Prerequisite Questions and Answers from the Field
Prepared by The Academic Senate for California Community Colleges

The answers given here do not carry any legal standing in the interpretation of statute or regulation. The purpose of this document is to raise issues of concern to the field and explore possible implementation strategies to solve them. This document does not set new policy or recommend changes to existing policy, regulation, or statute.

Enforcement of Prerequisites: Time Lines

1. Critical Thinking English 1 Prerequisite; Extending the Review Period Beyond 7/1/96 for Prerequisites Established from 7/4/90 to 11/4/93.
2. Enforcement of Prerequisites: Enforcement After Registration
3. Enforcement of Prerequisites: Delays on Complete Enforcement; Use of Pilots
4. Review of Prerequisites Established Prior to July 6, 1990
5. Review of Prerequisites Established Between July 6, 1990 and October 4, 1993
6. Removal of Prerequisites from the Catalog When Review Time lines are Not Met
7. Time lines for Reviewing Prerequisites
8. Curriculum Committee Action to Require a Prerequisite

General Implementation Issues

9. Chancellor’s Office Role in Prerequisite Approval
10. Prerequisites as "Upper Limits" on Skills and Knowledge
11. Role of a Prerequisite Subcommittee
12. Role of Matriculation Coordinator in Prerequisites
13. Role of a Prerequisite Subcommittee
14. Physical and Learning Disabilities as Prerequisites
15. Documentation of Prerequisite Skills Within the Course Outline of Record

Data Collection and Analysis

16. Criteria for Data Collection and Analysis: Use of Student Self-Assessment and Instructor Assessment of Students’ Readiness
17. Reading Level as a Prerequisite: Content Review plus Data Collection and Analysis
18. Possibility of Content Review Only for Math as a Prerequisite to Chemistry and Physic
19. English Literature Courses as Part of the Communication Skills Sequence
20. Examples of Non-Course Prerequsites

Assessment

21. Use of a Non-approved Assessment Instrument for Research Only
22. Assessment Results Can be used for Advisory or Mandatory Placement
23. Requirement to do Assessment Before Enrolling the Student in the Class, Not After
24. Instructors Access to Students’ Assessment or Placement Results
25. Use of In-Class Evaluations, e.g., Writing Samples, to Change Student Placement
26. Use of Assessment Process as a Prerequisite
27. Skill Prerequisites Such As Typing Speed
28. Assessment Tests in Fields Other Than Math, English, and ESL

High School Courses

29. High School Courses as Prerequisites: Highest Level of Scrutiny
30. Alternatives to High School Courses as Prerequisites: Challenge Based on Equivalent Knowledge Equivalent Knowledge
31. Use of "Or Equivalent" in Prerequisite Catalog Listings Advisories On Recommended Preparation
32. Advisory Skills Are Not Required in Course Outlines Content Review (See also question 36.)
33. Distinguishing Skills Needing Prerequisites and Advisories Using Content Review
34. Use of Content Review Forms
35. Process for Discipline Faculty to Determine Need for Prerequisites, Corequisites, and Advisories and to Identify Courses to Meet that Need Co requisites
36. Corequisite Content Review
37. Corequisites for Lecture-Lab Pairings
38. Teaching Corequisite Skills Within the Target Course
39. Communication Skills Courses as Corequisites to Non-communication Skills Courses

Adding and Dropping Students (See also question 25.)

40. Involuntarily Dropping Students Who Are Enrolled But Do Not Meet a Prerequisite
41. Denying Students Enrollment in a Course Based on Lack of a Valid Prerequisite
42. Prerequisite Checks for Students Added to a Class After Classes Have Begun
43. Prerequisites to Move from One Module to Another Within a Course

Limitations on Enrollment: Performance, Honors, Block Enrollment, Law or Contract (See also 52.)

44. Review and Approval of Honors Courses
45. Performance Auditions as Limitations on Enrollment
46. Criteria for Selecting a Course as an Honors Course
47. Performance Auditions: Prerequisites or Limitations on Enrollment?
48. Performance Courses Which Do Not Meet Degree or Certificate Requirements
49. Distribution of Information Regarding a Performance Audition
50. Other Limitations on Enrollment such as Faculty Workload and Facility Limitations
51. Definition of Limitations on Enrollment

UC/CSU Equivalent Prerequisites

52. Role of CAN Numbers in Determining Three Equivalent UC/CSU Prerequsites

Health and Safety Prerequisites

53. Health & Safety: Prerequisite vs Limitation on Enrollment Imposed by Law or Contract

Program Prerequisites

54. Program Prerequisites: Health and Safety
55. Curriculum Committee Action to Require a Prerequisite

Our Philosophy 11 Critical Thinking course is approved to meet IGETC with a prerequisite of English 1 (which is required by the transfer institutions). The course was approved by our curriculum committee in 1992 which means we can’t keep the prerequisite without validation before July 1, 1996. So, we remove the prerequisite for this year to collect data and validate the prerequisite. We are not sure that this is enough time to get reasonable data. Is there a way we can extend the research period? Does this time without the prerequisite affect the transferability of the course?

You are in a "Catch 22" situation. The Model District Policy says "Prerequisites or corequisites established between July 6, 1990, and October 31, 1993, shall be reviewed by July 1, 1996." IGETC requires the English 1 prerequisite to continue in place.

Here is a suggestion. The "by July 1, 1996" restriction is in the Model District Policy but not in Title 5. [Read §55201(b) and (d).] By Title 5 you have up to six years to do the review (interpreted to extend through November 4, 1999). To deviate from the Model District Policy you need Chancellor’s Office approval. This should be no problem for your situation. Write a letter to the Chancellor’s Office explaining the details and requesting permission to keep the prerequisite in place while you are doing your research for a time period not to extend beyond November 4, 1999. This deviation from the Model District Policy should also appear in your Matriculation Plan Update which was filed with the Chancellor’s Office in October. Include an addendum to your letter with the modified plan update.

2. Enforcement of Prerequisites: Enforcement After Registration

a. I read Section 55202(g) to mean that we are to enforce all legally established prerequisites at the time of registration. I understand the Title 5 section to provide for an enrollment in a spring term class, for example, where the student is currently enrolled in the prerequisite course during the fall term and the registration activity for spring is taking place in fall. My copy of Title 5 indicates that this section was operative 11/4/93. Do I correctly conclude that as of that time we should have been enforcing prerequisites prior to enrollment?

b. If we are still not enforcing the prerequisites at the time of registration, what is the penalty for failing to do so?

With regard to 55202(g) requiring prerequisites to be enforced prior to registration, the citation goes on to say, "provided, however, that enrollment may be permitted pending verification that the student has met the prerequisite or corequisite. If the verification shows that the student has failed to meet the prerequisite, the student may be involuntarily dropped from the course if the applicable enrollment fees are promptly refunded." This means that you can enroll the student and THEN verify whether or not the student has the prerequisite. This "pending" status applies to the case you cite, enrollment for a spring class before the prerequisite class has been completed in the fall term. (It would also apply to any other case in which determination of the prerequisite status was uncertain, such as the verification of a course taken elsewhere, as you mention you are studying.) Good practice at many colleges has been to enroll the student, then, when grades are entered for the fall term, do a computer run to find those who did not pass the prerequisite class. These students are then retroactively dropped and their fees refunded. Good practice is to accomplish this before the first day of the spring term and notify the student by mail. Also, a special "roster run" can be done and given to the instructors to let them know which students on their enrollment roster did not meet the prerequisite the previous term and are not then officially in their class (in case they do show up). This lets instructors know how many open seats they may have to fill.

You asked about the "penalty for failing to do so." Two issues arise. First, one of the grounds for challenge of a prerequisite is "the prerequisite is in violation of this Article" [55201(f)(2)]. If you are not following the prerequisite regulations, this could be the basis for a student challenging your whole process. Second, in previous years and again next year, the matriculation site visits will check on the college’s prerequisite policies, procedures, and implementation. Problems will be noted in the recommendations and the college will be expected to remedy the situation. In the past, serious violations have threatened the college’s matriculation allocation.

We are positioned administratively to enforce the prerequisites as of fall 1996, however, several faculty prefer to delay until spring term 1997 as they want more time to prepare a process by which we could establish equivalent courses. No one knows how many of our 24,000 plus students will ask to have a transcript evaluated before registration because they have taken a course at another college and want to use that to satisfy a prerequisite to one of our courses. Can we delay?

Some in the work group have asked if we could conduct a pilot project by selectively enforcing prerequisites in several departments at the time of registration. The purpose would be to test the administrative and computing processes designed to grant equivalencies and block registration in the computer for those students who do not meet the established prerequisite. Can we legally conduct a pilot project?

I am also reading section 58108 regarding registration and enrollment procedures and noticed lead sentence mentions procedures for registration being "uniformly administered." Does a pilot project violate that provision?

Can we enforce co requisite requirements as a pilot project? The thinking here is that in those circumstances where two courses must genuinely be taken at the same time, the student will not be asking for an equivalency.

Can you delay your implementation plans? As you point out, technically the regulations went into effect on 11/4/93. To the extent that any of us have not followed them, we have been in violation. Procedurally, the Chancellor’s Office gave colleges until the next matriculation plan update, 10/21/94, to have prerequisite policies and procedures in place, including enforcement. You must have SOME enforcement mechanism in place for each of your prerequisites or take them out of the catalog.

You may use "pilot projects" to try out various means of prerequisite enforcement, and you are right that uniformity and consistency are required. However, this applies to the consistency of the process from student to student. The enforcement of prerequisites in English, for example, must treat all English students uniformly as must the mechanism for enforcement of prerequisites in physics be consistent in treating all physics students in the same manner. But the English and physics enforcement methods need not be the same. Many colleges started computer blocking of enrollment in only certain areas, most commonly math and English. At the same time you could use some other method for Physics 1A as a prerequisite to Physics 1B such as a retroactive computer run like the fall-to-spring situation.

The possibility of using computer blocks for corequisites does look quite clean. The only caution may be that sometimes a student may drop one of the corequisite courses and your computer system would have to flag the other corequisite to be dropped as well.

If a prerequisite was in place prior to 1990 and if the course is degree applicable and is in a sequence of courses, can it remain in place until 1999? If it is to continue after 1999, must it be validated?

Prerequisites legally in place on July 6, 1990, which have remained legally in place since then, may continue to be enforced until reviewed prior to November 4, 1999 (six year review).

If a course has a cross-discipline prerequisite and was put in place by a Board approved policy between July 7, 1990 and September, 1993, can the prerequisite be enforced until the next scheduled review? If it was not put in place by a Board-established policy, must it be scrutinized before it can be used?

If a prerequisite was legally established between July 6, 1990, and October 4, 1993, it may continue to be enforced until reviewed prior to July 1, 1996 (two year review).

When must all prerequisites, corequisites and advisories be in the catalog? If prerequisites, corequisites and advisories are not done by certain dates (timeline) would they be removed from our catalogs?

The current Title 5 regulations on prerequisites became effective in October of 1993. Catalogs and schedules of classes were required be in compliance as of that date. Colleges were required to submit and updated matriculation plan (section 8 on prerequisites) by October of 1994. If you have prerequisite, corequisites, or advisories which do not meet the regulatory requirements, remove them immediately. Be sure that all newly approved prerequisites, corequisites, and advisories are approved by your curriculum committee and board in a timely manner allowing for their publication in both the catalog and schedule of classes. If you do not present this information in your schedule and catalog, you are in violation of Title 5 §55202(a)

If prerequisites and co requisites have not been approved by September or October of 1996, must we remove all pre-co requisites from the catalog?

Please give the curriculum committee the timeline for course approval for:

Courses approved October 31, 1993 to present,

Courses approved from July 1990 to October 1993, and

Courses approved before July 1990.

No. You do not have to remove ALL prerequisites if you have not done the required approvals by October of 1996. As you point out above, the deadline for such approvals depends on when the prerequisite was legally established (and assumes that it has continued to be legal).

Courses approved October 31, 1993, to present must have met the approval standards (as they now exist) when they were considered and cannot be in place without meeting those standards. So, if you approved any pre/co/advisory/limitations after 10/31/93 without doing the appropriate scrutiny, remove them from your catalog and stop using them immediately.

Courses approved from July 1990 to October 1993 must be reviewed to meet the appropriate level of scrutiny before July 1, 1996 [Model District Policy ID, but not in Title 5]. So, if you haven’t done the review by now, stop using them and take them out of your catalog. This also assumes that you DID meet the regulations which were in place as of July 1990. If you did not legally approve these pre/co/advisories under these regulations, you cannot continue to use them.

Courses approved before July 1990. Again, you must have approved these as legal under the old regulations AND they must have remained legal under the July 1990 regulations. If so, you have six years to do the review according to the appropriate level of scrutiny [Model District Policy ID AND Title 5 §55201(b)(3)]. A question not directly answered by either the Model District Policy or Title 5 is the beginning and ending dates for this six year review period. Through discussion with Chancellor’s Office personnel, it has been agreed that the ending point is November 4, 1999 (six years from the date the regulation change became effective).

8. Curriculum Committee Action to Require a Prerequisite

Our curriculum committee reviewed a recently revised course outline for a transferrable social science course which was submitted without an English prerequisite but clearly needed one. We conditionally approved the course, specifying an English 1A prerequisite. Now we are getting flack from the social science faculty. What do we do?

If the curriculum committee under Title 5 §55002(a)(2)(D) "determines, based on a review of the course outline of record, that a student would be highly unlikely to receive a satisfactory grade unless the student has knowledge or skills not taught in the course, then the course shall require prerequisites or corequisites...." One of the approaches that might help in this situation is to present options to the originating faculty. At least three choices present themselves: 1) the prerequisite, 2) modifying the outline to teach the essential skills within the course itself (such as adding a unit on "writing research papers in the social sciences"), and 3) modifying the course outline to reduce the required skills to the point that the prerequisite is no longer needed (the least effective choice because it entails lowering standards). Either of the two "modification" options could be done to the point that the prerequisite can be replaced by an advisory. If the prerequisite remains the option of choice, the written response to the originating faculty should explain the process for establishing the prerequisite and offer specific assistance.

Do prerequisites have to be approved by the Chancellor’s Office or does or curriculum committee do the actual approval?

Prerequisites must be approved by the curriculum committee and should be presented, with appropriate documentation, by the discipline faculty following procedures approved by the curriculum committee and the academic senate under Title 5 §53200-204, collegial consultation.

Is it permissible to have a skill limitation as a prerequisite?

By "skill limitation" it is assumed you mean placing an upper limit on the skill, something such as "cannot type faster than 25 W.A.M." This would not be permissible. Prerequisites are based on establishing that "a student would be highly unlikely to receive a satisfactory grade unless the student has knowledge or skills not taught in the course" [Title 5 §55002(a)(2)(D)]

It is my understanding that the prerequisite, corequisite and advisory subcommittee charge was to read and understand Title 5 regulations and create forms that could be utilized on our campus. It was also our charge as a subcommittee to give workshops on prerequisites, corequisite and advisories to inform faculty, etc. Who should be designated and/or responsible on campus when you have questions about prerequisites, corequisite and advisories, specifically on Title 5 regulations? In addition, please explain the hierarchy of responsibility for matriculation as it relates to prerequisite, corequisite and advisory implementation.

Since you have a committee working on prerequisites, it would be reasonable that these individuals be the primary resource for questions regarding prerequisites. This topic bridges both student services and instruction, so it would be reasonable to have members with broad expertise: counselors, instructors, articulation officer, researcher, etc. Your subcommittee should make regular reports both to the curriculum committee and to the matriculation advisory committee. The key leaders in this effort should be the matriculation coordinator and the curriculum committee chair and administratively the chief student services officer and the chief instructional officer. The Chancellor’s Office monitors compliance with the prerequisite regulations through your matriculation plan and your annual progress reports and through matriculation site visits and audits. The Matriculation Progress and Expenditure Report is filed each October and is signed by the CEO, matriculation coordinator, and academic senate president.

What is the role of the matriculation coordinator as it relates to Title 5 prerequisites, corequisite and advisories?

The matriculation coordinator is responsible for implementation of the college matriculation plan as well as keeping that plan current. The requirements for the plan are summarized in the document Matriculation Standards (available from the Chancellor’s Office). Component 8 covers prerequisites, corequisites, and advisories on recommended preparation. It is expected that the matriculation coordinator works closely with everyone in the college to assure that the prerequisite standards are met. In addition, prerequisites are an academic and professional matter requiring collegial consultation between the academic senate and the board of trustees. Your local shared governance policies and procedures should address the specifics regarding how recommendations on prerequisite policies are developed and approved by the academic senate for presentation to the board.

What is the role of the prerequisite subcommittee?

The initial role of the committee would be to set up the pre/co/advisory process at the college, including board policies, committee procedures, forms, etc. Any policies or procedures developed (content review policy, data collection and analysis procedure, etc.) should be approved by the academic senate. In addition, the subcommittee should be a resource to those developing and reviewing prerequisites: doing presentations, holding workshops, etc. Finally, the subcommittee should do a pre-review of course outline proposals to assure that pre/co/advisory policies and procedures have been followed before the course outline comes to the full curriculum committee for approval.

For Physical Education 642 (Adapted Fitness) is it permissible to have as a pre-corequisite: "Recommended verification of physical or learning disability or motor problems?"

This question brings up several issues. First, "recommended verification" implies that you are just giving advice to the student, and, as such, this would be an advisory for recommended preparation, not a pre- or corequisite. (As such, it could be established only by a content review of the entry skills for the course compared with skills assessed in the verification.)

Second, assuming that the intention is to limit enrollment to those with a verified physical or learning disability, such a prerequisite would not be permissible. An option which might meet your needs is to create a cohort of such students and enroll them as a group in the course. First, through your Disabled Students Programs and Services office, students have access to such verification or a process by which external verification can be certified. Students do not have to be recipients of DSPS services (that is, part of the DSPS program) to have such a verification accomplished. In this way you have created a cohort of students which can then be block enrolled in PE 642. As such, this is a limitation on enrollment, not a prerequisite. See Model District Policy II.C.3 and §58106. The catalog statement would then read, "Intended for those with verified physical or learning disabilities or motor problems (see page XXX)." On page XXX of the catalog and schedule of classes you would describe the verification process. Coming under §58106, these policies and procedures should be passed by the board of trustees. My guess is that your DSPS board policies already cover much of this.

In response to an inquiry as to whether special classes for students with disabilities may be closed to nondisabled students (as in establishing the prerequisite you mention), the Chancellor’s Office rendered the following legal opinion (L 90-13, 4/23/90):

Special classes authorized under Education Code Section 78440 and those in state hospitals may be claimed for apportionment funding even if they are not open to all students. Nevertheless, nondiscrimination requirements and DSP&S program regulations would seem to prohibit closing special classes unless the college can clearly demonstrate that the presence of nondisabled students would preclude or substantially interfere with the education of the disabled students.

Thus you may designate courses such as the one you describe as intended for those with verified disabilities and enroll such a cohort as a group, but you may not establish a prerequisite which prohibits the enrollment of nondisabled students.

The entry skills of a course indicated the following:

Upon entering the course the student should be able to:

Apply the principles of critical thinking to identify, analyze, and evaluate simple college level readings. Is "simple college level readings" appropriate language? Should a grade level be assigned, such as 10th, 11th, 12th or 13th?

The detail of your content review process, at least to the degree your question poses, is certainly a local matter, so the following should just be considered opinion. Content review requires specific skills without which a student is highly unlikely to succeed. These skills must be stated with enough specificity for the curriculum committee to judge their appropriateness and with enough specificity to be able to demonstrate a match with student outcomes (exit skills) in the suggested prerequisite class. Consequently, "simple college level readings" is not appropriate language. Similarly, specification of a grade level is inappropriate. The prerequisite skills must be stated in the same language as student outcomes: active, behavioral objectives. What particular, individual skills comprise "simple college level reading?"

When doing data collection and analysis, if all the students in Philosophy 11 say "yes, we need English 1 as a prerequisite" is that enough? How is a faculty member’s appraisal of students’ readiness different from "instructor consent" and how is it established?

To use "student self-assessment" for the success criterion, ask students if they felt they were well prepared for the course. To validate the prerequisite there should be a statistically significant difference between those who had the prerequisite and those that did not. That is, those who had the prerequisite felt that they were well prepared for the course to a much greater extent than those who did not have the prerequisite. The statistical parameters to determine the validity of this correlation should be spelled out in the research design for the prerequisite study following your college’s procedure on prerequisite data collection and analysis.

A similar research design is used for "instructor’s assessment of student readiness." Typically, about one-third of the way into the course, you survey instructors (for example, on a 1 to 5 scale) regarding student readiness. Instructors must not have access to knowledge about student preparation for this to be valid. The results must show a statistically significant difference between those with and without the prerequisite.

How do we do content review for a reading level as a prerequisite?

First, your college should have a policy and procedure for doing content review. This should be recommended by the curriculum committee and matriculation advisory committee and approved by the senate. Several colleges have good models including LA City and Chabot. Second, content review is done by discipline faculty reviewing their materials (texts, assignments, etc.) To establish skills (in this case, reading skills) without which the student would be highly unlikely to succeed (in the professional opinion of instructors in the discipline). Then, once these skills are agreed upon, an appropriate course and/or assessment process should be identified by which the college can determine whether or not the student has these skills. For reading, a communication skill, the content review would be followed by the highest level of scrutiny, data collection and analysis. Your college should have a local procedure specifying how the research design for data collection and analysis is to be developed for each study done (following the general guidelines in the Model District Policy). This procedure should be developed jointly among the curriculum committee, matriculation committee, and whatever committee advises on research activities--and then passed by written resolution of the senate. Chabot and Bakersfield both have good prerequisite research design procedures.

Regarding validating prerequisites, some of our physics and chemistry courses which are heavily math-oriented are not part of an established math sequence. However, because they are so math-oriented, would it be possible to do a thoroughly documented content review instead of the highest level of scrutiny for these courses? The argument is that the content is so closely related that a thorough content review could establish the necessity of the math prerequisite for the physics or chemistry course. Is that a possibility?

Regular chemistry and physics courses are not "computational courses in a sequence" as mentioned in Title 5. Their content is science, not math. They are dependent on students having computational skills BEFORE taking the class. As such, math prerequisites for physics and chemistry courses require the highest level of scrutiny: data collection and analysis.

Can the English department do a documented content review to validate the necessity for the communication course (English 1) as a prerequisite to higher level literature courses?

Title 5 allows documented content review as sufficient grounds to establish a prerequisite in a "communication skill sequence." Can English 1 be justified as a prerequisite for English 2 (literature) using documented content review alone? That would depend on the college’s determination of whether or not English 2 is a "communication skill" course (which is a local decision). Most colleges consider communication skills to include all courses in English.

Give our committee (other than GPA and regency) examples of non-course prerequisites. What is regency, specifically?

Recency is placing a limit on the number of years which have passed since the student completed the prerequisite course, e.g., "English 1A within the last 5 years." This may be important in disciplines where the course content is changing rapidly (nursing, computer science, etc.). Other non-course prerequisites might include high school courses, employment experience in a particular vocation, or personal skills such as ability to work with the public. (Note that these skills would be difficult to assess and validate!)

Our curriculum committee will be looking at some ESL courses which had their placement tests as prerequisites, but we are now moving them to recommended since they were not validated and they are not on the Chancellor’s approved list. Is this acceptable, and would it require anything other than content review?

You may not use an instrument even for recommended placement (as an advisory) unless it has been approved. Title 5 §55521(a) states, "In implementing matriculation services, community college districts shall not, except as provided in subdivision (b) [which is ability to benefit], do any of the following: (1) use an assessment instrument which has not been approved by the Chancellor pursuant to Section 55524, except that the Chancellor may permit limited field-testing, under specified conditions, of new or alternative assessment instruments, where such instruments are not used for placement and are evaluated only in order to determine whether they should be added to the list of approved instruments. . . ."

What this means is that you may use non-approved assessment instruments only for research purposes designed to establish their validity. You should put together a research plan for such a validation study, begin implementing the research using the instrument to collect data. (Note that the only instrument in ESL currently on the Chancellor’s Office list is the CELSA test.)

Are assessment tests advisory only, not mandatory?

Assessment tests alone cannot be used for either advisory or mandatory placement. A test score with a secondary measure (multiple measures) can be used for either purpose, at the discretion of the discipline faculty and the curriculum committee. The test must have gone through the steps to be validated, except that a test may be given for research purposes, i.e., to establish the validity of the test. When using a test to gather research data, the college cannot communicate the results to the student or use the results in any way for advice or placement.

23. Requirement to do Assessment Before Enrolling the Student in the Class, Not After

Must multiple measures occur BEFORE a student is enrolled in a class, not after? That is, you can’t send a student to a counselor as a multiple measure after the student is already enrolled in the class. Correct?

Assessment and placement based on multiple measures must occur BEFORE placing the student in the class.

Is it illegal for the student’s score on the multiple measures to be made available to the instructor?

The college should not make assessment or placement results available to instructors. Students have a right to privacy of their records except in cases in which the college employee needs to know the information for valid educational reasons. Instructors do not need to know students assessment or placement results in order to teach them. All students sitting in class on the first day should be qualified--the colleges is required to enforce prerequisites to make this so. Knowledge of assessment and placement information could open instructors to charges of discrimination if they treated some students differently than others.

Once a student is enrolled in a class, with the student’s consent, does the instructor have the authority to move the student to a higher level? Can the student be moved to a lower level? When can this be done? At any time during the semester? And what basis may an instructor use for moving a student? We were told that we could not use in-class essays for this purpose any longer.

Instructors do not have the authority to remove a student form a class unless that student does not have the legally established prerequisite. Instructors who review student preparation at the beginning of the class (with wiring samples, review quizzes, etc.) and then "suggest" to students that they may wish to move up or down in the sequence are in violation of Title 5. However, nothing prevents an instructor from discussing the move up or down if this conversation results from a regular interaction within the course design. In any case, students have the right to make this decision themselves.

The assessment process (not a test alone) can be used for mandatory placement if properly validated. Students who do not pass a prerequisite course cannot enroll in the target course. The curriculum committee does not approve multiple measures as such but rather approves the use of the validated assessment process as a prerequisite or advisory. Catalog course description language such as "Prerequisite: English 50.1 with a grade of ‘C’ or better or appropriate skills demonstrated through the English assessment process" would be typical.

b. Give a few examples of the assessment process (for use outside the assessment skill areas for use within the same discipline sequence.)

If you have valid assessment processes in math, English, and ESL, you can use the results of these evaluations as prerequisites. For example, the description for English 1A might include, "prerequisite: English 101B or appropriate skill level established through the English assessment process (see page XXX)." Or the description of Physics 4A might include, "prerequisite: Math 1A or appropriate skill level established through the math assessment process." In the English case just cited, only content review would be required because the courses are in sequence in the same discipline. In the Physics example, data collection and analysis would be required because the prerequisite is a computation skill (math). Your catalog and schedule of classes would explain these assessment procedures on "page XXX."

Currently, no assessment instruments outside of math, English, and ESL are being reviewed or approved by the Chancellor’s Office. However, efforts are currently under way to expand the scope of assessment. Chabot College recently did a validation study for a chemistry assessment process, and a copy is attached.

How do we validate a prerequisite that is a skill for our career courses? (e.g. Office Administration 1C has a prerequisite of completion of OA 1B with C or better, or ability to type 25 W.A.M. accurately by touch.)

Courses in a sequence in a discipline, such as OA 1B as a prerequisite for OA 1C, require only content review [Model District Policy IIAb, Title 5 §55201(b)(1)]. However, there are some cautions about adding the phrase "or ability to type 25 W.A.M. accurately by touch." First, assessing this skill would require an instrument (a typing test) which must be validated and approved by the Chancellor’s Office, the process for which involves an effort which may not justify the ends [Title 5 §55202(c), §55521, and §55524]. Second, as a non-course prerequisite, justifying this skill would require the highest level of scrutiny: data collection and analysis [Model District Policy II.A.1.g.]. As a consequence, a reasonable suggestion would be to substitute the phrase "or equivalent" and encourage students with existing typing skills to use the challenge process to establish that they can type 25 W.A.M. or more. As you know, the burden of proof is on the student, so the specific evidence you will accept is up to the discipline faculty in Office Administration. A suggestion would be that the results of one of the many computer-based typing tests (some of which may, indeed, be available on your campus) be considered appropriate.

a. How do we validate a typing test?

Refer to "Standards, Policies and Procedures for the Evaluation of Assessment Instruments Used in the California Community Colleges" published by the Chancellor’s Office in April 1995. Your matriculation coordinator was sent a copy, or you may contact the Chancellor’s Office at (916) 445-0103.

b. Are there any Chancellor-approved typing tests?

No. Currently, the Chancellor’s Office is approving only English, ESL, and Math instruments for system wide use. In reviewing the list of locally developed and managed instruments none are listed outside these three disciplines.

What about using a grade of ‘B’ for a high school class as a prerequisite? This is on a drafting course, the student could have a ‘C’ in our course but must have a ‘B’ in the high school course.

You may use a high school course with a ‘B’ grade as a prerequisite, but there are two things to keep in mind. First, as non-course prerequisites, high school courses require the highest level of scrutiny, data collection and analysis. (You would have to show that, without an ‘A’ or ‘B’ in the high school course, students are highly unlikely to succeed.) Second, the regulations require consistency in the use of prerequisites. In the case of high school courses, this may mean that you would have to require high school transcripts for all students who wish to enroll in the class. [This is so impractical as to make the use of high school grades nearly impossible.] The only reasonable alternative would be to have the students self-report their high school course and grade. I doubt if the results would be reliable enough to use.

Can we use a high school prep course in chemistry as a prerequisite for our Anatomy Physiology 40 class? AP 40 is a prerequisite for the nursing program and the nursing program is already over its cap for AA degree units. AP 40 has as a prerequisite Chem 10, but including Chem 10 as a nursing program prerequisite will put the program over cap. The department will also accept the high school prep course which has the advantage of not adding units to the cap. Can we use the high school class as a prerequisite, and if so, does it need data validation or just content review?

You can use high school courses as prerequisites but only with difficulty. The nature of the difficulty and a recommendation for an alternative approach follow.

The regulations require consistency in implementation of prerequisites. It would be almost impossible for your college to enforce a high school course prerequisite. This would require transcripts for all students enrolling in Chem 10--not feasible. Being a non-course prerequisite, it would require data collection and analysis. Difficulties will abound with this: sample size, uniformity of high school chem course content, etc. And you don’t really need to do this because there is a relatively simple alternative.

Have AP 40 be the prerequisite for the Nursing program and Chem 10 be the prerequisite to AP 40, stated as "Prerequisite: Chem 10 or equivalent." Encourage students to use the challenge process to establish equivalent knowledge. Be sure to work with the chemistry faculty in advance to nail down as much as possible what they will be looking for in terms of student documentation and competencies. You might even have a flyer prepared or explain the situation in the major sheets used by counselors and instructors in letting students know the requirements of the nursing program, chemistry program, etc. Establishing AP 40 as a nursing program prerequisite is a matter of doing a content review for the nursing course with the most anatomy and physiology content. If AP 40 is a vocational course, not transfer, then content review can be used to establish Chem 10 as a prerequisite. Otherwise, look for equivalent prerequisites at 4-year schools with similar anatomy and physiology courses. The nursing program units thus do not need to be expanded because, by taking AP 40, students will have either taken Chem 10 or its equivalent.

The statement "or equivalent" is merely used to emphasize that the student may use the challenge process to establish that he or she has knowledge and skills equivalent to those specified in the prerequisite. The routine is: student files the petition attaching documentation (burden of proof is on the student), a seat is held for the student, within 5 days (typically) the instructor(s) review the documentation and decide on its merits (using a documented, consistent set of standards), and the student is then either allowed to remain in the course or involuntarily dropped.

b. If the statement "or equivalent" is used, should that be handled by an assessment process?

It can be handled by an assessment process, although that is a local decision. The regulations just require consistency in the decisions. IF an assessment process is used, it must follow matriculation standards: 1) if an instrument is used, it must be on the Chancellor’s list or locally validated, 2) cut off scores must be locally validated, 3) the placement must be based on multiple measures not a single assessment score, 4) the college must check for disproportionate impact on historically underrepresented groups, and, if found, must institute a plan to solve that problem.

Do you include "advisory skills" in your course outlines as well as prerequisite skills?

There is no requirement in the Model District Policy or Title 5 to document the advisory skills and the corresponding content review IN THE COURSE OUTLINE. In reviewing course outlines of record from many colleges, the VAST majority limit the course outline listing to prerequisites and corequisites. This is probably for the best--we have enough to do as it is and course outlines are complicated enough already!

Do you require that a distinction be made on the Content Review form between the exit skills and entry skills required for a prerequisite separate from those required for an advisory if both are listed? We have a situation where the instructor is saying that the entry skills are the same for the prerequisite and advisory courses. The Content Review form lists the exit and entry skills for the prerequisite. Another Content Review form lists the exit skills for the advisory and the same entry skills as that listed for the prerequisite course. It seems to me that the entry skills should address those of the advisory on the form.

It appears that the instructor(s) of the course identified the entry skills needed. These skills must be judged by the instructor(s) (and confirmed by the curriculum committee) as either (1) skills without which a student would not reasonably succeed in the course--thus constituting a set of prerequisite skills or (2) skills which would enhance or broaden the students’ learning but are not needed for success--indicating that the skills are advisory. WHICH OF THESE CASES IS BEING RECOMMENDED BY THE INSTRUCTOR(S)? It is the LAST step in the content review process to identify HOW the students will acquire the skills--to identify a course or courses or assessment process. (Note that it is thus not possible to have both a prerequisite course and an advisory course addressing the same entry skills as your note implies.)

Should we use our existing form for corequisite and advisory content review or should a new form be created (for corequisite and advisory), i.e., a shorter form. (The form now reads corequisite and advisory course title and number matching to target course title and number.)

The use of forms is totally up to your curriculum committee and academic senate. Experience has shown the guiding principle to be how your discipline faculty would like to operate. Do they want specifics and structure? If so, go with forms. Do they want independence, versatility, and less paperwork? If so, just use guidelines. If you go with forms for content review, add one specifically for corequisites and make the modifications suggested above. (Comments specifically on the forms you sent are at the end of this commentary.) If you go for guidelines, just write up a description of what your curriculum committee wants to see. For example, you might require for prerequisites that the content review list the exit and entry skills with their matches, then certify that these are necessary for success and have been developed by the proper process. Your existing policy should serve as a reference to the faculty on how to do this, including the proper process for faculty to identify necessary entry skills (MDP IC3a2), the criteria for prerequisites (without them students are highly unlikely to succeed), corequisites (without skills learned in both courses students are highly unlikely to succeed in either), advisories (skills to broaden or deepen learning but not necessary for success), and health and safety (skills to prevent harm to the student or others). You could do this as well for other limitations on enrollment (blocks, honors, performance) and statutory/contractual. Forms are not always the answer!

Can you only check one type of prerequisite/level of scrutiny?

Assuming your question to be, "Can you have more than one type of prerequisite for a course?," the answer is yes. If your question is "Can a given course be both a prerequisite and an advisory?," the answer is no. At any rate, here is a summary of the way things should be done.

When considering the establishment of a prerequisite, the discipline faculty would begin with a content review. By reviewing appropriate course materials, the faculty would identify a set of entry skills. The question then becomes, "are these skills such that, without them, students would be highly unlikely to succeed, that is, to pass?" If so, the faculty should recommend to the curriculum committee that these be prerequisite skills for the class (and list them as such in the course outline). Next the faculty would survey courses which teach these skills, identifying one or more courses (or other measures such as an assessment process) for which these skills are exit skills (student outcomes). In chemistry, for example, it is not unusual to have prerequisite skills in chemistry, math, and health and safety. If the faculty find (and the curriculum committee agrees) that the originally identified entry skills are not necessary for success, then the option still exists for the faculty (with curriculum committee agreement) to establish these skills as advisory. It would again be necessary to identify a course (or other assessment process) by which a student could acquire these skills. It may be for that chemistry class that the chemistry and health and safety skills are prerequisites but the math skills are just advisory.

Once the type of requirement (pre-, co- or advisory) is finalized as a recommendation, then there may be additional steps beyond the content review which must be taken to establish the prerequisite. If the prerequisite course is not in a sequence in the same discipline, it may be established by citing three UC or CSU equivalent prerequisite (unless the prerequisite is in math or English). If it is a math or English (or non-course) prerequisite, then data collection and analysis is required. Note that the level of scrutiny is established only after the prerequisite has been identified. Also note that once a set of skills, such as in math, have been identified as prerequisite skills, one could not say that Math X is a prerequisite and Math Y is advisory. The determination of the need for a prerequisite PRECEDES the identification of the course which teaches those prerequisite skills.

Co requisites are two courses whose content is so interdependent that they must be taken simultaneously. The content review process can be used, but the criterion is not JUST that without the skills in one course the student will not reasonably succeed in the other but FURTHER that skill a in course A must be learned before the student can learn skill b in course B--sort of a "back-and-forth" or "two-way" prerequisite. Course A is required for course B but also course B is required for course A.

It is also possible that the skills in course A are necessary for success in course B but that they may be acquired previous to OR concurrently with the course in which they are needed. This forms a "one-way" co requisite: course A may be taken before or during course B. Some lab or shop courses are this way. To take the activity course, one must have the theory course either previously or concurrently. The activity course description might read, "Co requisite: theory course A, may be taken previously."

b. Do we need content review with co requisites?

Yes. The Model District Policy IC3a requires that "the prerequisite or co requisite is an appropriate and rational measure of a student’s readiness to enter the course or program as demonstrated by a content review...." Title 5 §55201(b)(a) states, "At a minimum, prerequisites, co requisites, and advisories on recommended preparation shall be based on content review...."

Your form does not have a description which would apply to co requisites. To establish courses A and B as corequisites, it must be clear that there are skills and abilities that students must acquire concurrently in courses A and B or the students will be highly unlikely to succeed in both courses. On a practical note, you could use your "Prerequisite Content Review" form but ask that the skill listings be the student outcomes (exit skills) in courses A and B. Then in a form similar to your "Prerequisite Content Review Justification Worksheet" you might ask the discipline faculty to identify which of these skills are interdependent (skills without which the student would be highly unlikely to pass the other course).

By the way, this latter form seems to be a bit misleading. First, nowhere on this form or the previous one does it ask the discipline faculty to state that the proposed prerequisite skills are necessary for success or that they have used the proper review process [Model District Policy IC3a(2)]. Furthermore, it places an unnecessary emphasis on the DEGREE of match. If even ONE of the essential entry skills for course A is matched by an exit skill in course B, then there is sufficient justification for approving B as a prerequisite for A. (The matching process is of most use to discipline faculty when they are in the process of identifying the proper course which teaches the appropriate prerequisite skills.)

The course title Nutrition Delivery Systems 156 (lab) has a co requisite: Nutrition Delivery Systems F+CS 56 (lecture). Would sequential within disciplines be the type of co requisite checked?

The lab and lecture courses are corequisites within the same discipline. The level of scrutiny would be a documented content review establishing that without skills taught in 156 students would be highly unlikely to succeed in 56 and that without skills taught in 56 students would be highly unlikely to succeed in 156. At a practical level, list student outcomes for both courses and identify which are essential in each course to pass the other course.

Should course content have previous assignments of the co requisite or prerequisite course or advisory in the first three weeks of the course?

Prerequisites are established on the basis that certain skills are necessary upon entry. If these skills are taught within the course itself, a prerequisite is not justified.

From reviewing the catalog description, it is clear that English 21 is a communication skills course. The appropriate level of scrutiny is data collection and analysis.

b. For Child Development 10 the co requisite is English 21. Do we use the exit skills of English 20 to compare with those for CD 10?

First of all, establishing English 21 as a co requisite to Child Development 10 requires the highest level of scrutiny: data collection and analysis. You would certainly NOT list the exit skills of English 20 for this analysis. For a corequisite, you must demonstrate (in this case with a research study based on empirical data) that, without the skills learned in English 21, students are highly unlikely to succeed in Child Development 10. Concurrently you must demonstrate that, without the skills learned in Child Development 10, students are highly unlikely to succeed in English 21. The last condition seems extremely unlikely. Follow the previously described process. BEGIN with a content review to establish what, IF ANY, communication skills are essential for students to have to be reasonably expected to pass Child Development 10. THEN find a class that teaches these communication skills at the level you need them. FINALLY do a research study to verify that they are essential.

Once a student is enrolled in a class, they cannot be required to leave. I am assuming that this means that, if they become enrolled and do not meet the prerequisite, they cannot be removed. The prerequisite must be enforced PRIOR to enrollment. Is this correct?

A student who is enrolled in a course with a valid prerequisite may be involuntarily dropped if that student does not meet the prerequisite. The most common case would be enrolling a student for the spring term at a date during the fall term when the student is taking the prerequisite class but has not yet completed it. When the fall term is done, the college could do a computer run of those who did not pass the prerequisites and then drop them from the class. Good practice would be to 1) notify currently enrolled students of this practice, 2) send a letter to those so dropped, and 3) notify the instructors in those classes so that they can know if a student in that situation shows up.

Are validated prerequisites binding? That is, can a student be denied admission to class based upon a validated prerequisite?

Legally established prerequisites not only are binding but they MUST be enforced by the college. Students cannot be allowed to take a course without having the prerequisite. The mechanism of enforcement is up to the college, as long as some consistently applied method is used. This could include computer blocks but the college could also use retroactive computer runs to identify ineligible students after enrollment, give students a piece of paper when they satisfy a prerequisite and then have them present this for registration, or have instructors check prerequisites on the first day of class. (This latter is discouraged because of privacy and discriminatory concerns.)

Students can be added to classes the first day. Does the instructor need to make a reasonable effort to assure that the student has met the prerequisite?

Students who are added to a class during the add period after the first day of class must still be checked for prerequisites. The instructor’s signature on an add card cannot substitute for a prerequisite check. No one can authorize a student to "walk by" a prerequiste. The method used to do the prerequisite check after classes have started should be the same as that used beforehand. Title 5 requires consistency in the methods used to enforce prerequistes.

a. Can you have a prerequisite with a module course?

No. Prerequisites are course-to-course. It is not permitted to have a prerequisite for a student to move from one module within a course to another module in the same course.

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b. Can individual modules have lecture components?

The term "module" generally refers to packets of information learned as a whole within a course. One might organize a course into an introductory module, a module covering the next sequence of material, and so on. This internal structure of the course content is done entirely at the discretion of the instructor. There should be no reason for the curriculum committee to get involved with discussion of appropriate material to include in a given module.

What is the process and criteria our curriculum committee should use in reviewing and approving honors courses (and their limitations on enrollment). We have before us specifically a general humanities course, Humanities 30H, and a language course, Arabic 1H.

The process and criteria you should use are based on Title 5, the Model District Policy, the Curriculum Standards Handbook, and on your own local policies and procedures. In your particular district, your honors program consists of a series of separate courses, all of which are extensions of existing courses, except with an H designation (rather than specifying sections of courses as honors). Given this local procedure, the Curriculum Committee’s first obligation is to assure that the course meets the standards set forth in Title 5 and the Curriculum Standards Handbook. Second, the Curriculum Committee must establish that the limitation on enrollment, i.e., the requirement that the student meet the criteria for the honors program, is justified for the course.

First, as separate courses, all the "H" courses must meet Title 5 and Curriculum Standards Handbook requirements. In your case, the only standard that might come into question is that of need. Chapter 3 of the Handbook is devoted to the "Five Approval Criteria for Courses and Programs." They are: Appropriateness to Mission, Need, Quality, Feasibility, and Compliance.

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3.2 Need

There is a demonstrable need for a course or program that meets the stated goals and objectives, at this time, and in the region the college proposes to serve with the program.

In other words, the course outline of record for the honors course must establish that there is a unique role that this course plays in the curriculum--one that no other currently approved course can meet. The honors course should be able to demonstrate this need by having student outcomes and course content which are much deeper and broader than the corresponding non-honors course. The methods of instruction and evaluation as well as the assignments and texts should support this enhanced content. It would not be sufficient just to submit the course outline of Humanities 30H as identical to that of Humanities 30 with only an attachment stating that the course will be more extensive. The new course outline must actually DEMONSTRATE that uniqueness in order to establish the need in the curriculum for such an advanced honors course.

Really, this statement is true for all courses you review. If you cannot identify a unique role that a submitted course can play, such a course should not be approved.

In very practical terms, the department should include justification for the demand for the course. Because you will be limiting enrollment in the courses to only those in the honors program, are there indeed enough students to fill an entire section of Humanities 30H and of Arabic 1H? The criterion of need in the Curriculum Standards Handbook means that the Curriculum Committee should receive such evidence from the department before approving the course. This is especially significant in your honors system because, if you do not approve the course, students may still take the non-honors course to meet all degree and certificate requirements.

Regarding the second point, the approval of the honors status of the course should be established by Curriculum Committee review, as recommended by the Model District Policy:

IIC. Limitations on Enrollment

The types of limitation on enrollment specified below may only be established through the curriculum review process by the discipline or department faculty and the curriculum committee specified above including the requirement to review them again at least every six years, for example, as part of program review.

It is important to point out here that status as an honors course is NOT a prerequisite for the course but rather a limitation on enrollment and is thus subject to Title 5 Section 58106 rather than the regulations on prerequisites.

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58106 Limitations on Enrollment

In order to be claimed for purposes of state apportionment, all courses shall be open to enrollment by any student who has been admitted to the college, provided that enrollment in specific courses or programs may be limited as follows:

(a) Enrollment may be limited to students meeting prerequisites and corequisites established pursuant to Sections 55200-55202 of this Division.

(b) Enrollment may be limited due to health and safety considerations, facility limitations, faculty workload, the availability of qualified instructors, funding limitations, the constraints of regional planning, or legal requirements imposed by statutes, regulations, or contracts. The governing board shall adopt policies identifying any such limitations and requiring fair and equitable procedures for determining who may enroll in affected courses or programs. Such procedures shall be consistent with one or more of the following approaches:

(3) in the case of intercollegiate competition, honors courses, or public performance courses, allocating available seats to those students judged most qualified

Thus your Board of Trustees, in establishing the honors program through its board policies, has enabled the college to limit enrollment in specified courses. It might be advantageous for the Curriculum Committee to review this board policy because, as you can see from §58106, this policy is a requirement before the college can impose this limitation on enrollment. Once established, the college can limit enrollment in the honors courses to those students who are in the honors program. (Typically, this is done by block enrolling the honors students and then closing the section.) It is important that the college provide full disclosure to students regarding this limitation. I would recommend that the catalog and schedule carry a statement such as "enrollment limited to students in the honors program; see page XXX." The statement in your catalog seems adequate and is reproduced below.

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ADMISSIONS TO THE HONORS/TRANSFER PROGRAM

Requirements:

1. Completing an application for admissions.
2. Securing approval from the Director, Honors Program.
3. Presenting official transcript from high schools showing a 3.0 GPA OR a 3.0 GPA in 15 units of transferrable college courses.
4. Establishing eligibility for English 101 OR completing English 25 with a grade of "C" or better.

CONTACT: B. Gwen Hill, Director Honors Program; Hector Aguilar, Honors Counselor

PLEASE NOTE: All four steps must be completed before admission to the program.

To begin with, your catalog description should refer to "enrollment in" the program, not "admission to" the program. Students are admitted to the college and enroll in its courses and program.

The nature of the specific criteria for honors courses or sections are recommended in the Model District Policy which your district adopted to meet the conditions of Section 8 of the Matriculation Standards. These criteria are:

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II.C.2 Honors Courses

A limitation on enrollment for an honors course or an honors section of a course may be established if, in addition to the review by the faculty in discipline or department and by the curriculum committee as provided above, there is another sections or another course or courses at the college which satisfy the same requirements. If the limitation is for an honors course and not only for an honors section, the college must also include in the course outline of record a list of each certificate or associate degree requirement that the course meets and of the other course or courses which meet the same associate degree or certificate requirement.

Your college meets the first requirement by virtue of having a non-honors course for every honors course, e.g., Humanities 30 and Humanities 30H. Be sure that sections of the non-honors course are offered whenever the corresponding honors course is offered in a given semester. Rather than the extensive list of degrees and certificates called for in the second requirement, your situation lends itself to a statement in the course outline such as "The degree and certificate requirements met by Humanities 30H are also met by taking Humanities 30." I would suggest that your Curriculum Committee take separate action, as reflected by two different motions in your minutes, the first to approve the course and the second to approve the limitation on enrollment.

A brief summary of the forgoing might be of help.

Honors courses must follow the complete curriculum review process and meet the standards for a degree applicable credit course as specified in Title 5 and the Curriculum Standards Handbook. Particularly the criteria of need must be met by assuring that the honors course has a unique and necessary role in the curriculum and has sufficient enrollment demand. Curriculum committee review of the course outline must establish that the content and outcomes are enhanced as well as the methods of instruction, evaluation, assignments, and texts.

Be sure that the board policy on the honors program is in place and being followed. Assure full disclosure by including in the catalog and schedule listings a statement for each honors course and section such as "enrollment limited to students in the honors program; see page XXX." Your honors program description is adequate for the "page XXX" disclosure. Provide for curriculum committee review of the honors status of the course based on the criteria that 1) the corresponding non-honors course is approved and offered whenever the honors course is offered and 2) a statement to the effect that the non-honors course meets degree/certificate requirements is included in the course outline.

In our P.E. course (Ballet) the ultimate goal is to participate in the class and at the end the students will do a performance. May we use an audition for placement in the course content and would it not be in violation of limitations on enrollment?

This question can be answered in two ways. First, the assumption will be that successful completion of the course requires participation in a performance and thus requires skills which can best be established by audition. Second, the assumption will be that participation in a performance is only one of several ways that a student can demonstrate successful acquisition of skills necessary to pass the class.

Limitations on enrollment through successful completion of an audition are allowed if 1) there are other courses which a student can take to meet degree and certificate requirements, 2) that the course outline includes a list both of the degrees and certificates for which the performance course is a requirement and of the other courses which meet that requirement, and 3) the limitation is reviewed for disproportionate impact [Model District Policy IIC1 and Title 5 §58106(b)(3)]. Note that according to §58106(b) the Board of Trustees must establish policies to this effect. This would be the direction to take if the P.E. faculty felt that the student outcomes for the class were so closely tied to the actual performance skills of ballet that the only reasonable assessment of a student’s successful completion of the course would be active participation as a performer in a publicly staged ballet.

In the second case, an audition would not be required to enter the course. Students of all levels of skills and abilities would enroll in the course and be taught ballet. However, it is still possible to use an audition-type evaluation WITHIN the course to determine which role a student would perform in the ballet. Indeed, it may even be the case that some students do not perform in the ballet at all. In this case the ballet performance simply serves as one of several ways in which a student may demonstrate (and the instructor may evaluate) the skills and abilities required for successful completion of the course. Those in the ballet would be evaluated on their performance on stage in the ballet while others might be evaluated on their skills demonstrated in an exercise viewed only by the instructor. The course outline of record, in the section on methods of student evaluation, should spell out these various methods appropriately.

For honors courses, do you know who makes a course an honors class? (Or is it that we merely have to find another section or another course or courses at the college which satisfies the same requirements?)

Honors courses are those which meet locally established criteria. Title 5 §58106 requires that the "governing board shall adopt policies identifying any such limitations and requiring fair and equitable procedures for determining who may enroll in affected courses or programs. Such procedures shall be consistent with..., in the case of...honors courses,...allocating available seats to those students judged most qualified...."

Your district has an honors program, which I assume is authorized in board policy, and identifies the following limitations (as they appear in your catalog):

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ADMISSIONS TO THE HONORS/TRANSFER PROGRAM

Requirements:

1. Completing an application for admissions.
2. Securing approval from the Director, Honors Program.
3. Presenting official transcript from high schools showing a 3.0 GPA OR a 3.0 GPA in 15 units of transferable college courses.
4. Establishing eligibility for English 101 OR completing English 25 with a grade of "C" or better.

CONTACT: B. (Gwen Hill, Director Honors Program; Hector Aguilar, Honors Counselor

PLEASE NOTE: All four steps must be completed before admission to the program.

To begin with, your catalog description should refer to "enrollment in" the program, not "admission to" the program. Students are admitted to the college and enroll in its courses and program.

As to WHO determines that a course is an honors course, it is done by a "review by the faculty in the discipline or department and by the curriculum committee" [Model District Policy IIC2]. If there seems to be an issue about the level or rigor of a course in order for that course to be an honors course, you should adopt a local policy on the matter. Because this is an academic and professional matter, you must discuss this with the academic senate. A reasonable outcome would be for the senate to create a subcommittee of the curriculum committee to develop the policy. The membership might reasonably be drawn from those teaching honors courses, those counseling honors students, and faculty on the curriculum committee. After the recommendation is developed by the subcommittee and reviewed by the curriculum committee, it would then be submitted for action to the senate and become the authorized criteria by which the discipline faculty and the curriculum committee determine that a course should be an honors course.

Beyond that, as you mention, when an honors course is established, there must always be courses available to students which also meet any degree or certificate requirements of which the honors course is a part.

For our Music 781 (Studio, Jazz Band) can the prerequisite read, "Audition at first class meeting" or "Confirmation of enrollment subject to audition?" If an audition is a prerequisite, would we consider other Limitations on Enrollment, would we have to do content review, and must the college researcher consider disproportionate impact?

The catalog and schedule of classes description would, indeed, read, "enrollment subject to audition, see page XXX" and the cited page would describe the audition process. The audition must be done BEFORE the student is enrolled. (Although not recommended, one COULD give the first day of class as the audition date and time and then enroll students who passed the audition on the spot by giving them signed add cards.)

This is a limitation on enrollment, not a prerequisite. No content review is required. You must assure that any degree or certificate requirements which the audition course meets can also be met by another course or courses. You must list such degree and certificate requirements and the other courses in the course outline. And you must review the course within six years for disproportionate impact. (These last three requirements are in the Model District Policy IIC1, which I assume you have adopted, but they are not in Title 5.)

To begin with, your catalog description should refer to "enrollment in" the program, not "admission to" the program. Students are admitted to the college and enroll in its courses and program.

As to WHO determines that a course is an honors course, it is done by a "review by the faculty in the discipline or department and by the curriculum committee" [Model District Policy IIC2]. If there seems to be an issue about the level or rigor of a course in order for that course to be an honors course, you should adopt a local policy on the matter. Because this is an academic and professional matter, you must discuss this with the academic senate. A reasonable outcome would be for the senate to create a subcommittee of the curriculum committee to develop the policy. The membership might reasonably be drawn from those teaching honors courses, those counseling honors students, and faculty on the curriculum committee. After the recommendation is developed by the subcommittee and reviewed by the curriculum committee, it would then be submitted for action to the senate and become the authorized criteria by which the discipline faculty and the curriculum committee determine that a course should be an honors course.

Beyond that, as you mention, when an honors course is established, there must always be courses available to students which also meet any degree or certificate requirements of which the honors course is a part.

48. Performance Courses Which Do Not Meet Degree or Certificate Requirements

For this performance course, must the course be to meet a degree or certificate requirement in order to complete this section?

No. If a performance course does not meet any degree or certificate requirements, no notation is required in the course outline. The only requirements are to establish the limitation by board policy according to §58106 and to do a review for disproportionate impact.

If an audition is a prerequisite for a music course, should the type of audition be included? (Should it state briefly what the audition will consist of in order to meet this prerequisite?)

Yes, the type of audition and of what it will consist should be provided to students. (Remember, this is a limitation on enrollment, not a prerequisite.) From Title 5 §58106(b), your board policy must specify "fair and equitable procedures for determining who may enroll in affected courses or programs." This means that you should have a definite audition process, fully disclosed to students (by publication in the catalog and schedule of classes), and employing selection criteria which are "fair and equitable."

The other limitations on enrollment have nothing to do with class size limitations. Please elaborate briefly.