Why should high school and ROCP teachers participate in articulation programs with community colleges?

Articulation is mainly used to help make the transition from high school or ROCP to college seamless for students. The benefits are many and they are not only for the students, but for your program as well. They include:

  1. Guiding students toward clear future opportunities;
  2. Validating your high school courses and bolstering your program;
  3. Creating partnerships and improving relations with community colleges;
  4. Improving the efficiency of advisory committees;
  5. Increasing access to better resources and facilities;
  6. Substantiating your program’s qualification for vocational funding.

Creating partnerships and improving relations with community colleges;
Improving the efficiency of advisory committees;
Increasing access to better resources and facilities;
Substantiating your program’s qualification for vocational funding.

The transition from secondary to post-secondary education is a challenging endeavor for many students. Decisions about what to do and where to go next can be overwhelming. Articulation programs can help focus high school and ROCP students on their future, by ushering them into college and directing them toward their goals. Students taking articulated courses can start their training in high school and make a seamless transition to community college, where they can continue with their education on an established pathway.

Articulation programs allow you to work with local community college faculty as partners, rather than as competitors. The forging of an articulation agreement is a joint process: both community college faculty and high school/ROCP teachers come together to develop a program that is at a level both parties can agree on. At the end of the process, a high school/ROCP course has been confirmed to be as rigorous and challenging as one taught at a college, and to merit advanced placement and/or credit at that college. High school and ROCP students are more likely to enroll in and apply themselves to a secondary school program if they are also advancing themselves toward college and their career at the same time; likewise, more students will pursue an educational pathway in college if they have already made progress in it at secondary school. Thus, articulation agreements put you and community college faculty on the same team, and bolster programs across segments.

Most Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs are required to have an advisory committee to help guide them with curriculum development and improvements. An articulation program provides opportunities to combine advisory committee meetings and share advisory committee members with the CTE programs at your local community colleges. Advisory committee members appreciate the more effective use of their time and input, and will be more willing to support your program when they see a working articulation agreement in place.

Significantly, both the state and federal government are showing favor for articulation programs in vocational disciplines. New regulations will require that schools, ROCPs, and colleges show a “sequencing” of courses to qualify for vocational funding. Articulated courses may be an ideal way to substantiate such curricular “sequencing.” Faculty members that wish to secure their entitlement to vocational funding would benefit from active participation in articulation projects such as Statewide Career Pathways.

Once you have articulated with your local college you can then use them as a resource for information and materials. Students can be exposed to facilities and equipment that many would not have a chance to experience if not for that relationship with the college. It is almost like having an extended high school faculty available to help when needed.

Successful articulation projects lead to recognition in the community and provide mechanisms to promote and publicize your programs. Taking part in them and proclaiming their benefits to a wide audience is truly good for all!

Next: What can this project to for me?

 

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