SF City College to lose accreditation next year

[Starry Messenger]

Source: KTVU.com

"SAN FRANCISCO — After undergoing months of scrutiny, the City College of San Francisco's accreditation will be revoked in a year, a regional accrediting agency announced Wednesday.

The embattled school's accreditation was scheduled to be terminated on July 31, 2014, according to the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges.

City College was placed on “show cause” status by the ACCJC last July and was required to file a report by March showing how the school planned to address problems identified by the commission.

The school was allowed to appeal the decision, and would remain accredited during the appeal process, according to the commission."

Read more: http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/local/sf-city-college-lose-accreditation-next-year/nYdCR/

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This is really horrible news.

[KamaAina]

1. Anything they can do during that year, besides appeal?

By the way, nice pre-holiday news dump, ACCJC. The decision was supposed to be announced last month. The repuke/M$M spin machine would be proud.

[Starry Messenger]

3. CFT and others have a lawsuit pending against the ACCJC.

No word yet on how that will affect this. I'm trying to get more info from Twitter.

[KamaAina]

5. By the way, who do they appeal to?

Some kangaroo court?

[Starry Messenger]

6. The DOE

http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2013/07/03/city-college-loses-accreditation-throwing-its-future-doubt

Despite City College's improvements the California Federation of Teachers is set on fighting the accreditation commission's decision. They filed a massive 280-plus page complaint to the U.S. Department of Education alleging that the accreditation commission violated many of its own rules in evaluating CCSF.

[KamaAina]

8. Say bye-bye, then

Maybe they can convert the main campus into affordable housing. You know Arne Duncan's not gonna come down on our side.

[Starry Messenger]

9. The DOE insisted that ACCJC respond to the complaint, actually.

It's hard to say what will come of that though. Action or more strongly worded letters.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

13. Would you really favor another conversion of governmental property to housing?

When the Presidio was converted, didn't Dianne Feinstein get her special spot?

[KamaAina]

15. I forgot this

and why am I not surprised about DiFi (D-Who Needs Repukes?)

[Hekate]

21. After what I heard from a friend last month, I'm hoping our local CC will join in

Something really dirty is going on.

[Starry Messenger]

23. Are you in CA, Hekate?

I'm hoping this brings all the CCs on board. Have you read ACCJC Gone Wild? http://www.aft1493.org/component/content/article/168-accjc-gone-wild-in-depth-report-takes-on-accjc.html The longer report is linked in this piece, it is a PDF file.

[Hekate]

24. Yes, I'm in California.

Hubby retired from 22 years teaching computer info. systems at city college a year ago and is back in the industry.

I'm a real believer in the California community college concept, as I went to one starting in 1965, transferred to university for my Bachelor's, and ultimately went on to earn a PhD in midlife. Classmates of mine took 2-year degrees in vital areas like nursing, accounting, electronics, and law enforcement, and went right out and got career jobs with good salaries.

The destruction the CC system has undergone has just made me sick at heart.

I haven't read the report at your link, but will bookmark it for later. Thanks.

Hekate

[Starry Messenger]

25. I now work for the same CC I went to back in the day.

The CA CC system is really special and it makes me sick to see this happen to the largest one. I feel like it is a threat to the rest of us too.

[Hekate]

26. Oh, it is a threat, all right

The local story is so tangled that I can't even begin to tell it on a public board, but the bottom line is that after we the community managed to elect a new Board of Trustees and they managed to get rid of a really bad president (if that's the right title -- I can never remember; the university has a chancellor, but not the cc) -- anyway, ultimately the accreditation committee came down like a ton of bricks to punish the Board by threatening to take away the college's accreditation, and as a consequence the Board was well-nigh silenced. It was stunning. And that's only the surface. And public.

My friend told me about the lawsuit, and I told him I hoped our cc would join, because something is Just. Not. Right.

[roody]

2. They were serving the community.

[KamaAina]

4. This is Michigan with palm trees

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/CCSF-will-lose-accreditation-in-2014-4645783.php

Beset by mismanagement and unable to persuade overseers that it had repaired extensive problems, City College of San Francisco will lose its accreditation a year from now and its elected Board of Trustees will be stripped of decision-making powers, the college learned Wednesday....

The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges is expected to install a state-appointed special trustee as head of the community college. The trustee, Robert Agrella, has been advising City College during its yearlong struggle to remain accredited and in business....

Thousands of people depend on City College for a leg up into the middle class. The school produces hundreds of paramedics, phlebotomists, restaurant workers, nurses, firefighters, police and more each year that keep the Bay Area's economy humming.

Hundreds of other students earn credits for transfer to university, often the only way they can afford to attend college. The college is also a essential location for immigrants to learn English and for senior citizens to find intellectual stimulation through music and art, memoir-writing and useful classes like nutrition education.

"a essential location for immigrants to learn English"?

Robert Agrella : CCSF :: Kevyn Orr : Detroit.

[Psephos]

19. You should change "Michigan" to "Detroit".

Your brush is too broad by several hundred miles.

[KamaAina]

27. Other Michigan cities have been hijacked by Snyder

notably Flint and Benton Harbor.

Of course, we all know that those were just trial runs for the big coup in Detroit.

[KamaAina]

7. How The American University was Killed, in Five Easy Steps

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023038295

Step #3: You move in a managerial/administrative class who take over governance of the university...

How dare CCSF ignore Step #3? How dare they let mere faculty govern an institution instead of just reading to students from scripts?!

[KamaAina]

10. Privatized charter college in 3... 2... 1...

[ForgoTheConsequence]

11. Ridiculous.

But diploma mills like University of Phoenix and Kaplan get to keep their accreditation while ripping off the government.

[Starry Messenger]

12. I know.

The complaints the ACCJC had were almost totally unrelated to academics too. This is pretty outrageous.

The chancellor of my own college released a statement this morning he was sure that CCSF had earned probation after the work they put in this year. This is like getting whacked by the mob.

[blkmusclmachine]

14. More phony "Race to the Top" shenanigans, I bet.

[KamaAina]

16. RTTP only applies to K-12, BUT

community colleges in CA are sometimes called part of "K-14" ed --and CCSF is the largest of them.

[Starry Messenger]

18. The assessment tool under question in this case, the "SLO", actually made its appearance around 2006

Trust me, I'm no fan of the current administration's education policies, but they don't seem to meddle much with community college.

Student Learning Outcomes were one of the bones of contention in the whole discussion. It is part of the whole culture of "accountability" that has grown up in the dash to make academia more like business.

[KamaAina]

17. Is there a way to convert it into a truly city-run entity?

i.e. not part of the state CC system. The obvious example is CUNY in NYC. And with that, it could even go four-year.

[Starry Messenger]

20. I'm not sure.

Mayor Lee hasn't been much of an ally, from what I recall. They'd still have to deal with accreditation though.

[KamaAina]

29. See #28 below

different accrediting agency without an axe to grind.

And since when has Mr. Ed been much of an ally on anything?

[Hekate]

22. I don't think that's possible. The overhead costs are larger than the average city can afford.

The computer lab alone costs a ton in equipment that must be kept current. And you still have to have accreditation.

The pot of money that community colleges get their funding from via the State legislature is called the K-14 system for a reason: after grade 12, community colleges are saddled with all the remedial education students, not just the college transfer and vocational certificate students.

I was shocked to discover that our local continuing education program -- literally one of the crown jewels in this town -- was under the aegis of the community college. That only turned out to be a problem when the hammer came down and just shattered adult ed to pieces. I'm bitter about it, and so are a lot of other people in the community.

Hekate

[KamaAina]

28. True, but four-year colleges are accredited by a different agency

the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), which doesn't seem to be in the tank for the ed deformers the way ACCJC is.

[Starry Messenger]

32. I think ACCJC is a part of WASC.

ACCJC has several other colleges under the gun right now too. I think CFT has taken the correct tactic right now of everyone going in together for a fight against the agency.

[KamaAina]

33. Oh, goddess, you're right.

"It was like trying to make a move at chess when you were already mated." -George Orwell, 1984

[KamaAina]

35. (sigh) Failing that, break it up into a few smaller schools?

One at the main campus, another at the Mission and Bayview campuses, and a third for everything else (Chinatown to Hayes Valley). That makes it more like the Peralta district in the East Bay or the various districts down here in SJ (would you believe four districts in this one county??)

[KamaAina]

30. As Edith Bunker would say, "Oooooooh! Ooooh! OOOOOOhhhhhh!"

after grade 12, community colleges are saddled with all the remedial education students,

Whose numbers have been skyrocketing because Ahh-nuld gutted the K-12 system. That's why all community colleges, not just CCSF, are at the breaking point.

[Igel]

31. The numbers skyrocketed after Ahh-nuld gutteed the K-12 system.

Numbers were rising before. They'll continue to rise after.

Schwarzenegger's actions are a small uptick on the long-term trend.

When UC schools dropped remedial courses or required additional payment, CCs saw an uptick in remedial students.

As tuitions have increased, more remedial students have properly gone to CC instead of trying CSU and UC.

As class size increased, it became harder to teach low-performing classes. It made them lower-performing.

As requirements have become more explicit and it's become less and less important for the level student to actually learn how to orient him/herself in new material, self-assess, and learn it, remediation's become more important at the college level. Or standards have dropped.

At some point I'm sure we'll lament how society has failed suicides by permitting them to have access to unsupervised use of toxins (prescription and otherwise), non-ventilated garages, and sharp objects. Just label them "victims" and immediately all responsibility falls away from them and goes off in search of another host.

[KamaAina]

34. None of this bilge addresses how the decline in high school education has affected CCs.

The worse students perform in high school, the more remedial students come into CCs.

[KamaAina]

36. Who killed City College?

The answer may surprise you.

http://www.sfbg.com/2013/07/09/who-killed-city-college

But the woes of City College reach deeper than a three line script could ever cover, and can be traced back to the oval office itself, leading to a really odd question: Did President Obama kill City College?

PRESSURE FROM THE TOP

When the president trumpeted education in his 2012 State of the Union speech, he sounded an understandable sentiment. "States also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets," Obama told the nation. "And colleges and universities have to do their part by working to keep costs down."...

The emphasis is ours, but the translation is very simple: College accreditation agencies can either enforce the administration's numbers-based plan or be replaced. The president's college reform is widely known and hotly debated in education circles. Commonly known as the "completion agenda," with an emphasis on measurable outcomes in job placement, it had its start under President George W. Bush, but Obama carried the torch.

The idea is that colleges divest from community-based programs not directly related to job creation or university degrees, and use a data measurement approach to ensure two-year schools transfer and graduate students in greater numbers. "Community colleges" would quickly become "junior colleges," accelerating a slow transition that began many years ago.

[melm00se]

37. wasn't this an isssue

about this time last year?