Articulation Agreements
What is an articulation agreement?
An articulation agreement is a formal contract between a high school teacher and a community college instructor that allows high school students the opportunity to earn early college credit. It can be used as an equity lever to provide experience and access to students who might otherwise not see themselves as college material. Two critical components make up an agreement:
alignment between the high school and college courses
an agreed-upon final assessment that has been approved by the college Curriculum Review Committee.
How to manage your current articulation agreement
At the start of each school year, SCOE and SRJC will host a Fall Articulation Kickoff. At this event, you will have a chance to connect, review the past year’s successes and trouble spots, renew or revise agreements as needed, and collaborate on future activities like site visits and field trips. In addition, you will receive explicit instructions about the process of managing your agreement. This teacher checklist explains the steps for the year, and the timeline below gives an overall snapshot of the process. The Articulation Toolkit also provides resources that might be of use.
A few tips from other teachers who have navigated the process successfully:
Take time to explain the WHY behind Early College Credit, including how your course leads to specific programs and pathways at the J.C. and jobs in the community. Students will be more engaged and motivated if they understand the rationale.
Contact the SRJC Outreach Team to begin the application/enrollment process with your students IN THE FALL. This is the most challenging piece of articulation; the more time you allot for it, the better. Support the Outreach Team by preparing your students with behavioral expectations, as well as rationale for why they are signing up in the first place.
Enlist the help of your high school counselor(s) in the application/enrollment process.
To make the most of articulation as an equity tool, be sure to have ALL your students enroll in the J.C. and try the final assessment. Even if they don’t pass, the experience will give them exposure to the process with a built-in safety net: failing grades aren’t posted on college transcripts.
Even if students say they aren’t going to the J.C., they can still take the A-CBE. Most of our articulated credits are transferable to the CSU system, and even if not, you never know when having some extra credits in the bank might be useful down the road, regardless of current plans.
How to form a new articulation agreement
The process can be initiated by a high school teacher or administrator and unfolds via the following steps:
The high school educator submits the SRJC Articulation Interest Form.
Upon receipt of the form, the SRJC team will work to match the request with the appropriate JC staff. Site or district staff will also be notified that the articulation process has begun for the desired course.
The SCOE Pathway Coordinator will send the teacher a Course Side-by-Side document to allow for a comparison of course content and objectives. This tool will be used to help identify and resolve alignment issues.
During either the Fall or Spring New Agreement Convening window, a meeting will be arranged between instructors to have a conversation around their respective programs and come to consensus about a potential agreement. At this time, they will also agree on the final assessment.
Once both partners concur, a formal electronic articulation agreement will be routed to all parties involved for required signatures.
The agreement is active for two years; after two years, it must be renewed.
BONUS! If your course is A-G approved and articulated, it is eligible to be coded as Honors, thereby giving students the GPA bump associated with other Honors classes. Contact Christi Calson at ccalson@scoe.org to find out how to apply.