DES MOINES — Des Moines Area Community College’s (DMACC) program that offers college credits to Central Iowa high school students — known as Career Advantage — has received an accreditation from the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP), the national accrediting organization for college and high school concurrent programs.
“This is tremendous for our Career Advantage program and demonstrates we are delivering a quality program with our high school partners,” said Dr. Randy Mead, executive dean of program development for DMACC. “It serves as a guarantee to students, central Iowa high school leaders and other post-secondary institutions that DMACC’s faculty, curriculum, courses offered, assessment, support given to students and the program evaluation meet the highest quality standards.”
DMACC’s Career Advantage program began in 1998 with only a handful of school districts offering dual high school and college credit courses to area high school students. In 2009-2010, more than 9,500 students from 54 high schools in DMACC’s 11-county district attended a dual-credit course through DMACC. The students earn college credit while still in high school. Students are eligible to enroll and complete DMACC courses taught by DMACC-certified instructors at their home high school, at DMACC or online. With the concurrent enrollment head start on their college studies, students are saving time and money on their education and starting their career education earlier.
“We work very hard to offer a top-notch educational program for students, which helps them complete their high school requirements for graduation while letting them start on their college work,” Mead said. “We know students and parents are seeing the value in the program.” He says more than 350 teachers at high schools across DMACC’s district are accredited to teach DMACC courses, which is helping the program reach a growing number of students every year.
In the program:
• Career Advantage classes supplement high school courses.
• DMACC-approved course competencies, course materials and textbooks are used in the classroom.
• Courses are the same quality as the courses taught on the college campus.
• Instructors are certified through DMACC.
DMACC received the accreditation following a comprehensive peer review by a team of representatives from other NACEP-accredited programs across the country. The accreditation is for seven years.