CLEP and ACE
CLEP
College Level Examination Program
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/about.html
CLEP has the potential for arranging college credit after one earns qualifying scores on any of 34 examinations. Exams may be taken by formerly incarcerated persons, after release, but there is, as yet, no known official policy on being able to take exams in prison, based on completion of online courses.
The CLEP program offers general examinations in English Composition, Mathematics, Humanities, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences. In addition there are specific subject exams.
On line courses could help prepare for CLEP exams, but there is, as yet,
no known official correlation of subject coverage in specific online courses and
subject coverage in a CLEP exam. Courses would need some kind of evaluation;
and credit may depend on completion of assignments, quizzes, and a final exam.
Credits obtained via CLEP are accepted at 2800 colleges and universities.
Different colleges have different limits on how many CLEP credits will be
accepted (e.g., Empire State College accepts 40 CLEP credits towards a 64 credit
Associate degree).
At some prisons there reportedly have been CLEP meetings with faculty from nearby universities, who volunteer to assist the students in their self-study. The critical element is one or more faculty volunteers who will guide the students, arrange examinations and do the liaison work with the prison administration.
Open test centers will test anyone who properly registers, including military personnel. These centers generally administer CLEP exams on a regular basis.
CLEP exams are administered throughout the year at over 1,400 colleges and
universities in the United States and abroad. There are 32 open CLEP
test centers in 26 countries outside the US. If interested, one should contact
the test center to confirm its status as an open center and to find out when
CLEP exams are offered.
So there is good potential, but a lot of questions remain.
The American Council on Education's College Credit Recommendation Service (CREDIT) connects workplace learning with colleges and universities by helping adults gain access to academic credit for formal courses and examinations taken outside traditional degree programs.
Course Evaluations. ACE has a concept of course or exam Evaluators, who decide on whether a given experience merits credit. To qualify as an ACE Evaluator, you must be actively teaching college-level courses. When a review is scheduled that requires your area of content expertise, you will be contacted directly and advised of the opportunity to serve on the ACE team. ACE pays all evaluators an honorarium and travel.
Maryland, and some U.S. federal prisons, for example, have cooperative
agreements with several community colleges that accept such credits (see
“Current Maryland System,” in the Fall issue of the International CURE
Newsletter at
www.internationalcure.org; and also see a long list of ACE Cooperating
colleges at
http://www.acenet.edu/programs/ccrs/adult_learners/index.cfm?sort=s ).
We asked three questions of ACE:
Question #1. Is there any precedent for the ACE evaluation and recommendation of
a college course offered online, free of charge, such as those offered under the
OpenCourseware Consortium? Answer: Requests for evaluations would need
to come from the organization offering the courses, regardless of how they are
delivered or the fees associated with them.
Question #2. Would such an evaluation / recommendation be possible even for a course given online by a college outside the U.S.? Answer: It would be. There is one organization which is based in Israel.
Question #3. Would ACE be receptive to a request for evaluation of a family of
such online courses, possibly contributed by different colleges? Answer:
Again, it would depend upon the organization which offers the courses to submit
the request; then the details of that would get worked out.
CLEP
College Level Examination Program
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/about.html
CLEP has the potential for arranging college credit after one earns qualifying scores on any of 34 examinations. Credit can be earned for independent study, prior course work, on-the-job training, professional development, cultural pursuits, or internships. Exams may be taken by formerly incarcerated persons, after release, but there is, as yet, no known official policy on being able to take exams in prison, based on completion of online courses.
The CLEP program offers general examinations in English Composition, Mathematics, Humanities, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences. In addition there are many specific subject examinations.
On line courses could help prepare for CLEP exams, but
there is, as yet, no known official correlation of subject coverage in
specific online courses and subject coverage in a CLEP exam. Courses would
need some kind of evaluation; and credit may depend on completion of
assignments, quizzes, and a final exam.
Credits obtained via CLEP are accepted at 2800 colleges and universities.
Different colleges have different limits on how many CLEP credits will be
accepted (e.g., Empire State College accepts 40 CLEP credits towards a 64 credit
Associate degree).
At some prisons there reportedly have been CLEP meetings with faculty from nearby universities, who volunteer to assist the students in their self-study. The critical element is one or more volunteers who will guide the students, arrange examinations and do the liaison work with the prison administration.
Open test centers will test anyone who properly registers, including military personnel. These centers generally administer CLEP exams on a regular basis.
Limited test centers restrict testing to students admitted to or enrolled at the institution.
CLEP exams are administered throughout the year at
over 1,400 colleges and universities in the United States and abroad
There are 32 open CLEP test centers in 26
countries outside the US. If
interested, one should contact the test center to confirm its status as an open
center and to find out when CLEP exams are offered.
So there is good potential, but a lot of questions remain.