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A Clear Faculty Role

Articulation agreements between the components of a state’s educational system work best when teachers determine the content of the agreements.

More than 30 states now have some type of P-16 or  P-20 commission to oversee the state’s education enterprise from pre-kindergarten through college or graduate school.

Proponents of these commissions argue that they promote improved college readiness and access, increased student mobility between institutions, and reduced time for degree completion, all necessary elements in an economic competitiveness strategy.

NEA strongly endorses a more unified approach to education but is concerned about a number of issues raised by the commissions. In too many states, these groups are trying to impose a structure from the outside that is incompatible with the goals of true education.

“A Test of Leadership,” the report from the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education (the Spellings Commission), is a worrisome example of this approach. The commission attempts to structure the education system to meet the immediate needs of the business community, transforming education into a job-training exercise.

This spring and summer, the U.S. Department of Education held a series of summits on the implications of the Spellings Commission report.  Questions surrounding the interrelationship of elementary and secondary education with higher education surfaced repeatedly. NEA leaders attending the summits stressed our support for improving the process of integrating secondary schools with post-secondary institutions, but resisted the idea of a corporate job training structure for our colleges and universities. 

As a result of these discussions, NEA has adopted a new plank in its legislative program that supports “the promotion of articulation agreements between secondary and post-secondary institutions (as well as between different post-secondary institutions) when the content of those agreements has been determined by educators from both sectors.”

NEA’s policy on  faculty governance has long given faculty members the responsibility to determine curriculum questions, academic standards, and degree requirements.

NEA believes that educators must be the ones making the academic decisions at the heart of articulation agreements. When educators from both the secondary and post-secondary sectors have the necessary tools to exercise their responsibility, then the nation will see the kinds of progress in college achievement that educators and elected leaders are advocating.