Spring Break
UConn's ECE Gets Accredited
Kate King
Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: News
Students who take UConn-level courses while still in high school may now have an easier time transferring their credits to their undergraduate university of choice.
The UConn Early College Experience (ECE) program has become the first public university program to earn accreditation from the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP), according to Jennifer R. Griffin, UConn ECE's marketing and communications manager.
UConn ECE is a program available to high school juniors and seniors that gives them the opportunity to earn college-level credit.
Students take courses taught by UConn-certified teachers at their high school. As long as they earn a grade that is a C- or better in the class, they can transfer that credit to UConn, according to Griffin.
This recognition provides credibility and structure to ECE and will most likely mean that colleges and universities that accept transfer credits earned at Storrs and regional campuses will also accept UConn credits earned in high school, Griffin said.
Before the NACEP was established, "none of these programs had any formal standards - there was no accountability," Griffin said. Now, when students submit UConn ECE credits to their colleges, the schools can look and see that the program has maintained certain standards set by the NACEP.
The NACEP is an organization that "serves as a national accrediting body and supports all members by providing standards of excellence, research, communication, and advocacy," according to its Web site. It monitors dual programs, which are physically taught at a university, and concurrent programs like UConn ECE, which are taught in high schools, according to Griffin.
In order to achieve NACEP accreditation, UConn went through a rigorous, two-year long application process, according to Griffin. After collecting information from each discipline's department, examining high school UConn ECE course syllabi and evaluating UConn ECE teachers, the program submitted its application on April 1 and received accreditation Oct. 19.
The UConn Early College Experience (ECE) program has become the first public university program to earn accreditation from the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP), according to Jennifer R. Griffin, UConn ECE's marketing and communications manager.
UConn ECE is a program available to high school juniors and seniors that gives them the opportunity to earn college-level credit.
Students take courses taught by UConn-certified teachers at their high school. As long as they earn a grade that is a C- or better in the class, they can transfer that credit to UConn, according to Griffin.
This recognition provides credibility and structure to ECE and will most likely mean that colleges and universities that accept transfer credits earned at Storrs and regional campuses will also accept UConn credits earned in high school, Griffin said.
Before the NACEP was established, "none of these programs had any formal standards - there was no accountability," Griffin said. Now, when students submit UConn ECE credits to their colleges, the schools can look and see that the program has maintained certain standards set by the NACEP.
The NACEP is an organization that "serves as a national accrediting body and supports all members by providing standards of excellence, research, communication, and advocacy," according to its Web site. It monitors dual programs, which are physically taught at a university, and concurrent programs like UConn ECE, which are taught in high schools, according to Griffin.
In order to achieve NACEP accreditation, UConn went through a rigorous, two-year long application process, according to Griffin. After collecting information from each discipline's department, examining high school UConn ECE course syllabi and evaluating UConn ECE teachers, the program submitted its application on April 1 and received accreditation Oct. 19.
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