Credit by Examination: The Standardized PLA Option

1. Credit by Examination:The Standardized PLA Option Council on Adult and Experiential Learning November 2011

2. CBE Program Representatives • College-Level Examination Program (CLEP®) • Keith Henry, Senior Assessment Manager, The College Board • DANTES Subject Standardized Tests (DSST®) • Giannina Rachetta, Product Marketing Manager, Prometric • Excelsior College Examinations® (ECE) • Ruth Olmsted, Associate Dean, Center for Educational Measurement, Excelsior College • UExcel® • Susan Henken, UExcel Brand Director, Pearson VUE

3. Data on the Efficacy ofPrior Learning Assessment • Selected findings from the following sources: • Fueling the Race to Postsecondary Success: A 48-Institution Study of Prior Learning Assessment and Adult Student Outcomes (CAEL, March 2010) • Moving the Starting Line (CAEL, August 2011) • Degree Completion Beyond Institutional Borders: Responding to the New Reality of Mobile and Nontraditional Learners (CAEL and Center for American Progress, October 2010) • Online enterprises gain foothold as path to a college degree (Tamar Lewin, NY Times, 25 August 2011)

4. Key Findings: PLA Methods (fueling) • CBE is the most common PLA form, but 84% of the institutions offer 4 or more methods • Standardized exams • (94%) • Portfolio assessment • (88%) • ACE-evaluated military training • (81%) • ACE-evaluated corporate training • (77%) • Institutional challenge exams • (65%) • Institutionally evaluated training • (63%)

5. Key Findings: Persistence (fueling) • Over all students in the study, whether they earn a degree or not, PLA students still accumulated credits toward a degree at more than twice the rate of non-PLA students • Baccalaureate degree students received an average of 20.1 PLA credits, associate degree about 10 • Average credits earned increased with student age

6. CBE and Online Courses (Lewin) • “Critics worry that the online courses are less rigorous and more vulnerable to cheating, and that their emphasis on providing credentials for specific jobs could undermine the traditional mission of encouraging critical thinking,” • “A recent study by Teachers College at Columbia University that tracked 51,000 community college students in Washington State for five years found that those with the most online course credits were the least likely to graduate or transfer to a four-year institution.” Credit by exam, with its rigorously academic content standards and secure administration, should stand out as a more valid and desirable option for adult learners seeking degree completion.

7. CBE and Portfolio Assessment • Staff from CAEL’s own LearningCounts program report that about 65% of applicants are advised away from the portfolio process, usually to CBE or the ACE National Guide offerings. • Excelsior College, a pilot participant in LearningCounts, excludes from the courses eligible to be challenged through its own portfolio program, any that have a standardized exam. For the student, credit by exam is much more highly structured than portfolio assessment. Options for study range from self-selected reading materials and free open courseware to slick, commercial test preparation packages and individualized tutoring, but all have in common that experts have already defined the content to be mastered, and the student is assessed on learning outcomes without regard to seat time spent acquiring the learning. Of course, Structured  Easy, but Portfolio is not a sure thing, either.

8. CBE, Portfolio, and Online Courses • Portfolio assessment is labor intensive for both the student and the evaluator, and takes skilled data management on the part of the overall program. It is difficult to standardize while keeping it open for all kinds of knowledge to be assessed. • Online courses require faculty to teach a defined number of students per section. Increasing access to courses requires hiring more faculty and managing more sections and/or running a less-than-desirable faculty : student ratio. Credit by exam is highly scalable. Unless you are providing test prep services, the number of students who can be served is limited only by test center capacity (and staffing for student inquiries, registration processing, and the like). Testing agencies take care of the up-front development costs, maintenance, analysis, and delivery contracts. If you have a testing center eligible to deliver their tests, you may actually increase college revenue.

9. Multiple PLA Options Are Desirable(degree) • “Offering multiple options is important because some learning is easily captured through standardized exams while other learning requires the more customized approach made possible through the portfolio. Further, multiple options can be important for acknowledging that not every student is suited to standardized exams, and not every student will find the portfolio process’s workload appealing.”

10. Common Features ofCredit by Exam Programs • Recognition by ACE CREDIT • Listing in online National Guide to Credit for Workforce Training • Common, standardized development procedures • Adherence to psychometric guidelines • Rigorous security procedures • College-level credit equivalencies • Compliance with Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing • Computer delivery • Diversity of offerings

11. Common Features, Continued • Mostly multiple-choice, with some essays, listening sections, and locally delivered performance assessments • Most are 90 minutes to 2 hours in length • “Rights-only” scoring (no penalty for wrong answers) • Immediate score reports (except exams with essays) • Passing scores scaled to be equivalent to a grade of C on the corresponding course • Standing faculty committees that oversee ongoing test development, shape content, review data, set exam policies • We have all been in the military market, although recent cutbacks have affected servicemembers’ access to free CBE

12. Students Face ChallengesUtilizing CBE • No PLA policy at their institution • Lack of awareness of an existing PLA policy • Advising • Admissions • Faculty • Policy that limits acceptance based on • Skepticism about academic rigor • Seat-time definition of learning or credit • Portability of credit when transferring • Campus test center issues including capacity and availability of desired testing programs • Lack of Title IV financial aid for CBE

13. Benefits and Limitations of CBE • Benefits • Addresses cost challenges associated with traditional degree programs • Provides options for students who are wait-listed or closed out of required courses • Convenient and cost-effective method for non-traditional students to earn credits • Students prepare independently rather than taking a semester or more of class in which they learn nothing new • Students are more challenged and engaged

14. Benefits and Limitations of CBE • Limitations • Low awareness among target audience (9% of general population reports any familiarity with CBE) • Testing reputation – bad press about K-12 assessment generalized to all tests • Institutional skepticism about CBE and what student really knows (even when there are statewide policies) • Inconsistent or incomplete CBE policies • Viewed as revenue competition (see retention and graduation data for the counter to this)

15. CBE Policies Can Include Multiple Options for Students • All the CBE programs have met the same rigorous standards, so why not accept all of them for credit at your institution? • We asked the institutions why they offer PLA, allowing them to indicate one or more responses from a list of 18 possible reasons. The most popular responses were: • “to provide a time-saving avenue for degree completion,” • “to fulfill our mission to serve adult learners,” • “to encourage greater student persistence towards a degree.” • Other popular responses were • “to recognize the value of learning that happens outside of the classroom,” • “to provide a cost-effective avenue for degree completion.” (Fueling the Race, p. 21)

16. CBE Policies Can Include Multiple Options for Students • Granting credit for all the CBE programs • Provides a larger catalog of potential course equivalents than any single program or combination can • Addresses the retention, persistence, and degree completion issues that may occur because of closed or wait-listed courses • Allows adult students choices that honor their different learning styles and life experiences • Respects the effort that all the CBE programs put into winning and maintaining their national recognition

17. CBE Policies Can Include Multiple Options for Students • Setting policy for use of individual exams is still the institution’s or system’s prerogative. You can: • Grant a different amount or level of credit • Grant credit only if an institutional prerequisite or subsequent course is passed • Grant advanced standing or a waiver rather than credit • Set a different passing score • Require additional documentation of mastery such as work samples • Limit application of CBE to specific areas of the curriculum • Limit total CBE credits that can be applied toward a degree

18. Brief Program Profiles • Basic facts • Unique features

19. What Is CLEP? • Serves adults, non-traditional learners, and military service members • All lower-level credit • More than seven million exams taken since 1967 • 1,700+ colleges administer CLEP , 2900 receive and grant credit • 211,000 exams administered in 2009–10, including 76,500 administered to military service members • Exam fee = $77.00

20. What Is CLEP? (unique features) • CLEP is a verb (“I clepped out of that class”) • Backed by the clout of the College Board, known for the SAT, AP, ACCUPLACER, etc. • 6-credit General exams that can fulfill a typical distribution requirement • Foreign Language exams with dual scoring levels (6 credits for passing score, 12 credits for higher cut-point) • Identified open courseware resources for most exams

21. What Is DSST? • Originally designed for military service members and adult learners, it is available to all college students • Aligned with course content for core curriculum and elective credits • Mix of lower and upper-level credit • Over 1,900 institutions award credit for DSST exams, more than 1,700 institutions deliver DSST exams at their test centers. • Cost effective for students @ $80 per exam or funded for military service members

22. What Is DSST? (unique features) • Internet-based testing provides more location flexibility than a dedicated test center driver • Secure-browser examination environment • Paper-based testing still available • Public Speaking exam that includes performance assessment – now fully online • New re-take policy reduces the wait time for exam re-take • Test preparation includes practice exams and authorized preparation courses from DSST partners: iStudySmart, Peterson’s and Innovative Academic Solutions

23. What Are ECEs? • Developed and maintained by Excelsior College (formerly Regents College) – an adult-serving institution for more than 40 years • Formerly known as Regents College Examinations or ACT-PEP • Both lower and upper-level credit • Exam fees = $95 - $355, depending on length and format (no separate seat fees)

24. What Are ECEs? (unique features) • Unique suite of Nursing exams used in assessment-based degree programs at Excelsior College • Administered at both free-standing and campus-based testing centers worldwide • Letter grades, with Excelsior College credit awarded for a grade of C or better • Robust study support including detailed content guides, specific textbook recommendations, and practice exams with answer rationales

25. What Is UExcel®? • An alliance between Pearson VUE and Excelsior College • Pearson VUE: Program management and delivery of tests • Excelsior College: Test development, academic validity, awards college credit, transcript preparation • Complementary with ECEs in terms of offerings • Exam fee $85, no additional seat fee

26. What Is UExcel? (unique features) • Developed by a regionally accredited institution of higher learning and securely computer administered worldwide • Provides transcripted college credit to students who pass exam • Provides immediate letter-grade scoring on all exams (including College Writing, thanks to automatic essay scoring software)

27. What’s the CBE Landscape? • Amongst ourselves, we offer more than 100 different exams, with some overlap in popular subjects • While your institution may also accept AP or IB credits, those are usually not accessible to students who have left secondary school behind • Our test center networks and availability are slightly different

28. Our Combined Offerings History and Government • American Government (C) • Civil War and Reconstruction (D) • History of the United States I and II (C) • History of the Vietnam War (D) • Human Cultural Geography (D) • Intro. to the Modern Middle East (D) • Political Science (U) • Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union (D) • Social Sciences and History (C ) • Western Civilization I and II (C ) • Western Europe Since 1945 (D) • World Conflicts Since 1900 (E) C = CLEP, D = DSST, E = ECE, U = UExcel

29. Our Combined Offerings Other Social Sciences • Abnormal Psychology (E) • American Government (C) • Art of the Western World (D) • Criminal Justice (D) • Cultural Diversity (E) • Foundations of Gerontology (E) • Foundations of Education (D) • Fundamentals of Counseling (D) • General Anthropology (D) • Human Cultural Geography (D) • Life Span Developmental Psychology (C, D, E) • Intro. to Educational Psychology (C) • Intro. to Law Enforcement (D) • Intro. Psychology (C, U) • Intro. Sociology (C, U) • Juvenile Delinquency (E) • Macroeconomics (C, E) • Microeconomics (C, E) • Political Science (U) • Psychology of Adulthood & Aging (E) • Research Methods in Psychology (E) • Social Psychology (E) • Social Sciences and History (C) • Substance Abuse (D) • World Population (E)

30. Our Combined Offerings Humanities, English/Speech, Languages • American Literature (C ) • Analyzing and Interpreting Literature (C ) • Bioethics: Philosophical Issues (E) • English Composition (C, E, U) • English Literature (C ) • Ethics in America (D) • Ethics: Theory & Practice (E) • French (C ) • German (C ) • Humanities (C ) • Interpersonal Communication (E) • Intro. to Music (E) • Intro. to Philosophy (E) • Intro. to World Religions (D) • Principles of Public Speaking (D) • Spanish (C, U)

31. Our Combined Offerings • Science and Mathematics • Anatomy & Physiology (E) • Astronomy (D) • Biology (C ) • Calculus (C, U) • Chemistry (C ) • College Algebra (C, D) • College Mathematics (C ) • Earth Science/Geology (E, D) • Environment & Humanity (D) • Microbiology (E) • Natural Sciences (C ) • Pathophysiology (E) • Physics (U) • Precalculus (C ) • Principles of Physical Science (D) • Statistics (D, U)

32. Our Combined Offerings • Professional Studies: Business, Technology, Education • Business Ethics & Society (D) • Business Law (C, D) • Business Mathematics (D) • Financial Accounting (C , D) • Human Resource Management (D, E) • Information Systems and Computer Applications (C ) • Intro. to Business (D) • Intro. to Computing (D) • Labor Relations (E) • Literacy Instruction in the Elementary School (E) • Management Information Systems (D) • Money & Banking (D) • Organizational Behavior (D, E) • Personal Finance (D) • Principles of Finance (D) • Principles of Management (C ) • Principles of Marketing (C ) • Principles of Supervision (D) • Technical Writing (D)

33. Our Combined Offerings • Professional Studies: Nursing and Health • Adult Nursing (E) • Community-Focused Nursing (E) • Essentials of Nursing Care: Health Safety (E) • Essentials of Nursing Care: Health Differences (E) • Essentials of Nursing Care: Chronicity (E) • Essentials of Nursing Care: Reproductive Health (E) • Fundamentals of Nursing (E) • Health Differences Across the Life Span 1, 2, & 3 (E) • Here’s to Your Health (D) • Management in Nursing (E) • Maternity/Maternal & Child Nursing (E) • Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing (E) • Research in Nursing (E) • Transition to the Registered Professional Nurse Role (E)

34. Potential Savings Through CBE Time • One exam equals 3 semester hours or more • 45 clock hours or more Money • At an average of $500/hour, each exam saves the student $1,500 • Institutions save as well • 255,000 PLA Exams in 2009-10 • Students saved 765,000 semester hours • Students saved 11,475,000 clock hours • Students saved$382,500,000 • Institutions saved $1,530,000,000 • Assumes tuition from state = 20% of budget

35. Summits and Networking • Degrees of Change: Private Sector Innovations Transforming Higher Education • May 16, 2011 summit at the US Chamber of Commerce • A project of the Institute for a Competitive Workforce • Included a presentation on CBE as a way to meet educational and corporate needs • Plans for a national CBE summit to raise awareness among stakeholders (e.g., educators, regulators, employers, grant providers, and testing agencies) • Request for a copy of attenders’ current CBE policies • We all want to be able to list you as an Accepting Institution for our exams!

36. Questions? • Keith HenryThe College Board khenry@collegeboard.org347-541-0927 • Ruth OlmstedExcelsior College rolmsted@excelsior.edu 518-464-8603 • Giannina Rachetta Prometric / DSST giannina.rachetta@prometric.com 443-455-8082 • Susan Henken-Thielen Susan.Henken-Thielen@Pearson.com UExcel – Pearson VUE 952-681-3447