The State Certification Committee, the group responsible for overseeing the state certification code, has drafted an important new guideline that should be reviewed by WTCS instructors.

The policy guideline comes as a result of the restructuring of the associate of applied science (AAS) degree. Under the new degree format, which will be implanted in all 2007, AAS students will need to complete courses from three groups – general education; technical studies; and electives. The old degree format consisted of general education; occupational support; occupational specific; and electives.

Changes to the new AAS degree require that students fulfill general education requirements from a list of state-approved general education courses. Courses not appearing on the state-approved list, including courses previously classified as occupational support, must be taught as technical studies courses.

Previously, instructors certified in general education instructional areas (e.g. math) were eligible to teach general education math courses (e.g. algebra) and occupational support math courses (e.g. business math). The AAS restructuring plan eliminates occupational support, leaving a question over whether instructors certified in general education instructional areas will be able to teach courses that were previously considered occupational support, but will be classified as technical studies under the new AAS format.

The draft guidelines specify that instructors will be grandfathered. In other words, instructors currently certified and teaching (or have taught) a course formerly identified as occupational support will be allowed to continue teaching the course as long as it contains the same or similar content. New instructors or newly assigned instructors, on the other hand, will be eligible to teach only those courses number in the instructional areas where they maintain certification.

Other potential problems also exist with the creation of the new technical studies area. Previously, an instructor that held certification to teach one in one instructional area (e.g. supervisory management) could also teach courses from another instructional area (e.g. accounting) if the courses were identified as occupational support courses in the instructional area for which certification is held (supervisory management, in this case).

The elimination of the occupational support category again leaves the question of whether instructors will be able to cross-over and teach courses previously categorized as occupational support.

The guidelines again specify that current instructors will be grandfathered. Instructors that are certified and teaching (or have taught) courses previously categorized as occupational supportive will be allowed to continue teaching those courses.

In order to be grandfathered, instructors must have taught the course in three out of the last six semesters. Grandfathered instructors must continue teaching the course once every two years. Under the guidelines, no new requests for grandfathering would be accepted after June 2008.

The guidelines also specify that instructors teaching technical courses as electives must meet the occupational experience guidelines associated with the one of the programs associated with the instructional area the course is numbered within. Instructors teaching general education courses as electives must meet the academic preparation requirements for the instructional area the elective course is associated with.

Instructors are strongly encouraged to review the draft of Certification Guideline 69 (click on the word “Document” at the top of the page). Comments on the new guideline can be left on this site.

http://systemattic.wtcsystem.org/certification/certforms/CurrentDocs/Guidelines/GUIDE69.asp