Office of the Provost

Faculty and Unclassified Staff Handbook Chapter 3 -- Faculty: Employment, Tenure, Promotion, and Merit

Language Competency

a) Faculty

All prospective faculty members of Regents' institutions, except visiting professors on exchange for one year or less, must have their spoken English competency assessed prior to employment through interviews with not fewer than three institutional personnel, one of whom shall be a student. Faculty shall include all full-time or part-time personnel having classroom or laboratory instructional responsibilities and/or direct tutorial or advisement contact, other than for courses or sessions conducted primarily in a foreign language. An oral interview shall be conducted either face-to-face or by mediated means. Prospective faculty found to be potentially deficient in speaking ability should be required to achieve a minimum score of 50 on the Test of Spoken English (TSE), or the Speaking Proficiency English Assessment Kit (SPEAK), or equivalent to be eligible for an appointment without spoken English language remediation. A report detailing the process for interviewing prospective faculty, including the composition of the interview team and, scores from the TSE or SPEAK for each candidate, will be submitted to the President/CEO of the Board every other year.

b) Graduate Teaching Assistants

All prospective graduate teaching assistants of the Regents' institutions shall have their English competency assessed prior to being considered for any employment having classroom or laboratory instructional responsibility and/or direct tutorial responsibilities. The following shall be used to implement this policy:

1. All prospective graduate teaching assistants, whose first language is not English, must be interviewed and have their competency in spoken English assessed by no fewer than three institutional personnel, one of whom shall be a student. An oral interview shall be conducted either face-to-face or by mediated means.

2. Any prospective graduate teaching assistant, whose first language is not English, shall be required to achieve a minimum score of 50 on the Test of Spoken English (TSE) or the Speaking Proficiency English Assessment Kit (SPEAK), or equivalent to be eligible for an appointment without spoken English language remediation.

3. All prospective graduate teaching assistants who do not meet the above requirements shall not be assigned teaching responsibilities nor other tasks requiring direct instructional contact with students.

4. An exception will be made for courses taught in sign language.

5. A report detailing the process for interviewing graduate teaching assistants, who first language is not English, including the composition of the interview team and scores from the TSE or SPEAK for each candidate, will be submitted to the President/CEO of the Board every other year.

c) General

Regents institutions shall develop implementing policies and procedures for the administration of this policy and shall report to the Board as to the effectiveness of such policy; and may adopt standards additional to those contained herein.

Kansas Board of Regents: Policies and Procedures Manual (Updated 01/05)(2/06).

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