Wisconsin Technical College System Board
310 Price Place, PO Box 7874
Madison, WI 53707
Richard Carpenter, President
Present:
Chairperson Mary Peters called the meeting to order at 1:15PM. A motion was made by Steve Holden, seconded by Val Smith, to approve the minutes from the both the December 4, 2002 in-person meeting and the Wisline call of January 22, 2003. Motion carried.
Jim Begotka, Faculty and Staff Development Coordinator, NWTC, gave a presentation on the on-line pilot course offered for Leadership and Supervision, #58. He demonstrated the actual course and its format on Blackboard. The competencies used were those revised by the workgroup lead by Peg Gross, with minor adjustments. The course was strictly on-line. Of the 11 registrants, only 3 completed the course. This is a 27 percent retention rate, compared to WTCS on-line average retention rate of 60 percent. While the reasons were quite varied for dropping the class, Jim explained his observations based on other on-line teaching experiences he has had. Each participant was expected to complete an on-line learning orientation as part of the course. People taking on-line courses really appreciate the flexibility offered with such courses. However, he has found that a blended learning model (with several face-to-face sessions) appears to build relationships with course participants and helps with course completion. Level of computer savvy can also be a factor with first time on-line participants, and some of the seasoned staff may need more support. Steve asked if cooperative learning was used; Jim responded there were several opportunities, but it could be more developed. Ideally, a course should include a number of learning activities that accommodate learning styles. These learning activities can be optional if the person can meet the performance standard. Also, the opportunity was offered for participants to receive graduate credit through Silver Lake College, but none of the participants chose to do so. Another aspect of the course was use of portfolio assessment. The course, if approved, will be given to Judy Neill to place in the on-line curriculum bank as well as being sent via CD ROM to each of the colleges.
A motion was made by Jill, seconded by Steve, to accept the competencies of Ed. Requirement #58 as revised. Discussion: As far as the course: recommendations would be that students should know the technical needs up front; emphasize the time constraints of the course; increase collaborative learning; don’t require all of the learning activities; have one assessment per competency. Jan expressed concern that the course has become more generic in leadership skills and less specific to supervision within the technical college system, which is what the intent of the Code would be. One of the goals was to bring the course more in line with the current learning college environment, which tends to focus more on leadership vs. supervision. The learning activities would be the vehicle to bring it back to the specifics of supervision in the WTCS. Jim commented that it is difficult to develop an on-line learning object that would represent the authentic, real world of the WTCS. Judy commented that History and Philosophy of the VTAE is the premier system course. Larry mentioned that supervisors need the basics, and they will always experience a learning curve while working for a particular district.
Chair Mary Peters called for a vote. Motion carried. A second motion was made by Mary Halberstadt, seconded by Jan Jablonski, to approve for statewide use the on-line course developed by Jim Begotka. Motion carried. Jim will edit the course outcome summary into proper WIDS format before final distribution.
Judy Neill presented the final products from the workgroup that revised #50, #52, and #54. She reviewed the final course outcome summaries, competencies and performance standards for each of the three Ed. Requirements. One of the challenges was dealing with the courses without utilizing prerequisites. While there is some order required in accomplishing Unit A of a course before Unit B or C, each of the courses can be taken before or after each other. Judy also distributed the Cluster Design Document for Certification and the chart with all the course competencies. She will be responsible for updating these via information received from Sharon. Jan asked if the 90 hours of effort was the standard everyone agreed on. The group feels 80 hours is more appropriate and reflects “college” level work. Some competencies were listed as “optional” within the courses. Jill requested that Unit B.3 within #54, Ed. Evaluation be changed to required. A suggestion was made to copy the verbiage under “target population” within the cluster design document into the 3 course documents. This more accurately reflects who the target audience is. Members asked how these changes would be communicated. They will be added to the certification website, and Sharon will e-mail the local certification staff, ISA, the facilitators of each of these courses and the program consultants at the state office notifying them of the changes and the timeframe for implementation. It will be up to each Certification Officer to notify the four-year colleges and universities in their area of these changes. A motion was made by Val and seconded by Nick to approve the revised competencies as modified including the revision of 90 hours to 80 hours, modifying the target Population as suggested and changing unit B.3 of #54 from optional to required. Motion carried. The suggested title changes for the courses were discussed. A motion was made by Jan, seconded by Nick, to keep the existing titles for #50, #52, and #54. Motion carried. It was thought that changing them would be too confusing.
Next the group discussed the desire of the workgroup to continue working on revising the remaining Ed. Requirements and proceeding with development of on-line courses for #50, #52, and #54. A motion was made by Larry, seconded by Steve, to proceed with reviewing #51, #53, #55 and #69. Steve requested that diversity be accommodated in naming several additional participants to the workgroup(s). If monies are available through the state office, the workgroup(s) will also develop the online courses. A deadline for implementation of the new courses was set for January of 2005.
A motion was made by Steve seconded by Nick to adjourn the meeting at 4:45.
Chairperson Mary Peters called the meeting to order at 9:00 AM. Randall Key, Executive Assistant to President Richard Carpenter, was introduced.
Kathy Cullen gave a report on the work the Instructional Administrators group. Highlights included: System-wide Health Curriculum for PN’s to ADNs, and the Presidents’ concern over 72 credits. The extra time and extra costs for students is the issue; development of an ISA database of issues to improve resolution and tracking; Development of an Instructional Assistant associate degree and partnering with DPI, Cesa’s and the University; shared programming; system-wide Math courses’ use of Psychology vs. Development Psychology in the Health area; E-tech and budget issues. Soon the meeting minutes from their meetings will be posted on our state website. Next Kathy gave an update on the President’s reaction to the Human Resource Directors proposal to change certification. They would like to see flexibility in the Supervisory and Administrative areas of certification, in regards to the teaching experience requirement. Mary stated that we need to consider the importance of supervision having direct teaching experience as a basic prerequisite. Deborah Mahaffey will be meeting with the HR subgroup to ask more specifically what they feel needs to be changed and why. She will then work with Kathy and Sharon to communicate any recommendations to the Committee for review and/or work. Larry asked if it would be helpful for members of this Committee and the HR Committee to meet and discuss. Kathy felt this probably would not be helpful. Members feel that the HR group as a whole does not understand the flexibilities that exist within the Code, and the inaccuracies of their proposal should be addressed. When asked if the State Office would consider going through the Administrative Rule change process, Kathy indicated that is not the desire of management at this time; the preference is to work for educating people on the flexibilities that currently exist. Part of the problem is that there are many new supervisory staff at the districts that don’t understand the rules and value of certification. Kathy suggested that Sharon participate in a fact-finding discussion with the Instructional Services Administrators soon. Also, if the Committee can work to educate new local certification staff and re-educate existing local staff through the fall workshop, this may help. It was decided to form a subcommittee to review the Guideline on Instructional Related Certification to clarify that other options exist in lieu of teaching experience and/or develop any other Guidelines that might clarify when people do not need to be certified. Sharon can provide a list of names of Instructional Related supervisors and administrators that could be used to research whether or not these individuals needed to be certified by the district. Mary Peters, Val Roeser, Jan Jablonski, Larry Kind and Terri Simmons will be on the subcommittee. They agreed to meet at the Foundation on April 1, 2003.
Under Recertification Activities Approval Procedure: add the statement “WTCS Certification Officer renews the certificate”. Also, add “Education Director/ in front of “Immediate Supervisor”. Revision of a textbook should be equal to .5 credits for every 50 pages, etc. Under Appeals of Certification Decisions, Step 2, section b.: Change first sentence to read “Upon receipt of the request, The State Certification Officer will accept written statements already provided to the Department of Corrections Certification Committee or the Resource Coordinator.” A motion was made by Jan, seconded by Kitty, to accept the plan with the above corrections. Motion carried.
The various draft options within the 809 Social Science document were reviewed. A motion was made by Terry, seconded by Larry, to accept Option #3: Provisional: Have at least a minor or twenty semester credits drawn from the recognized social science disciplines of Psychology, Sociology, Political Science, Economics, History, Anthropology, Geography or Philosophy, with a minimum of twelve semester credits in the discipline being taught. Five Year: Have at least a major or thirty semester credits drawn from the recognized social science disciplines of Psychology, Sociology, Political Science, Economics, History, Anthropology, Geography or Philosophy, with a minimum of twenty semester credits in the discipline being taught. Motion carried. As usual, existing staff will be allowed to achieve a Five Year certificate under the old rule.
The other Occupational Experience Documents with changes were reviewed. 10-316-1 Culinary Arts raised a concern by several members relative to “Sous Chef” and “Pastry Chef” as being adequate experience alone. Members asked for Sharon to confirm the program consultant’s comfort level with this. Minor verbiage edits will be made to the 1-521-1 and the EMT documents. Jan raised a question on the new 501 Medical Terminology document. She had a memo from 1994 that listed only certain health occupations instructors as being able to teach Medical Terminology. The new draft appears to include others. Sharon will present the old memo to Barb Schuler and report back at the next meeting. Terry made a motion, seconded by Larry, to accept the reviewed and revised Occupational Experience documents including the minor language edits. Motion carried.
Draft Guideline C was reviewed. The credit limitation was deleted. It will become Guideline 65. A motion was made by Larry, seconded by Jill, to create this Guideline without the credit limit. Motion carried.
Sharon gave an update on the proposed re-design of the state certification database. The state office is attempting to contract with the Dept. of Electronic Government to examine the re-use of computer code developed for the EMSS database for purposes of teacher certification. As the project progresses, the state will be seeking input from both certification staff and data management staff at the colleges.
The next meeting will be held at the State Office on May 7, 2003. Topics include:
Instructional Related Guideline
CIS 107 Proposal
Fall workshop planning
Accreditation Guideline
Follow-up to HR issue
Update on Database redesign
Possible appeal
ISA report
Workplace Spanish issue
New Occ. Exp. Documents
Elect chair for next year
Review term renewal status
A motion was made by Larry, seconded by Mary Halberstadt, to adjourn the meeting. Meeting adjourned at 1:00PM.