COTA-Advisory Council Minutes
Meeting notes 11/1/07
Members in attendance: Cindy Fiedler, Artie Fowler, Rita Gulstad, Melissa Hattman, Sara Larson, Bruce Miles, Kandis Smith (COTA ex-officio), Yvette Sweeney
Members absent: Jamie Carpenter*, Doug Couch, and Hillary Fuhrman (DHE ex-officio)
Guests:
The meeting minutes from the 10/4/07 meeting were accepted as presented.
A question was asked regarding the P-20 initiative; is this an extension of K-12 to become K-20?
P-20 was mandated in SB 389, which passed August 27th, 2007.
Melissa Hattman received the copy of the advisory charge statement in the mail from Dr. Jorgenson (COTA Chair). She will fax copies of the charge letter and handout from the COTA meeting to all COTA AC members.
COTA asked Melissa to find out how the AAT implementation was going, as well as the marketing and publication efforts. The members replied that that they anticipated the first graduates to be arriving at four year campuses this spring, however, the numbers would be small. Four years campuses will see larger numbers of graduates for fall, 2008. The two year members indicated that their students are assuming that the unified degree from the community colleges will be a seamless transition into the four year programs, based on information that has been shared from the community colleges. This information is primarily shared from the faculty and advising offices. It was mentioned that some four year institutions do not have the upper division course sequence for AAT graduates created yet.
For education majors, it was also mentioned that students need to know early which grade level (early childhood, elementary, middle, or high school) they want to teach. The AAT degree at the community colleges needs to be flexible to accommodate the requirements of these different degrees. Students can’t be undecided on which grade level they want to teach upon completion of the AAT degree. It was also shared that the four year institutions have concerns about special education majors and specific courses students need to be on track.
Dual credit was also discussed by COTA at their last meeting. Issues discussed were:
- Qualification of the teachers
- Minimum qualifications of the students
- Rigor of the courses
- Student success in next level college courses
- Formats of delivery of dual credit and possible effect on student success
- End of course competency exams
- Math, English, and science alignment
There has been a lot of marketing to students about dual credit being an economical way to get started in college.
The presentation by COTA AC at MoACRAO was reviewed. The presentation went well, feedback was received that MoACRAO members were glad that this committee is in place. It was mentioned that people may not be as intimidated to contact COTA AC members, based on our practitioner’s role. Thirty people attended the session. The committee thanked Melissa and Artie for presenting.
Melissa is putting together a fact sheet for the COTA AC group to be distributed at MCCA. She is the only member who will be attending, however, she is not presenting because the agenda had been set for many months prior to COTA AC approval.
There is a December 1 deadline for the Region 7 NACADA conference in Branson. It was agreed that COTA AC would submit a proposal to present.
MAPCCS has a March conference; it is also desirable for COTA AC to present to this group as well. Our proprietary members will try to get more information regarding presentation proposal deadlines.
Questions were raised about the web page. It was suggested that COTA AC should create a list serve that people or other statewide organizations could join, with opt-in and opt-out options. Melissa will talk to B.J. White about the list serve idea.
It was suggested that Mike McCauley, previous president of NACADA, might be a good speaker for the Transfer and Articulation conference. A member has heard his message on getting started and organizing what we need to get the job done at another conference. They felt his priorities were insightful and would help focus the year-long work groups planned for the conference.
The coordinated plan was mentioned (an initiative that is organized under CBHE). The task force is currently working on six issues. It dovetails into some of the issues that will be discussed at the January 30, 2008 Transfer and Articulation conference. The six issues are:
- Accessibility
- Transparency
- Educational Innovation
- Workforce Development
- Regionalism
- Technology
The overriding goals of The Plan are to help ensure that secondary school students have the proper educational foundation for successful collegiate work, that access to postsecondary education for high school graduates and GED holders of any age is not blocked, whether from a want of fiscal resources or academic preparation; that students of all educational levels are offered the highest quality faculty, employing the most effective methods; that college students will successfully complete certificate and degree programs; and that college graduates will acquire the sufficient skill and intellectual resources to become productive workers and engaged citizens.
It was noted that there were no statements directly relating to transfer under transparency. It was also noted that DESE is moving ahead and designing end-of-course exams before the P-20 work is done, and that they will retro-fit the competencies that are developed into the new tests, when available. COTA AC believes that the Transfer and Articulation conference attendees should discuss retrofitting of competencies and exit level competencies as it affects the P-20 initiative.
COTA issued a formal invitation to one person from our committee to attend their meetings. Melissa indicated that she will try to clear her calendar on these dates, and will contact other members when there are scheduling conflicts.
Melissa indicated that she presented the one day conference, one topic, and one room idea to COTA. They were in agreement that this seemed a reasonable way to proceed based on space and time constraints. It was agreed that attendees want to roll up their sleeves and start to work, continuing these work groups over the year so that they can really accomplish a significant body of work. Each conference should build on the one before. If the conference grows, then perhaps a two day conference at Lake of the Ozarks would be appropriate in the future. COTA selected the P-20 initiative for the conference topic this year, based on the suggested topics proposed by COTA AC. Since the facility is not large enough to hold K-12, focus this year will be on curricular alignment on transfer credit. Speakers were suggested for the keynote, and Melissa is working on contacting the top candidate. Four sub-topics for work groups were identified:
- Dual credit
- Access to collegiate level courses
- Policies and impact of exit level competencies
It was suggested that everyone review the information on the P-20 initiative and Curriculum Alignment on the DHE web site. (http://www.dhe.mo.gove/p20.shtml and http://www.dhe.mo.gove/casinitiative.shtml)
The committee, in consideration of the physical facilities at the Holiday Inn, thought that conference attendees would lose too much time and attention if we tried to have break-out sessions prior to lunch. It was decided that there would only be one break-out session, in the afternoon. The schedule will be:
Opening remarks/Welcome: Robert Stein
Background information: Hillary Fuhrman (to create a common understanding of issues)
Plenary Speaker: David Conley?
Lunch
Breakout sessions: (three subtopic sessions; dual credit, access to collegiate level course work (dual enrollment, credit by exam, AP) and policies and impact of exit level competencies)
Conference planners should provide attendees with descriptions of subtopics and require pre-registration into the subtopic work-groups when conference registration is set. Planners may have to limit number of participants in each group, suggested that conference attendees give first preference, second preference, etc. The conference name tag can identify to attendees which work-group they were assigned. COTA member will start the dialog in these work-groups, giving parameters about policy impact and cautions to not tread into work that has already been done.
Kandis Smith was successful in her request to have Katina from U.M. System collect registration materials and fees.
A November 14th meeting was planned for COTA AC in Columbia, Missouri at the Holiday Inn Executive Center. Committee members will meet from 10-2, to further research the conference location and plan conference details (including the lunch menu). The directions were given verbally on the call. The hotel is located on the right (behind the Mall) at the Stadium exit off of I-70 (second traffic light).
COTA AC agreed to act as moderators, check-in staff, etc. It was suggested that two COTA members should facilitate each break out sessions.
Meeting concluded at 3:45 P.M.
* Jamie Carpenter informed COTA AC that she has not been receiving the telephone information for the meetings. Melissa will check to find out where the problem is.
Minutes submitted 11/7/07 by Yvette Sweeney
