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Governance
Until relatively recently, Florida had a segmental governance structure for postsecondary
education, with a statewide governing board for the public four-year colleges, and a
statewide coordinating board along with local governing boards for the community
colleges. In 2000 the state legislature abolished the statewide boards and created a single
statewide Board of Education with policy and budgetary authority for both the public
four-year and community colleges. At the same time, each of the four-year campuses was
given a local governing board; the two-year colleges have had local boards for many
years. The statewide postsecondary planning agency, the Council for Educational Policy
Research and Improvement (CEPRI), reports to the legislature and also has an advisory
role to the Florida Board of Education in budget, planning, and policy review. The
legislatively mandated Articulation Coordinating Committee continues to oversee
articulation and transfer policies. It is chaired by the deputy commissioner of education
and includes administrators representing community colleges, technical colleges, and
four-year public and independent institutions. This group monitors adherence to
articulation policies and adjudicates problems.
Enrollment Planning
Academic Policies Affecting Transfer
For many years, Florida has maintained a so-called 2+2 policy for postsecondary
education: students begin their college education in a community college before
transferring to a four-year institution. The legislation that created the community college
system, in 1957, also mandated that there be strong articulation between the two- and
four-year institutions. Many of the four-year institutions began as upper-division
campuses; all now offer four-year programs. The state maintains an explicit unit
requirement for degrees: 120 units for the baccalaureate and 60 for the associate degree,
36 of which must be in a general education core. The framework for the general
education core is common to the four-year and two-year institutions and is stated in
statute as well as regulation. This common core has also been voluntarily adopted by the
majority of private colleges. The core courses differ from institution to institution, within
the statewide agreement about the basic five core areas. There is a common prerequisite
list for each degree program, which includes courses that count toward the degree as well
as any prerequisites for admission into the program. These courses are listed in a
statewide electronic catalogue, FACTS (Florida Academic Counseling and Tracking for
Students).
State law specifies that any student who earns an associate degree will be guaranteed
admission into a public university degree program, and the units from core courses
transfer as a block to any public institution. Thus students need not negotiate individual
course-level transfers with the receiving institutions. They are not guaranteed admission
into high-demand programs or into programs with special requirements, but the law
requires that transfer students be treated the same way as native students with respect to
admission to these programs. Students who believe they have been treated unfairly can
bring their complaints before the Articulation Committee.
Florida was one of the first states to mandate college placement and achievement testing,
accompanied by a law on remedial instruction for students who fail to qualify for college-
level placement. Students entering college without ACT or SAT scores are required to
take the Common Placement Examination in English/writing and math; the statewide cut-
scores are 73 for math and 82 for English/writing. Some 8% of the students in four-year
institutions require remediation—most of these are students who were special admits.
Florida law requires all remediation to take place at a community college.
Data Collection and Accountability
Florida has a statewide commitment to performance funding and accountability reporting
for all state institutions, including the universities and community colleges. The state has
separate mandatory accountability reports for the two-year and public four-year
institutions, and reporting on student transfers and transfer performance is embedded
within each. Databases are centralized at the system level, use common course numbering
systems, and students are identified through Social Security numbers. Accountability
legislation requires all public institutions to report on transfers. The two-year colleges are
responsible for reporting on course and transfer patterns to four-year institutions, and the
four-year institutions report on transfer students’ performance at their institutions.
Approximately half the students in Florida’s community colleges are enrolled in associate
programs. Of the students who transfer to a four-year institution, roughly one-third do so
after completing the associate degree, another one-third prior to obtaining the degree, and
another one-third with more than 60 units but no degree. Most of the state accountability
reporting focuses on students who have obtained the associate degree prior to transfer.
Data from the State Board of Education show that those who transfer with the associate
degree remain in school and/or complete their baccalaureate degree work at slightly
higher levels than freshmen students in the state university system, 68% after six enrolled
years in comparison to 60% of native students. Transfer rates for 2/4 transfer are
calculated and reported only for students who receive the associate degree: 62% of these
students were enrolled in a public four-year college in the year after leaving community
college, and 70% were enrolled five years after leaving.
Florida also has an incentive- and performance-based budgeting process for the
community colleges but not for the four-year institutions. The performance-based
funding program is separate from the accountability reporting system. There are two
separate pots of funds for performance-based funding, one for the A.A. degree and
another for the A.S./A.A.S. degree, certificate programs, adult vocational, and continuing
education, encompassing both K–12 and community colleges. The A.A. performance-
based funding pool for community colleges provides roughly 1% of base funding for
rewards for four types of performance: the number of students completing the A.A.
degree, the number of students who complete the A.A. degree by taking less than 72
units, the number of completers from targeted populations, and the number of completers
who transfer to a state university or get a job. The new State Board of Education plans to
revisit the structure of accountability reporting for the four-year institutions, partly to
better align K–12 accountability with postsecondary education, and partly to improve the
connection between postsecondary data reporting and state policy goals for higher
education. Task forces are working on a proposal for a performance-based budgeting
system for the state universities.
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Florida has a reputation for a strong statewide commitment to community college
transfer. The state’s community colleges have historically been the primary point of
access to public postsecondary education. Close to 85% of the state’s undergraduate
enrollments are in public institutions, with 55% in 28 community colleges and almost
30% in 11 four-year institutions (National Center for Public Policy and Higher
Education, 2000). There is also a large private sector: 41 two-year and 61 four-year
institutions. Public sector tuitions remain very low, at around $2,000 annually for the
public four-year institutions and $1,250 for the community colleges. Florida has a large,
but relatively thinly funded, need-based financial aid program, the Florida Student
Assistance Grant, which provides approximately $35 million annually to some 40,000
students. The recently adopted Bright Futures Scholarship program provides merit-based
aid to high-performing high school graduates; this program was funded at $131.5 million
in 2001–02.
Florida expects rapid enrollment growth in public institutions over the next decade and
projects a 26% increase in the number of high school graduates (from 1999 to 2010). At
the same time, the state has made it a general priority to increase the percentage of state
residents who hold the baccalaureate degree, although there are no specific numerical
goals attached to this priority. The Council for Educational Policy Research and
Improvement has recommended that the state consider expanding baccalaureate authority
on community college campuses; to date, this has occurred only at St. Petersburg College
(a two-year institution) in the high-demand fields of nursing, teacher education, and
instructional technology. Many of the community colleges maintain concurrent or dual
enrollment programs with the four-year institutions, and these concurrent programs enroll
some 13,000 students.
