Community College 

revised 8/31/07

Golden Valley Charter School encourages capable high school students to enroll in community college courses when it is deemed appropriate by the parent and the Education Specialist.

High school students may take up to a maximum of 6 college units per semester.  There are no exceptions to this rule.

The parent is responsible for enrolling the student by contacting the college enrollment office.  The parent must identify their student as being currently enrolled in a public high school.  Each community college is able to set its own standards for admittance, such as a minimum age, demonstrated ability, or professor approval.  Colleges typically require the GVCS Director’s signature on a concurrent enrollment form.  Colleges may require placement testing and/or orientation sessions.  They may also require the ES to sign letters of recommendation and/or require official transcripts before admitting the high school student.  It is important for parents to start this process early to meet application and enrollment deadlines.  ESs should become familiar with their local community college’s procedures and restrictions to better advise parents.

Approval from the GVCS office is required prior to enrolling in a college course.  Colleges typically require the GVCS Director’s signature on a concurrent enrollment form or a special enrollment form.  The Director’s signature on this form constitutes GVCS approval to take the college course(s).  If the college does not require this form, please ask if they have one available to submit to the GVCS office.  Please contact the school office for further direction, if a concurrent enrollment form is not required.

GVCS highly encourages students to take lab science courses and language other than English courses at the community college.  The classroom setting and facilities provided by the colleges afford the students much opportunity to truly experience these types of classes. 

In addition, University of California campuses may favor students who have a proven academic record from their local community college.  Students desiring entrance to a UC are advised to begin classes early in their high school career and take at least one class from each of the a-g subject areas to validate their academic ability.  UC requirements in area ‘d,’ Laboratory Science, and in area ‘e,’ Language Other than English, must be fulfilled at the community college; GVCS no longer offers catalog versions of these courses.  All community colleges have posted the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) on their websites to aid students in selecting the appropriate, transferable courses.  The website www.assist.org will also be helpful in planning transferable community college coursework.

As with all GVCS high school courses, all college courses used for high school credit are listed on the High School Course Selections form and approved by the Ed. Support Mgr., prior to placement on the transcript.  The college course title will be listed on the student's GVCS high school transcript, along with the appropriate number of high school credits.  College units are converted to high school credits as outlined in the College Unit Conversion Policy.

The State of California pays for a student's attendance at both the community college as well as GVCS, and the GVCS student is first and foremost a high school student.  Therefore, the ES must be aware of the exact number of college units a GVCS student is earning at a community college.  A GVCS student may take no more than 6 units of college coursework during any GVCS semester.  A student must take an equal number of classes in GVCS to be considered a full-time high school student.

Writing the Learning Record

It is not mandatory that classes taken by the student at the community college be documented on the learning record.  Parents and students may choose whether to not include the student’s work for high school credit.  The parent and student are advised to consult with the university admissions office where the student intends to enroll after graduation to determine whether to place the college classes on the high school transcript.  Some universities may not accept for transfer any community college units that have also been used for high school graduation credit.  Even if the college coursework will not be used for high school credit, the ES must know how many units the student is earning at college since GVCS is responsible for tracking attendance credit and reporting accurate attendance information.  Regardless of whether reported to GVCS for high school credit or not, no more than 6 college units may be pursued while enrolled in GVCS.  No high school grades or credits may be assigned for any course not listed on the learning record.

If a college course is to be used for high school credit and is documented on the learning record, work samples from the college course will be collected at each learning record meeting.

Learning records for a student attending college classes follows the same general guidelines as for writing any other high school learning record:

·         High school learning records must include the course title at the beginning of each entry.

·         Learning records must include descriptions of the major objectives covered and activities used within each assignment period.  Specific details of the learning and activities must be included.

·         The documentation of learning should include content of what is learned but not where it is learned.

·         Specific textbook titles or chapter numbers may be mentioned but are not mandatory.

·         The amount of time that learning took place or the dates that learning took place for any activity do not need to be stated.

·         Any references to religious content must be in the context of the study of world religions or world history.

·         A learning record should include nontraditional learning as well as traditional.

·         The learning record may include teacher comments.

·         A properly written learning record should provide a record of student progress, which may be used to support the life goals of that student.

·         The information presented on the learning record should be organized and professionally presented.

Examples:

Beginning Computer Programming: Julio listened to lectures, took notes, and completed lab assignments on the following topics: I/O Streams as an Introduction to Objects and Classes- streams and basic file I/O, tools for stream I/O, character I/O, inheritance among stream classes; Defining Classes and Abstract Data Types- structures, classes, abstract data types, classes to produce ADTs, alternative implementation of a class.  He was pleased to get 86% on his midterm. 

Visual Arts 101: Madeline listened to lectures, read her text, viewed other students' samples, and created her own samples modeling the style of the following artists: Tiffany, Rouault, Kollwitz and Barlach.  She made a mosaic tree out of tiles, created a stained 'glass' flower out of tissue paper, drew a sketch of a face using boxes for dimensions, and made an action scene with balloon people.

Introductory Physics: Brian listened to lectures, took notes, read the text, answered written comprehension and vocabulary questions, performed labs, and took chapter tests on the following topics: sound- the nature of sound waves, loudness, pitch, speed of sound, boundary effects; music- consonance, overtones, musical instruments.  Labs conducted were on 'the property of waves' and 'vibrating strings'.

Assigning Credits

GVCS allows students to receive credit for a high school course and to also keep the college units on their college transcript.  The college evaluates and assigns the college units.  The ES documents and evaluates the learning that takes place in the college course and then assigns appropriate high school credits on the GVCS transcript.  The name of the high school class will be the same name as the college class.  The number of high school credits awarded for a college course is determined by the GVCS College Unit Conversion Policy.  The ES may consult his/her ES Advisor for help with determining the appropriate assignment of high school credits.  The student must provide the ES with a copy of the college grade report/transcript at the end of each semester. 

College Tuition

Golden Valley Charter School will not pay for any community college fees/tuition, although most community colleges waive the tuition for high school students.

College Textbooks

GVCS students may use instructional funding to pay for college textbooks required for a current college class.  College textbooks must be obtained through the usual process for ordering instructional materials.  They may be ordered through your ES from an approved vendor such as Barnes & Noble, Borders, or Follett Educational Services.  If the college bookstore is an approved vendor, and the bookstore is willing to accept a PO and ship the books to the ES, they may be ordered directly from that bookstore.  Keep in mind that the process for ordering books using instructional funding takes time, sometimes several weeks, so the arrival of the books will not likely coincide with the first day of the college course. 

Approved Community College Bookstores