
to some of the pathways are underway and DISD is working with DCCCD to
identify the high school courses that correspond to each college course.
The pathways should be updated on the website in the next month or so.
- Faculty
in the cohort 1 pathways should have already identified the textbooks
needed for 2017-2018. You should also be communicating with the high
schools to finalize schedules, software and equipment needs.
Cohort 2
- Ten
additional collegiate academies are planned to open in Fall 2017. Some of
these pathways include AS or AA degrees as well as AAS degrees which
include more liberal arts courses.
- Recruitment
efforts are underway now and the application process has begun. There
appears to be a lot of interest in the academies and plenty of applicants.
- Many
of the cohort 2 academies only have 2 pathways rather than 3. It is not
known at this time what the split of students will be at each school.
Faculty are encouraged to meet with their dual credit liaisons and
affiliated high schools to coordinate this effort and ensure that the
colleges have the resources to support the number of students in each
pathway.
- You
should receive a request for textbook, software and equipment requirements
in the next 2-3 weeks for the cohort 2 academies. Our goal is to communicate
the needs early enough to make sure that the courses are ready to go on
day 1.
Staffing
- The
budget allocation from the District Office includes an assumption that the
staffing for the academies will be 40% full-time faculty and 60% adjunct
faculty.
- Finding
qualified adjunct faculty to teach in the academies is proving to be very
difficult.
- Classes must be held during the day.
- In several of the technical programs, the contact
hours for the courses are high (6-7 hrs per week) which means that an
adjunct can only teach 1 course per semester per our employment rules
- Classes are very specialized – particularly in years 3
and 4 – which means there are fewer qualified applicants, particularly
who are not already working full-time.
- In many cases, the academies are competing with each
other for the same applicants.
- Faculty
are encouraged to discuss with your VPAA and VPBS the need for full-time
faculty dedicated to the academies for the programs to be successful and
not negatively impact our current students.
- We
are investigating ways to help with the staffing issue including
centralized advertising specifically for the academies, recruitment from
DISD teachers and retirees, discussions with industry partners, etc.
Industry Partners
- All
cohort 1 and cohort 2 schools have at least one industry partner and most
have more.
- Discussions
are underway with each industry partner to fully define their role and
relationship with the academy and the college.
Professional Development
- A
second dual credit professional development session was held in January
prior to the semester with over 70 attendees.
- All
dual credit faculty are encouraged to join the Blackboard Early College
High School Dual Credit Community site which includes many policies and
procedures for dual credit, the professional development materials, etc.
- Login to Blackboard
- Click on Community
- Enter Dual Credit in the search box
- Click on “Early College High School Dual Credit”
community
- Click Enroll to self enroll
Please share with all faculty and let me know if you have any
questions.
Patti
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