Lassen College faculty brings first "Student Learning Outcomes" charge to PERB charge
In what may be the first test case, the California Public Relations Board (PERB) will decide whether a college can require instructors to submit Student Learning Outcomes without having bargained them into the contract.
The case stems from a charge brought by the Lassen College Faculty Association against the Lassen Community College District in December when the college unilaterally changes its policy and started requiring certificated employees to submit a student assessment plan whenever they submit a course syllabus. When the administration topped off the demand by proposing that faculty be evaluated based on its Student Learning Outcomes, (SLOs) the chapter took the matter to PERB.
Unrest and Distrust
"We told them, 'enough is enough," said Ross Stevenson, chief faculty negotiator. "Unrest and distrust of the administration were already running high among unit members since we hadn't had a raise in seven years. We weren't going to take on more work unless SLO evaluations and faculty evaluations were negotiated at the bargaining table. For us, the District's attempt to unilaterally impose additional work with no compensation was the end of the line."
PERB recently issued a complaint against the college district, and had scheduled a hearing for mid-November.
The use of Student Learning Outcomes has been hotly debated by faculty, most recently because some faculty charge that the Accreditation Commission for Community Colleges appears to be interfering with collective bargaining by making it a requirement that SLOs be incorporated into the evaluation process for faculty.
SLOs must be bargained
CCA has adamantly maintained that evaluations tied to SLOs have implication for tenure review, and must be bargained. CCA president Ron Norton Reel has raised the issues with executive director of the Accrediting Commission, Barbara Beno, but has not been able to reach any agreement.
"It was really just a matter of time before a charge was filed with PERB. It's an issue that is creeping up on campuses all over the state," Reel said.
Student Learning Outcomes, themselves, are a subject of controversy for some. David Clemens, an English professor at Monterey Peninsula College, has argued in the pages of The Advocate that, "There is no objective evidence that SLOs have any positive effect on learning at all, although there is evidence that they negatively affect learning because they encourage 'dumbing down' and teaching to the test."
Other faculty commonly use SLOs and view them as a useful tool in gauging student learning. However faculty strenuously object to having their college administration make top-down requirements that SLOs be used as apart of faculty evaluation, without having bargained it into the evaluation process.
"We're not saying 'don't do it,' " Reel said. "We're saying, 'if you do do it, you must be compensated for it, and it must be bargained.' "
~from The Advocate, (Nov/Dec 2009) published by the Community College Association (CCA)
Click here to access to the report released by the investigator hired by the district.
The report is severely redacted and reads a bit like a strange Mad Libs story( remember those?). The interviews paint a scene of impending riot and violence - although this reader and veteran of the 1992 L.A. Riots finds this view undermined by the photos, comments and testimony that have appeared on the Save Our Southwestern College blog. It seems to Rebel Girl that many of the interviewees, even if they had been trained in riot control, had perhaps little real time "riot" experience, let alone experience with marches, rallies and protests (please note - those manifestations are not riots) - all of which usually feature robust chanting, even yelling, as part of the lawful exercise of free speech rights. Indeed, as far as she knows,linking arms is not a violation of the law, neither is walking all together from one point to another. Sheesh. Some people ought to get out more.
Here's that angry mob of a hundred, getting ready to surge:
Rebel Girl wishes there were photos of Professor Redacted "aggressively us[ing] his chest to approach police at Point B." She'd like to see that. (See page 27 of report.)
She'd also like to see photos of Superintendent Chopra's well-timed three week vacation. Ooh-la-la.
Click here to see all that's new at the SWC blog.
