Dr. Linda Allen Elected to National Council of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships Board

posted on Wednesday, December 19, 2012 in Blog

WATERLOO—The National Council of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships announced that Dr. Linda Allen, president of Hawkeye Community College, was recently elected to the Board of Directors. Dr. Allen will fill a 3-year at-large seat on the Executive Committee.

The National Council of Concurrent Enrollment Partnership or NACEP is the sole accrediting body for concurrent enrollment (also referred to as dual credit) partnerships. The NACEP accreditation helps to adhere to the highest standards for concurrent enrollments to provide students a seamless transition to college.

Concurrent enrollment partnerships enable qualified high school students to earn college credit prior to graduation. NACEP-accredited programs use college-approved instructors and are the same high quality courses as those offered on the campus of the college. Students are exposed to the same rigorous academic challenges. According to NACEP, students are better prepared for college by gaining exposure to college expectations and workload. Concurrent enrollment courses have grown in popularity and allow families to save on college tuition.

Currently, there are only 83 two-year and four- year institutions of higher education in the nation that have earned NACEP accreditation. Hawkeye Community College was one of the 15 Iowa community colleges to earn the coveted NACEP accreditation this year.

Hawkeye currently serves all 27 schools in its service area through its concurrent enrollment program known as CollegeNow. During the last year, Hawkeye had 1,804 high school students enrolled in CollegeNow courses with the average student taking two college-level courses. Approximately 25 percent of all of Iowa's community college students are jointly enrolled in high school, making Iowa a leader in aligning secondary and postsecondary programs in the country.