Course Approval Process

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 that 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

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

• The faculty forms and transcripts are then submitted to the appropriate MBU division chair. The chair reviews the materials and determines if the teacher is already qualified and, if not, determines the number of graduate courses the teacher needs to reach EXCEL guidelines.

• 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 instructor for the on-campus course) and the academic division chair review the  syllabus to determine if the high school can deliver the course content, text, methods, and assessments of 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 teacher or school 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 EXCEL staff arranges registration visits and procedures with the designated high school EXCEL coordinator.