Background:
At a meeting of The Instructional Leadership Team (TILT) on 9/18/17,
the Faculty Council was presented with a draft of a revised Board policy on
attendance as well as a proposal—developed by the Academic Vice Presidents and
Associate Vice Chancellor Anna Mays, at the behest of Chancellor May—for a daily
attendance tracking system, which was to be set up in eConnect and implemented for
Fall 2018. The system would have required faculty to maintain and report daily attendance
records for all classes. We were informed that this was created to address safety
concerns, in the wake of incidents at El Centro and North Lake colleges, as
well as to monitor student success.
The Faculty Council argued strenuously against this system,
noting that it would not provide an accurate accounting of the number of people
in a building, and thus not adequately address safety concerns, and that it
would not be a useful means of gauging student progress or achievement. Given
the increased attention to student persistence and completion (locally and
nationally), the Faculty Council understands the desire and need for more
periodic reporting on student success. The Council, therefore, suggested that a
progress reporting system be considered; this would work better for tracking
student success and would allow for intrusive advising if students fall behind
in classes. Matt Henry and Matt Hinckley volunteered to serve on a subcommittee
to explore the development of such a system.
A preliminary meeting was held at the LeCroy Center on
10/6/17 to discuss ideas. Subcommittee members at that point were: faculty
members Matt Henry (RLC) and Matt Hinckley (EFC); Vice Presidents Audra Barrett
(CVC) and Greg Morris (ECC); and Executive Dean Terri DiPaolo (LeCroy). This
was, in effect, a brainstorming session in which the committee reviewed current
policies on attendance and grading and discussed the potential uses of
eConnect, the eCampus gradebook, and district software such as Starfish as potential
reporting mechanisms. The highlights of this conversation were shared with member
of the TILT group at its next meeting (on 10/16/17), at which the Faculty Council
continued to press the point that concerns over safety must be decoupled from
concerns about student success.
On 11/3/17, Associate Vice Chancellor Mays confirmed (via
email) that these concerns would be separated and discussed by two distinct groups.
The first group, led by Commissioner Lauretta Hill and legal counsel Tricia-Anne
Horatio, would explore the possibility of an employee and student
identification badge policy, involving appropriate college personnel. The second
group, comprised of the preliminary subcommittee and staff from the District
Office, would explore strategies for a progress and/or grade reporting policy,
which would involve the recording of student performance at intervals during
the term, in order to more frequently and consistently document and communicate
to students about their academic participation, progress and success.
The next meeting of the Student Progress subcommittee took
place on 11/21/17. In attendance were Anna Mays, Audra Barrett, Greg Morris,
Matt Henry, Matt Hinckley, Becky Witherspoon, Jamie Templeton, Tricia Horatio, and
Terry DiPaolo. This meeting focused primarily on discussing the merits of
various reporting intervals (e.g., at midterm or more frequently) and the value
of using letter grades, a pass/fail notification, or open-ended comments to
report on student status. At a subsequent meeting, held on 12/13/17, the
committee was presented with a draft of a new Board policy on progress
reporting. At that point, members of the Faculty Council (Henry and Hinckley)
noted that this was progressing a bit too fast, likely in deference to the target
implementation date of Fall 2018. The Council members then requested that the
committee pause to develop a clear rationale for the student progress reporting
system to present to faculty, as well as to gather relevant data on the use and
success of such systems at other institutions. Members of the committee were
charged with doing this research.
Current Status:
On 1/16/18, the Student Progress subcommittee met at the
District Office. Unfortunately, once again, the first agenda item was the draft
of a new Board policy. Vice Chancellor Mays stressed that both Vice Chancellor
Lonon and Chancellor May expect the new policy to be in effect for Fall 2018. Matt
Henry and Matt Hinckley reiterated that this was all moving too fast, pointing
out that the necessary research had not yet been done and that adequate time
was needed to both inform faculty about these pending changes and to solicit
feedback from them before further action was taken. This successfully moved the
conversation moved away from policy document language and onto the overall timeline
and interim steps to be taken during the spring semester.
On behalf of the Faculty Council, Matt Henry and Matt
Hinckley will develop a survey instrument to send to faculty to solicit
feedback on the Student Progress Reporting System plan. It will contain links
to relevant research and include both open- and closed-ended questions. The
Faculty Council expects to have this ready and available at the beginning of
February.
At the next TILT meeting (scheduled for Monday, January 22),
the Council will discuss with the Academic Vice Presidents a communication
strategy for disseminating information to all impacted stakeholders and
gathering input from faculty. Faculty who wish to know more should speak with
their Faculty Association representative or their college Vice President. We
will keep faculty informed of all developments on this issue as they occur.
