Volume 45 Number 3
Workshop planned before fall semester begins
Concern over the use and misuse of Student Learning Outcomes in faculty evaluations on campus has prompted local chapters and the Community College Association to take further action. In order to better respond to the issue, and to help CCA chapters develop strategies in response to “requests” by districts to build Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) into evaluation, CCA will be offering a special workshop for chapter presidents and other faculty members who may be responsible for either negotiations or SLO Coordination before the beginning of the fall semester.
From the beginning, CCA has maintained that the state’s Accrediting Commission for Junior and Community Colleges has gone beyond its scope in requesting that SLOs become part of faculty evaluation, and has strongly asserted that SLOs must be part of negotiations between the district and the faculty association. CCA President Ron Norton Reel expressed that concern directly to the commission’s director, Barbara Beno. Meanwhile, faculty at several colleges are being asked to develop an assessment process, while some colleges are reportedly creating costly new administrative positions called SLO Officers to oversee their implementation.
“Currently, chapters are grappling with how to bargain SLOs, but CCA has always taken the position that they are extra work and, as such, faculty should be compensated. Even though our contracts refer to ‘other duties,’ SLOs did not exist when those contracts were written and locals should not allow districts to roll SLOs into existing obligations,” said CCA Vice President Lynette Nyaggah, who presided over an informal forum at CCA’s Spring Conference. Nyaggah said that information on the upcoming workshop will be e-mailed to chapter presidents in the next month.