HB 20-1002 is a bill that could impact schools and education in new ways and not all of them are good. So on the top level the bill is supposed to force schools to “institutions shall accept and transfer academic credit awarded for work-related experience as courses with guaranteed-transfer designation or part of a statewide degree transfer agreement.”[1] This is supposed to go into effect during the 2022/2023 school year if it does not start sooner. Sounds good for students right? The problem is that this is already similar to current state wide PLA processes and that many of the 4 year schools have problems even transferring the statewide GT courses correctly. It is also linked to HB19-1252 College Credit For Work Experience bill that came out in 2019.
The problem with PLA is the quality. Outside of standardized exams, there is no real way to do quality control. Everyone could view a person’s work experience differently and two schools may come up with very different ideas of what that experience means. By forcing a different school into accepting those credits without full review of the submitted supporting documents there is no way to verify the quality or if credit should have really been given. I have seen some schools do really crazy things that just makes my stomach turn. One would be a Chair of the business department allowing a student to do a course sub for astronomy instead of them doing Math for a business degree. The course was an intro course that I had actually taken before and I personally knew how little math was in it. The there was always a history course instead of arrest control techniques for a criminal justice degree. So yah, I’ve seen some departments do some crazy things and I do not fully trust that the right thing is always done. Let alone if they start using resumes or CVs to give college credit.
I’ve worked for 15 years in higher education. Can I get a Ed.D. please? Not an honorary one, but a legit degree. No. There is supposed to be so much more to education then this. Although if you know a school that will just give me a degree based on this please let me know.
The problem for schools is that no one job is going to match all or even most of the learning objectives of one course. Most schools require a 90% or higher match between course for transfer, and some schools will go as low as 80%. From the current understanding of educators, if a student can match even 25% or less of the learning objectives we have to find some way to give them credit for it. The problem is that schools will be forced to build a whole bunch of partial courses in order to give the student partial credit and then have the take the other courses just to equal what used to be one course. How are schools supposed to know how to break courses up or what learning objectives to put together vs. to break apart? Then how are they supposed to find teachers to fill all the positions for these courses. It will make school faculty have to teach even more classes (less free time to help students on the side or work on research projects that help the school). Then trying to find part time instructors will be nearly impossible. Why teach a 1 credit course at a school when you can teach a 3 credit course at a different school for more money (instructors are paid by the credit hour). Then more problems for the students come up. If only one or two students have partial credit for a course it does not make sense to run a course for just 2 students (maybe 5 students). It would cost more to pay the instructor, run the lights, and take up space then they could charge the students. The only way to make this work would be to still charge the students the cost of the full course (charge for 3 credits instead of 1 or 2 credits) if not more to make up for having less students in a course. Many schools have a minimum student number in order to be able to run the course. At most schools it averages around 10 to 12 students and if they don’t have that many students sign up for the course they cancel it. I know many students over the years that just need one course but it keeps getting canceled due to low enrollment. Some of these students have even had to switch degrees because of lack of course offerings due to enrollment. Why would schools go through all of the above for just a few students? It would be easier for the student to just take the full class and have a chance to get a higher grade because they have familiarity with some of the material. This whole process is messy and just does not make sense.
Back to the bill directly. The reason they are doing this is because they feel that Colorado’s work force needs certificates and degrees to help ensure the state’s “economic vitality.’[2] My question is, if the people already have the training and their doing the job why do they need the paper to back it. Their resume should reflect this experience to employers and we do not want public schools to become degree mills. There are already too many of those out there that are devaluing education.
So why talk about this now when the bill came out last year? Because schools are just starting to realize the impact it will have. Courses are going to have to be broken into parts of classes in order to have something where qualifications could apply, professors and teachers must be found to teach all of these class parts, and then they have to find the money to do all of this.
Let’s look at the main sponsors of the bill.
Barbara McLachlan (Journalist & Politician) is supposed to have a master’s in education from Regis and has done some consulting work and had a gig at Durango High School.[3] At Durango High School she taught English and journalism for 20 years.[4] There was also a time where she was a tutor and student-teach supervisor at Fort Lewis College, but I could not find out how long she was there.[5] She’s also the Colorado General Assembly’s Education Chair.[6] Even though she has worked in education she has worked in very few educational institutions and only 2 positions so the extent of her knowledge as a whole is very limited.
Mark Baisley has a degree in computer information systems and was a member of the Columbia College Board of Trustees for 14 years.[7] The Colorado General Assembly has his current occupation as being an Engineer and that he is currently on the Education Committee. His personal site also shows that he has been on the boards for Littleton Public Schools (4 years) and the Community College of Aurora (1 year).[8]
Rachel Zenzinger has both a B.A. and M.A. in education subjects. She has held 2 different positions at Regis University, program coordinator for the Master of Arts in education and assistant director of alumni and parent programs.[9]
What this shows is that there is limited experience in Education and the ones that have experience it is more surface level.
The good
thing is that BC went to bat for schools and pointed out how impossible much of
this was. Where is this going? Don’t know, but those of us that work in education
are keeping our eye on it.
Works Cited
Baisley, Mark. “About Mark Baisley.” Accessed February 4, 2021. http://www.baisley.org/markdown-2/.
McLachlan, Barbara. “Let's Build a Better Colorado!” Representative Barbara McLachlan for HD 59. Accessed February 3, 2021. https://barbaramclachlan.com/meet-barbara.
“An Act: House Bill 20-1002.” Colorado General Assembly, July 8, 2020. http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2020a_1002_signed.pdf.
“Barbara McLachlan.” Barbara McLachlan | Colorado General Assembly. Accessed February 3, 2021. https://leg.colorado.gov/legislators/barbara-mclachlan.
“Barbara McLachlan.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Accessed February 3, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_McLachlan#:~:text=Barbara%20McLachlan%20is%20an%20American,Ouray%2C%20and%20San%20Juan%20counties.
“College Credit For Work Experience.” College Credit For Work Experience | Colorado General Assembly, June 10, 2020. http://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb20-1002.
“Mark Baisley.” Ballotpedia. Accessed February 4, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Mark_Baisley.
“Rachel
Zenzinger.” Ballotpedia. Accessed February 4, 2021. https://ballotpedia.org/Rachel_Zenzinger.
Additional Recommended Reading
http://leg.colorado.gov/bills/hb19-1252
Picture From: https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2020A/bills/fn/2020a_hb1002_f1.pdf
[1] Colorado General Assembly, “College
Credit For Work Experience.”
[2] Colorado General Assembly, “An Act:
House Bill 20-1002,” P2.
[3] Wikipedia, “Barbara McLachlan.”
[4] McLachlan, Barbara, “Let's Build a
Better Colorado!”
[5] McLachlan, Barbara, “Let's Build a
Better Colorado!”
[6] Colorado General Assembly, “Barbara
McLachlan.”
[7] Ballotpedia, “Mark Baisley.”
[8] Mark Baisley. “About Mark Baisley.”
[9] Ballotpedia, “Rachel Zenzinger.”
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