Legislature(2011 - 2012)TERRY MILLER GYM
03/11/2011 08:00 AM House EDUCATION
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| Presentations(s): Higher Education and Career Readiness Task Force | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
JOINT MEETING
HOUSE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
March 11, 2011
8:08 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
HOUSE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
Representative Alan Dick, Chair
Representative Lance Pruitt, Vice Chair
Representative Eric Feige
Representative Paul Seaton
Representative Sharon Cissna
Representative Scott Kawasaki
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
Senator Kevin Meyer, Co-Chair
Senator Joe Thomas, Co-Chair
Senator Bettye Davis, Vice Chair
Senator Hollis French
Senator Gary Stevens
MEMBERS ABSENT
HOUSE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
Representative Peggy Wilson
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
All members present
OTHER LEGISLATORS PRESENT
Representative Mike Chenault
Representative Peggy Wilson
Senator Linda Menard
Senator Charlie Huggins
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATIONS(S): HIGHER EDUCATION AND CAREER READINESS TASK
FORCE
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
LOLLY CARPLUK, Coordinator
Alaska Native Teacher Preparation Project (UAF)
Mountain Village, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: During the presentation, introduced herself
as a member of the task force and explained the project.
BARB ANGAIAK, President
NEA-Alaska
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified during the presentation.
WENDY REDMAN, Executive Vice President
Statewide Programs & Services
University of Alaska (UA)
Fairbanks, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified during the presentation.
DONALD HANDELAND, Student Representative
Alaska State Board of Education & Early Development
Sitka, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: During the presentation, introduced himself
as a member of the task force.
DR. KEITH HAMILTON, President
Alaska Christian College
Soldotna, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified during the presentation.
SENATOR LINDA MENARD
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: During the presentation, introduced herself
as a member of the task force.
MIKE HANLEY, Commissioner
Office of the Commissioner
Department of Education and Early Development
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified during the presentation.
EDDY JEANS, Education Policy Coordinator
Office of the Commissioner
Department of Education and Early Development (EED)
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: During the presentation, introduced himself
as a member of the task force.
DON BANTZ, President
Alaska Pacific University
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified during the presentation.
STEVE BRADSHAW, Superintendent
Sitka School District
President
Alaska Council of School Administrators (ACSA)
Sitka, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified during the presentation.
STEPHANIE BUTLER, Director of Operations
Alaska Commission on Post Secondary Education (ACPE)
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: During the presentation, introduced herself
as a member of the task force.
PETER FINN, Chair
Alaska Coalition of Student Leaders
University of Alaska
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified via teleconference during the
discussion.
ACTION NARRATIVE
8:08:37 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS called the joint meeting of the House and Senate
Education Standing Committees to order at 8:08 a.m.
Representatives Dick, Pruitt, Feige, Seaton, and Kawasaki, and
Senators Thomas, Meyer, Davis, Stevens, and French were present
at the call to order. Representative Cissna arrived as the
meeting was in progress.
8:09:03 AM
^PRESENTATIONS(S): Higher Education and Career Readiness Task
Force
PRESENTATIONS(S): Higher Education and Career Readiness Task
Force
8:09:45 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS announced that the only order of business would
be a presentation from the Higher Education and Career Readiness
Task Force.
8:10:27 AM
SENATOR STEVENS, noting that the task force had met six times,
explained that its mission was to identify the causes behind the
low retention rate and the lack of educational preparation which
necessitated remedial courses at the university level. He
declared there to be three major issues: why were students not
prepared for the college level courses; was counseling prior to
college necessary for students to better understand what was
required; would scholarships and loan programs assist in the
efforts. He reported that the task force had compiled all the
suggestions, and divided them into five areas: parents and
their involvement, teachers and improvement, school districts,
State of Alaska, and the University of Alaska. He reported that
the task force had earlier discussed parents and the university,
and was now prepared to discuss the remaining three areas. He
asked the members of the task force to introduce themselves.
8:14:52 AM
LOLLY CARPLUK, Coordinator, Alaska Native Teacher Preparation
Project (UAF), said that the grant that she administered
included financial assistance to Alaska Native interns in their
final year of study prior to entering teaching. She pointed out
that the grant was unique as it included a research component to
assist with refinement of the University of Alaska Fairbanks
(UAF) teacher program.
BARB ANGAIAK, President, NEA-Alaska, declared that she was a
veteran of 30 years teaching in Alaska.
8:16:22 AM
WENDY REDMAN, Executive Vice President, Statewide Programs &
Services, University of Alaska (UA), said that she was
representing UA.
DONALD HANDELAND, Student Representative, Alaska State Board of
Education & Early Development, stated that he was currently a
senior in high school.
DR. KEITH HAMILTON, President, Alaska Christian College, stated
that the college served, almost exclusively, rural Alaska
students.
SENATOR LINDA MENARD, Alaska State Legislature, stated that she
represented the Wasilla and Palmer area.
8:17:41 AM
SENATOR STEVENS introduced himself as the Chair of the Higher
Education and Career Readiness Task Force.
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON introduced himself as a member of the task
force.
MIKE HANLEY, Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner,
Department of Education and Early Development, stated that EED
would continue the work which had begun with the former
commissioner.
8:17:55 AM
EDDY JEANS, Education Policy Coordinator, Office of the
Commissioner, Department of Education and Early Development
(EED) introduced himself.
8:18:22 AM
STEPHANIE BUTLER, Director of Operations, Alaska Commission on
Post Secondary Education (ACPE), introduced herself.
SENATOR STEVENS noted that Representative Cissna, Representative
Kawasaki, and Senator Davis were also present.
8:19:25 AM
SENATOR STEVENS introduced Peter Finn, Chair of the Alaska
Coalition of Student Leaders at University of Alaska Anchorage,
and Fred Villa, Associate Vice President for Workforce Programs,
University of Alaska Anchorage, who were participating via
teleconference. He referred to the final report of the task
force, which was due to be released on April 1, 2011 and asked
if there were any specific areas to be discussed.
8:20:26 AM
CO-CHAIR THOMAS asked for a response to a number of issues,
including teacher preparedness which allowed reimbursement for
national certification, and counseling to prospective teaching
program candidates which helped explain the many issues for the
teaching profession.
SENATOR STEVENS reported that the task force recognized the
importance of the mentoring program, the assistance to
prospective teacher candidates, and establishment of the annual
dialogue with the UA Board of Regents. He opined that
maintaining better communication with the UA Board of Regents
and the Alaska State Board of Education & Early Development was
equally as important as communication with the administrations.
8:23:41 AM
SENATOR DAVIS, reflecting on a report from the UA Board of
Regents lauding accomplishment with the reading programs,
expressed concern with reading at the K-12 levels, and asked if
the techniques for success at the university level had been
shared with teachers at the elementary and high school levels.
8:24:32 AM
SENATOR STEVENS, agreeing with the importance of reading
programs, replied that the task force was focused on work place
career readiness.
8:25:35 AM
MS. REDMAN explained that teacher preparedness was a complicated
issue, which needed to be addressed on a national level, similar
to the campaign to elevate the image of nurses in the workplace.
She pointed out that support was the most important aspect for
retention of teachers in Alaska, which was addressed by the
teacher preparedness. She expressed concern that UA was only
supplying 28 percent of Alaskan teachers, and emphasized that
this rate needed to be improved. She declared that it was a
more complex issue; although more students were graduating with
a degree in teaching, it was unclear why these graduates were
not becoming teachers. She offered her belief that teacher
education is the highest priority in order to respond to the
needs of the Alaska public school system.
8:28:31 AM
MS. ANGAIAK expressed her support for a consistent "mentor
project," and declared that it had a significant impact on the
first and second year teachers' ability to understand students
and education. She reported that it had been shown that
teachers with the national board certification had improved
student achievement in their classrooms, as the standards for
certification were very high and the year long program was very
rigorous. She shared that only 120 teachers in Alaska were
nationally board certified, and she recommended support for
making funds available for the program.
8:31:39 AM
STEVE BRADSHAW, Superintendent, Sitka School District,
President, Alaska Council of School Administrators (ACSA),
stated his support for the effort toward national board
certification of Alaska teachers. He recommended focusing on
the mentor program, and he suggested, as an improvement for
education, to append the mentor program with the national board
certification. He lauded the [teacher] professional development
days as legitimate improvements of the educational process as it
allowed for the alignment of testing with teaching, and he
requested flexibility for the allocated time.
8:34:03 AM
REPRESENTATIVE CISSNA, reflecting on the creativity of a small,
independent private school, asked for ways to enhance the
system.
8:35:27 AM
DON BANTZ, President, Alaska Pacific University, explained that
he had recently been at Evergreen State College, which had a
very innovative teacher training program. He reported that the
national teacher dropout rate was 50 percent in the first two
years of teaching. He reflected that new teacher graduates
became discouraged when they entered "this mind numbing
bureaucracy, so they had to be parents because the parents
weren't doing the parenting. They had to do curriculum
committees and teaching to the test, all the things they knew
didn't work, yet that's what they were forced to do." He
emphasized the need to address the root cause, as even training
the best teachers in the world was pointless if they left
teaching in a short period of time. He opined that private
schools still had a role to play, with small classes,
flexibility, and creativity in the teacher education program.
He offered his belief that it was known what worked in teaching,
but that it was difficult to implement in a large bureaucratic
system.
8:38:33 AM
SENATOR STEVENS pointed out that all the institutions in Alaska
were represented at this meeting, colleges, universities, and
vocational programs, and that there were many paths toward
completing an education. He opined that the teacher education
structure was different at each, and that was good.
8:39:01 AM
MR. BANTZ stated that a two year post-Bachelor program was
necessary to develop a good teacher, yet the competition for
teaching candidates was with on-line programs which now offered
a nine month program.
MR. BRADSHAW emphasized the necessity to change the attitude
that teaching was easy, and prospective students should
understand that it was a difficult profession. He stated: "we
need to get back on track and focus on our children; it's more
about the kids than anything else." He concluded by stating
that not everyone can be a teacher, even those who think they
can.
8:40:37 AM
MS. ANGAIAK, sharing the responses from teacher exit interviews,
stated that the number one reason that teachers leave was
because they did not feel supported, though not necessarily by
the administrators.
8:42:44 AM
SENATOR STEVENS pointed out that the draft copy of the task
force report included all the suggestions that had been
received. He noted that he agreed with some of the suggestions,
and disagreed with others.
SENATOR STEVENS listed better preparation of students for either
a college career or a job as the highest priority, with the
aforementioned counseling prior to college, and scholarships and
financial aid as the next most important items. He suggested
the need for more post-high school academies to "help students
come up to speed."
8:44:19 AM
COMMISSIONER HANLEY opined that it was necessary to fully
recognize "where the exact shortcoming is," and he asked, "Who
are those students? Where are they coming from? Are they our
traditional students coming out of high school [or] are they the
non-traditional students coming back to school to add some
skills." He stated that it was necessary for EED, with the
cooperation of UA, to immediately answer these questions. He
suggested tracking the necessary classes, including math,
reading, and writing, to understand the depth of the need, with
the possibility of backtracking this information to specific
schools, and then working directly with those schools. He
expressed his agreement with summer school courses, or
academies, to immediately confront the problem. He concluded by
stating the need for more early literacy programs.
8:46:39 AM
SENATOR STEVENS pointed to statistics which indicated a very low
success rate for students who take remedial college classes.
8:47:28 AM
MS. REDMAN, in response to Senator Stevens, said that a key was
to look at what has been proven to work: intensive summer
programs for early college experience, and realistic assessments
of skills while in high school. She offered her belief that UA
should cultivate innovation and identify whether developmental
courses were producing successful students. She reported that,
nationally, 50 percent of high school students were taking one
or more developmental courses. She stated that bridging
programs for incoming university students were a cheap and
effective means for increasing skills.
8:50:27 AM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON said that he was encouraged with the
university response. He directed attention to national data
which suggested remedial courses for very specific areas of
need, not necessarily as a pre-requisite, which reflected better
long term success.
8:53:03 AM
SENATOR STEVENS directed attention to the discussions on student
counseling.
8:54:00 AM
PETER FINN, Chair, Alaska Coalition of Student Leaders,
University of Alaska, [Testimony indistinct, but reconstructed
from the committee secretary's log notes.] said that general
advisory and college counselors were available, and there were
counselors for course work. He offered his belief that the
surprises most often occurred when students attempted to
transfer credits.
8:56:21 AM
SENATOR STEVENS stated that the legislature was addressing the
issue of financial assistance and scholarships. He offered his
belief that supportive legislation would arise after the task
force report was released on April 1.
8:57:16 AM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the joint
meeting of the Senate and House Education Standing Committees
meeting was adjourned at 8:57 a.m.
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