Reading initiative sparks campus-wide response

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By Jessica Skaggs

A presidential initiative under former President Dr. Terry Calaway, became policy for the 2014 spring semester. However normal procedure was not followed, sparking campus-wide response. All students are expected to demonstrate their ability to read with either the achievement of a reading co-requisite or the completion of other options that satisfy the requirement, as listed on the college website.

NEED TO KNOW

In an effort to help students be adequately prepared for college level work, JCCC requires students to demonstrate “college reading readiness.” Starting in the spring of 2014, students will begin to see “college reading readiness” listed as a pre- or co-requisite for many courses. Students may satisfy this requirement with one or more of the following:

• Successful completion of Reading Skills Improvement (RDG 126). Current enrollment in RDG 126 will also meet the requirement.

• Successful completion of Composition I (ENGL 121)

• COMPASS test score of 80 or higher in reading

• ACT sub score of 19 or higher in reading

• COMPASS-ESL (English as a Second Language) test score of 95 or higher

Information courtesy of the college website.

Dave Davis-Faculty Senator

As of Oct. 16, “It’s not about debating the merits of whether or not it’s a good idea that students can read, that’s ridiculous. We all think it’s a good idea students should read. The question is, was this done in a way that people directly involved can contribute? Did it follow the processes established for the entire existence of this college? And the answer to both of those questions is no.

In all fairness there were a few faculty [members] that were a part of this process, mostly reading teachers, understandably, but […] when you’re affecting every single class on campus, it’s not enough just to have one or two faculty members.

Next semester Ed Affairs, Faculty Senate, other faculty driven organizations will get their hands on this, and I imagine at the very least, individual departments will be given the option to opt out, that this will be like a default. If you don’t say anything, it’s a prerequisite, but if you don’t want it to be you can opt out. Anything less than that would be simply insulting.”

Faculty Senate

As of Oct. 15, “The Faculty Senate supports the Educational Affairs Committee in its statement that any course prerequisites added without the procedural practices in place, including the formal review and approval by division curriculum committees and the Educational Affairs Committee, be immediately removed from the course catalogue and the spring 2014 course schedule.”

Reading Department

As of Oct. 22, “The real question here is ‘what is best for helping students achieve success?’ We wholeheartedly agree that the reading pre-req initiative was not properly rolled out. We do have issues with policy making within the college. However, we would ask everyone to take a step back, take a deep breath, and consider the ramifications of rescinding the policy. It is true that it did not go through Ed Affairs, but that does not invalidate the professionalism and research of the many faculty across campus who worked diligently on this initiative from the beginning discussions in the Underprepared Student Committee to the work on the AQIP action plans to Achieving the Dream to the Dev Ed Symposium to the Dev Ed General Committee.”

Steve Hansen- Chair, Educational Affairs

As of Oct. 21, “My personal opinion is that, [if] you’re going to be admitted to college, you need to bring some documentation to show that you’re ready to take the courses and to be involved in assessment. [Reading Readiness] is not like a regular pre-requisite. Andy [Anderson] has charged Ed Affairs to come up with a plan regarding reading readiness […] to be ready by Feb. 14th. It would have been nice if the whole thing could have been redone, but I don’t think that there was any intent, I think everybody all the faculty and administration have done a very professional job of evaluating it, and if they could’ve rescinded it for the spring, I think they would’ve done it.”

Computer Services

As of Oct. 22 “This has been a major undertaking from both a policy perspective and systems perspective. We appreciate all the efforts from each of the areas to prepare for start of spring enrollment.”

Judy Korb-EVP, Instruction & Operations

As of Oct. 18, “I think it [productive communication among faculty] has been very good, there has been a lot of discussion. I think there’s been other communication that is really good, which it gets to the issue of process, whether or not process was followed, and it wasn’t, we should have taken it through Ed Affairs, but I think the discussion […] will lead us to a more productive place. To me, the productive place is collaborative decision making. Obviously, I think Ed Affairs needs to play a big part in how the communication moves forward. We’re at a place now where we had to make a decision, and so the decision was to make this a co-requisite instead of a pre-requisite, but we need to finalize the decision now. I think Ed Affairs needs to help us define where we go now with the discussion to make sure that we take this back through what would be an appropriate channel.”

Educational Affairs

Committee As of Oct. 9, Educational Affairs moved, “that any course prerequisites added without the procedural practices in place, including the formal review and approval by Division Curriculum Committees and the Educational Affairs Committee, be immediately removed from the course catalogue and the spring 2014 course schedule.”

Contact Jessica Skaggs, managing editor, at jskaggs4@jccc.edu.

 

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