California Academic Senate Plenary Fall 2012
THE TRANSFORMATION OF EDUCATION: EVOLUTION, NOT REVOLUTION
The Transformation of Education: Evolution, Not Revolution
The California Community Colleges are in the midst of change, implementing faculty-led regulatory changes, responding to legislation, "closing the loop" to meet accreditation demands, responding to drastic budget cuts, and, most recently, considering the impact of the Student Success Task Force recommendations. Like a large vessel, our system is necessarily slow-moving and progress may not be readily apparent, but we're moving in the right direction, cognizant of the obstacles in our path. In addition to the "reforms" we are already in the midst of, we are subject to the pressures of a national agenda: most notably, completion, and, more recently, pressures to find ways to award credit and deliver credentials in an expedited manner.
Just as changing an educational system takes time, so does changing an uneducated mind. In an increasingly outcome-based culture, how do we ensure that measures of success have qualitative value when the metrics are not available to capture the nuanced benefits that higher education offers? Is earning a degree merely achieving the outcomes designated on a course outline of record or achieving the identified SLOs? Or do students evolve as they learn, as they interact with students and faculty, or as they simply spend time engaging in activities in the classroom? In a world where technology has sped up expectations and where educational opportunities are becoming more and more accessible, does “seat time” still have relevance when measuring educational accomplishments? Is higher education failing to evolve to meet changing societal needs, or is higher education striving to find a balance between the demands of the modern world and traditional measures of what being educated means?
Education must necessarily change as society does, but the change must be thoughtful, planned, and informed by the past. Evolution is a product of hits and misses, a natural process that results in something that can withstand the test of time. Revolution suggests violent change, temporary and reactionary. Evolution is slow change, change that makes an entity better adapted to the environment in which it exists. As such, education must evolve in order to remain effective and valued.
Our colleges exist in an increasingly complex world, and we are enduring the most financially challenging of times. We look forward to sharing all the issues of the day with our attendees and exploring the future course of our colleges.
Michelle Pilati, President
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