INSTRUCTOR AND COURSE OFFERING APPROVAL

Instructor Approval

Schools seeking to participate in EXCEL make a written or verbal request to the program director.  Generally a school’s principal, a curriculum director, or a head counselor makes the request.  If the program director agrees the school meets EXCEL criteria, then the review of teachers and courses begins.  Criteria include teacher qualifications, appropriate and rigorous high school prerequisite courses, student selection and course alignment with the respective MBU course.

•  The high school principal or designated coordinator submits names of teachers and courses to be reviewed.

• EXCEL provides the school the following items for prospective teachers and courses: Faculty Information Form, Course Approval Form, MBU Course Syllabus, and MBU Syllabus Template.

The prospective teacher submits the completed Faculty Information Form and academic transcripts to verify credentials. 

1. The faculty form and transcripts are then submitted to the appropriate MBU academic division chair.  The chair reviews the materials and determines if the teacher is already qualified and, if not, determines the number of discipline-specific graduate courses or the type of degree the candidate needs.* 
2. If the credentials are approved, the faculty form is signed by three MBU representatives:  the Director of EXCEL, the appropriate academic division chair, and the Provost/Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs. 
3. Approved candidates are expected to attend one of the EXCEL summer discipline-specific workshops during which MBU liaisons provide training concerning the specific course to be taught.  After the breakout session, the EXCEL staff provides an administrative orientation for all new teachers and coordinators. 

*Candidates who need additional discipline-specific graduate courses are notified that if they complete the work during the summer before the year they want to begin teaching a dual credit course, they also need to attend the orientation and workshop training to prepare to teach the course. 

Candidates who need a significant number of graduate hours or degree completion and who do not expect to finish the work during the summer are notified that they will not be approved to teach an MBU course.  Their materials will remain on file.

 Course Offering Approval 

If approved to teach for EXCEL, the teacher – with the principal’s approval - submits a Course Approval Form with a proposed syllabus based on the MBU course syllabus.  The proposed syllabus should be formatted according to the MBU syllabus template .  Upon receipt of the proposed syllabus,  the appropriate EXCEL liaison (generally the academic division chair and/or the instructor for the on-campus course) reviews the  syllabus to determine if the high school can deliver the course content, appropriate text, methods, and assessments to align with the MBU course.

If there is some discrepancy between the MBU syllabus and the proposed syllabus, the liaison works with the high school teacher to modify the high school course.  If the University determines that the high school cannot meet the expectations of the on-campus course, the high school does not receive approval to offer the MBU course.

 If both the teacher and the proposed syllabus are approved by the MBU liaison and by the division chair, then MBU will approve the course offering for the next school year.  The Course Approval Form includes three signatures:  a high school administrator’s signature, the appropriate MBU division chair’s signature, and the signature of the Director EXCEL.

 The EXCEL staff arranges registration visits with the designated  coordinator at the high school.