Faculty Professional Growth

In MCCCD, there are sponsored faculty professional growth (FPG) opportunities available to both residential and adjunct faculty. The intent of these programs is to promote professionalism and excellence in District faculty through supervised incentives. Professional growth occurs through activities such as projects, coursework, conferences, and experiences that contribute to significant learning by the individual faculty member.

Residential Faculty

Types of FPG Hours

There are two types of "hours" when we're talking about Faculty Professional Growth for residential faculty: credit hours and clock hours. Credit hours are equivalent to academic credits, and are awarded if faculty take graduate level courses (academic advancement). Clock hours are earned through non-academic work like workshops, events, conferences, etc. Eighteen (18) clock hours equals 1 credit hour. A residential faculty member needs to participate in 18 clock hours of non-academic work to be eligible for one credit hour of advancement.

Annual and Overall Maximums

There is only an annual maximum for faculty who are already at the doctorate level. In the past, faculty with doctorates were not eligible for FPG salary advancement, but starting in academic year 2022-23 that changed. However, residential faculty with doctorates are only able to earn up to three credit hours (54 non-academic clock hours) of advancement per year for the first three years, maxing out at 9 credit hours (162 clock hours) of advancement. If the faculty member (with a doctorate) earns more than three credit hours of FPG in the first year of this new program (2022-23), the additional hours are banked and will count toward what they are able to earn the next year.

Faculty without a doctorate do not have this limit, but there is an overall maximum of 57 credit hours that they can earn via non academic FPG.

Adjunct Faculty

The Maricopa County Community College District Faculty Professional Growth program is available for all Maricopa faculty. Faculty Professional Growth, commonly referred to as FPG, assists faculty in learning new and innovative teaching and learning ideas. These professional growth opportunities are non-academic courses, workshops, and events designed to help faculty learn more about teaching strategies, technologies, theories, etc., which helps improve the classroom experience for students.

Adjunct Tier Progression Program

MCCCD's Adjunct Tier Progression Program allows up to a 10% increase in hourly pay after completion of 50 hours of faculty professional growth. The 2022-23 Faculty Agreement describes the details of this program. Select professional development events are often developed by the Center's for Teaching and Learning at each of MCCCD's 10 colleges, or the Maricopa Center for Learning and Innovation. Visit the Upcoming Preapproved Internal Events page to find FPG opportunities.

Once earned, FPG hours are never lost. Approved hours remain with faculty members into the future and accumulate, whether a tier progression is earned or not. Completed FPG must be submitted by the faculty member through the Adjunct Professional Growth Form. The Adjunct Tier Progression Program calculates and applies earned FPG hours in June/July. Adjunct faculty are notified about their tier status, and tier increases are awarded once a year at the start of the Fall term. FPG hours above the Tier Two requirement of 25, but below the Tier Three requirement of 50 will roll over to the next year. Once earned, FPG hours are never lost. Examine the examples below to get a sense of how the program works.

Examples

Adjunct faculty member earned 32 hours first year

• 25 hours apply to Tier One, and 7 roll over to the next year to be added to hours earned next year. Faculty member receives a 5% raise in adjunct pay for completing Tier Two.

Adjunct faculty member earned 15 hours first year

• 15 hours roll over to next year to be added to hours earned next year. Faculty member receives no raise in adjunct pay because no tiers were completed.

Adjunct faculty member earned 58 hours first year

• 25 hours apply to Tier Two, 25 hours apply to Tier Three, and 8 hours are unused as the maximum financial progression was met by accomplishing Tier Two and Tier Three in the first year. Faculty member receives a 10% raise in adjunct pay for completing Tier Two and Tier Three.

 Additional Details

• FPG earned and reported in summer will apply to tiers in the subsequent academic year.

• Tiers earned are kept while employed at MCCCD. Adjunct faculty do not have to earn tiers every year to retain the pay increase.

• Submit completed FPG hours through the Adjunct Professional Growth Form.

• Have more questions? Consult the Adjunct Faculty Tier Progression Program FAQ.

Note that not all professional development has FPG - there are some great programs which are different from the FPG format. But if it is FPG, the poster/flyer for the event will say how much FPG the event is worth.