Update 2-28-12

I am sending this Senate update to a slightly larger audience than usual, because it references a topic with implications for the entire academic community.  Below is an update and some basic information that will hopefully help us start to understand some of the issues, terminology, and how the topic will impact the college and our students.    

The Common Core State Standards are new academic standards for P-12 English Language Arts and Mathematics, adopted in 48 states, including Massachusetts.  The Common Core includes both curricular and instructional standards intended to improve P-12 education nationwide.  Information can be found at www.corestandards.org

PARCC, The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, is one of two national assessment consortia which are developing assessments to assess the Common Core.  Massachusetts has signed on to use the PARCC assessment starting in 2014-15.  Information can be found at www.parcconline.org

College Readiness:  In addition to PARCC assessing the Common Core, the plan is also to have the end of year 11^th grade assessment be used to determine if a high school student is “College Ready” in English and Mathematics, and not in need of developmental coursework in those areas.   

Senate Discussion:  At the January 23 Senate meeting, the Common Core State Standards and the PARCC assessment were discussed. 

·        Defining what it means to be “college ready” is a faculty concern.  Faculty need to be involved, and therefore it is an appropriate academic issue for the Senate to consider. 

·        Currently, MCAS and Accuplacer results show very little correlation.  Writing solid curriculum is important, but what about instructional pedagogy will change to assure positive change?

·        If the 11^th grade PARCC assessment will be used to determine if a student needs developmental coursework, then college faculty must be involved in determining how it is used.

·        It has been shown that students who need developmental coursework are less likely to complete a college degree than those who do not.  The question was raised whether there may be an unstated desire is to ultimately remove developmental education from higher education.

·        There was discussion of a Department of Higher Education plan to determine a Massachusetts definition of college readiness.

·        The topic of developmental reading instruction and how it relates to college readiness was also discussed.

Since that meeting,

• BCC has been awarded a $7500 grant to fund regional conversations among BCC, NB and FR P-12 educators about issues related to college readiness.  BCC’s English and Math Chairs are coordinating this and related efforts.
• In addition to the Senate discussion, the topic of what it means to be college ready in English and Math is being brought to those departments.  Later in the semester, the plan is to have a campus wide meeting (likely one of the scheduled all-academic area, all college, or professional staff meetings).
• The plan is for all of these related efforts to lead to the development of a BCC regional definition of college readiness before the end of May.  The Department of Higher Education has requested such a definition from each public higher education institution by June 1.  The plan is then to use these regional definitions to create a Massachusetts definition which will help the state determine appropriate use of the PARCC assessment as a tool for determining college readiness.

Senate Update 2-21-12

Academic Decision-Making: 

In 2011, the Senate and College Administration co-sponsored and co-facilitated two structured activities/meetings on the topic of academic decision-making.  On May 11, 43 members of the faculty, professional staff, and administration participated, and on November 30, there were 59 participants.  The structured activity consisted of quiet reading, thinking, and writing time, as well as time for each participant to share their thoughts with others sitting at their table. 

Topics included:

·         Exploring the essential roles of faculty, professional staff, and administration in academic decision-making.

·         Exploring challenges to shared governance, and balancing participation with accountability.

·         Exploring hypothetical scenarios to help discover a variety of issues involved in such decisions.

Results:

Through activities at each of the two events, participants ultimately defined a basis of commonly held characteristics that exemplify good academic decision-making, and made many concrete suggestions for how we could make improvements at BCC. 

Spring 2012 Senate Focus:

From the data collected at these two meetings, we hope to generate a list of jointly agreed to “Best Practices” in Academic Decision-Making.  This list, and the data collected at the meetings will help inform Senate efforts throughout the semester.  Our immediate goal this Spring is to use the data collected in 2011 to have a positive and real impact on shared governance at the college.

Senate Meetings:

• Reminder:  All constituents are invited to attend all Senate meetings.
• Next Senate meeting:  Monday, February 27^th, 3:15pm; H-129

      Agenda items (tentative): 

·         Best Practices in Governance draft

·         Governance: Discussion of results from November 30 and May 11 Joint Senate/Administration sponsored events, and Next Steps

·         Joint Senate/Administration Advising Group – update

·         Committee reports