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A Brief History of the Gordon Rule at Miami Dade College (Part 2 of 3)

Gordon Rule History

1. The Original Gordon Rule
2. The Newly-Revised Gordon Rule
3. Miami Dade College's Response: Process and Recommendations

The Newly-revised Gordon Rule

The new revisions passed in November 2005 were “intended to provide institutions with greater flexibility in determining their Gordon Rule curriculum rather than relying on a prescriptive word count.” As a consequence of this modification, the original prescribed 24,000 word count requirement for communications was replaced with a requirement for “multiple assignments” (to be defined by each institution)” and requires the following:

1. Six semester hours of English coursework and six semester hours of additional coursework in which the student is required to demonstrate college-level writing skills through multiple assignments. Each institution shall designate the courses that fulfill the writing requirements of this section. These course designations shall be submitted to the Statewide Course Numbering System (SCNS). An institution to which a student transfers shall accept courses so designated by the sending institution as meeting the writing requirements outlined in this section.
2. A grade of “C” or higher shall be considered successful completion for each of these courses.

The rationale behind these modifications was greater flexibility in the creation, implementation, and assessment of College-level writing by the individual institutions. In contrast to the original Gordon Rule, the modified version emphasizes quality rather than quantity and decentralizes academic decision-making. Rather than defining student success on a quantitative basis, students will now have to demonstrate college-level writing skills in multiple college-level writing assignments. Furthermore, the modified rule encourages individual institutions to take ownership of the new requirements, especially in terms of creating assignments that are discipline specific and that adhere to institution-wide proficiency standards.