CEC's Teacher Pipeline interns earn college credits
From Staff Reports
education@newnan.com
Eighteen Coweta County high school students enrolled in Central Educational Center’s Teacher Pipeline Program recently earned college credit, successfully completing a National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI) to get a head start at University System of Georgia colleges.
Dr. Susan Mullins, Teacher Pipeline Program director – who also introduced current interns Erin Davis and Mary Rutland Rand, both participants in the Extended School Year program at Newnan Crossing Elementary School – explained the new articulated credit system at the Coweta County Board of Education’s June meeting.
State requirements for receiving articulated credit include the following criteria:
• Successful completion of three Education Pathway courses
• Passing a written test developed and administered by NOCTI
• Compilation of a portfolio of student work
The three state-required courses are structured to give students a total of 225 clock hours of face-to-face instruction and 60 clock hours of internship in the field.
CEC interns also meet these additional criteria prior to taking the NOCTI exam:
• Admission to a Regents’ college/university
• 3.25 GPA or higher
Seventeen of the 18 interns graduated from Coweta high schools in 2012 and will enroll in Regents’ schools in August. The 18th intern has received the Presidential Scholarship to the Advanced Academy of the University of West Georgia in lieu of attending her high school during her senior year.
The dollar value of the course work awarded to each intern amounts to a savings of approximately $1100 in tuition and fees. Successful completion of course work and the assessment score grant the student the same college credit as earned through Advanced Placement courses and AP test scores.
The National Occupational Competency Testing Institute (NOCTI) is a not-for-profit agency providing competency tests for over 170 career fields nationally and throughout the world. NOCTI provides and administers tests that are accepted by universities and required by industry and/or state licensure. The NOCTI exam is a nationally-normed criterion reference assessment.
Mullins also shared the following during the BOE meeting:
• The passing rate for the NOCTI exam has increased from 66.7 in 2010-11 to 94.5 percent in 2011-12.
• The upcoming school year will be the first year that all CCSS Education Pathway interns will follow the aligned CEC Teacher Pipeline model for all course work in this pathway.
• This course is considered to be part of the Program of Study for a major rather than part of core course work, usually exempted with AP scores.
• Unlike AP tests where each institution may decide to accept scores, this credit for EDUC 2110 is a statewide agreement that all Regents schools must recognize and accept.
