The California Community Colleges Curriculum Committee, frequently referred to as 5C, plays an essential role in dialoguing about and supporting curricular change in the California Community Colleges system.
WHAT IS 5C?
The California Community Colleges Curriculum Committee is the statewide group that makes recommendations and provides guidance to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office (CCCCO) regarding local and statewide implementation of curricular policy and regulations for both credit and noncredit courses and programs as well as not-for-credit. To this purpose, 5C has the following charge (CCCCO, 2022):
- Be responsible for the development and revision of all Title 5 regulations related to curriculum and instruction.
- Produce revisions of the Program and Course Approval Handbook and the Baccalaureate Degrees Handbook.
- Advise the Chancellor’s Office on state-level curriculum certification processes to ensure quality, integrity, compliance, collaboration, flexibility, timeliness, and transparency while putting the needs of students first.
- Work with the Chancellor’s Office to ensure that all levels of local and regional curricular design and approval are faculty-led and driven by student need.
- Advise the Chancellor’s Office on training programs for colleges and districts regarding submission of curriculum to the Chancellor’s Office.
The work of 5C is done by a collaborative group chaired by an Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) representative and a California Community Colleges Chief Instructional Officers (CCCCIO) representative. In addition to multiple representatives from the ASCCC and the CCCCIO, the committee includes representatives from the CCCCO, the California Community Colleges Chief Student Services Officers, the Student Senate for California Community Colleges, and the California Community College Classified Senate. Additional members from the Association of Community and Continuing Education, the Community College Association for Occupational Education, and the CCCCO legal team contribute as resource members.
5C’S ROLE IN TITLE 5
The members of 5C—administrators, faculty, students, and classified professionals—work together to review and update regulatory changes to Title 5 dealing with curriculum. Through a collaborative process, the committee identifies and discusses the potential implications of proposed changes, potential impact on students, and any potential unintended consequences. Once regulatory changes have been approved by 5C, they move through the consultative process, are presented to the public for comment, and then are approved by the Board of Governors. For example, in Fall 2021,the ASCCC passed Resolution 9.01 F21 to work with the CCCCO in adding culturally responsive curriculum, equity mindedness, and anti-racism to course outline of record requirements in Title 5. This recommendation was sent to 5C, where a team is currently updating and making recommendations regarding Title 5 §55002 and related sections.
WHAT IS 5C CURRENTLY WORKING ON?
In 2020, 5C created a set of recommended priorities that focus on championing equity-minded curriculum and practices for credit and noncredit instruction:
- Priority 1: Champion curricular diversity of representation and culturally relevant and responsive content with an anti-racism focus and in support of disproportionately impacted students.
- Priority 2: Recommend policy changes and additions that remove systemic barriers to student success and equity.
- Priority 3: Provide guidance and support for instructional continuity and system resiliency.
The 2021-2022 5C committee has been a dynamic and busy group that has embraced these priorities and is working on three specific regulatory areas:
- Work Experience (Title 5 §§55002.5, 55040, 55252-55254, 58003, 58009, 58161): Proposed changes include the addition of non-credit options for work experience, clarification of the credit hour calculations, and elimination of the requirement for in-person workforce supervision.
- Associate Degree (Title 5 §§55060-55064): Proposed changes include clarification of wording on competencies to align with the Education Code sections that resulted from AB 705 (Irwin, 2017) and reorganization of sections to separate regulations for designing degrees and awarding degrees.
- Standards and Criteria for Courses (Title 5 §55002): Proposed changes include the addition of inclusiveness, diversity, equity, and antiracism (IDEA) as a standard for course approval and the requirement of IDEA to be integrated into existing areas of the course outline of record, which is locally determined.
In addition to these regulatory changes, 5C has produced a “DEI in Curriculum: Model Principles and Practices” tool for local colleges to use in framing discussions and implementing IDEA into curricular processes. This document provides promising practices that can be used by faculty, deans, curriculum chairs and committees, chief instructional officers or vice presidents of instruction, and local academic senates to begin conversations on how to redesign practices from working within a traditional Eurocentric model to working within an equity-minded framework. This new tool will be presented at the 2022 ASCCC Spring Plenary, the 2022 CCCCIO Spring Conference, and the 2022 ASCCC Curriculum Institute in July. The rollout of this tool will be supported with professional development from all 5C constituencies.
Individuals who want to learn more about 5C and its current membership or read the minutes of meetings can visit the 5C section of the Chancellor’s Office website at www.cccco.edu.
REFERENCES
California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. (2022). California Community College Curriculum Committee Purpose and Responsibility. https://www.cccco.edu/About-Us/Chancellors-Office/Divisions/Educational….