District Education Committee
MINUTES of the District Education Committee Meeting
December 9, 2011, 8:30am -10:30pm
District Office Board Room
Committee:
Date:
Attendance:
Co-Chairs:
Facilitators:
Note Taker:
Guests:
Absent:
District Education Committee
December 9, 2011
Debbie Budd, May Chen, Rebecca Kenney, Kerry Compton, Eric Gravenberg, Newin Orante, Jenny Lowood, Linda Berry, Joseph Bielanski,
Sonja Franeta, Anita Black, Pieter de Haan, Trulie Thompson, Karolyn van Putten, Bob Grill, Matt Goldstein, Tae-Soon Park, James Blake, Paula
Armstead, Carlos Mc Lean, Dera Williams, Pat Jameson
Debbie Budd, Anita Black
Alexis Montevirgen, Inger Stark
Pat Jameson
Denise Jennings, Bob Barr, Joyce Brown-Willis, Thuy Nguyen, Linda Sanford, Bill Love
Betty Inclan, Paula Coil, Inger Stark, Krista Johns, Eileen White, Evelyn Lord
Agenda Item
Discussion
Meeting Called to Order
Meeting called to order at 8:35 a.m. by VC Budd.
I. Introductions
• Review agenda
• Review and approve
minutes from Nov.
18, 2011 DEC Mtg.
Agenda review, and overview given of this meeting’s agenda by VC Budd.
Review of draft Minutes from the November 18, 2011 DEC meeting.
MOTION TO APPROVE THE MINUTES FROM THE NOV. 18, 2011
DEC COMMITTEE MEETING.
MOTION PASSED.
Follow-up Action
DECISIONS
(Shared
Agreement
/Resolved or
Unresolved?)
MOTION TO
APPROVE THE
MINUTES FROM
THE NOV. 18,
2011 DEC
COMMITTEE
MEETING.
MOTION
PASSED.
DECISIONS
Agenda Item
Discussion
II. Sharing of Data on
Foundational Skills /
Basic Skills Success
Degrees and
Certificates
 Discussion on level
of review at the
Colleges
 Flow Through,
persistence,
assessment and
changes made to
improve success
 ARCC Data
 Awareness level
VC Budd presents the data, and thanks Bob Barr for his work for the District.
The Institutional Research website has tons of data, and we hope everyone is
using the data that’s there. E.g., there is a link to the ARCC data 2007. There
is a 6 year transfer period that the State looks at. Our rates are better than they
were, but we can still improve. Merritt has about 600 degrees and certificates
where Laney has about 800, for example.
Follow-up Action
(Shared Agreement
/Resolved or
Unresolved?)
B.Barr helped clarify the data: The way the data is compiled automatically
screens out a lot of people, as it includes only students who have taken a
transfer level course in English or Math, which is a measure of intent, over a 6
year transfer period; the term is “transfer directed.” 50% of the freshman class
never earns 12 units, and these students are not in the data.
Q: about the definition of “peer group.”
A: “peer group” is other colleges that are similar to the focus college, as
determined by the State Chancellor’s Office; these peer groups differ from year
to year, depending on certain factors.
Reference is made to a handout re this issue, awards and transfers, the data on
which is also on the Institutional Research website. The BI tool also contains
lots of good data we hope everyone is using.
Reference is also made to a handout with demographic data, matriculation
goals, lists of degrees & awards, etc. Data is from Spring 2011. This is some
of the data that the State is looking at.
Suggestion is made that in the Spring 2012, we review certain data which we
choose, to come up with objectives or plans for how we can address our needs
in that area.
The Colleges are bringing in more small certificates, which is good.
Q: Is it possible for a College to give an award or degree to a student who
doesn’t apply for it?
A: Yes, we used to do it, but it presented a problem for students re financial
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DECISIONS
Agenda Item
Discussion
Follow-up Action
(Shared Agreement
/Resolved or
Unresolved?)
aid.
Q: Couldn’t we send out a letter to students who are eligible for a degree
or certificate telling them this, to see if they want to be granted such a
degree?
A: [VC Budd] YES, we need to do this if we are not already doing so.
Discussion centered on the importance of counseling.
With State reductions and cuts, our instructional and student support services
have been seriously impacted. Laney included a focus on student services, as
did COA, where students were heavily involved; maybe we all could do this
again.
Q: Couldn’t we send out
a letter to students who
are eligible for a degree
or certificate telling
them this, to see if they
want to be granted such
a degree?
A: VC Budd: YES, we
need to do this if we are
not already doing so.
There is a difference between counseling and academic advising. A lot of what
impacts a student happens outside the classroom. When counselors look at a
transcript and see a pattern of behavior, they can address that. They can talk to
students about learning styles and really guide a student on the best path for
them. Academic advising and degree auditing is very different, and cannot
replace actual counseling.
Although Laney had a day focusing on student services and involving students,
not many students came; but those who did really enjoyed and benefited from
it. They are now doing more for first time students and more on basic skills, as
this has been requested for a long time.
Some present would like to see more data on transfer rates of our students to
private institutions, such as the University of Phoenix and DeVry, e.g.
Not all private institutions share their data with the National Student Clearing
House, or are not consistent in doing so.
Perhaps we should try to do our own follow-up. Students who transfer have to
request a transcript to be sent to an institution; thus A&R has this information.
Maybe we could, at that point, send a letter to students requesting data on where
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DECISIONS
Agenda Item
Discussion
Follow-up Action
(Shared Agreement
/Resolved or
Unresolved?)
they are applying and possibly transferring to.
Many students request transcripts to numerous institutions, and to themselves.
We could add a question to our “splash(?)” screen asking the students about
their transfer plans.
We could also do more by deduction with the info we have.
If we agree that having more counselors is a good thing and a priority for
Peralta, then we should spend our money on hiring more counselors, and they
will be our best spent dollars. Now our ratio of counselors to students is very
poor.
The hiring of counselors is high on the list of most of our colleges. Our
counselors would ideally offer classes, which would then count towards our
FON.
Some felt that hiring counselors needs to be a District priority, not just the
responsibility of the Colleges.
In addition to the discussion about productivity, we need to talk about student
success, and what contributes to this. When you specifically look at students of
color, the data is amazing and convincing. Productivity is important, but
successful completion is also very important. This needs to be part of our
student success dialogue. We need to look at who now makes up the State of
California. People who work at Peralta knew before they came here who we
are as a population in Oakland and our College areas.
When students apply for IGETSE certification, we should have a form for
students to fill out that would help us grant certificates or degrees. If this
is past the deadline for getting a certificate or degree one semester, it
should be automatic the following semester.
VC Budd is so glad to see the coming together of instruction and student
services. Others present are also glad to hear us spending more time on student
services, besides on instruction.
When students apply
for IGETSE
certification, we should
have a form for students
to fill out that would
help us grant
certificates or degrees.
If this is past the
deadline for getting a
certificate or degree one
semester, it should be
automatic the following
semester.
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DECISIONS
Agenda Item
Discussion
What the students need is more guidance; when they ask for it, we should
give it to them. Even if we had something simple, online, on how to
register, how to plan and get classes; maybe even including a short video –
this would help greatly.
Many of our own faculty don’t know all that’s available to our students, such as
BOG grants, so we need to all have this information that we can share with
students.
Many of our students are first generation college students, and desperately need
this information and all the student support services we can give them. We all
need to know what it’s like to be a first generation student, as staff and faculty
and administrators. This would help us be in a better position to really help our
students.
III.
Student Success
Task Force

Discussion on most
current document
The Student Success Task Force (SSTF) Report is on the Ed Services website.
VC Budd hands out a letter to “Fellow Task Force Members” dated 12/8/11
from Dr. Peter MacDougall, Chairman of the Student Success Task Force,
which is hot off the press from last night.
We need to address the large number of our students that are not being
successful. We need our own Student Success Task Force. The College
resource request lists presented at the last DEC meeting and forwarded to
the PBC, showed a great need for our student services hiring. Faculty and
staff should not be taken from one College and given to another, but we need to
hire additional counselors and other faculty and staff to help us all succeed. We
need to make this a very high priority, districtwide.
Follow-up Action
(Shared Agreement
/Resolved or
Unresolved?)
What the students need
is more guidance; when
they ask for it, we
should give it to them.
Even if we had
something simple,
online, on how to
register, how to plan
and get classes; maybe
even including a short
video – this would help
greatly.
What the students need
is more guidance; when
they ask for it, we
should give it to them.
Even if we had
something simple,
online, on how to
register, how to plan
and get classes; maybe
even including a short
video – this would help
greatly.
People stated they hope there will be a change in the 50% law for
counselors and librarians to recognize the significant contributions made
by them to the overall success of educating students.
People stated they hope
there will be a change in
the 50% law for
With the 50% law not including counselors and librarians, makes the number go counselors and
5
DECISIONS
Agenda Item
Discussion
up to 65%, e.g. There are a lot of people working really hard on student
success. We need to look at the motivation of the Student Success Task Force,
and not just adopt everything they say. We need to be aware of a move to
privatize education statewide/nationwide, and be careful not to play into this
effort. Non-educators who tell us what we need to do for students, should be
taken with a grain of salt.
Follow-up Action
(Shared Agreement
/Resolved or
Unresolved?)
librarians to recognize
the significant
contributions made by
them to the overall
success of educating
students.
B.Barr: Our outcomes have not changed for many years; the data is flat. The
strategies for improving student success will not be found in maintaining the
status quo and continuing to do more of the same. This has not and will not
improve our outcomes. The answer is to do things differently; that’s the only
way we may increase our success rates. Barr would evaluate each of the Task
Force’s recommendations to see what will work for us and what won’t; not just
throwing out all recommendations if you feel it comes from a questionable
source on the Task Force, or a source with questionable motives.
This Task Force was initially formed as a result of SB 1143 re performance
based funding. They were trying to pass a bill that would have taken us back 20
years in how we will be paid by the State. They were trying to say they will
only pay us when students “are successful”, i.e., when they transfer or complete
a degree or certificate.
The counselors participated in the latest round of APUs. [T.Thompson gives
some statistics.] State recommendation is 1 counselor for every 337 students.
There are 57.1 FTEF per 9000 FTES; thus, approximately 1 counselor for every
160 students. The ratio is about 10 times our ratio for other faculty.
The California State Academic Senate (AS) passed a recommendation re the
SSTF. Some of the Task Force’s recommendations would redefine what we do.
We felt that the construction of the SSTF itself would have benefited by
inclusion of more frontline personnel who had a more concrete base of
knowledge. [T.Thompson will forward the AS recommendation to all.]
The one thing that people aren’t talking about is that the biggest predictor of
whether a student will succeed is the neighborhood from which they come. We
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DECISIONS
Agenda Item
Discussion
Follow-up Action
(Shared Agreement
/Resolved or
Unresolved?)
need to keep this central in our discussions. Because of this, what is the real
action that we can take that will really make a difference?
VPSS Compton refers to her letter to the SSTF, a copy of which is handed out.
Feed back to the SSTF will be accepted through March 2012, and should
be given.
Our/Peralta data is real clear. This data can be contentious, but must be
addressed. Those who really try to deal with our problem run into many
problems with our/Peralta’s structure. There must be a serious paradigm
shift at Peralta, or we will never really deal with our challenges. Depts. and
their faculty, or district administrators, who don’t really want to work with our
populations, need to step aside. They shouldn’t block use of our resources
when they just don’t want to even deal with basic skills students. They need to
step aside, and we need to not allow this blockage to occur within Peralta. This
needs to be addressed. Our population has unique characteristics that the SSTF
doesn’t really know about.
Feed back to the SSTF
will be accepted through
March 2012, and should
be given.
There must be a serious
paradigm shift at
Peralta, or we will never
really deal with our
challenges.
We have no way of tracking whether we are actually only doing the same thing
we have been doing, or in tracking our students’ success. UC gets the top 1/12th
of the students in the state; the retrition rate is very high. We ought to make
this the top 1/20th. The last hired always get screwed. We are doing a hell of a
lot of good.
B.Barr: The outcomes don’t show much difference.
VC Budd: This is why we talk about our student success. She agrees with
many of the suggestion to have a district-wide Student Services Task Force.
We have some real experts within our own District, and great things are
happening. We have accelerated learning, we have great basic skills efforts,
and ESL coordinated efforts.
Some are opposed to how they are putting out the SSTF recommendations, and
how they are dictating to us what we must do. We need to just go ahead with
our work and try to serve our students, especially in their first year. The SSTF
recommendations seem to be wanting us to get rid of our main student
7
DECISIONS
Agenda Item
Discussion
Follow-up Action
(Shared Agreement
/Resolved or
Unresolved?)
population.
We need to put
resources where our
talk is. The positions
lists showed at least one
basic skill faculty
member and one
counselor high on the
lists at all our colleges.
We can’t just rob Peter
to pay Paul, but we need
to fund needed positions
at all our colleges. We
can look at the data and
make necessary
adjustments, and we
need to institutionalize
our best practices.
MOTION: That
we form a Peralta
Student Success
Task Force with
the charge of
drafting some core
principles of how
we address basic
student
educational needs,
and to compile a
list of faculty and
programs with
best practices,
which will bring
forth further
recommendations
on how we will
improve our
student success
rates. The College
Academic Senates
will be asked to
help select faculty
to serve on this
Peralta Student
Success Task
Force.
We need to put resources where our talk is. The positions lists showed at
least one basic skill faculty member and one counselor high on the lists at
all our colleges. We can’t just rob Peter to pay Paul, but we need to fund
needed positions at all our colleges. We can look at the data and make
necessary adjustments, and we need to institutionalize our best practices.
What doesn’t get said and shared is what good is happening at our colleges.
MOTION: That we form a Peralta Student Success Task Force with the
charge of drafting some core principles of how we address basic student
educational needs, and to compile a list of faculty and programs with best
practices, which will bring forth further recommendations on how we will
improve our student success rates. The College Academic Senates will be
asked to help select faculty to serve on this Peralta Student Success Task
Force.
Vote: Unanimous, with one abstention (M.Goldstein).
Q: re how this task force will be formed.
A: we will begin with the College Academic Senates, and bring back some
recommendations to our March 2012 DEC Mtg.
We should go to the individuals who are really working on improving student
success.
The College Leading Action for Student Success Committee at COA, under
VPSS Compton, has been very successful and is highly complimented;
suggestion is that this be a model to follow.
Some have other concerns about the SSTF, esp. when legislators do things
without really looking at the fact that they may be making things worse by not
seeing what’s happening with the students they are allegedly trying to help.
Q: re how this task
force will be formed.
A: we will begin with
the College Academic
Senates, and bring back
some recommendations
to our March 2012 DEC
Mtg.
Suggestion is that we
put together a Peralta
letter in response to the
SSTF recommendations.
PASSED:
Unanimous, with
one abstention.
The DAS is working on
such a letter.
8
DECISIONS
Agenda Item
Discussion
Follow-up Action
(Shared Agreement
/Resolved or
Unresolved?)
Suggestion is that we put together a Peralta letter in response to the SSTF
recommendations.
The DAS is working on such a letter.
IV. Jan. 18th Flex Day
 Assessment
 District Wide Discipline
Discussions
 District Academic
Senate Discussion
 Consolidation, Viability,
and Discontinuance
 Areas for discussion and
faculty leads
The DAS has decided to continue requesting that depts. do a review of
their disciplines, esp. those districtwide, to address patterns of degrees and
certificates, in this period of downsizing. They picked recommendations
from last spring, and came up with a template that can be used. They want
data to be populated to assist faculty with this review. Faculty need to
address by themselves what needs to be done. E.g., at the last meeting of
Merritt College’s Business Dept., they went through the schedule to see how to
make it better for students to enroll in the courses they want. They would like
other depts. to consider using the template they came up with.
Per VC Budd, an administrator and a faculty member, suggested by the
Academic Senates, will lead each discipline discussion during Flex Week.
Some are seriously concerned about what’s going on. The triggers will get
pulled, due to the economy, and the cuts we will have to make will be huge.
This may decimate many of our programs. Consolidation of courses may be the
only thing we can do. We do have a problem, working within the PFT contract,
on shifting faculty without engineering many grievances. E.g., at COA,
students can no longer get a degree in CIS, but need to go to another of our
colleges. 75% of our students are not really being served. We have a lot to do
in our vocational areas and in our basic skills areas. We need to look ahead and
plan for what we’re going to do with the anticipated cuts coming down the pike.
Some think the state may stabilize, especially w/Gov. Brown’s proposed tax on
the rich proposal. At Laney, they are having a diversity workshop at 3:30 on
District Flex Day, that all are invited to.
The DAS has decided to
continue requesting that
depts. do a review of
their disciplines, esp.
those districtwide, to
address patterns of
degrees and certificates,
in this period of
downsizing. They
picked recommendations from last spring,
and came up with a
template that can be
used. They want data to
be populated to assist
faculty with this review.
Per VC Budd, an
administrator and a
faculty member,
suggested by the
Academic Senates, will
lead each discipline
discussion during Flex
Week.
9
DECISIONS
Agenda Item
Discussion
V. Student Services Academic Advising
 Discussion of New Tool
 Student Ed Plan /
Duplicating Efforts
This item is tabled due to lack of time. VC Budd asks J.Brown-Willis to
join us at our next meeting.
VI. Updates on
Faculty Hires
The resource lists were presented by the Colleges at our last DEC Comm. Mtg.,
which were forwarded to the PBC, which forwarded them to the Chancellor,
who shared them with the SMT.
We don’t have the exact numbers, but we will be hiring some faculty for Fall
2012. We should know the numbers by next Tues., before people leave for the
Winter Break. The VPs will be the point persons who will know the numbers.
Suggestion is made that when the numbers go out to the VPs on faculty
hiring, that the AS Presidents also be included as they have a major role in
faculty hiring, forming hiring committees, etc.
At the last DEC meeting, a motion was passed to undue the intra-district faculty
transfer process. Reference is made to a hand-out of data that shows the
evidence on where we are with numbers of faculty in all areas. You also have
to look at where the funding is for hiring specific faculty, especially those that
are categorically funded vs. those paid from general funds. There are a total of
57 FTEF in counseling, from which 27 are part-timers. Request is made that
this be sent to them electronically. The Colleges feel they are already loosing
with many retirements, and resent loosing more by intra-district transfers.
Q: What happened to the DEC rec. to stop the intra-district transfer
process? A: The DEC forwarded the recommendation to the PBC, but
they PBC did not take action on this recommendation.
Follow-up Action
(Shared Agreement
/Resolved or
Unresolved?)
Suggestion is made that
when the numbers go
out to the VPs on
faculty hiring, that the
AS Presidents also be
included as they have a
major role in faculty
hiring, forming hiring
committees, etc.
Q: What happened to
the DEC rec. to stop the
intra-district transfer
process?
A: The DEC forwarded
the recommendation to
the PBC, but they PBC
did not take action on
this recommendation.
Co-chairs Budd & Black thank everyone for their ideas and participation.
10
DECISIONS
Agenda Item
Discussion
VII. Close
Meeting adjourned at 10:37 a.m. by VC Budd.
Next Meeting:
Feb. 10, 2012, 9am-12noon.
Follow-up Action
(Shared Agreement
/Resolved or
Unresolved?)
Minutes taken by Pat Jameson
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