Higher Education Articulation Agreements: A Study of State Policies Covering the Early Care and Education Workforce. Volume 1 -- Final Report
Author: Holod, Aleksandra
Date: 2019-09-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Higher Education,Articulation (Education),Transfer Policy,College Transfer Students,Early Childhood Education,Child Care,Early Childhood Teachers,Child Caregivers,State Policy,Governance,College Admission,General Education,Transfer Programs,Two Year Colleges,College Faculty,Teacher Role

A barrier that students and mid-career professionals often face in attempts to advance their education level is that the coursework completed and credits earned in one institution of higher education (IHE) may not transfer to another. To address this issue, states have developed a variety of articulation policies and agreements to facilitate the transfer of credits and coursework between degree programs. Articulation policies are particularly important for individuals who begin their higher education coursework in a two-year college and later seek to transfer their credits to obtain a bachelor's degree, which often is the case for teachers and caregivers in the early care and education (ECE) workforce. This report examines articulation policies and practices in six states with policies that include provisions specifically for ECE. The study involved telephone interviews and focus groups with state-level higher education administrators and staff, as well as administrators, faculty, and students from 20 IHEs within the six states (including both two-year and four-year institutions). The examples and experiences of these states and IHEs may be applicable to other fields as well and may be useful for policymakers, higher education administrators, and faculty seeking to improve the efficacy of their broader articulation policies and practices. Key findings include: (1) All six states in the study used transfer associate's degrees and general education block transfers, which allow students to transfer courses as a set rather than on a course-by-course basis, to facilitate course and credit transfer for ECE students; half of the states also used guaranteed admission or common course numbering; (2) Four states established at least one statewide committee to oversee articulation; the remaining two states oversaw articulation through a state higher education agency or system office; (3) Most IHEs (17 of 20) supplemented state-level articulation policies with intrastate and interstate regional articulation agreements formed between IHEs; (4) Most two-year IHEs (nine of 10) offered separate ECE degree pathways for students who planned to transfer and earn a bachelor's degree versus students who planned to end their education with an associate's degree; (5) In nearly all IHEs (19 of 20), ECE faculty played several key roles in implementing articulation policies, such as evaluating course transferability (15 IHEs) and designing courses that reflect agreed-on competencies (12 IHEs); (6) IHEs supported transfer students by providing online information about transfer (12 IHEs), transfer centers (six IHEs), outreach programs (six IHEs), and transfer student orientations (five IHEs); and (7) Faculty and staff advised students on topics including career paths (16 IHEs) and financial aid (15 IHEs), referred students to degree planning tools (14 IHEs), and referred students to transfer advisors (three IHEs). [For &quot;Higher Education Articulation Agreements: A Study of State Policies Covering the Early Care and Education Workforce. Volume 2 -- Final Report,&quot; see ED613451. For &quot;Results in Brief: Higher Education Articulation Agreements--A Study of State Policies Covering the Early Care and Education Workforce,&quot; see ED613450.]