Q&A for New(er) Curriculum Chairs and Administrators Eric Wada ASCCC Curriculum Committee, Curriculum Chair Biology, Folsom Lake College Thais Winsome ASCCC Curriculum Committee Curriculum Chair/Academic Senate President, Biological Sciences, Mission College

Curriculum Basics Title 5 § 55002: Requires colleges to establish curriculum committees through mutual agreement between the college/district and the academic senate Ed Code §70902(b)(7): Gives academic senates primary responsibility for curriculum and academic standards

The 10+1 & Curriculum Title 5 §53200: Identifies the “10+1” academic and professional matters where faculty have purview. These include: (1)  curriculum, including establishing prerequisites and placing courses within disciplines; (2)  degree and certificate requirements; (3)  grading policies; (4)  educational program development; (5)  standards or policies regarding student preparation and success;

Curriculum Process Overview New Courses/Programs are conceived and developed Local Review and Approval Process State Chaptering Process Implementation and Review Of these three components, who does what? How can faculty, administration, students and staff work together to create and maintain the college curriculum in a collegial, effective and efficient manner?

Curriculum Process: Who Does What? Faculty: Primacy over curriculum Subject matter experts Develop Course/Program Outline of Record Administration: Broader view of the college “Dream catcher” Expertise with regulations/compliance requirements for certain programs (CTE, basic skills, non-credit, DE, etc.) Staff/Curriculum Specialist: Experts on regulations, codes, procedures Students Per Title 5, students have an integral role in the curriculum process

Local Curriculum Review and Approval Process: General Rules Establish procedures that are very explicit and, when necessary, have a means to resolve conflict. Committee bylaws: ensure they can guide the process and clearly delineate the respective roles of faculty, administration and staff The Curriculum Committee and the Curriculum Approval Process are two different things Separate rules and procedures for the committee and the process Changes to the curriculum committee composition must be mutually agreed upon by both the Academic Senate and the administration Per Title 5, the senate must be involved in the approval process

Curriculum Committee Membership Membership should reflect the diversity of college programs and service areas Membership should also include faculty/administrators with expertise in distance education, disability access requirements, articulation, and counseling Students are an important part of any shared governance committee Who should have voting rights?

Curriculum Process: Developing New Courses/Programs Collaborative process – the most brilliant course/program will be a total fail if the college lacks the resources to support it Iterative process – a course/program may not fly as originally conceived but may work once faculty and administration have worked together to revise it to meet college resources and student needs

Key questions to be asked: WHY is this course/program being developed? Does it serve a demonstrable need? Has the course been discussed by all faculty in the area? Has it been discussed with administration? How does this course/program fit into the college’s larger plans? Can the college afford it? Does the college have the faculty to teach it? If not, is there a plan to address this? Multi-campus districts: has this been discussed at the district level? Should faculty at your sister colleges be involved?

Curriculum Process: Technical Review Who is involved in technical review at your college? Department/division chairs, deans/VPs, Articulation officer, Curriculum Specialist, Accessibility specialist (esp. for DE), library, tutoring, counseling, etc. What questions are important to consider at this stage?

Curriculum Process: Curriculum Committee Review and Approval Committee rules: How many readings are needed before approval? Does your college use Curricunet or other CMS for approval? What questions are important to ask at this stage?

Curriculum Process: Role of Academic Senate Is the curriculum committee a subcommittee of your senate? What role does your senate president play within the curriculum committee? What questions should senate presidents ask in regards to curriculum? How does the senate handle curriculum after it has been approved by the curriculum committee?

Curriculum Process: Next Steps Do administrators sign off on curriculum at your college? Has this caused problems? Does your board of trustees approve all curriculum (new curriculum as well as revisions)? How often does your board approve curriculum?

State Chaptering Process Streamlined course chaptering process. Usually requires data and documentation apart from the program outline PCAH describes the required narrative document. Elements include: CORs Annual completers Documentation to support transfer (C-ID approval) or local need. LMI data (CTE) Advisory Board and regional consortium recommendation for CTE programs Who “owns” the data/documentation part of the program development process (i.e. the CCCCO narrative and Regional Consortia documents)?

Curriculum Process: Revisions to Existing Courses/Programs When should courses/programs be revised? Who makes the decision? Are the changes substantial or non-substantial? What’s the difference? Faculty primacy

Scenario #1 (from a breakout at the 2015 Curriculum Institute) ESL Deactivation: The area Dean has determined that a handful of courses in ESL need to be inactivated and the department needs to develop courses that are easily stacked into certificates. He works with the Academic Services area to administratively inactivate 15 ESL courses and then begins the process of drafting courses in CurriCUNET for the department. When the Department Head returns from a short summer break, she learns that she needs to restructure the fall course offerings to remove the 15 now-inactivate courses and she is very upset.

Scenario #2 The Music department faculty are persuaded to offer an AAT in Music. The new program is vetted at the senate, the curriculum committee, and at the administrative level. After one year, the faculty realize they can't support the program because they lack sufficient resources in terms of practice space, instruments, and faculty load. To everyone’s surprise, when the discontinuance process was started it was discovered that over 100 students had enrolled in the major.

Scenario #3 The Police Academy has not updated its courses or programs in well over a decade. This is a politically powerful department, with faculty serving in positions of union and faculty leadership and also holding positions on local and state police academy advisory boards. Attempts on the part of the faculty leadership in curriculum and the senate to reason, persuade, cajole and, finally, beg the department faculty to take action to bring their program into compliance have so far been unsuccessful.

Scenario #4 The college curriculum approval process has no provision for administrative review or input early in the curriculum process. This has caused problems with programs moving ahead without sufficient resources to support them, as well as CTE programs not obtaining BACC approval in a timely manner because the area dean was unaware of them. When the curriculum chair and VPI approached the curriculum committee and the senate with a plan to include administrative review early in the process, the faculty unanimously rejected the proposal on the grounds that any administrative oversight was outside the purview of administration and would diminish the faculty voice in curricular matters.

Scenario #5 Faculty in a STEM department want to add a one unit problem solving course as a corequisite to an introductory course citing poor student preparation and therefore low student success rates. Counseling faculty note that adding the corequisite could delay student transfer, and transfer institutions do not require such a corequisite. The discipline faculty insist that two-year college students are not the same demographic as those who are at a four-year college.

Other Questions to Consider: Who might you, as a curriculum chair, need to contact during your term? What deadlines should curriculum chairs know? Who controls these deadlines? And from earlier in the presentation: Who is involved in Technical Review? What questions are important to ask at this stage?

More Questions, Continued What questions should the Senate President ask in regards to curriculum? Do administrators sign off on curriculum at your college? Has this caused problems? When should courses and programs be revised? Who makes the decision? Who “owns” the data/documentation part of the program development process (e.g. the CCCCO narrative and the regional consortium documents)?