In 1988, AB 1725 (Vasconcellos) required that minimum qualifications be established for faculty at California’s community colleges.  The process for establishing the minimum qualifications must be jointly agreed upon by the academic senate and the governing board.  As early as the second edition of the Minimum Qualifications for Faculty and Administrators in California Community Colleges handbook (Jan. 1994), and perhaps earlier (I was unable to locate a copy of the first edition), the minimum qualifications for mathematics have included the option of a bachelor’s degree in mathematics or applied mathematics and a master’s degree in math education.  This year, faculty from Bakersfield and Saddleback Colleges requested a revision to the minimum qualifications for mathematics that would require those meeting these qualifications to also complete an additional 18 units of graduate-level mathematics.

Given that the master’s in mathematics education has long been included in the minimum qualifications handbook, and that the discipline itself has not changed significantly at the community college level, it is worth considering what professional organizations have to say on the matter and whether this proposed change is in the best interests of the discipline and our students. 

I consider myself a community college success story.  I began my journey at a small, rural, community college as a returning student and 37-year-old mother of two children (not unlike many of the students I have had in my classes).  I had decided to attend college to seek a degree in mathematics after having positive experiences volunteering in my children’s classrooms, where I was usually assigned to the math table.  Seeing the children’s faces light up when they understood a math concept in a new way got me hooked.

I was nervous when I took the first steps to enroll at my local community college.  I signed up for the placement testing and did better than I thought I might after years of primarily using math in a bookkeeping capacity.  I was actually excited that I could take Intermediate algebra, a class I had previously had in high school more than 20 years before.  Because I wanted to teach math, I did not want to miss the opportunity to understand the concepts (not just he algorithms I remembered) and I chose to enroll in Elementary algebra.  From there, I worked my way to transfer level math and, eventually, a degree in mathematics.