Faculty Council Seeks FT Faculty to Volunteer to Serve on Faculty Evaluation System Task Force

The DCCFA Faculty Council seeks full time Dallas College faculty to serve on a task force charged with reviewing, and recommending revisions to, the Faculty Evaluation System (including, but not limited to, the IAP form).

If you are interested in volunteering to serve on this task force, please complete this brief survey.
Volunteering to serve on the task force does not guarantee that one would be selected to serve.

This survey, which is built with Microsoft Forms, automatically collects respondents’ name and email. Because it is important that a task force include individuals who bring valuable experiences and insights, and bring a balance of representation among Schools, campuses, programs/disciplines, experience as faculty, race/ethnicity and sex/gender, there are a series of questions respondents are asked to answer. If you choose to complete the survey and select “yes” or “maybe” about volunteering to serve on the task force, please answer the questions so that a task force can be sufficiently representative and inclusive.

The survey closes Friday, August 20.

Faculty Council Seeks Members to Serve on WORK GROUP DELTA to Discuss Performance Metrics

The Faculty Council is attempting to be proactive to develop contingency plans for a number of different scenarios that may (or may not) affect DCCCD faculty in the future.

One such concern is a sentiment, previously expressed among some DCCCD Board of Trustees members, that all DCCCD employees – including faculty – be evaluated and/or even compensated based on performance metrics. Indeed, this marks the first year in which Chancellor May and his direct reports will be evaluated based in part on performance metrics.

It is important to note that the Faculty Council has not been told that a performance metrics based evaluation or compensation system for faculty is imminent or planned. Nevertheless, in an environment where we increasingly are expected to be accountable to various local, state, and federal entities, it is imperative that we faculty be prepared for any eventuality.

The Faculty Council has grave doubts about the efficacy or equity of an evaluation or compensation system based on performance metrics. However, the Faculty Council also recognizes that the Board of Trustees at any time could direct the chancellor to implement faculty evaluation or compensation systems based on performance metrics. If so, in the spirit of shared governance, the Faculty Council believes that faculty should be trusted and empowered to identify and select appropriate performance metrics for evaluation and/or compensation, rather than abdicate that responsibility to non-instructional officers of the DCCCD, or outside consultants.

Therefore, the Faculty Council will convene an ad hoc committee, called WORK GROUP DELTA, to study the issue of performance metrics, and identify the kinds of indicators that conceivably could be among numerous options on a menu of performance metrics that would be appropriate for faculty evaluation or compensation.

El Centro College Faculty Association President Pam Crawford will serve as ex officio chair of this group. Each DCCCD college faculty association president is being charged to recommend a colleague from his/her college to serve on WORK GROUP DELTA.

WORK GROUP DELTA will meet and discuss concerns, and make recommendations, during the Spring 2018 semester. Any recommendations submitted to the Faculty Council from WORK GROUP DELTA will not be passed on to college or District leaders, or to DCCCD Board members, unless and until there is clear indication that performance metrics are recommended to become part of the evaluation or compensation system. In other words, the report that WORK GROUP DELTA prepares will be kept on file by the Faculty Council, in the hopes that it never will have to be proposed.

If you are interested in serving as your college faculty association’s representative on WORK GROUP DELTA, please contact your college’s faculty association president.

Update on Faculty Evaluation and Job Description

The Faculty Evaluation System Review Task Force met again on Wednesday, April 19, 2017, and the group spent the majority of its time reviewing, discussing, and revising a draft of a proposed revised DCCCD Faculty Job Description.

The Job Description subcommittee provided the Task Force with the following documentation:

·         the current job description;
·         a benchmarking document, with information on job descriptions from 10 other colleges;
·         a spreadsheet listing elements of the various job descriptions in common;
·         a preliminary draft of a revised DCCCD Faculty Job Description;

Based on the discussion, a revised draft has been prepared for the Faculty Association membership to review and comment on. This is posted as a Google Doc, so you can make comments directly on the document itself, if you like. You can also post comments in response to this blog using the comments feature below. If you prefer, you may email comments to your Faculty Association President.

P.S. Here are tips on how to comment on a Google Doc

The subcommittee and the Task Force will take all commentary into consideration in preparing a final draft of the Faculty Job Description to recommend for adoption in the District. As time is of the essence, please provide any and all feedback no later than Saturday, April 29, 2017.

Faculty Evaluation System Review Update

The Faculty Evaluation System Review Task Force, co-chaired by MVC President Bobby Garza and CVC Faculty Association President Tommy Thompson, was formed to review and update the DCCCD Faculty Evaluation System. This System includes: the Faculty Job Description, the IAP form, the Student Survey of Instruction, the Instructional Visitation Appraisal forms (face to face and online), the Faculty Appraisal Summary Report form, the Contractual Recommendation form, and the overall timeline. The System was supposed to be reviewed every five years, beginning in 2006; it was last reviewed and updated in 2002, although the Job Description was updated in 2005.

The members of the Task Force are listed in this document 

The charges to the group are in this “Guiding Principles”document

The Faculty Evaluation System packet is in this PDF file

The Task Force had its initial meeting on Feb. 22, 2017, and a second meeting on March 29, 2017. At the first meeting, the group reviewed its charges, shared thoughts and concerns about elements of the Faculty Evaluation System, and then conducted a Plus/Delta evaluation of it. At the March 29 meeting, there was some disagreement over the scope of the charges to the Task Force and, as a consequence, over how much of the System could or should be modified. In response, three subcommittees were created to conduct further research and make specific recommendations in these three areas:

•          The Faculty Job Description
•          Academic Forms (Instructional Visitation and SSI)
•          Contractual Forms (IAP, Appraisal Summary, and Contractual Recommendation)

A final subcommittee will work to coordinate the compilation of recommendations and the overall revision and editing of the Faculty Evaluation System packet.

It was decided that there would be two more meetings in the Spring 2017 semester. Specific dates have yet to be determined. In the meantime, the subcommittee members should be communicating with one another and conducting their work.

Concerns about the differing perspectives of the Task Force members were discussed at the last Faculty Council meeting on Friday, March 31. In response, the Faculty Council has crafted the following statement:

The Faculty Council affirms that the Faculty Evaluation Process is designed flexibly to encourage excellence in teaching, ongoing professional development, and institutional service, and for ongoing conversations to take place between individual faculty and deans about those areas.

“One size fits all” approaches do not promote excellence in teaching and learning, as each faculty member brings unique experiences to his/her teaching environment, necessitating unique ongoing professional development for each faculty member.

The Council recognizes that some lack of clarity within the documents, and more importantly lack of consistent training in how to implement the Faculty Evaluation Process, has led to confusion and inequitable application of the process.

In addition, some believe – again, due to lack of uniform training – that the Faculty Evaluation Process document is to be used for disciplinary misconduct issues. Rather, DCCCD Board Policies DMAA (LEGAL) and DMAA (LOCAL) specify that a separate process must be followed to discipline or dismiss any contracted faculty member for misconduct.

Therefore, the Council recommends:

1.       That the Faculty Evaluation system document be reviewed and revised for clarity;

2.       That the forms be digitized into electronic documents that easily can be updated throughout the evaluation cycle;

3.       That video training modules on how to implement the Faculty Evaluation system, be written and developed by faculty and experienced instructional administrators, filmed at the LeCroy Center, and uploaded to an eCampus organization and be required training for all new instructional deans, academic vice presidents, and faculty.

Adopted via 7-0 vote by the DCCFA Faculty Council on March 31, 2017