Background
Professional Development Funding is provided under the provisions of AB 1725, passed in 1989 by the California State Legislature. Pertinent excerpts from that legislation are quoted below:
SEC. 4
The Legislature finds and declares the following with regard to faculty, administrators, and staff of the California Community Colleges:
(g) Community college instructors, recruited directly from graduate school or from some form of employment other than teaching, may not be prepared to deal effectively with the wide range of student abilities and attitudes found in community college classrooms. As larger numbers of students from many different cultural backgrounds and with significant English language and other deficiencies are enrolled, the problem will become more serious for both administrators and faculty. The proposed establishment of a student assessment, counseling, and placement program on each campus will also require additional training and assistance for both faculty and administrators.
(h) Professional development for faculty, support staff, student services staff, and administrators is vital. Further, the success of the assessment, counseling, and placement programs will depend upon the effectiveness of this training.
(i) The recruitment of faculty into the community colleges, and the maintaining of morale and enthusiasm among the faculty depends in large part upon the intellectual and personal environment within which faculty work. Much of that environment is created by their own authority over the substantive direction of the programs and courses in which they work, through the quality of their relationship with the college administration, and in the quality of their interactions with the communities of students they teach. At the same time, it is apparent that faculty morale comes from their engagement in the development of new and innovative programs, from their engagement in professional and discipline-based associations, and from an active, intellectual life as scholars and teachers.
(j) Community colleges have less resources available for faculty professional and intellectual development than do other segments of the system of higher education, and this disparity may become a substantial barrier to the future recruitment of quality faculty. Yet, faculty in the community colleges should be no less intellectually engaged than their colleagues in the other segments. Their primary commitment to teaching makes it imperative that they have a vibrant and rich intellectual life.
(k) The success of the assessment, counseling, and placement system in the California Community Colleges will depend upon the commitment and dedication of trained student services staff. The importance of their role stretches across all aspects of community college life including: counseling, reading and computational assessment and evaluation, financial aid assistance, providing and directing tutorial services, providing outreach into the local community, providing information to continuing students, and assisting the faculty in designing and providing courses of study which meet the particular needs of very different students. It is essential that the college have adequate service staff, and that they be superbly trained, especially in view of the current diversity of student educational needs in the community colleges.
SEC. 26 Article 5 - Community College Faculty and Staff Development Fund
87150. There is hereby created in the State Treasury the Community College Faculty and Staff Development Fund, to be administered by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, the purpose of which is to provide state general funds to community colleges for supporting locally developed and implemented faculty and staff development programs.
87153. The authorized uses of funds allocated under this article shall include all of the following:
(a) Improvement of teaching.
(b) Maintenance of current academic and technical knowledge and skills.
(c) In-service training for vocational education and employment preparation programs.
(d) Retraining to meet changing institutional needs.
(e) Intersegmental exchange programs.
(f) Development of innovations in instructional and administrative techniques and program effectiveness.
(g) Computer and technological proficiency programs.
(h) Courses and training implementing affirmative action and upward mobility programs.
(i) Other activities determined to be related to educational and professional development pursuant to criteria established by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges, including, but not necessarily limited to, programs designed to develop self-esteem.