LAO Calls for Constraints on Doctoral Programs at CSU

The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has issued a review of the education doctorate CSU was authorized to implement. As earlier posts have noted, doctorates at CSU are basically in violation of the Master Plan – whatever is left of it. The legislature nevertheless, and in a time when budget problems could hardly be worse, permitted the CSU doctorate expansion (also in nursing in physical therapy). But it required a “team” consisting of the LAO, the Dept. of Finance, and CSU to come up with an evaluation of the educational doctorate.

Not surprisingly, the team could not agree. So the LAO issued its own report which politely suggests reticence about letting the CSU doctoral expansion continue. And it suggests that when it comes to the nursing and physical therapy doctorates, the team evaluation notion – other than a simple description of the program – be abandoned.

The full report is at http://www.lao.ca.gov/reports/2011/edu/csu_educ_degree/csu_educ_degree_012111.pdf

The key recommendations are reproduced below:

Place Conditions on Further Expansion of CSU Doctoral Programs

* Make further expansion of CSU Doctor of Education degree programs contingent on specific authorization in the annual budget act.

* Specify conditions for expansion, including: the availability of enrollment growth or redirected funding, a sustainable level of demand for programs, and consideration of alternative ways to meet that demand (such as including multi–campus, off–campus, and online options).

Require CSU to Report on Outcomes in Five Years

* Require CSU to identify a limited number of common indicators to assess the effects of its education doctorate programs on system reform and student achievement, and report on outcomes in 2016.

* Amend reporting requirements in Chapters 416 and 425 concerning the Doctor of Nursing Practice and Doctor of Physical Therapy degrees at CSU to:

– Limit the joint report to a description and evaluation of compliance.

– Include a similar outcome reporting process, to be completed after at least three cohorts of students have graduated from the new programs.

LAO seems to feel that the CSU expansion into doctorates could be like a runaway train if it isn’t halted. Although we have no transcripts of the “team” meeting at which this matter was discussed by LAO and CSU, could it have gone something like this?

UPDATE: CSU doctoral tuition going up. See http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=119620