Wisconsin has developed an extensive system of local and state articulation agreements between secondary and postsecondary education institutions. Students receive advanced standing when high school courses or competencies are equivalent to a technical college course and the course is taught by a high school teacher in the local high school. Students receive credit for advanced standing if they enroll in a technical college within 27 months after high school graduation. Students receive college credit on an official transcript after successful completion of the course. Through an agreement among all the technical college districts, transcripted credit can be transported throughout the state.
Advanced standing is also transportable, though in comparable courses only.
There are a total of 3,717 advanced standing and 271 transcripted credit arrangements through local articulation agreements. Statewide articulation agreements in manufacturing and electronics will be available during the 1998 - 1999 school year. In addition, all 14 youth apprenticeship areas have statewide advanced standing articulation agreements that allow students completing state Youth Apprenticeship programs who enroll in a technical college program to receive a minimum number of advanced standing credits. According to Gabrielle Banick Wacker, Tech Prep Education consultant for the Wisconsin Technical College System, the changes and systematic development of the Tech Prep system has occurred over time and through many years of developing cooperative and collaborative arrangements at the state and local levels. A statewide client reporting system will allow secondary, postsecondary, and workforce development agencies to have data regarding the number of students with transcripted credit as well as to better track students as they enter the workforce or return to school for additional training.