n extensive review of West Virginia's education system during the
90's has prompted sweeping changes in the secondary and postsecondary
education levels within the state. The data reported low college attendance
rates, increases in remedial college courses for incoming freshmen,
high postsecondary dropout rates, and a growing concern by the business
community relative to the quality of education being delivered. Reaction
to the reports resulted in the passage of state legislation intended
to insure changes in the way education and training were being delivered
in West Virginia. One of the outgrowths of the legislation was the
"seamless curriculum initiative."
West Virginia defines a seamless curriculum as a continuum of competencies
which provides transition from one level to another without unnecessary
duplication. Student progression is based on the mastery of competencies
to established standards.
At the onset of the seamless curriculum initiative, a major problem
surfaced. The West Virginia Department of Education had established
broad standards for each secondary subject area, but due to the
scope of these standards, teacher interpretation became a variable.
Additionally, the course content at the postsecondary level was
not standardized, so there were variations in course content from
class to class.
It quickly became apparent that in order to accomplish the seamless
curriculum development steps, both education levels needed to use
the same methodology to "unmask" the curriculum in their
respective courses by identifying required competencies and mastery
levels. To accomplish this task, both education levels agreed to
use Instructional Performance Systems, Inc (IPSI), a curriculum
development process tool. The IPSI sessions resulted in two important
products: 1) syllabi that could be analyzed for alignment, gaps
and duplication, and 2) criterion-referenced test banks.
The process not only provided an effective medium for developing
seamless curriculum, but a high level of trust began to evolve between
the education levels. This trust materialized into a system that
allowed for the development of an approach new to West Virginia's
education system.
Transcript in Escrow
The seamless curriculum process has identified, to date, 26 courses
that are duplicated between the high school and postsecondary levels.
To eliminate the duplication, community colleges have agreed to
award college credit for these classes. Students can access the
credits by enrolling in the identified classes, which utilize the
IPSI syllabi, and then obtaining a passing grade on the final exam
which is developed from the criterion-referenced test banks (with
a passing score of 70% on the grading scale). Upon successful completion
of these classes, a college transcript is immediately generated
for the student and is placed in escrow until the student enrolls
in college. Once enrolled, the student's transcript is taken out
of escrow and becomes an active, legal transcript. Currently, there
are over 750 students enrolled in these classes.
While the West Virginia seamless initiative is in its infancy,
its impact is already being noticed. In addition to Transcript in
Escrow, the effort is reducing the number of students enrolled in
college remedial classes, and the increase in the college-going
rate is promising. All in all, this seamless initiative is proving
to be an answer to some of West Virginia's most persistent educational
challenges.
Kathy D'Antoni is the State Tech Prep Coordinator at the West Virginia
Joint Commission for Vocational-Technical-Occupational Education located
in Charleston, West Virginia. She is National President of the National
Association of Tech Prep Leadership. e-mail: dantoni@hepc.wvnet.edu.
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