BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2558
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 2558 (Williams)
As Amended June 18, 2014
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |76-0 |(May 5, 2014) |SENATE: |36-0 |(August 21, |
| | | | | |2014) |
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Original Committee Reference: HIGHER ED.
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.
The Senate amendments specify that funding appropriated for
purposes of this measure shall be allocated to the community
college districts that provide professional development
opportunities to both faculty and staff.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes the Community College Faculty and Staff
Development Fund, housed in the State Treasury and
administered by the California Community Colleges (CCC) Board
of Governors (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).
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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 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
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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
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: 0004950