Pedagogy Council Charter

Status: v1.0 draft. The Council is the academic-quality governance body for Circl Academy. The Council is intentionally distinct from the Treasurer Council (which governs Treasurer professional conduct) and from the Selection Committee (which adjudicates material Treasurer decisions). The Council's authority stops at course content, assessment quality, fee thresholds, and outcome reporting; it does not adjudicate individual Member or Treasurer matters.

Preamble

Circl Academy holds four certification courses on which the Treasurer profession's tier ladder rests. The integrity of those courses — that they actually test the competence required, that their MCQ banks reflect current platform reality, that their pass marks are calibrated to responsibility rather than outcome curves, that the Scholarship Pool genuinely enables Treasurers in disparity-affected jurisdictions, and that the outcomes are reported transparently — depends on a governance body the platform does not control.

The Pedagogy Council is that body. The Council is academic in character: it exists to ensure that what the University claims to teach, it actually teaches; that what it claims to assess, it actually assesses; and that what it claims about outcomes is true.

Section 1 — Composition

The Pedagogy Council is composed of five members:

1.1 Treasurer Council representatives (two)

Two currently-serving members of the Treasurer Council are nominated by the Council to serve on the Pedagogy Council. The nominations are made at the Treasurer Council's annual meeting and rotate to spread the workload across the Council membership.

The Treasurer Council representatives provide practitioner expertise — what the courses claim to teach must match the operational reality of Treasurer practice. They are not Council senior leadership for these decisions; they are practitioners who know the ground.

1.2 Member representative (one)

One Member representative is nominated by Town Hall. The nomination is for an 18-month term, which may be renewed once. The Member representative provides the Member voice — the courses inform every Member's confidence in the platform, and the Member representative ensures the Pedagogy Council does not become a Treasurer-only echo chamber.

The Member representative may be any Member who has completed at least the Foundation Certification and who has been a Member for at least 12 months.

1.3 Subject-matter advisor (one)

One subject-matter advisor is drawn from a rotating panel of experienced tradition-holders. The panel includes:

• A Pardna practitioner (Jamaica, UK diaspora).
• A Susu practitioner (West Africa, UK diaspora).
• A Chama practitioner (East Africa).
• An Ajo practitioner (Nigeria).
• A Kameti practitioner (South Asia).
• A Hui practitioner (Chinese diaspora).
• A Tanda practitioner (Latin America).
• A Paluwagan practitioner (Philippines).

The panel rotates the advisor seat among tradition-holders so each tradition's perspective informs course content. Each advisor serves a 12-month term.

The subject-matter advisor's mandate is editorial — to ensure the course content represents each tradition accurately, respects each tradition's specific cultural context, and avoids generalisation of one tradition's mechanics as universal. The advisor reads the Cultural Architecture Policy v2.0 as the framing document.

1.4 Independent Chair (one)

The independent Chair is drawn from the Help Office's senior education panel. The Chair is appointed for a 24-month term, renewable once, and serves as the procedural facilitator of the Council's meetings. The Chair has no vote on Council decisions; the Chair's role is to ensure the procedural integrity of deliberation, to convene meetings, and to record decisions.

The Chair is independent of the Treasurer Council, of the Member representative's constituency, and of the subject-matter advisor's tradition affiliation.

Section 2 — Mandate

The Pedagogy Council's mandate covers six areas:

2.1 Annual course review

Each of the four certification courses (Foundation, Intermediate Treasurer, Advanced Treasurer, Multi-Jurisdictional Treasurer) is reviewed annually. The review covers:

• Curriculum alignment with current platform reality (the Custody Framework, the Treasurer architecture, the Lending Center, the Dispute Settlement Centre — any change to these constitutional documents flows through to the courses).
• Module-by-module learning-outcome assessment (do the outcomes still match the responsibilities of the tier).
• Case-study currency (are the case studies still drawn from realistic scenarios).
• Module length and student workload (matched to the official course-length claims).

The annual review produces a written report archived in the Council's records and a public summary on the University surface.

2.2 MCQ bank refresh

The MCQ banks for each course are refreshed every 12 months. The refresh is:

• Driven by the eval set's coverage analysis (which MCQs are too easy or too hard against the actual responses).
• Calibrated by the Pedagogy Council's review of the past year's responses (which questions correlated with overall pass / fail; which questions were ambiguous).
• Subject to a 30% maximum rotation per refresh (the MCQ banks stay substantially stable; gradual evolution rather than wholesale replacement).
• Validated against the difficulty distribution (the new bank must produce a difficulty distribution within the Council's tolerance bands).

The refresh is approved by majority vote of the Pedagogy Council before deployment.

2.3 Case-study grader rubrics

The case-study graders (Selection Committee-eligible senior Treasurers for the Intermediate; multi-Treasurer panels for the Advanced and Multi-Jurisdictional) are equipped with grading rubrics. The Council:

• Reviews and approves the rubrics annually.
• Reviews a sampling of graded case-studies each quarter to assess grader consistency.
• Identifies grader-training needs.
• Adjudicates grader-grader disputes (if two graders strongly disagree on a candidate's case-study).

2.4 Pass-mark calibration

Pass marks are set on competence requirements, not on outcome curves. The Council:

• Maintains explicit documentation of why each course's pass mark is set at the level it is, anchored in the responsibilities of the destination tier.
• Resists pressure to adjust pass marks to meet target distributions (the Council does not adjust the Multi-Jurisdictional Certification's 90% pass mark because Tier 5 Treasurers happen to be promoted less often; the 90% reflects the seniority's required competence).
• Reviews pass marks annually for whether the calibration still matches the responsibility level (a tier's responsibilities may evolve; the pass mark may follow).
• Publishes the calibration logic in each course's documentation.

2.5 Scholarship Pool oversight (with the Pool Administrator)

The Pedagogy Council is not the Scholarship Pool's award panel — that is the Scholarship Pool Operating Procedure's three-person panel (one peer-Treasurer + one Member + Help Office Pool Administrator). The Pedagogy Council's role is upstream:

• Reviews the Pool's eligibility thresholds (the 5% jurisdictional disparity threshold, the Standing band threshold, the clean-standing requirement) for whether they continue to serve the access mission.
• Reviews the Pool's funding adequacy against demand (does the Pool's annual funding actually cover the awards demand).
• Recommends adjustments to the Pool's parameters per the Scholarship Pool Operating Procedure §7.2.

2.6 Annual public outcome reporting

The Council publishes an annual public report on certification outcomes:

• Pass rates by course, by tier of origin, by jurisdiction.
• Retake rates by course.
• Grade distributions (where multiple grades are produced — e.g., case-study Satisfactory / Strong / Excellent).
• Scholarship awards by jurisdiction, course, demographic-aggregate.
• MCQ bank refresh outcomes (what was rotated, what stayed).
• Demographic patterns (in aggregate, with privacy discipline).

The annual report is published on the Charter Hall surface and the University surface. The Council does not publish individual candidate data.

Section 3 — Procedure

3.1 Meetings

The Council meets quarterly as a standing schedule (every three months). Additional meetings may be called by the Chair, by any two voting members, or by the Treasurer Council in escalation.

3.2 Decisions

Decisions are made by majority vote of the four voting members (the Chair does not vote). A tie defaults to "no change" (the existing course content, pass mark, or rubric remains in force). For any decision that materially affects a course's pass mark or removes 20% or more of an MCQ bank, the Pedagogy Council must reach consensus (4 of 4 voting members); if consensus cannot be reached, the matter is deferred to the next meeting with additional consultation.

3.3 Quorum

The Council's quorum is three voting members plus the Chair. Meetings may proceed at quorum with substantive decisions; non-quorate meetings may discuss but not decide.

3.4 Confidentiality

The Council's substantive deliberations are confidential. The Council's decisions are public, but the deliberation that produced them is not. This protects the Council's ability to reason candidly. The Member representative honours this confidentiality.

3.5 Conflict of interest

A Council member who has a direct conflict of interest in a decision (e.g. the Member representative is themselves preparing to sit a certification under review; the Treasurer Council representative is the candidate's mentor in the prior year) must recuse from the decision. The Chair records the recusal.

Section 4 — Relationship to other bodies

4.1 With the Treasurer Council

The Pedagogy Council is not subordinate to the Treasurer Council. The Treasurer Council nominates two members but does not direct the Pedagogy Council's decisions. The Pedagogy Council reports its annual outcomes to the Treasurer Council for visibility, not for approval.

4.2 With the Selection Committee

The Pedagogy Council does not adjudicate individual Member or Treasurer matters. A candidate who disputes a case-study grade may follow the Council's grader-dispute procedure (§2.3); a candidate who disputes a Selection Committee decision follows the Selection Committee Charter's appeal route to the Dispute Settlement Centre.

4.3 With the Dispute Settlement Centre

Pedagogy Council decisions are not subject to DSC review (the DSC is for inter-Member disputes and Selection Committee appeals). A Council decision that a Member or Treasurer believes is materially flawed may be raised through Town Hall consultation; the Council reviews substantive consultation responses.

4.4 With Circlworld leadership

Circlworld senior leadership does not direct the Pedagogy Council's decisions. The Council's authority over course content, MCQ banks, pass marks, and annual outcomes is institutional. Senior leadership may consult on platform-strategic considerations that bear on courses (e.g. a new operating jurisdiction's regulatory requirements would inform the Advanced Certification's regulatory module); the Council weighs the consultation but decides independently.

Section 5 — Council member compensation

Council members are compensated for their service:

• Treasurer Council representatives receive a per-meeting Treasurer-fee equivalent (paid by Circlworld through the TEP fee mechanism).
• The Member representative receives a per-meeting service-fee (paid by Circlworld through the Town Hall service-honorarium mechanism).
• The subject-matter advisor receives a per-meeting honorarium (paid by Circlworld through the Cultural Architecture Policy's tradition-advisor compensation mechanism).
• The Chair receives a salaried role through the Help Office (Circlworld employee).

Compensation rates are reviewed annually by the Treasurer Council and published in the Council's annual report.

Section 6 — Term lengths and transition

The staggered term lengths spread Council turnover so the body has continuity:

• Treasurer Council representatives: 1-year terms, two per Pedagogy Council year, rotating across the Treasurer Council membership.
• Member representative: 18 months, renewable once.
• Subject-matter advisor: 12 months, rotating across the tradition-holder panel.
• Chair: 24 months, renewable once.

In any given year, no more than three of the five seats turn over, preserving institutional memory.

Section 7 — Amendment

7.1 Material amendment

Material amendment to this Charter (changing the composition; changing the mandate; changing the term lengths; changing the compensation framework; changing the relationship to other bodies) requires:

• Treasurer Council consultation.
• Town Hall consultation.
• 60 days' notice to all Members.
• Counsel review (UK + Jamaica jurisdictions).

7.2 Annual self-review

The Council reviews its own Charter annually as part of the regular meeting schedule. Recommendations for amendment flow through §7.1.

Section 8 — Acknowledgement

By accepting a seat on the Pedagogy Council, the member acknowledges this Charter as the framework for their service.

By holding a Certification issued by Circl Academy, the certified Member acknowledges that the Certification was issued under the Pedagogy Council's quality framework.

By administering the certification programme, Circlworld acknowledges this Charter as the constitutional foundation for the University's academic integrity.

— End of the Pedagogy Council Charter —

Version history

| Version | Date | Change | Process | |---|---|---|---| | v1.0 | 2026-06-03 | Initial draft | Drafted 2026-06-03 to formalise the Pedagogy Council referenced in the Course Catalogue and the four certification courses; counsel review required before binding |

Cross-references

• Circl Academy Course Catalogue v1.0 (the Council's primary subject of governance)
• Foundation Certification v1.0 (Module structure subject to annual review)
• Intermediate Treasurer Certification v1.0 (Module structure + case-study rubric)
• Advanced Treasurer Certification v1.0 (Module structure + case-study + Selection-Committee simulation rubrics)
• Multi-Jurisdictional Treasurer Certification v1.0 (Module structure + case-study + regulatory simulation + oral exam rubrics)
• Treasurer Council Charter v1.0 (the two Treasurer Council representatives nominated from)
• Selection Committee Charter v1.0 (procedural distinction)
• Certification Scholarship Pool Operating Procedure v1.0 (upstream parameter review)
• Cultural Architecture Policy v2.0 (subject-matter advisor framing)

Plain-language one-line summary

The Pedagogy Council is the five-person academic-quality body that ensures Circl Academy's four certification courses actually teach what they claim, assess what they claim, and report their outcomes transparently — composition: two Treasurer Council Members + one Member representative + one rotating tradition-advisor + one independent Chair from the Help Office.