Teacher Handbook

Thank you for teaming with Central Oregon Community College to offer college level work to your students through College Now. College Now served 1,974 students from 15 area high schools during the 2011-2012 school year. This program allows high school students to earn credits through the alignment of curriculum and instruction between high school and college courses.

This handbook contains "processes" information. The documents you need to teach in the College Now program are found at www.cocc.edu/College-Now. Select the College Now/Transfer or College Now/CTE link to find the documents for your subject area. Please feel free to download and copy any documents that need to be distributed to students or parents.

College Now is, indeed, a team effort. Please feel free to contact the College Now Office at (541) 504-2930, if you have questions or concerns.

TEACHER APPROVAL PROCESS

Thank you for your interest in College Now. This program, through the alignment of curriculum and instruction between high school and college courses, provides high school students opportunities to earn transferable college credits while still in high school.

There is no compensation from COCC for teaching these classes.

COLLEGE NOW / CTE (CAREER TECHNICAL EDUCATION)

These are outcome-based courses along a Career Pathway in a Program of Study leading to a certificate or Associate of Applied Science degree. Course options are in these subject areas: allied health, automotive, biology, business administration, criminal justice, culinary, early childhood education, emergency medical technician, forestry, manufacturing and nursing. The cost to the student is $10 per course.

A complete listing of current articulated classes can be found at CTE Courses and Course Outcomes.

REGIONAL COLLABORATION
Collaboration is the hub of CTE. A partnership with Central Oregon Community College and the regional high schools has created this innovative program bridging high school and college education. Career Pathways and Programs of Study are developed in response to the educational, workforce and technical demands of Central Oregon. Curriculum teams comprised of regional high school and college instructors and representatives from the industry work collaboratively to set standards, competencies and outcomes for programs.

Go to www.cocc.edu/College-Now and review program information. Read the specific course outcome checklist for the course(s) you want to teach to determine whether or not your students can complete the requirements.

COLLEGE NOW / TRANSFER

Transfer courses are limited to selected juniors and seniors who can successfully complete the learning objectives and performance criteria to obtain credit in these college level articulated classes. Currently COCC offers the following Transfer courses: math, science, literature, writing, foreign languages (Spanish), history, humanities/film, and health & human performance. The cost to the student is a reduced fee of $15 per credit.

A complete listing of current articulated classes can be found at Transfer Course Outcomes.

Go to www.cocc.edu/College-Now and review program information. Read the specific course outcomes for the course(s) you want to teach to determine whether or not your students can meet the outcomes.

QUALIFICATIONS

To teach College Now classes, you must meet the same education and training requirements as COCC instructors in your subject area. For College Now/CTE, this is typically a Bachelor's degree in the subject area. To teach College Now/Transfer classes, they must hold a Master's degree in the subject area. This standard is used for all COCC transfer courses and is specifically required by Oregon Administrative Rule (589-007-0200).

Provisional Approval:

If you do not meet the preferred qualifications criteria above, you may qualify for provisional approval based on the following criteria.

College Now/Transfer high school teachers may seek and be granted approval if the following qualifications are met:
- Bachelor's degree in the course content area and a Master's degree in any discipline and professional experience teaching at College level in the content area; or
- Lack a Master's degree in the subject area but have a bachelor's degree plus 15 credits of graduate-level coursework in the subject area.
College Now/CTE high school teachers may seek and be granted approval if the following qualifications are met:
- Appropriate degree plus work experience and additional coursework in the subject area; or,
- Three calendar years of work experience in an occupational area directly related to the instructional program (the work experience must be beyond that acquired in apprenticeship, on-the-job training); or
- Occupational outcome for the teaching assignment secured through a combination of three years of work experience and specialized training. When applicable, the applicant's qualifications may be reviewed by the appropriate occupational advisory committee.

Appropriate COCC department faculty will be consulted during this teacher certification process, and approval authority will include the appropriate Dean and the VP for instruction.

APPROVAL PROCESS

Before you teach a class, you must go through the approval process. This involves providing documentation that verifies you have the same education and training required of college instructors in your subject area.

Download and print the Teacher Documentation form.

Complete the form and mail it with unofficial copies of your college transcripts to the College Now office at the following address:

College Now Office

Central Oregon Community College

2600 NW College Way

Bend, OR 97701

541-504-2930

541-317-3071 fax

You only need to be approved once to teach a course. If you would like to teach other courses, however, you will need to resubmit the Teacher Documentation form. You only need to submit your transcripts once as your documents will be kept on file.

The COCC department chair in the subject area is responsible for reviewing your documentation.

You will be notified by mail or email regarding your approval status for each course. After you have been approved you will need to contact the appropriate faculty person to complete the Articulation process. Teachers generally cannot articulate a course in the same trimester/semester in which they are approved. The timeline is just too tight to finish the teacher approval process and begin the articulation process in time to teach to cover all of the college topics and activities in the course.

Please call the College Now office at 541-504-2930 or email us at collegenow@cocc.edu, if you have questions.

ARTICULATION PROCESS

The Articulation Agreement signifies your intent to teach a course or courses during an academic school year and should be processed during the previous spring or fall term.

If you are considering teaching a course and you have not been approved to teach, you must go through the approval process for that particular course. You do not have to resubmit your unofficial transcript as your documents are kept on file. To teach College Now classes, a teacher must meet the same education and training requirements as COCC instructors in your subject area. For College Now/CTE, this is typically a Bachelor's degree in the subject area. To teach College Now/Transfer classes, they must hold a Master's degree in the subject area. This standard is used for all COCC transfer courses and is specifically required by Oregon Administrative Rule (589-007-0200). See Provisional Approval.

Print a copy of the Articulation Agreement. Read it carefully and list courses you are planning to teach on the form. You may only articulate courses you have been approved to teach. After you and the principal have signed this form it should be mailed or faxed to the address or fax number on the form. Once the form has been signed by COCC personnel, a copy will be mailed to you and your principal along with the name of your COCC articulating faculty.

Before teaching a course, meet with the appropriate COCC faculty to ensure curriculum, grading, materials, training and assessments are current for issuing college credit. You will meet at least once per academic year.

For Transfer classes the teacher and faculty need to work through the Course Agreement form.

See the College Now Articulation Deadlines calendar for details.

REGISTRATION PROCESS

The Registration Form is at the College Now web site. Please feel free to print the forms you need and make copies for each student taking the class for credit.

Students will be registered for your class at the beginning of the COCC college term during which the class will be completed. Go to the College Now Calendar to see the deadlines for turning in registrations for each term.

Each Spring COCC staff go to local high schools to administer the COCC Placement test to students who are planning to take classes at COCC. Please encourage students who are considering taking COCC classes to sign up to take the test when it is offered.

Step 1

Print and send the Parent Letter home to notify parents of this opportunity.

Step 2

Students must complete and sign a registration form for the class and turn it in to you along with payment.

Cost for a CTE class is a $10.00 fee for each class. Cost for a Transfer class is $15 per credit (i.e. $60 for a four credit class). Both fees are nonrefundable.

Step 3

Deliver or mail registration and payments to the College Now Office (see address below).

For registration deadlines, see the College Now Calendar. Early registrations are accepted.

STUDENT INFORMATION

Getting Started

Give each registered student a copy of the Student Guide and go over the information with them.

Print and give each student a copy of the course outcome checklist or syllabus. Review this with your registered students. Complete course requirements as outlined.

Dropping a Class

It's the student's responsibility to complete and sign a College Now Drop Form and submit it to you if he chooses to drop the class. Then, you will send the form to the College Now Office. If the student leaves the school before a Drop Form is completed the high school teacher should contact the College Now Office to discuss the drop procedure for that student.

A class may be dropped with no grade on transcript until the end of the seventh week. The last day to drop a class and receive a "W" on transcript is the Wednesday of the week BEFORE the final exam. There is no refund for dropped College Now classes.

See the College Now Calendar for details.

EVALUATION OF INSTRUCTION

Student Evaluation

It's the college's responsibility to evaluate College Now teachers just as we do any part-time instructor. Thus for the first two years in the College Now program, we ask students to evaluate their teacher in every class during every term. Starting with the third year, students will evaluate their teacher in every class during one term and in any new course being taught.

A summary of student evaluations is sent to you and your COCC articulating faculty. Student responses on the evaluations are not edited and are entered "as is".

Evaluation Process:

About two weeks before the end of your class, download a copy of the Instructions for Completing the Student Evaluation Form and the Student Evaluation Form. You will need to make a copy of the student evaluation for each student who is taking the class for credit. The links to these documents are below:
Choose a day when most students are present. Leave the room while the evaluation is taking place, have a volunteer read the instructions and pass out the evaluations.
After the students have completed the evaluation, the volunteer should collect the evaluations and place them in a manila envelope -- then seal it.
Mail the envelope or drop it by the College Now Office (see address below).

Peer Evaluation

The first year a teacher teaches for the College Now program, he or she will be peer evaluated by the assigned faculty. The peer evaluation will include a classroom visit, pre and post visit conferences, a review of student work and a written evaluation to be submitted to the College Now office.

Following the first year, teachers will be peer evaluated every other year.

College Now Grading Policy

High school teachers certify student course completion based upon student mastery of required articulated course outcomes. At completion of a class, the high school teacher will send the final grade roster and any other documentation specific to the course to the College Now office. Documentation will be routed to the appropriate college department for review and approval. Students may not hand-carry their own materials to COCC.

COCC faculty and high school teachers meet to align course outcome requirements for each articulated course. All course requirements must be agreed upon before the course is offered. Students are graded according to these pre-determined course outcome requirements. Course grading is explained on the course checklist/syllabus. The COCC Grading Policy must be followed for all classes.

End-of-term grades are available via the student's online student account and are not mailed or given out over the phone. Only the grades in the following list may be assigned. All courses graded with a P, NP, and W do not apply to a student's GPA. To calculate GPA, multiply the number of credits for each course by the grade points for the grade received in that course (grade points listed below). Add these numbers together and divide by the total number of graded credits for that term (include "F" grades and exclude P, NP, and W).

Grade points

A 4.0 outstanding performance

A- 3.7 superior

B+ 3.3 excellent

B 3.0 very good

B- 2.7 good

C+ 2.3 better than satisfactory

C 2.0 satisfactory

D 1.0 passing

F 0 not passing

P pass: not computed in GPA, applies toward percentage of credits completed, may be awarded only in authorized classes

NP no pass: not computed in GPA, may be awarded only in authorized classes

W withdraw: not computed in GPA, must be assigned by Records Office

Pass (P)/no pass (NP)

"Pass" is interpreted as a "C" or better. The "pass/no pass" option is used for certain courses where it is deemed inappropriate to use the regular grading system. Credits are awarded but not calculated in GPA.

If a student is unable to complete course requirements during the given term for reasons acceptable to the instructor, the teacher may call the College Now office for other grading options.

Grade Change

The responsibility of assigning grades for College Now classes is the high school teacher's. A student who disputes the final grade (A-F, P, NP) in a course should meet with the teacher to review the grade. If not satisfied, the student may meet with the College Now faculty liaison or department chair, who can further review the grade with the teacher. If the student believes that the grade reflects discrimination in some form, the student has recourse through the College's grade appeal procedure. Please call (541) 504-2930 if you have questions.

COMPLETING THE COURSE

Students should complete the course by the end of the college term in which they register.

The College Now office will send you a final grade roster approximately two weeks prior to the completion date of each term.

Sign and verify all course outcomes and recommend a grade for each student. Refer to COCC's Grading Policy. For CTE courses grading is listed on the outcome checklist. Documentation for Transfer courses as agreed upon in the Course Agreement should accompany the grade roster.

At completion of your course send to the College Now Office:

Completed and signed final grade roster.
For CTE courses, the completed and signed outcome checklist for each student and any additional completion documentation specified on the outcome checklist, i.e. journals, final exams, projects, etc.
Documentation for Transfer courses as agreed upon in the Course Agreement.

For completion deadlines, see the College Now Calendar. Early completions are accepted.

The COCC College Now office will send the completed outcomes and grade rosters to the articulating COCC faculty person for review and signature, then post student grades online.

Be sure your students know they will not receive their grades in the mail.

All College Now forms are available atwww.cocc.edu/College-Now.

Mail all documents and forms to:

College Now Office

Central Oregon Community College

2600 NW College Way

Bend, OR 97701

(541) 504-2930

(541) 317-3071 fax