Faculty Development

A focus on faculty professional learning, given the challenges that California community colleges and students face, must remain a high priority and continue to evolve. The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) has long been an advocate for the development of robust professional development policies as part of senate purview under Title 5 §53200, colloquially referred to as the 10+1.

Whereas, Resolution 19.02 F12 directed the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges to update the 2000 paper Faculty Development: A Senate Issue in order to support local senates and help faculty respond to an ever-changing educational and economic climate;

Whereas, Many faculty are required to complete a minimum number of professional development or Flex hours each term or year, and art of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges’ (ASCCC) mission is to foster “the effective participation by community college faculty in all statewide and local academic and professional matters,” a mission it achieves through an infrastructure that includes various committees and a wide-array of events intended to inform, engage, and listen;

Whereas, Lab-based courses and hard-to-convert courses in other disciplines may need to be moved into an exclusively online format due to pandemics and other natural disasters;

Whereas, While most people may believe that hard-to-convert courses are largely science-based, other lab-based disciplines are also subject to discipline-specific challenges and limitations, including but not limited to nursing, fire science, performing and fine arts, CE/CTE, ASL, kinesiology and physical education, early child development, communication studies, and anthropology;

Whereas, Student success depends on excellent teachers, and many faculty, both full-time and part-time, have limited training in the art of teaching, and the Center for Community Colleges reports that more than 58% of community college courses are taught by “contingent” faculty;[1]

Whereas, All faculty, full-time or part-time, would benefit from a program of onlineprofessional development courses designed for community college faculty that present the best, most effective, and innovative ways to help students to learn;

Whereas, Curriculum, including the selection and development of instructional materials, is an area of faculty primacy under Title 5 §53200 and the development of open educational resources (OER) is a worthwhile curriculum-related endeavor that will benefit students;

Whereas, Assembly Bill 798 (Bonilla, 2015) encourages the use of OER, and zero-textbook-cost degree efforts are underway that seek to provide an opportunity for students to earn a degree with no expenses associated with instructional materials;

Whereas, Resolution 13.02 F15 states, “the recent equalization of Career Development and College Preparation (CDCP) noncredit class apportionment with credit class apportionment, the ongoing funding for student success efforts including Basic Skills, Equity, and Student Success and Support Programs, and the Recommendations of the California Community Colleges Task Force on Workforce, Job Creation, and a Strong Economy (August 14, 2015)  are all resulting in an increased focus on the use of noncredit instruction to improve student success and close equity gaps in basic skills as well as prov

Whereas, Many faculty are required to complete a minimum number of professional development or Flex hours each semester;

Whereas, The Professional Learning Network (PLN) is an online professional development repository that provides access to professional development activities offered by vendors like Lynda.com as well as resources that have been developed and reviewed by community college faculty, administrators, and classified staff that cover many of the same topics that are presented during on campus Flex sessions;

Whereas, The 2015-2016 community college budget included over $62.3 million to support the movement toward 75:25 and increase the hiring of new full-time faculty, and local districts and colleges are hiring new faculty;

Whereas, The proposed budget for 2016-2017 also includes money for new full time hires and making progress toward 75:25; and

Whereas, At some colleges there are no mutually agreed upon criteria to use in the decision making process for setting priorities of new hires campus-wide;

Whereas, The governor has provided $62.3 million for faculty hiring in California community colleges, which may result in more than 1,100[1] faculty hires for the 2016-2017 year;

Whereas, Hiring faculty who understand the needs and experiences of a diverse student body will positively impact student success throughout the community college system; and