Glossary

Glossary for Program Review Program and Student Success Indicators

Basic Skills Courses: (Precollegiate) preparatory courses in reading, writing, computation, or ESL. Units do not apply to the Associate Degree.

Career & Technical Education Courses (CTE): Formerly known as ‘Vocational Education.’ Courses designated by the California Community College State Chancellor’s Office as ‘occupational’ courses ‘responding to economic development interests as evidenced by labor market information.’

Degree Applicable Courses: Units apply to the Associate Degree.

Enrollments (Duplicated Headcount): The number of “seats” filled at the institution. Each course enrollment is counted separately.

Enrollments (End-of-term): A count of all students receiving a grade.

Enrollments (First Census): An attendance accounting procedure that determines the number of actively enrolled students at a particular point in the term.

Census is the Monday closest to the point at which 20% of the class has been completed (Title 5 §58003.1.b). For the primary terms, this date is typically the Monday of the fourth week of a semester-based on 20% of 17.5 weeks = 3.5 weeks rounded to four weeks); the number of students enrolled in a class on that date is the enrollment number used in the funding formula. For short-term classes, the census date is calculated individually for each short-term pattern.

Enrollments (Unduplicated Headcount): A student enrollment count based on an individual student that identifies a student only once in the system—regardless of the number of units or courses in which that student is enrolled.

Faculty Loads: The amount of “teaching time” assigned/‌appropriate to a given instructional class – i.e. lecture or laboratory, to a given semester, or an academic year (2 semesters). It is typically defined in terms of 15 “teaching hours” per week as being equal to one (1) full-time equivalent faculty, a “full faculty load.”

Actual faculty loads are governed by negotiated agreements and collective bargaining.

FTEF: An acronym for “Full-Time Equivalent Faculty.” Each “FTEF” generally equals 15 units of instructional load, regardless of whether those units are taught by full- or part-time faculty. All academic employees are considered to be faculty for this purpose including instructors, librarians, and counselors.

Full-Time Equivalent Faculty for instructional faculty is calculated at the course level as a proportion of a full-time teaching load. FTEF is calculated by using the Faculty Load Credit (FLC) assigned to the course. For instance, a course with 3 FLCs translates to 0.20 FTEF since 15 FLCs is considered a full teaching load (3 FLCs/15 LCs=0.20 FTEF). Once FTEF is calculated for a course, it can be combined with FTEF from other courses to determine the total FTEF for a department, division, or for the College as a whole.

It is a common expression of the size of the faculty as a whole, but not of their number. For example, for Fall 2008, CSM employed 140 full-time faculty and 368 adjuncts for a total of 508 individuals. The Collegewide FTEF for Fall 2008 = 228.75.

FTES: An acronym for a “full-time equivalent student.” Formerly called “Average Daily Attendance,” FTES was theoretically derived by considering that one student could be enrolled in courses for 3 hours per day, 5 days a week, for an academic year of 35 weeks—so basically a total of 525 hours per one FTES (3 x 5 x 35 = 525).

Example:

One semester-length (17.5 weeks) 3 unit course enrolling 35 students generates 105 student contact hours. This in turn is equivalent to 3.50 FTES. (35 x 3 x 17.5 ÷ 525 = 3.50)

LOAD: Represents the ratio between the faculty’s hours of instruction per week (“faculty load”) and the weekly hours of enrolled students in his/her sections. It is the total weekly student contact hours (WSCH) divided by the faculty member’s load. This is also referred to as “productivity.” In short, WSCH/FTEF = LOAD.

The State productivity & efficiency measure for which funding is based is 525 WSCH/FTEF. The higher the number, the more students served by each FTEF, and the lower the cost to the district.

Persistence: The percentage of students who enroll in a subsequent term—that is, individual students are tracked across terms. Typically computed fall-to-fall, or sometimes fall-to-spring, or spring-to-fall.

Retention: The percentage of enrollments with a grade of A, B, C, D, F, P, NP, I, at end-of-term. (Only excludes W’s.)

Success: The percentage of enrollments with a grade of A, B, C, P at end-of-term.

Transferable Courses: Coursework is accepted by the CSU and/or UC systems as eligible for transfer credit.

Withdraw (W): The percentage of enrollments with a grade of W only, at end-of-term.

WSCH: An acronym for “Weekly Student Contact Hours.” (WSCH is pronounced as “wish.”) WSCH represents the total hours per week a student attends a particular class. WSCH are used to report apportionment attendance and FTES.

WSCH = Census Enrollment X Hours Class meets per week. Hence, a 4 unit class with 25 students = 100 WSCH.

525: The 525 number is derived from the efficiency principle that a “typical” community college class enrolls 35 students.

An example of 525: One instructor teaches one section of a semester-long 3-unit class.

• WSCH: 35 students enrolled in a 3 unit course = 105 WSCH.
• FTEF: 3 units represents 3 FLCs/15 FLC’s = .20 FTEF
• Load calculation of WSCH/FTEF: 105/.20 = 525