College Level Examination Program (CLEP) Recommended Policy Change

Existing Policy (p 65 Section 2 Governance Manual):

CLEP is a program of the College Board which includes 5 General Examinations and more than 30 Subject Examinations. Credits are awarded toward General Education requirements for scores of 500 or above on CLEP General Examinations. Credit is not granted for CLEP General Examinations taken after 15 college credits have been earned on in areas where college-level coursework has been completed.

Specific course credits are awarded to students who earn a score of 55 or higher on a CLEP Subject Examination. Written departmental approval must be obtained prior to taking a Subject Examination.

Recommended Policy Changes (in boldface, underline in text):

CLEP is a program of the College Board which includes 5 General Examinations and more than 30 Subject Examinations. Six (6) credits are awarded for scores of 50 or above on each of the CLEP General Examinations. Credit is not granted for CLEP General Examinations taken after 15 college credits have been earned, or in discipline areas where college-level coursework has been completed, whether the course was passed or not.

Three (3) to six (6) credits are awarded to students who earn a score of 50 or higher on a CLEP Subject Examination. Currently enrolled MU students must obtain written departmental approval prior to taking a Subject Examination.

Rationale for Policy Change:

The university's administrative practice on credit awards for CLEP examinations dates back to the 1960's and the credit-granting standards were not reviewed when an academic policy statement was included in the Governance Manual in the 1980's.

Effective July 1, 2001, The College Board, which administers CLEP , will implement a fully computer-based testing program. Both the general and subject examinations will employ a score scale of 20-80. The American Council on Education (ACE) has reviewed all the processes and procedures utilized in the conversion to computerbased testing and recommends a uniform credit-granting score of 50, with the exception of French, German, and Spanish Level 2 examinations. The ACE recommendations on these foreign language, level 2 examinations will be available in March, 2001, but the score will be higher than 50. The ACE recommended creditgranting score of 50 represents the performance of students who earn a grade of "C° in the corresponding courses.

MU's existing credit-granting scores are well above the ACE's recommendations (e.g., English Composition w/essay Gen Exam - ACE 420, MU 500; Gen Biology Subj Exam ACE 46, MU 55). As a grade of °CA is above university standards for course competency (C-), and it is consistent with university graduation requirements, it is appropriate to adopt the ACE's recommended credit-granting scores as MU policy.

The impact of this policy change is marginal. The College Board reports that 183 candidates took 290 CLEP examinations at MU between July 1999 and June 2000. However, on the average, fewer than 25 students per year present score reports for credit award review at MU.

For your information a listing of the courses/credit granted for CLEP examinations at MU are attached to this proposal.
 

03/08/01
General Exams:
MU COURSE/CREDIT AWARDS FOR CLEP EXAMINATIONS
English Composition (w/essay or w/o essay)
Humanities
College Mathematics
Natural Sciences
Social Science/History
Subject Exams:
American Literature
Analysis & Interpretation of Literature
Composition, freshman
English Literature
Algebra
Algebra-Trigonometry
General Biology
General Chemistry
Calculus with Elementary Functions
Trigonometry
French - Levels 1 &2
German - Levels 1 & 2
Spanish - Levels 1 &2
American Government
Educational Psychology
Gen Psychology
Human Growth & Development
ENGL 110 3 crs
ENGL 1XX 3 crs, G1
HMFA 1 XX
HMFA 1 XX
3 crs, G 1 3 crs, G 1
MATH 100 3 crs
MATH 1 XX 3 crs, G2
SCMA 1 XX 3 crs, G2 SCMA 1 XX 3 crs, G2
SSCI 1XX 3 crs, G3 SSCI 1XX 3 crs, G3
ENGL 236
ENGL 230
ENGL 110
ENGL 234
MATH 101
MATH 110
BIOL 100 w/lab
CHEM 111 w/lab
MATH 161
MATH 110
FREN 201 & 202
GERM 201 & 202
SPAN 201 & 202
GOVT 111
EDFN 241
PSYC 100
PSYC 227
American History 1
American History 2
Western Civilization 1
Western Civilization 2
Intro Macroeconomics
Intro Microeconomics
Principles of Accounting
Intro Business Law
Intro Marketing
Principles of Management
Information Systems & Computer Applications
Intro Sociology
HIST 106
HIST 1XX, G3
HIST 206
HIST 101
ECON 101
ECON 102
BUAD 161, 162
BUAD 202
BUAD 231
BUAD 251
CSCI 101
SOCY 101