COTA Meeting Minutes, September 2007

Committee on Transfer and Articulation (COTA)
Missouri Department of Higher Education
September 26, 2007

Participants: Evelyn Jorgenson, Jeanie Crain, Don Doucette, Arlen Dykstra, Karen Finkenkeller, Aaron Podolefsky, Jim Scanlon, and Kandis Smith

MDHE Staff: Hillary Fuhrman, Chad Hampton, Jeremy Kintzel, and B.J. White

Chair Dr. Evelyn Jorgenson called the meeting to order at 2:00 p.m.

Consent Item

I. Approval of Minutes

A motion was made by Dr. Aaron Podolefsky and seconded by Ms. Karen Finkenkeller to approve the minutes of the June 6, 2007 meeting. The motion passed unanimously.

Old Business

II. Update on the 2008 Transfer Conference

Mr. Jeremy Kintzel reported on the logistical progress on the 2008 Transfer conference. He stated that he had tentatively reserved a large ballroom at the Holiday Inn Executive Center in Columbia for January 30, 2008. Mr. Kintzel stated that the room would accommodate 200 people and could be divided into 3 breakout rooms. Furthermore there is $2200 remaining from last year’s conference that can be used for the 2008 conference. Mr. Kintzel also reported that he had sent out a save the date email to presidents, chancellors, CAO’s, TAO’s, and last-year’s conference attendees. Dr. Jeanie Crain asked that Mr. Kintzel also send the save the date email to the Missouri Association of Faculty Senates. Mr. Kintzel said that he would and that he would work to finalize the logistics.

Dr. Jorgenson asked Ms. Hillary Fuhrman to report on COTA-AC’s progress on the conference. Ms. Fuhrman reported that COTA-AC had begun discussing themes for the conference including: P-20, proprietary transfer, and K-12 connections. Ms. Fuhrman also reported that COTA-AC had developed an initial structure for the conference that would include a morning plenary session on state-level issues and breakout sessions in the afternoon. Ms. Fuhrman also reported that COTA-AC would like to have COTA’s input on the conference planning.

Dr. Jorgenson stated that it was important for COTA to give input to COTA-AC and that the conference should build on last year’s conference. Dr. Jorgenson stated that she did not want conference attendees to feel that the 2008 conference was basically the same as the 2007 conference.

Dr. Crain asked that the COTA-AC minutes be sent to COTA for comment. Ms. Fuhrman agreed to send them out.

COTA indicated that it would like a fuller presentation regarding the conference at its next meeting.

III. Advisory Council for COTA

COTA discussed the charge for the Advisory Council. Due to a misunderstanding DHE felt that the following charge had been approved:

The COTA Advisory Council is to act as an arm of COTA. Its primary role is to review proposed revisions and initiatives to statewide transfer and articulation policies and to assess, evaluate, and provide feedback on the feasibility of implementation of said proposals. Additionally, the Advisory Council will bring forward to COTA any issues or emerging trends that will effect the transfer of students and/or post-secondary credits between institutions in this state. The structure of this standing committee will ensure that all post-secondary educational providers have representation.

However, COTA had only approved the first two sentences of the above charge. The Advisory Council has communicated that they would like the last two sentences of charge above to be officially approved.

Dr. Crain stated that she supported adding the third sentence to COTA-AC’s charge. Dr. Jorgenson asked for clarification regarding the final sentence; did COTA-AC intend for each post-secondary institution to have representation on the Council? Dr. Crain indicated that membership should be kept to nine members. Dr. Podolefsky stated that the last sentence was not actually a charge statement, but rather an administrative rule that the Council could develop. COTA agreed that the final sentence should be deleted from the proposed charge and approved the following charge for COTA-AC:

The COTA Advisory Council is to act as an arm of COTA. Its primary role is to review proposed revisions and initiatives to statewide transfer and articulation policies and to assess, evaluate, and provide feedback on the feasibility of implementation of said proposals. Additionally, the Advisory Council will bring forward to COTA any issues or emerging trends that will effect the transfer of students and/or post-secondary credits between institutions in this state.

IV. Update on the AAT Articulation Agreement

Mr. B.J. White reported that all public four-year institutions that had baccalaureate degrees in education had signed the AAT articulation agreement, as well as the majority of independent four-year institutions. Mr. White also reported that non-responders would be contacted in order to regarding their intent to sign the Agreement. Also a webpage with all current signatories is available on the MDHE website, the address is: http://www.dhe.mo.gov/signatoryinst.shtml.

Dr. Jorgenson stated that she was pleased with the response from the four-year institutions and acknowledged the groundbreaking work that had been done by all parties involved with the development of the AAT and the Articulation Agreement

New Business

V. Curriculum Alignment Initiative

Ms. Fuhrman reported on the Curriculum Alignment Initiative (CAI). She stated that the Steering Committee (CAS) was comprised of Discipline Workgroup representatives, post-secondary administrators, DESE representatives, and K-12 administrators. Ms. Fuhrman reported that about 100 of 225 volunteers attended the first round of meetings and more volunteers had signed up, but more were needed.

Dr. Doucette asked if the work MoDEC had done would be utilized by the discipline workgroups. Ms. Fuhrman responded that it would be, and that the groups would be studying DESE’s current course level expectations to get an understanding of what students are currently expected to know upon graduating high school. Ms. Fuhrman also reported that SB 389 states that DESE must align its curriculum to the work being done in the Curriculum Alignment Initiative. Ms. Fuhrman continued, stating that DESE was moving away from grade level exams to course level exams, and that these new exams were already in production, but that DESE has agreed to retrofit the exams to the competencies developed.

Dr. Jorgenson stated that she would want the course level exams to truly be a measure of a student’s readiness to enter collegiate level work. Ms. Fuhrman concurred; stating that the discipline workgroups and CAS work to ensure that the competencies in development would focus on college preparedness. Dr. Doucette asked if the ACT was still an option for DESE’s course level exams. Ms. Fuhrman reported that while ACT had been an option, DESE had decided not to use it. Dr. Podolefsky asked if the new exams would be required for graduation. Ms. Fuhrman stated that the exams would not be required for graduation but would be figured into the students’ grade for the course. Dr. Podolefsky also asked if the outcomes of the CAI would be prescriptive or general. Ms. Fuhrman responded that they would be general, and that the CAI would produce a set of minimal competencies.

Ms. Fuhrman reported that the CAS had set a timeline that first focuses on entry-level competencies and requires the workgroups to prioritize courses by their place in the hierarchy of course and/or by the course taken by the most students. The timeline provides a due date of October 31, 2007 for a draft of entry-level competencies.

Dr. Podolefsky asked what areas were still of greatest concern. Ms. Fuhrman replied that Social Sciences, Engineering and Technology, Non-Western Languages, and Arts and Humanities still needed additional volunteers.

Dr. Doucette thanked Ms. Fuhrman for her leadership and hard work on this initiative. Dr. Jorgenson also thanked Ms. Fuhrman asked if there was anything COTA could do to assist. Ms. Fuhrman asked that COTA communicate with faculty regarding the CAI and to think about how this work would impact transfer issues and dual credit in coming years.

Other

Dr. Jorgenson asked COTA to think of nominees for the empty seats on COTA as Dr. Stephen Lehmkuhle is now in Minnesota, and Dr. Marsha Drennon has stepped down as she is now the president of MCCA’s Presidents and Chancellors Council.

Dr. Jorgenson also asked if there was any other business. Dr. Doucette stated that there has been some discussion regarding other statewide degrees similar to the AAT. Noting that some in higher education had seen the AAT as a better way to design degrees, and that the AAT model could be used to as a model for business or engineering degrees. Dr. Kandis Smith stated that MCCA, COPHE, and CAO’s should discuss the potential for this type of degree. Dr. Jorgenson concurred and asked that COTA members discuss the opportunity to develop more statewide degrees with these groups and to bring back any issues or concerns. Dr. Podolefsky stated that this was a good dialogue to have but that it must be expanded beyond the course to course transfer issue to the full educational experience, and that any unintended consequences of such degrees should be addressed. Dr. Jorgenson stated that COTA may want to consider developing a sub-committee to address statewide degrees.

Adjournment

Dr. Jorgenson adjourned the meeting at 3:00 p.m.

Next Meeting

The next COTA meeting is scheduled for October 24, 2007 at 12:00 p.m. at the DHE offices in Jefferson City