BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2558
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 2558 (Williams)
As Introduced February 21, 2014
Majority vote
HIGHER EDUCATION 12-0
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|Ayes:|Williams, Chávez, Bloom, | | |
| |Fong, Fox, Jones-Sawyer, | | |
| |Achadjian, Medina, Olsen, | | |
| |Quirk-Silva, Weber, Wilk | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Establishes the Community College Professional
Development Program (CCPDP); and, clarifies that all employees,
classified staff and administrators, as well as faculty, are
eligible to receive professional development opportunities from
participating community college districts. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Replaces the Community College Faculty and Staff Development
Fund with the CCPDP.
2)Authorizes the use of state funds for professional development
activities if it becomes available through the state budget;
and, specifies that funding shall be disbursed in accordance
with rules and regulations adopted by the Board of Governors
(BOG) of the California Community Colleges (CCC).
3)Specifies that the CCC BOG shall annually allocate funds, when
appropriated for the CCPDP, only to a community college
district whose chief executive officer has followed specified
requirements.
4)Specifies that community college districts that receive
funding to provide professional development must include the
employee's time used participating in the CCPDP in the
employee's contractually obligated hours.
5)Clarifies that both faculty and staff are eligible to
participate in the CCPDP.
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6)Makes technical and clarifying changes to existing law.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the Community College Faculty and Staff
Development Fund, housed in the State Treasury and
administered by the CCC BOG, in order to provide state general
funds to CCCs for supporting locally developed and implemented
faculty and staff development programs (Education Code (EC)
Section 87150).
2)Authorizes the CCC BOG to annually allocate funds appropriated
for development to each community college district whose chief
executive officer has submitted to the Chancellor an affidavit
which includes:
a) A statement that each campus within the district has an
advisory committee, composed of administrators, faculty,
and staff representatives, which has assisted in the
assessment of the faculty and staff development needs and
in the design of the plan to meet those needs;
b) A campus human development resources plan has been
completed for the current and subsequent fiscal years; and,
c) A report of the actual expenditures for faculty and
staff development for the preceding year (EC Section
87151).
3)Specifies that the allocation to each district, from funds
appropriated by the Legislature, shall be an amount no greater
than 2% of its fiscal year revenues, as defined, for the prior
fiscal year (EC Section 87152).
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS :
Background: Pursuant to SB 1143 (Liu), Chapter 409, Statutes of
2010, the CCC BOG launched the Student Success Task Force (SSTF)
in 2011; 20 individuals comprised of community college chief
executive officers, faculty, students, researchers, staff, and
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external stake holders, spent a year researching, studying and
debating the best methods to improve student outcomes at the
community colleges.
According to the SSTF report, which was unanimously adopted by
the CCC BOG in January 2012, their goal was to identify best
practices for promoting student success and to develop statewide
strategies to take these approaches to scale while ensuring that
educational opportunities for historically underrepresented
students would not just be maintained, but ameliorated. The
SSTF efforts resulted in 22 specific recommendations and the
report, per the requirements of the legislation, was presented
to the Legislature at a joint informational hearing of the
Assembly Higher Education Committee and the Senate Education
Committee in February 2012.
Included among the recommendations was a call to re-energize
professional development opportunities and resources for all
community college employees. The CCC Chancellor's Office
(CCCCO) convened a 30 member system-wide Professional
Development Committee (PDC) and tasked them with issuing a
report specifying the steps needed in order to accomplish the
SSTF goal of re-energized professional development.
Professional development report: Released in September 2013,
the "Report on the California Community Colleges Student Success
Initiative Professional Development Committee Recommendations,"
provided recommendations to the CCCCO on how to improve
professional development. The report found that the current
professional development climate focuses on faculty while
providing limited opportunities for classified and
administrative staff who also contribute to the success of
students. The PDC, via the report, recommended that the CCPDP
be established in order to support the implementation of local
professional development program activities and resources.
Purpose of this bill: According to the author, support for CCC
faculty and staff professional development has been mixed. The
Community College Faculty and Staff Development Fund was created
in 1988, but budget shortfalls shifted money away from the fund
after 2002. As such, few resources for professional development
opportunities have existed in recent years. The author states,
"What little support there has been for professional development
on campuses has been focused primarily on faculty and not all
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campus employees, such as classified and administrative staff,
who also strive to ensure a positive environment for students."
According to the CCCCO, sponsors of the measure, students do not
thrive in a vacuum. They need effective and well-trained
personnel to help them with activities such as developing an
education plan, navigating the assessment process, arranging
their financial aid, and utilizing online resources. Because
the CCC has such a diverse student body, it is essential that
all campus personnel be trained and ready to serve a wide range
of student needs. The CCCCO states, "Improved professional
development activities for community college employees will
result in an invigorated, efficient, and highly skilled campus
workforce that will be better prepared to help our students
become successful in reaching their educational goals."
Analysis Prepared by : Jeanice Warden / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960
FN: 0003207