The Education to Career Network of North San Diego County is made up of Escondido Union High School District, Palomar Community College District, Poway Unified School District, Ramona City Unified School District, San Marcos Unified School District and Vista Unified School District.
The Challenge
The Curriculum Alignment Project (CAP) was created to address the challenge of ensuring a smooth transition between the adult schools, Palomar College and the workplace to the benefit of students. This project allowed adult education teachers and college faculty to come together and analyze each other's curriculum to not only find similarities between them, but to also discover any gaps that would prevent or hinder students' success in transitioning from an adult school to college. Some of the initial challenges of this project dealt with scheduling of the meetings to fit everyone's needs and in getting all faculty to understand the need for alignment, especially between the adult schools and college.
The SolutionClose to 40 faculty members from the adult schools and Palomar College were divided into their discipline teams to examine courses in detail. Using uniform templates, they were able to document which of their courses were similar enough in content and skills learned to be declared aligned. This allows for easier transitions for students, from one adult school to another, and from adult school to college. This time was used to build trust between faculty which was accomplished through the establishment of common goals developed together. A matrix was created displaying which courses were aligned, thus preventing students from having to retake classes after transitioning, and allowing them more geographical choices within the consortium. OutcomesOver 110 individual courses from 8 separate disciplines achieved alignment with one or more similar courses from other schools, or with Palomar College. This created 46 multi-course alignment (2 or more courses aligned) across the consortium. Furthermore, Escondido Adult School, Poway Adult School and Vista Adult School have been able to articulate 10 courses with Palomar College, and have 18 other courses in the queue currently seeking an articulation agreement. The Curriculum Alignment Project helps strengthen the bonds between the adult schools and Palomar College, increasing the likelihood that adult school students will continue their education and proceed even further within their career path, and become life-long learners.
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