Update on Dual Credit "Facilitators" in Summer Courses; Adding Facilitators to eCampus Course Shells Is Optional, Not Required

On Thursday, June 4, 2020, many faculty across the District received an email from LaShonda Green with the DCCCD Dual Credit Office, requesting that DCCCD faculty enroll a facilitator from the Dallas and Garland Independent School Districts into their eCampus courses into which students from these ISDs are enrolled.

Many faculty were surprised to have received this email and coincidentally began contacting their respective faculty association presidents while those presidents were in a DCCFA Faculty Council meeting. Consequently, the DCCFA Faculty Council acted immediately to learn more about the request to enroll facilitators. Specifically, BHCFA President Jennifer Hudson-Allen, who both teaches Dual Credit sections and already serves on numerous DCCCD Dual Credit committees, agreed to serve as the Faculty Council liaison for all dual credit issues.

Jennifer began asking questions with her numerous contacts on Thursday afternoon, June 4, and subsequently learned the following contextual and clarifying information:

As Dual Credit enrollments have grown rapidly across the District, some faculty have requested representatives from partner ISDs or Collegiate Academies serve as monitors in the classrooms to ensure dual credit students are not causing disruptions to the learning environment. Indeed, many faculty reported in the DCCFA dual credit faculty survey that the behavior of minor students was among the hardest and most vexing problems that needed to be addressed in our many dual credit and Collegiate Academy partnerships. Many faculty also reported that some high school students were not taking their academic work seriously; moreover, some high school officials were attempting to pressure Dual Credit faculty to lower academic standards and ensure that low-performing students would earn passing grades.

According to what Jennifer and others have been able to learn over the last twenty-four hours, the message should be treated as a request, not as a requirement. Faculty are free to add the facilitator if they wish, or they may decline.

Meanwhile, Jennifer will continue to advocate on behalf of the Council, and all faculty broadly, on Dual Credit issues and concerns, and will report back to the Council. Additional updates for all faculty will be shared via the Advance Blog using the Dual Credit label/tag.

UPDATE AS OF 7:30 PM FRIDAY, JUNE 5:

The following information was provided to Jennifer Hudson-Allen from Anna Mays, who has been supervising the consolidation and alignment of the various Dual Credit partnerships with all seven DCCCD campuses:

"During the current unprecedented circumstances, rapid responses to emerging issues are necessary that require immediate action and limited time for mass discussion and communication.  Emails to faculty of specific courses that were impacted were sent as soon as all information was available so that the communication sent was not incomplete or confusing and the follow-up email was provided to further clarify questions the same day as the questions were received.  Dr. May has been talking with Superintendent Hinojosa (DISD) and Superintendent Lopez (Garland ISD) to discuss alternatives to support dual credit, ECHS and P-Tech students in lieu of in-person classes that were and could have been scheduled this summer and this pilot has evolved from further joint meetings, which included Dr. Christa Slejko, Dr. Linda Braddy and Dr. Joe Seabrooks.  The relatively high Spring semester withdrawal rates for ECHS students accelerated the discussions  within the last two weeks and the high school facilitator pilot was recommended as an immediate need, given previous successful partnerships between individual school district personnel and the faculty to provide additional support both to students and faculty and promote student success in courses.  The Academic Success Rapid Response Team (led by Dr. Braddy) and the Dual Credit Faculty Professional Development Committee comprised of fourteen representative faculty was enlisted to provide guidelines and recommendations to determine initial implementation plans for Summer 1 session, which started 6/4.  All of these recommendations were integrated into the two emails that were sent to faculty and instructional leadership."