San Francisco City College未通过高效教育认证
2013/08/12/周一 12:59
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前不久，旧金山市立学院（San Francisco City College）没有通过高校教育认证，造成了震撼，这是非常严重的事！认证是美国先进教育制度中重要的一环。认证的单位是民间独立的、有经验、有信誉的评鉴机构来执行。全美由六家相关的认证机构，分地区负责学校的评鉴。社区大学每六年评估一次。全方位的评鉴分四个方面：教育质量、管理、人事、财务等。
这种评鉴是公开、认真、公平的，具有权威性。旧金山市立学院和凡是没有通过认证的学院一样，学分得不到全美教育界的承认，政府不会给教育经费。没有有效的学分，没有起码的经费，学校面临关门的危机，学生怎么办？尤其是国际学生，人地生疏，更是担心。
旧金山「观察家报」的文章建议，由附近的圣马特奥高校（San Mateo Colleges）的肯尼亚达学院（Canada College），圣马特奥学院（College of San Mateo）和斯凯兰学院（Skyline College）三所学院来「接管」。那么为什么有这样的建议？
因为圣马特奥高校总校的三所学院在负责认证ACCJC的认证过程中得到很高评价；并且还被国际一流的评级公司，如：穆迪、标普评为AAA的唯一两年制社区大学。美国总统欧巴马将派10万名美国学生留学中国的「10万强计划」，由前国务卿喜莱莉召集会议。圣马特奥高校是美西唯一被指定参与「10万强」的两年制大学。
今年四月，加州布朗州长率团访问中国，拜访美国驻中国的大使馆。圣马特奥高校总校的栾副校长特别和骆家辉大使谈了10万强的事。中国教育部有关的国际教育单位也请栾副校长协助把美国的认证制度引进到中国的高校系统。可见美中教育界对圣马特奥高校三所分院的重视肯定。圣马特奥的优秀学生，其中不少是国际学生，直升美国56所大学，而多数直升美国前50名的名校。其中包括：加州大学柏克莱、戴维斯、洛杉矶、圣地亚哥、河滨、圣克鲁斯等分校，哈佛、麻省理工、史丹福、耶鲁、康乃尔、哥伦比亚、塔夫茨、密西根、芝加哥、南加大、洛约拉玛利曼、加州理工、宾夕法尼亚、杜克、威廉和玛丽、卡尔波利、卡内基梅隆、乔治华盛顿、弗吉尼亚、太平洋等大学。
英文报道：
City College of SF to lose accreditation in 2014 Nanette Asimov Updated 11:07 pm, Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Beset by mismanagement and unable to convince overseers that it had repaired extensive problems, City College of San Francisco will lose its accreditation a year from now and its elected Board of Trustees will be stripped of decision-making powers, the college learned Wednesday.
The decision by an accrediting commission allows the college of 85,000 students - among the largest in the country - to stay open until July 31, 2014, unless an appeal is successful or if the college can make enough progress to win an extension.
State law prohibits taxpayer funds from going to unaccredited institutions, so if the commission's decision stands, the college would probably be forced to shut its doors.
City College will appeal the decision, interim Chancellor Thelma Scott-Skillman said as she,Brice Harris, chancellor of California's community college system, and San Francisco MayorEd Lee announced the stunning verdict.
Harris said the college system's Board of Governors will appoint a special trustee "with extraordinary powers" next week to replace the trustees. That person will run the college with the aim of restoring it to full favor, Harris said.
Meanwhile, he said, students are encouraged to enroll, and the search for a permanent chancellor will proceed.
Unaddressed concernsThe Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges voted to revoke accreditation because City College had fully addressed just two of the commission's 14 major recommendations - accreditation being voluntary, they were not requirements - and it corrected only a few of the many deficiencies cited, the commission said in a statement posted on its website.
"While many college personnel have worked hard to correct deficiencies, CCSF would need more time and (a) more cohesive institutional-wide effort to fully comply with accreditation requirements," commission Chairwoman Sherrill Amador said in the statement.
The commission is a private, nonprofit agency, one of six regional accrediting bodies overseen by the U.S. Department of Education. It has 19 voting members, mostly college chancellors, faculty and education experts.
Severe sanctionThe commission placed City College on its most severe sanction a year ago, citing a broken system of governance and fiscal planning in which a skeletal crew of administrators and bickering employees failed to make necessary budget cuts even as state funding dried up.
The commission gave City College eight months to show why it should remain accredited, a deadline that expired in March. The commission reached its verdict in June but only revealed it Wednesday.
College faculty, staff, administrators and students had tried for a long, nail-biting year to repair all of the deficiencies.
"It's shocking and outrageous, given the massive changes we've made," said John Rizzo, president of the college trustees. "We've reorganized every level of the management structure, in every department. We've cut pay. We've funded the reserve for nine years. ... This is really bad for San Francisco."
Coalition outragedStudent and faculty activists, many organized into the Save City College Coalition, reacted with outrage.
"This announcement clearly shows that the (accrediting commission) is an out-of-control, rogue institution that must be stopped by the (U.S.) Department of Education," saidWendy Kaufman, an engineering instructor and coalition leader.
Student trustee Shanell Williams, also a coalition leader, called on politicians to "step in immediately to reverse this outrageous announcement."
The coalition has backed a complaint filed recently by the California Federation of Teacherswith the U.S. Department of Education alleging that the commission has overstepped its authority in sanctioning City College.
The college's predicament did not go unnoticed in Washington, where Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education, called it "regrettable - and absolutely necessary."
"An institution that does not meet accreditation standards cheats its students and its community," Broad said in a statement.
If City College loses its accreditation, it would become only the second public community college in California to do so. The first,Compton College in Los Angeles County, saw its accreditation revoked in 2006 and was absorbed into a neighboring community college district.
Students who attend an unaccredited institution are ineligible to receive federal or state financial aid, and their diplomas often mean little to employers.
Community's workersThousands of people depend on City College for a leg up into the middle class. The school produces paramedics, phlebotomists, restaurant workers, nurses, firefighters, police and other experts who keep the Bay Area's economy humming.
Hundreds of students earn credits for transfer to university. Immigrants also turn to the college to learn English, while senior citizens find intellectual stimulation there through music and art, memoir-writing and useful classes like nutrition education.
"This college has been the hope of so many people for so many generations," the mayor said. "We have to respond to this accrediting decision with more than what was offered in the past."
College officials clearly tried hard in the past year to satisfy the accrediting requirements. When the college was almost bankrupt last fall, officials persuaded city voters to approve a parcel tax for the school that, along with money from Proposition 30, last year's statewide tax measure, would put it back in the game.
Bigger than moneyBut money alone wasn't the problem. There were so many issues, in fact, that officials likened the effort to changing tires on a speeding car.
College officials unilaterally cut pay and entered into battle with angry faculty in a labor dispute that has yet to be resolved.
They reorganized the management structure against the will of department chairs. To fix the college's tangled decision-making structure, college trustees also dismantled a decades-long system of faculty leadership over the strong objections of employees.
The trustees also eliminated a multiheaded hydra of 46 committees that often served to obstruct and control decision-making. They also pumped up reserves and established a nine-year fiscal plan.
But in the end, it wasn't enough.
