BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1029
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Date of Hearing: April 12, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Marty Block, Chair
AB 1029 (Lara) - As Amended: April 6, 2011
SUBJECT : Community colleges: course approval.
SUMMARY : Extends by one year the authority for California
Community College (CCC) districts to approve stand-alone courses
without the approval of the CCC Board of Governors, and the date
by which the CCC Chancellor's Office must report to the
Legislature on CCC districts' use of this authority.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Changes from January 1, 2013, to January 1, 2014, the sunset
date for CCC districts' authority to approve stand-alone
courses without the approval of the CCC Board of Governors.
2)Changes from January 1, 2012, to January 1, 2013, the date by
which the CCC Chancellor's Office must submit a report to the
Legislature that describes the extent to which CCC districts
have complied with applicable CCC Board of Governors
regulations when approving stand-alone courses.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Background . AB 1943 (Nava), Chapter 817, Statutes of
2006, removed the requirement for the Board of Governors'
approval of stand-alone credit courses and authorized CCC
districts to offer stand-alone credit courses that are not part
of an educational program without prior approval by the CCC
Board of Governors. CCC districts argued that allowing
districts to approve stand-alone courses would enable them to
respond more quickly to community demand for stand-alone
courses. To ensure the rigor of stand-alone credit courses, AB
1943 required the CCC Chancellor to monitor courses approved by
CCC districts under AB 1943 to ensure that academic standards
and regulations are met. The CCC Chancellor is required to
report to the Legislature by January 1, 2012.
Need for this bill . In order to monitor local approval of
courses, the Chancellor's Office implemented the Curriculum
Reporting for the Community Colleges (CRCC) Project to establish
an accountability system for curriculum reporting. According to
AB 1029
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the CCC Chancellor's Office, it discovered in 2009 that
stand-alone credit course were often approved by CCC districts,
but enrollment data was never submitted to the Chancellor's
Office because the courses were not offered or were canceled due
to low enrollment. Such courses were never entered into the
database and, thus, not been tracked by the Chancellor's Office.
The Chancellor's Office is requesting another year to gather
more accurate information.
Stand-alone courses approved to date . The Chancellor's Office
notes that 548 non-degree-applicable credit courses, identified
as stand-alone, were approved by CCC districts in 2008, 460 in
2009, and 2,270 in 2010. The latter number is high because CCCs
were given the opportunity to resubmit those courses that were
approved but had not been entered into the database during the
previous two years.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Academic Senate for California Community Colleges
California Community College League
California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office
Los Rios Community College District
Santa Monica College
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Sandra Fried / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960