Curriculum Articulation

Essay by chris6878University, Master'sA, January 2008

download word file, 5 pages 5.0

IntroductionThe technical college system in Wisconsin has been in operation since 1907, making Wisconsin the first state to support vocational and college education in the United States. Currently there are 16 colleges within the state technical college system, which serves approximately 460,000 students each year. The colleges offer more than 300 degrees (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2006). The Wisconsin Technical College System is part of the University of Wisconsin System, which provides oversight for this system as well as the University of Wisconsin College System and the various campuses of the University of Wisconsin throughout the state. The paper will describe recent curriculum articulation efforts by the Wisconsin Technical College System on behalf of students coming into the system from high school.

Goals and ObjectivesIt has been a long-standing goal of the technical college system in Wisconsin to provide another path to post-secondary education for citizens of the state.

In the past twenty years, the system has “increased its focus on lifelong learning; education for economic development and services for groups that formerly had less access to education including people in rural areas, women and minorities” (Wisconsin Technical College System, 2006). The system has had advanced standing agreements with high schools since 1996, which have grown tremendously in the past ten years. In 1996, only five colleges in the system had advanced standing agreements with three high schools, for courses focusing mostly on technical math content. In the 2005-2006 school year, all 16 schools had advanced standing agreements with 36 different high schools, including three from Minnesota. A wide range of courses are approved for advanced standing, ranging from welding, accounting, practical English, auto mechanics as well as many others.

In 2000, the University of Wisconsin System developed a Curriculum Articulation Project to further build...