The ACHIEVE Conference, Alabama Transfers, and Dual Enrollment

    


ATTENDING THE ACHIEVE CONFERENCE    

I was fortunate to attend the ACHIEVE Conference with the Northwest Shoals Community College Advising department. Throughout this conference,  I was able to meet with different college and university professionals from all across Alabama. 

    The ACHIEVE Conference is in it's 6th year and was hosted at the University of South Alabama. In addition to USA being the host school, Coastal Alabama Community College and Bishop State Community College. The conference's main goal is to gather advisors and other college and university specialists to discuss and learn how to best utilize the Alabama Transfers guide to facilitate students transferring from 2 year to 4 year institutions and from institution to institution. This allows students to have the peace of mind knowing that their classes will transfer, if they ever need to change institutions. 


ALABAMA TRANSFERS

    The Alabama Transfers agreement is a legislative agreement between community colleges and higher education institutions in Alabama that states that community college pre-requisite credit will transfer and have an equivalent at a higher institution. This, ultimately, helps students to save money and learn how the college environment works in a safe and supportive environment. 

THE ACHIEVE CONFERENCE AND DUAL ENROLLMENT

      Dual enrollment plays a large part in today's high school experience. According to the Community College Research Center at Columbia University, “more than one million high school students enroll in some type of DE (dual enrollment) coursework in partnership with a college or university every year.” Not only can a student receive high school and college credit through dual enrollment, that credit is also transferable within Alabama! Because of this, I needed to learn how transfer credit works and how it will affect the students that I work with daily. 

    According to the Community College Research Center, there are three areas to support dual enrollment practitioners, expanding access to dual enrollment, strengthening on-ramps to postsecondary pathways, and building and sustaining strong partnerships. The recommendations that most closely relate to Alabama Transfers are labeled under the area of strengthening on-ramps. They are by aligning and promoting transfer credit and prioritizing advising and navigational supports. I believe that Alabama colleges and universities are already ahead in this regard, especially in the program that I work with in particular. As a program, we already work with a student "pathway" to align with their high school and college coursework to ensure that they complete both state standard requirements. In addition, we also prioritize advising through the use of check ins and personal advising sessions done each semester. This allows students to speak one-on-one with an advisor, also called a success coach, to ensure that they are on the correct trajectory to finish and if there are any areas that they are lacking in. It is part of my position to ensure that students are taking the necessary steps and correct classes to make sure that they are completing the required courses and requirements necessary for graduation, both from high school and college. I am lucky to work in conjunction with the high school counselor for the program, because I would not know what students would need to complete in order to successfully graduate from high school.


References: 

the Alabama General Studies Committee. (n.d.). Get the guide. Alabama Transfers. https://alabamatransfers.com/

Jessica Steiger, John Fink, & Alex Perry. (2024). How States and Systems Can Support Practitioner Efforts to Strengthen Dual Enrollment. 

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