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About CREDIT & The National Guide
Introduction The purpose of the American Council on Education's College Credit Recommendation Service (CREDIT) is to help adults obtain academic credit for formal courses taken outside college and university degree programs. It does this by providing educational institutions with reliable information to use in making decisions on credit awards. CREDIT evaluates and makes credit recommendations for formal educational programs and courses offered by organizations for their employees, members, or customers. These organizations include business and industry, labor unions, professional and voluntary associations, schools, training suppliers, and government agencies. The credit recommendations are intended to guide colleges and universities as they consider awarding credit. In this way, credit recommendations help adult students receive academic credit for learning gained through such instruction. The program is based on the idea that it is sound educational practice for colleges and universities to grant academic credit for high-quality educational programs conducted by a variety of organizations, provided that the courses are appropriate to an individual's academic degree program. Moreover, experience has shown that awarding credit for workplace courses or for prior learning will, in many cases, motivate students to enroll in formal postsecondary programs of study. The program was initiated in July 1974 upon the recommendation of the Carnegie Commission on Nontraditional Study. The recommended action was to extend to civilian organizations the system of evaluating formal courses that was first offered by the American Council on Education's Military Evaluations Program, a system for recommending college credit recommendations to members of the armed services. CREDIT adapted the criteria and procedures that ACE has used since 1945 in evaluating military courses. The ACE program is national in scope and coordinates the activities of the CREDIT state affiliate offices. The state affiliate offices cooperate with ACE in conducting the program. All course evaluations are conducted by CREDIT or its state affiliate offices according to the policies and procedures approved by the Commission on Lifelong Learning, the policymaking body for the Center for Lifelong Learning. ACE's coordinating role with the state affiliates ensures consistency in the evaluation process. A committee of state affiliate directors and national coordinators participate in training workshops and in the evaluation of the course review process. They also recommend policy to the Commission on Lifelong Learning. The American Council on Education encourages other states to participate in the program and invites them to cooperate with the Council by conducting programs in their respective states. The ACE National Guide to College Credit also contains the results of evaluations for apprenticeship programs. The policies and procedures governing the evaluation of apprenticeship programs closely resemble those used in the evaluation of courses or programs and were approved by the Commission on Lifelong Learning in May 1978. In addition, the National Guide contains credit recommendations for courses offered by distance learning schools that are accredited by the Distance Education Training Council. Here, too, policies and procedures are similar to those used in the evaluation of courses or programs and were adopted by the Commission on Lifelong Learning in May 1977. Under these policies, eligibility for review extends only to distance learning courses that include a proctored, comprehensive examination. More information about CREDIT, its programs and services, and the state affiliate offices can be found online at www.acenet.edu/nationalguide. |
