Community College Workload Study

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Community College Workload Study From the CEI Newsletter, Fall 1996 Charge The charge given the Workload Task Force in October 1995 at the Valle Crucis CEI Fall Conference was to research and make workload recommendations to take effect with semester conversion in fall 1997. The strategies used to complete the charge are as follows: to research workloads in representative North Carolina four-year and community colleges (See Table 1); to focus on the workload of teaching, not research, faculty; to discuss the impact of the "seamless flow" of education format designed by the legislature; to assess the needs of community college students in order to remain competitive with their four-year counterparts. Findings and Analysis *National Professional Association Guidelines* The Guidelines for the Workload of the College English Teacher—published by the College Section Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English (1987) after discussion at the national level—are clear. According to this statement, "Faculty members must be given adequate time to fulfill their responsibility to their students, their departments, their institutions, . . . their profession, the larger community, and to themselves." Standards recommended are a maximum of 12 hours per week of classroom teaching with no more than 20 students per writing class or 15 students per remedial writing class. A teacher should be assigned no more than 60 writing students per term. Enrollment in discussion courses should be limited to 25 students. The guidelines created as standards by English professionals attempt to ensure that students will receive the kind of instruction and feedback to their writing that will lead to skill development. *Workplace Demands* Much research has been conducted which concludes that business and industry demand better written and oral communications skills to achieve global competitiveness. Community college students who often move directly into the workplace after two years, unlike their four-year counterparts, need the skills more immediately to meet these workplace requirements. With such emphasis on communication, it is imperative that students be provided with adequate opportunities to write often and extensively. The kinds of assignments created and implemented in English courses lend themselves well to meet these workplace demands if students are challenged by creative faculty members. In fact, the competencies identified by the US Department of Labor in the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS, 1991) are often reinforced in college English classrooms. Among those competencies students need are the abilities to allocate time and resources; identify the need for information and obtain it from appropriate sources; organize information; interpret and communicate information in a variety of methods; employ computer uses as appropriate to the task; participate as a member of a team; exercise leadership; negotiate toward an agreement and problem-solve; work well with men and women and with a variety of ethnic, social, or educational backgrounds. *Recommendation from Gaining the Competitive Edge: The Challenge to North Carolina's Community Colleges* Because of the NCCCS's mission, a high percentage of students must take developmental courses to supplement their preparation for academic course work. Recommendation 7 of the Report of the Commission on the Future of the North Carolina Community College System concerns the forging of strong links between remedial and advanced programs. It reads: "Community colleges should increase the number of students making transition from the basic skills curriculum into jobs or advanced study. All colleges should examine the course load distributions of full-time faculty and reduce excessive work loads to allow faculty to interact with students as mentors and coaches." *Student Retention and Academic Success* Community college students, who are often less prepared academically and have fewer study skills than their four-year counterparts, require more intense student-teacher interactions than those who earn places in four-year institutions. With this intensity, it will be important to ensure sufficient time for teachers to build students' skills to a level that is competitive with their peers at four-year schools. Students who complete courses from the common course catalog that are approved as meeting the level of the four-year colleges will be expected to demonstrate similar competencies as their four-year peers. Thus, these community college students will require more growth to achieve at the level demanded by four-year colleges and will require more attention/feedback from their English teachers. *Articulation/Transferability* To meet the legislative mandate that students have seamless access from the community college to four-year college systems, it will be important for our colleagues at the four-year schools to consider our courses to be truly equivalent to the courses taught at the four-year institutions. This means that our number, type, and length of assignments must match those of our four-year colleagues. If community college workload assignments make it impossible to match these assignments, the four-year colleges may deny the transfer of these courses. Clearly, articulation can be jeopardized if our colleagues perceive that our community college courses do not replicate those of the four-year institutions. Accountability The members of the legislature, governing bodies of the community college and university systems, and leaders of business and industry will expect community college students' level of achievement be near or at that of the four-year schools to which community college students transfer. Our community college transfer students will be compared to 1. the transfer institution's native rising juniors; 2. the transfer institution's native rising sophomores. Research-supported Practice Research in the teaching of writing has revealed that one major way to improve the writing product is to improve the writing process. English composition faculty have used this research about the writing process to design their composition courses. This new approach typically requires conferences with students and reviewing multiple drafts as a piece of writing evolves, both of which are time-consuming activities. Since emphasizing process has real benefits to developing students' skills, it would be unfortunate to create workloads that would deny faculty the opportunity to use this approach with their students. Recommendations Even though national organizations have recommended a teaching load of 12 hours and even though our university counterparts teach 12 hours, CEI recognizes that such a load may be unrealistic given the current FTE funding formula. Therefore, the North Carolina Conference of English Instructors (CEI) recommends the following workload: five three-contact-hour courses or four five-contact-hour courses per semester, a maximum of three composition courses per semester, a maximum enrollment of twenty students per composition class. Furthermore, the CEI membership charges the executive board of CEI to establish a statewide advisory committee comprised of representatives from business and industry and four-year colleges to inform CEI of communication needs in the workplace and academia and to assess equipment needs; to identify the requirements for oral communications credentials for English instructors and to investigate strategies for helping teachers acquire those credentials.

North Carolina Conference of English Instructors

Community College Workload Study
From the CEI Newsletter, Fall 1996

Charge
The charge given the Workload Task Force in October 1995 at the Valle Crucis CEI Fall Conference was to research and make workload recommendations to take effect with semester conversion in fall 1997. The strategies used to complete the charge are as follows:

to research workloads in representative North Carolina four-year and community colleges (See Table 1);
to focus on the workload of teaching, not research, faculty;
to discuss the impact of the "seamless flow" of education format designed by the legislature;
to assess the needs of community college students in order to remain competitive with their four-year counterparts.

Findings and Analysis

National Professional Association Guidelines

The Guidelines for the Workload of the College English Teacher—published by the College Section Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English (1987) after discussion at the national level—are clear. According to this statement, "Faculty members must be given adequate time to fulfill their responsibility to their students, their departments, their institutions, . . . their profession, the larger community, and to themselves." Standards recommended are a maximum of 12 hours per week of classroom teaching with no more than 20 students per writing class or 15 students per remedial writing class. A teacher should be assigned no more than 60 writing students per term. Enrollment in discussion courses should be limited to 25 students. The guidelines created as standards by English professionals attempt to ensure that students will receive the kind of instruction and feedback to their writing that will lead to skill development.

Workplace Demands

Much research has been conducted which concludes that business and industry demand better written and oral communications skills to achieve global competitiveness. Community college students who often move directly into the workplace after two years, unlike their four-year counterparts, need the skills more immediately to meet these workplace requirements. With such emphasis on communication, it is imperative that students be provided with adequate opportunities to write often and extensively. The kinds of assignments created and implemented in English courses lend themselves well to meet these workplace demands if students are challenged by creative faculty members. In fact, the competencies identified by the US Department of Labor in the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS, 1991) are often reinforced in college English classrooms. Among those competencies students need are the abilities to

allocate time and resources;
identify the need for information and obtain it from appropriate sources;
organize information;
interpret and communicate information in a variety of methods;
employ computer uses as appropriate to the task;
participate as a member of a team;
exercise leadership;
negotiate toward an agreement and problem-solve;
work well with men and women and with a variety of ethnic, social, or educational backgrounds.

Recommendation from Gaining the Competitive Edge: The Challenge to North Carolina's Community Colleges

Because of the NCCCS's mission, a high percentage of students must take developmental courses to supplement their preparation for academic course work. Recommendation 7 of the Report of the Commission on the Future of the North Carolina Community College System concerns the forging of strong links between remedial and advanced programs. It reads: "Community colleges should increase the number of students making transition from the basic skills curriculum into jobs or advanced study. All colleges should examine the course load distributions of full-time faculty and reduce excessive work loads to allow faculty to interact with students as mentors and coaches."

Student Retention and Academic Success

Community college students, who are often less prepared academically and have fewer study skills than their four-year counterparts, require more intense student-teacher interactions than those who earn places in four-year institutions. With this intensity, it will be important to ensure sufficient time for teachers to build students' skills to a level that is competitive with their peers at four-year schools. Students who complete courses from the common course catalog that are approved as meeting the level of the four-year colleges will be expected to demonstrate similar competencies as their four-year peers. Thus, these community college students will require more growth to achieve at the level demanded by four-year colleges and will require more attention/feedback from their English teachers.

Articulation/Transferability

To meet the legislative mandate that students have seamless access from the community college to four-year college systems, it will be important for our colleagues at the four-year schools to consider our courses to be truly equivalent to the courses taught at the four-year institutions. This means that our number, type, and length of assignments must match those of our four-year colleagues. If community college workload assignments make it impossible to match these assignments, the four-year colleges may deny the transfer of these courses. Clearly, articulation can be jeopardized if our colleagues perceive that our community college courses do not replicate those of the four-year institutions.

Accountability

The members of the legislature, governing bodies of the community college and university systems, and leaders of business and industry will expect community college students' level of achievement be near or at that of the four-year schools to which community college students transfer. Our community college transfer students will be compared to

1. the transfer institution's native rising juniors;
2. the transfer institution's native rising sophomores.

Research-supported Practice

Research in the teaching of writing has revealed that one major way to improve the writing product is to improve the writing process. English composition faculty have used this research about the writing process to design their composition courses. This new approach typically requires conferences with students and reviewing multiple drafts as a piece of writing evolves, both of which are time-consuming activities. Since emphasizing process has real benefits to developing students' skills, it would be unfortunate to create workloads that would deny faculty the opportunity to use this approach with their students.

Recommendations

Even though national organizations have recommended a teaching load of 12 hours and even though our university counterparts teach 12 hours, CEI recognizes that such a load may be unrealistic given the current FTE funding formula. Therefore, the North Carolina Conference of English Instructors (CEI) recommends the following workload:

five three-contact-hour courses or four five-contact-hour courses per semester,
a maximum of three composition courses per semester,
a maximum enrollment of twenty students per composition class.

Furthermore, the CEI membership charges the executive board of CEI

to establish a statewide advisory committee comprised of representatives from business and industry and four-year colleges to inform CEI of communication needs in the workplace and academia and to assess equipment needs;
to identify the requirements for oral communications credentials for English instructors and to investigate strategies for helping teachers acquire those credentials.