Teacher/Faculty Information

Missouri Western complies with the Coordinating Board for Higher Education policy on dual credit/dual enrollment delivery.

Program Structure and Administration

• Dual credit/dual enrollment courses, including course content and course requirements, offered in high schools must duplicate the identical course offerings delivered on campus to matriculated students. On-campus college faculty must ensure that each dual credit/dual enrollment course has the same level of academic rigor and comparable standards of evaluation as that of its campus-based equivalent.
• Institutions must ensure that assignments and grading criteria are identical to, or are of comparable design, quality, and rigor to the equivalent campus-based course. Elements of the dual credit/dual enrollment course to be approved by the on-campus college faculty in the appropriate academic discipline include the syllabus, textbook(s), teaching methodology, and student assessment strategies.
• Dual credit/dual enrollment courses must be approved for dual credit/dual enrollment status by the institution of higher education, and the credit awarded must be deemed acceptable in transfer by the faculty of the appropriate academic department (unit) of the college.
• Institutions of higher education should facilitate frequent, consistent, and timely communication with the high schools in which they provide dual credit/dual enrollment courses. That communication should address the scheduling of courses, compliance with statewide dual credit/dual enrollment policy, identification and resolution of problems that occur, and evaluation of each dual credit/dual enrollment course.
• Because discrete classes that totally separate dual credit/dual enrollment from non- dual credit/dual enrollment students may be prohibitive to operate in some cases, those classes with a mixed population must show evidence of collegiate level expectations for all students in the course. All high school students enrolled in a dual credit/dual enrollment course must meet the same requirements for completion of the course, whether or not the student is simultaneously registered for college credit.
• In order to limit or prevent retroactive registration, a practice that permits students to choose whether to register for courses for college credit late in the semester, students enrolled in dual credit/dual enrollment classes should adhere to the dates comparable to those specified on the college campus for registration, drop, withdrawal, or refund.

Faculty Qualifications and Support

• High school instructors of dual credit/dual enrollment courses are, in effect, adjunct instructors of the college or university providing dual credit/dual enrollment. As for any instructor of college-level courses, high school instructors of dual credit/dual enrollment courses shall meet the requirements for faculty teaching in institutions of higher education, as stipulated for accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission. Dual credit/dual enrollment instructors shall possess an academic degree relevant to what they are teaching and at least one level above the level at which they teach, except in programs for terminal degrees for which they must possess the same level of degree. Instructors using credentials for qualification with a master’s level degree in a discipline or subfield other than that in which he or she is teaching must have completed a minimum of 18 graduate credit hours in the discipline in which he or she is teaching.
• New dual credit/dual enrollment instructors must participate in orientation activities provided by the dual credit/dual enrollment provider institution and/or academic department.
• In order to assure comparability of the dual credit/dual enrollment course with the corresponding college course and to foster collaboration between high school instructors and college faculty, academic departments at the institution shall provide instructors of dual credit/dual enrollment courses with support services. These include, but are not limited to, opportunities for dual credit/dual enrollment instructors to discuss concerns and to share information with each other and with the institution of higher education, access to appropriate professional development opportunities, and mentoring offered either exclusively to dual credit/dual enrollment instructors or to both campus-based faculty and dual credit/dual enrollment instructors.
• The chief academic officer of the postsecondary institution is responsible for involving full time faculty in the appropriate academic department in the selection and evaluation of all dual credit/dual enrollment instructors. Dual credit/dual enrollment instructors are evaluated regularly in accordance with established institutional policies and procedures. Regular on-site course evaluations at the high school should occur once a year for the first two years for new instructors. For all instructors, evaluations should occur a minimum of once every two years. Annual reports of student performance and feedback should also be utilized and analyzed with respect to the continuation of the dual credit/dual enrollment.

Assessment of Student Performance

• The responsibility for the development of assessment and evaluation measures to assure quality and comparability of dual credit/dual enrollment courses resides with the on-campus college faculty in the appropriate academic discipline. In general, comparability between the dual credit/dual enrollment course taught in the high school and the corresponding course taught on the college campus should be demonstrated by using the same methods of assessment or identical testing procedures, and by employing the same means of evaluation, which will be supervised by the appropriate faculty on the college campus.
• In atypical cases, when different tests are constructed and the high school teacher performs independent evaluations, the burden shifts to the institution to demonstrate the comparability of dual credit/dual enrollment courses and to ensure a common standard of grading. The use of nationally-normed instruments is recommended when the substance of the nationally-normed test is consistent with the learning objectives of the dual credit/dual enrollment course. Locally developed assessments must be administered to both on-campus and dual credit/dual enrollment students in order to provide the on-campus college faculty in the appropriate academic discipline with data appropriate to demonstrate comparability. Nonetheless, any specialized assessment of dual credit/dual enrollment courses must emulate the on-campus institutional assessment plan required by the Higher Learning Commission, including the identification of the general education learning objectives and outcomes.
• Dual credit/dual enrollment providers should compare the dual credit/dual enrollment course to assessments of student learning outcomes in similar courses taught on-campus.