EDLF 589: State Higher Education Policy

Fall 2002, Thursdays, 1-3:45 PM
Ruffner 122

Ruffner Hall, Room 227A
Office Hours: Thursday 10-12 and by appointment
home phone: 540-832-3448

Website: http://toolkit.virginia.edu/EDLF539-1

This course will introduce students to higher education policy at the state level. We will examine higher education governance structures, coordinating and governing board responsibilities and authority, higher education funding, quality assurance and accountability, K-16 initiatives, reform, and future challenges. We will be looking at a variety of governance types, but we will concentrate on Virginia as a case in point (California will be featured in one class session). Guests will include the Deputy Secretary of Education, a staff member from the State Council of Higher Education, the former SHEEO of Virginia and Kentucky, and a Curry faculty member, some of whose research has focused on California.

Assignments

All readings are to be done prior to the class for which they are assigned, and students will be responsible for knowledgeable participation in class discussion. By the end of the course, students will need to accumulate a total of 100 points. There are various ways to do this. The first set of possibilities and their worth in points are listed below. These must be turned in to the class Website by 5 p.m. the Wednesday before class each week, and you may do only one assignment per topic (e.g., you can't do a question set and a paper or a presentation on the same material)

Assignment Points
Short (3-5 pages) papers 8
Question sets 4
Leading or co-leading a class for 30 minutes (see Dr. Miller at least a week prior to the class regarding format) 8
Analytic essay on your work for the semester (to be turned in the last day of class) 8

In addition, you may do either of the assignments below:

Long paper (10-15 pages) or 20
Final exam 20

So, for instance, you might accumulate enough points by doing the following:

· 6 short papers (48 points)
· 1 class presentation (8 points)
· 6 question sets (24 points)
· long paper (20 points)

or

· 3 short papers (24 points)
· 8 question sets (32 points)
· 2 class presentations (16 points)
· self-analysis (8 points)
· final (20 points)

On the second day of class, please bring in your tentative plan to accumulate points (this can be changed in the course of the semester, after consultation with the instructor) and be ready to sign up for any class presentations you want to make. I'm also open to negotiation about other possible assignments.

You may improve your mark by as much as half a grade by collecting more than the required number of points or making particularly good contributions to class discussion. You may lower your grade by submitting less than the required work, missing class, or coming unprepared to class.

Learning goals

By the end of the course, students should have gained the following:

· An understanding of the larger picture of state higher education policy;
· Comprehension of the roles of various agencies, institutions, political bodies, and individuals in that picture;
· Knowledge of key points of view and arguments for and against various higher education policy strategies; and
· A capacity to analyze and write as professionals on these topics: knowledgeably, logically, succinctly, and clearly.

Books required:

Gerald Gaither, The Multicampus System: Perspectives on Practice and Prospects (1999), Stylus

Donald Heller, The States and Public Higher Education Policy (2001), Johns Hopkins

All other readings will either be provided to you or can be found at and downloaded from the class Website (http://toolkit.virginia.edu/2001_ Fall_EDLF589-8) or the Internet (URLs are in the syllabus). To sign up for Toolkit, go to http://toolkit.itc.virginia.edu/cgi-local/tk/.tkdocs/displaydocs and register for your student account.

Schedule

August 29: Introduction

September 5: Higher education governance at the state level

Gaither, introduction and chapters 1 & 2

Heller, pp. 200-211

Richard C. Richardson et al, "The States and Higher Education Governance," Designing State Higher Education Systems for a New Century (1999), Oryx

Carolyn Waller et al, "A Comparison of the Statutory Powers of State Central Higher Education Boards," in Governance and Coordination of Public Higher Education in all 50 States (2000), NC Center for Public Policy Research

Richard C. Richardson, ""Policy Environments, System Designs, and System Performance," in Richardson.

September 12: Higher education governance restructuring

James R. Mingle, "The Case for Coordinated Systems of Higher Education" (1995), SHEEO

Richard J. Novak, "Methods, Objectives, and Consequences of Restructuring," in Terrence J. MacTaggart (ed.), Restructuring Higher Education: What Works and What Doesn't in Reorganizing Governing Systems (1996), Jossey Bass

Aims McGuiness, Jr., "A Model for Successful Restructuring," in MacTaggart

September 19: Planning

Gaither, chapters 4 & 5

James R. Mingle and Rhonda Martin Epper, "State Coordination and Planning in an Age of Entrepreneurship"

SCHEV reports (pick one - find at http://www.schev.edu/Reportstats/reportsIndex.asp?from=reportstats

System-Wide Master Plan Phase I (2001)
Final Report of the Governor's Blue-Ribbon Commission (2000)
The Report of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education in Virginia (1996)

Commission on the University of the 21st Century, The Case for Change (1989)
September 26: Access

Heller, chapters 4 & 5

David Breneman and Joni E. Finney, "The Changing Landscape: Higher Education Finance in the 1990s," in Patrick M. Callan and Joni E. Finney, Public and Private Financing of Higher Education: Shaping Public Policy for the Future (1997), Oryx

"College Participation Rates by State for Students from Low Income Families," Postsecondary Education Opportunity (August 2002), No. 122

Gary Orfield, "Campus Resegregation"

Schmidt, Peter Schmidt, "U of California Ends Affirmative-Action Ban," Chronicle of Higher Education (May 25, 2001).

October 3: The budget process (guest: Peter Blake, Deputy Secretary of Education for VA)

Gaither, chapter 6

Martin M. Ahumada, "An Analysis of State Formula Budgeting in Higher Education," ASHE Reader on Finance in Higher Education (1993), pp. 331-354

Daniel T. Layzell and Jan W. Lyddon, "Budgeting for Higher Education at the State Level," ASHE Reader

Virginia General Assembly, Chapter 1073, Appropriation Act (2000)

Joseph Burke et al, Performance Funding and Budgeting: An Emerging Merger? The Fourth Annual Survey (2000)

October 10: Paying for college

Howard R. Bowen, "Society, Students, and Parents-A Joint Responsibility: Finance and the Aims of American Higher Education" (1971), ASHE Reader

Heller, chapter 3.

Earl Mackey, "Legislatures for the 21st Century," Chronicle of Higher Education (June 7, 2002)

Harold A. Hovey, "State Spending for Higher Education in the Next Decade: The Battle to Sustain Current Support," The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education http://www.highereducation.org/reports/hovey/hovey.shtml

Patrick M. Callan and Joni E. Finney, "Losing Ground: A National Status Report on the Affordability of Higher Education," National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, http://www.highereducation.org/reports/losing_ground/ar.shtml

October 17: Outcomes and accountability (guest: Lonnie Schaffer, State Council of Higher Education)

Heller, chapter 7

Gerald Gaither, Brian P. Nedwick and John E. Neal, "The Policy Connection: Ideas and Actions," in Measuring Up: The Promises and Pitfalls of Performance Indicators in Higher Education (1994), ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 5

Peter T. Ewell, "An Emerging Scholarship: A Brief History of Assessment," in Trudy Banta (ed.), Assessing Impact

Peter T. Ewell and Paula Ries, "Assessing Student Learning Outcomes"
http://measuringup2000.highereducation.org/assessA.htm

Please go to the SCHEV Website for a sense of what "accountability"
means to SCHEV these days

October 24: Academic program and productivity policies

Gaither, chapter 7

Rhonda Martin Epper, Deregulation of State-Level Academic Program Policies (1999), SHEEO

Robert Walhaus, Priorities, Quality and Productivity (1996), Education Commission of the States

State Council of Higher Education for Virginia 1998-99 Productivity Report

Margaret A. Miller, "Pressures to Measure Faculty Work," in Jon Wergin (ed.), Analyzing Faculty Workload (1994).

October 31: California (guest: Brian Pusser)

Gaither, chapter 8

Heller, chapter 6

California Master Plan draft, http://www.sen.ca.gov/masterplan/0207302NDDRAFTMASTERPLAN.PDF

Brian Pusser suggests that you poke around on the Websites of the California Postsecondary Education Commission and the California state legislature's relevant committees (e.g, the Senate higher education committee) and committee members to find out what are the pressing higher-education issues in the state currently.

November 7: Measuring Up 2002 (to be distributed in class)

November 14: Reform (guest: Gordon Davies, former SHEEO of Virginia and Kentucky)

Gordon K. Davies, "Twenty Years of Higher Education in Virginia" (1993), http://www.schev.edu/Reportstats/reportsIndex.asp?from=reportstats (1997)

Gordon K. Davies, "Higher Education is a Public-Health Issue," Chronicle of Higher Education (November 30, 2001)

Daniel A. Rabuzzi, "Postsecondary Education Reform in Kentucky" (2001), NGA Center for Best Practices

Gordon K. Davies, "Higher Education Cartels," Chronicle of Higher Education (October 3, 1997)

November 21: K-16

"Continuum of Education," http://www.schev.edu/Reportstats/reportsIndex.asp?from=reportstats (pre-1996)

Gathering Momentum: Building the Learning Connection Between Schools and Colleges (2002), Institute for Educational Leadership

Jane Wellman, State Policy and Community College-Baccalaureate Transfer at http://www.highereducation.org/reports/reports_center.shtml

SHEEO Reports - pick two at
http://www.sheeo.org/publicat/pub-k16.htm

Teacher Quality and P-16 Reform: The State Policy Context
Statewide School-College (K-16) Partnerships to Improve Student Performance
Statewide Strategies for Implementing Competency- based Admission Standards and
College Admission Requirements: A New Role for States
Statewide Remedial Education Policies and Statewide College Admissions, Student
Preparation, and Remediation Policies and Programs: Summary of a 1997
SHEEO Survey

November 28: Thanksgiving

December 5: Future challenges

Gaither, chapter 12

Heller, Conclusion

Arthur Levine, "Higher Education's New Status as a Mature Industry," Chronicle of Higher Education (January 31, 1997)

James J. Duderstadt, "The Future of the University in the Digital Age," American Philosophical Society, November 1999.

David Collis, "When Industries Change Revisited: New Scenarios for Higher Education."

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