Statement of Rationale for Judgment of Compliance

Palo Alto College has policies and procedures for determining the credit hours awarded for courses and programs that conform to commonly accepted practices in higher education and to Commission policy.

The statement of compliance is structured as follows:

1. Policy is in place requiring College adherence to all SACSCOC policies and all related law.
2. Pertinent state law, as implemented by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), aligns credit hour assignment with SACSCOC policy and defines common practice for all public institutions of higher education in Texas.
3. College curricular procedures are in place which ensure adherence with the THECB credit hour guidelines.

Policy Requiring Adherence to SACSCOC

Alamo Colleges District Policy D.1.1, Compliance with Policies and Procedures[1], states that each of the Alamo Colleges shall abide by “the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) policies [and] all applicable laws.”  In determining the credit hours awarded for courses and programs, Palo Alto College complies with this policy through adherence to state guidelines for the award of credit hours as defined for Texas public institutions of higher education by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) and through adherence to the SACSCOC Policy Statement for Credit Hours[2].

State Law Aligns Credit Hour Assignment with SACSCOC

Palo Alto College follows state guidelines for the assignment of all course and program credit hours as outlined by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Title 19, Part 1, Chapter 9, Subchapter D, rule 9.73 of the Texas Administrative Code[3] establishes the Lower Division Academic Course Guide Manual (ACGM) as the compendium of lower division, academic courses for which Texas public institutions of higher education may receive state funding.  Course descriptions and allowable credit hours, contact hours, and lecture and lab hours are defined for each course in the ACGM. All academic courses in the Palo Alto College inventory are taken from this manual.  Please see the document titled Sample Course Compliance[4] for a sample of courses from the 2016-2017 Palo Alto College catalog listed against their corresponding ACGM descriptions and requirements.

Title 19, Part 1, Chapter 9, Subchapter A, rule 9.1 part (19)[5] defines the Guidelines for Instructional Programs in Workforce Education (GIPWE) and, in part (33), the Workforce Education Course Manual (WECM) as the database providing the Coordinating Board's rules and regulations for workforce programs and, in the WECM, the inventory of career technical/workforce courses available for Texas two-year public colleges for use in certificate and applied associate degree programs.  These two sources provide allowable credit hours and contact hours for each course.  All technical and workforce courses in the Palo Alto College inventory are taken from the WECM.  Please see the document titled Sample Course Compliance[4] for a sample of courses from the 2016-2017 Palo Alto College catalog listed against their corresponding WECM descriptions and requirements.

The ACGM and the GIPWE each define a semester credit hour in terms of contact hours (classroom or direct faculty instruction) over a 16-week term, and the two definitions are reasonably equivalent:

• ACGM: “In general, one semester credit hour is awarded per 16 contact hours of lecture instruction and one semester credit hour is awarded per 32 to 48 contact hours of laboratory instruction.” (ACGM p 7[6])
• GIPWE: “For lecture/classroom instruction per 16-week semester, a ratio of one SCH to one contact hour (1:1) must be used. If the instruction is compressed into less than a 16-week semester, the course must still require the same number of contact hours as it would in a long semester.”  (GIPWE pp  30-31[7])

Texas Administrative Code, which is the basis for THECB rules and guidelines, explicitly defines both contact hours and credit hours. Title 19, Part 1, Chapter 13, Subchapter A, rule 13.1, part (5)[8] defines a contact hour as a “time unit of instruction used by community, technical, and state colleges consisting of 60 minutes, of which 50 minutes must be direct instruction” and part (23) of that rule defines a semester credit hour as “a unit of measure of instruction consisting of 60 minutes, of which 50 minutes must be direct instruction, over a 15-week period in a semester system or a 10-week period in a quarter system.

Although the THECB defines a contact hour as a 50-minute interval of direct instruction, these contact hours reasonably approximate the federal requirement (SACSCOC Policy Statement for Credit Hours[2]) for classroom or direct faculty instruction per credit hour.  Both the ACGM and the GIPWE provide additional specificity to their requirements, to include contact hour and credit assignment for lab and lecture courses, for practica, and other workforce courses.  These additional guidelines can be found in the ACGM Appendix A, pp 257-258[9], Lecture/Lab Table and in both the GIPWE (pp. 30-31)[7] and the WECM Protocol Manual, Protocols 1-10-01, -02, -03[10].

The additional “minimum of two hours out of class student work each week for approximately 15 weeks” required in the federal definition (SACSCOC Policy Statement for Credit Hours[2]) of credit hour can be verified for Palo Alto College through inspection of the syllabus for each course.  Course syllabi, for all modes of delivery and type of course (lecture, lab, studio, or practicum), are required by Texas Administrative Code (Title 19, Part 1, Chapter 4, Subchapter E, Rule 4.104[11]) to list the measureable student learning outcomes for that course.  The College syllabi also list the assignments required by each faculty member which, for each course, represent the amount of work needed to fully acquire the student learning outcomes.  These requirements fully meet the “student academic engagement” (SACSCOC Policy Statement for Credit Hours[2]) required for the credit hours assigned to that course.

For online courses both the contact hour or the “direct faculty instruction” federal requirement for credit hour and the additional requirement for outside work is met through the total of all work required of each student, as itemized in the course syllabus and accompanying online course documents.  This totality of work required provides the measure of engaged student learning that is required by the credit hours assigned to the course. Please see documents labeled face-to-face Government[12], online Pre-calculus 5-week term[13], online lab Environmental Biology[14], online course Programming[15], online hybrid Ethics[16], Theatre Practicum[17], and Art studio[18] for syllabus examples that detail the work required by students in face-to-face, online, and hybrid courses.

Guidelines for the assignment of credit hour requirements for Palo Alto College programs, the Associate of Arts (AA), the Associate of Science (AS), the Associate of Arts in Teaching (AAT), Associates of Applied Science (AAS), and Certificates are also established by the THECB through state mandate. Texas Administrative Code, Title 19: Education, Part 1, Chapter 9, Subchapter J, rule 9.183, part (b)[19] establishes the following requirements for Texas higher education institutions offering AA, AS, and AAT degrees: “Academic Associate degrees must consist of 60 semester credit hours (SCH).”  Texas Administrative Code, Title 19: Education, Part 1, Chapter 9, Subchapter E, rule 9.93[20], parts (2) and (3) further address program length for AAS programs and Certificates, limiting program length to 60 SCH unless sufficient justification is provided and approval received for program length in excess of that limit. Please see the response for FR 4.2 for additional information regarding state rules in place for program length. 

Please see the document titled Sample Program Requirements[21] for a sample of the programs offered in the 2016-2017 Palo Alto College Catalog and the semester credit hours required by each.

College Curricular Procedures Ensure Adherence with THECB

All courses added to the College inventory and all changes to courses in the College inventory follow a curriculum review process that ensures all course requirements, as defined in the ACGM or the WECM, are met.  This review process includes confirmation of the assignment of credit hours. Course additions and course revisions begin with full-time faculty in the respective discipline, proposals are reviewed by the respective Department Chair, Curriculum Analyst, and Dean.  These several reviews of each proposal ensure that all state requirements for the course are met and that any necessary administrative support will be provided.  The proposal then goes to the College Curriculum Committee. 

The Curriculum Committee has a cross-college membership, including faculty membership across several disciplines.  The Committee reviews each proposal for clarity, alignment with all state, SACSCOC, and College requirements and based upon that review approves the proposed change or returns the proposal to the originator for additional information.

The colleges in the Alamo Colleges District, to strengthen alignment and shared practices, also submit curriculum changes to the Alamo Colleges Curriculum Council.  The Council addresses issues of clarity and adherence to state and SACSCOC requirements, and provides feedback to the College.

Please see the sample Palo Alto College Curriculum Committee agendas[22].  Please also see the PAC Curriculum Committee Flowchart[23] for curriculum review.

As articulated in Board Policy A.1.1[24], the College District is known by the assumed names of “Alamo Colleges” and “Alamo Colleges District” or the “Alamo Community College District.” References to these assumed names in the narrative and any supporting documentation are equivalent.