Does Your Credit-By-Exam Policy Make The Grade For Transfer Students? Institute for the Study of Transfer Students January 24, 2005

PRESENTATION AGENDA I. Most popular credit-by-exams II. Research findings related to credit-by-exams III. Credit-by exam (CBE) policy definition and importance IV. Exemplary state and institutional CBE policies V. Personal CBE policy evaluation VI. Available resources VII. Questions and answers

CREDIT-BY-EXAM Advanced Placement Over 1.1 million students enrolled in AP courses 1.87 million exams 14,904 schools participate 3,558 colleges accept AP credit U.S. History exam most popular CLEP 190,000 exams Administered via computer 35 available exams 1,300 test centers Over 2,900 institutions accept CLEP credit Spanish exam most popular

CBE MYTHS Students who take credit-by-exams are not adequately prepared for the subsequent course Credit-by-exams take students out of my class Colleges lose tuition dollars when students take credit-by-exams

RESEARCH SAYS… Students who earn credit via CLEP/AP are more likely to than their peers to complete a bachelor’s degree in four years Students who earn credit via CLEP/AP perform as well or better in subsequent courses than students who completed the introductory course Exempted CLEP/AP students have a higher cumulative GPA than students who did not take CLEP/AP Students earning credit by examination tend to take more courses overall. They actually take as many courses in the subject area as students who complete the introductory course.

AP AND COLLEGE SUCCESS ™ Students who take AP courses and exams are much more likely than their peers to complete a bachelor’s degree in four years or less. Source: Camara, Wayne. (2003). College Persistence, Graduation, and Remediation. College Board Research Notes (RN-19). New York, NY: College Board.

POOR CBE POLICY… Frustration Confusion Reduced Retention Rate Delayed Degree Completion Repetition of Prerequisite Courses Increased Academic Costs Abandonment of Potential

IMPORTANCE OF A CBE POLICY Allows students scoring well on exams to place out of introductory courses and/or fulfill general education requirements Helps students move directly to material at their level and more quickly identify their academic interests Eliminates confusion for students transferring into a institution and establishes protocol for all involved Gives students more flexibility in their college curriculum, making it possible to pursue honors programs, double-majors, internships/co-ops, and study-abroad programs Provides students with a cost-effective means of earning college credit at time when college tuition is rising at unprecedented rate

WHAT IS A CBE POLICY? Statements and guidelines outlining the required procedure used in the transmission of credits-by- exam from outside of an institution. It includes: Accepted forms of credit-by-exam Required scores Course equivalents/placement Acceptance periods/transferability deadlines Limitations Procedural guidelines Established contact/chain-of-command

CBE POLICY BASICS Each college and university determines its own policies regarding credit-by-exam, which may include granting credit, advanced placement, or both Granting credit reduces the number of credit hours required for graduation Awarding advanced placement allows a student to place out of the introductory course that is comparable to the credit-by-exam and move directly into the next, higher-level course Frequently, a qualifying grade can also fulfill university distribution or departmental requirements, such as a composition or a foreign language requirement

WHO DEVELOPS CBE POLICY? Faculty Registrar Dean Committees System Administrators State Legislative Bodies

CREATING CBE POLICY Option 1: Understand What an Exam Grade Represents Option 2: Use Data on the Performance of AP/CLEP Students in College Option 3: Base Your Policy on External Recommendations Option 4: Review Curricula and Exams

CBE POLICY CHECKLIST Which exams does your institution recognize for credit? For each individual exam, what is the required score? How much credit is granted for each exam? What type of credit is granted for each exam? What is the course equivalent for each exam? What is the timeframe for accepting this credit? How many total hours can be earned through credit-by-exam? How is CLEP/AP credit brought in from another institution handled in terms of required documentation? How often is your policy revisited and revised? What office/department is the key contact for questions regarding this policy?

EXEMPTION DECISIONS ARE APPROPRIATE WHEN: Students as skilled as students completing the course are awarded an exemption for that course and Students less skilled than students completing a course are not awarded an exemption for that course.

EXEMPTION DECISIONS ARE INAPPROPRIATE WHEN: CLEP students are required to enroll in a course when their skills are on par with students completing that same course successfully or CLEP students are exempted from courses when their skills are inferior to those of students completing the course.

LET’S BRAINSTORM Good Policy and Bad Policy

EXEMPLARY POLICIES State Florida Ohio Institutional Collin County Community College University of Arizona

FLORIDA 2001 Legislature mandated establishing passing scores and course and credit equivalents for AP, IB, AICE, and CLEP Public community colleges and universities are required to award credit for exams as designated Articulation Coordination Committee adopted guidelines –

OHIO Statewide Articulation Transfer Policy developed by Commission on Articulation and Transfer and approved by legislature (1998) Credit-by-exam provided for within policy “Transfer Module” or common body of knowledge required of all institutions established to better define application of all credit Method of earning credit not required to be recorded on transcript if part of Ohio Transfer Module

COLLIN COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE Adherence to Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board policy Utilization of established percentile score in credit granting process Texas Common Course Numbering System utilized to make recognition of credits easier at other state institutions

UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA Established articulation agreement with community colleges Policy distributed to CC advisors Transfer policy clearly stated

What Do You Know About Your Institution’s Credit-By-Exam Policy?

CBE POLICY DEVELOPMENT TOOLS ACES Study Publications College Board Staff Peer Institutions

AP CREDIT POLICY INFO TOOL Searchable by institution For each institution that provided their AP credit policy information, you can find the following: A link to the institution’s own Web page that details its AP credit and placement policies A statement by the college or university about their AP policy

FACULTY/ADVISOR RESOURCES CLEP Resource Center User Name: clepadmin Password: CLEPmsa11# (case & number sensitive) AP Central

WANT MORE INFORMATION? Michelle Overstreet Higher Education Assessment Manager (512) Janet Swandol Associate Director, CLEP (850) Thank you!