N E W S C O L U M N

J a c k Bradford, Edi tor

Individual groups are invited to submit news and activities of their organization to Jack Bradford, Editor, Division of Special Studies, University of Alabama in Birmingham, University Station, Birmingham, Alabama 35294.

MILWAUKEE JOURNAL EDITOR APPOINTED TO NATIONAL BOARD

OF COURSES BY NEWSPAPER

Richard H. Leonard, editor of the Milwaukee Journal, has been appointed to the nine-member National Board that oversees Courses by Newspaper (CbN) at the University of California, San Diego. The appointment was made by William D. McElroy, Chancellor of UC San Diego, on behalf of University Extension, where the program was created in 1973, and the Na- tional Endowment for the Humanities, which has provided ongoing funding for CbN since its inception.

Mr. Leonard is the second jgurnalist to sit on the National Board, which was created two years ago. Herbert Brucker, late editor of the Hartford Courant and a former president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, was an original member of the board.

The other seven board members are distinguished scholars and educators. Professors Carl Degler and William Goetzmann are Pulitzer Prize winners for history, and Ralph Ellison is a National Book Award winner for the acclaimed Invisible Man. Chairman of the board is David Gardner, President of the Uni- versity of Utah. Mr. Leonard's newspaper is one of the several hundred news- papers in the United States and abroad that regularly participate in Courses by Newspaper. Currently, more than 400 newspapers are carrying the series entitled '~Moral Choices in Contemporary Society." More than 200 colleges and universities are offering a course based on the newspaper series. Approxi-

Alternative Higher Education, VoL 2(3), 1978 0361 ~i851/78/t 300--0250500.95

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NEWS COLUMN 251

mately, 30,000 students have earned credit for the six courses that have been offered so far.

Currently, Mr. Leonard serves as the President of the Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi. He also serves on the Pulitzer Prize Advisory Board and is active on several committees for the American Society of News- paper Editors.

As a member of the National Board, Mr. Leonard will participate in the board's selection of course topics, the distinguished scholars who coordinate the two courses each year, and the authors of the newspaper series. In addition, he and the other board members review the articles prior to publication in the nation's newspapers.

A five-member Faculty Committee at UC San Diego reviews the educational materials prepared for the course. These include a text, a study guide, and audiocassettes.

Mr. Leonard's term is for two years. His duties begin this spring with the selection of topics for 1978-1979 and submission of articles for the two 1977- 1978 newspaper series, ~Crime and Justice in America," and ~'Popular Culture: Mirror of American Life."

UNIFORM EVALUATION OF NONTRADITIONAL PROGRAMS

From the OEC (Office of Educational Credit) Newsletter, a division of the American Council on Education, comes news of a project to develop evaluative criteria and procedures for the accreditation of nontradi- tional educational program, s. The project is being made possible by an $86,000 grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation (COPA).

Dr. Grover J. Andrews, Associate Executive Director of the Commission on Colleges, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, will serve as director for the 16-month project. A new national policy is expected to emerge from the study that will hopefully shape more uniform procedures of evaluation of non- traditional programs.

The project gives promise of new criteria and procedures that will be of value to accrediting bodies as well as educational institutions. The explosive growth of nontraditional programs coupled with the breadth of approaches has brought about the necessity of more uniform evaluative criteria.

MODERATE-COST CONSULTING SERVICE

From Experimental Evaluation, a joint publication of the society for Field experience and the National Center for Public Service Internship Programs, comes news of a modest cost consulting service. The service has been drawn together by the National Center for Educational Brok- ering. The network consists of consultants in ten different states across the

252 ALTERNATIVE HIGHER EDUCATION

country who can aid those interested in establishing, or who already have, nontraditional programs in such areas as program design, fund raising, recruit- ing and selecting staff, counselor training, information systemsl and evalua- tion mechanisms.

For more information, write or call Donn F. Vickers, Coordinator, Consult- ing Network, National Center for Educational Brokering, 405 Oak Street, Syracuse, New York 13203; telephone (315) 425-5275.

NEWS FROM CAEL

Two new CAEL (formerly Cooperative Assessment of Ex- periential Learning) project reports became available in July 1977. They were:

1. Principles of Good Practice in the Assessment of Experiential Learning by Warren Willingham.

2. Experiential Learning: An Annotated Literature Guide, edited by Jane Por- ter Stutz and Joan Knapp.

The CAEL assembly meeting was held in San Francisco, California at the Sheraton Palace Hotel on October 16-18, 1977.

Please take note of the following changes:

1. CAEL is now the Council for the Advancement of Experiential Learning. 2. The address is, CAEL, American City Building, Suite 403, Columbia, Mary-

land 21044. Telephone: (301) 997-3535.

The spring 1978 CAEL Conference will be held in Toronto, Canada at the Inn on the Park on April 26, 27, and 28.

OFFICE OF EDUCATIONAL CREDIT

The Office on Educational Credit is a division of the Ameri- can Council on Education, the nation's major coordinating body for postsecon- dary education. The role of the office is:

1. To give attention to educational credit and credentialing policies and prac- tices for postsecondary education;

2. To foster high standards and sound practices for the evaluation and recogni- tion of extra-institutional learning;

3. To foster and operate programs to establish and publish credit equivalen- cies for extra-institutional learning, and to advise postsecondary institution on how these credit equivalencies can be used in placing students in academic programs and in credentialing educational accomplishment;

4. To assist postsecondary institutions in providing people with due recogni- tion for competency, knowledge, and skills, wherever and however ob- tained; and

NEWS COLUMN 253

5. To provide people with an alternative means of demonstrating high school graduation competencies through the operation of the General Educational Development Testing Program.

News No~s

The final report of the Task Force on Educational Credit and Credentials will be published in late 1977. The Task Force, which was authorized by the Commission on Educational Credit and funded by the Car- negie Corporation of New York, hopes that its report and recommendations will improve the quality of information conveyed by credit and credentials. The Task Force also plans to publish a book containing its '~working papers," a series of articles on credit and credentials written by prominent eduCators.

The Military Evaluations staffis currently at work on a 1978 edition of the Guide to the Evaluation of Educational Experiences of the Armed Services. The new edition will be available in the summer of 1978.

The Occupational Assessment Program staff is preparing a supplement to the 1976 edition of the Guide. The supplement, will contain descriptions and credit recommendations for more than 600 army military occupational special- ties (MOSs).

The Office of Educational Credit was awarded a contract by the U.S. Department of Labor to study the feasibility of making credit recommendations for apprenticeship programs registered with the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training. The study was scheduled to be completed by the end of 1977.

The Commission on Educational Credit has approved expanded and refined criteria for the evaluation of credit-by-examination programs. The new criteria cover the handling of essay and other free-response items. A guide to credit- by-examination programs is planned for early 1978.

The commission also approved criteria and procedures for making credit recommendations for home study courses accredited by the National Home Study Council (NHSC). Evaluations are now under way.

As of August 1, 1977, credit recommendations for more than 1,100 courses offered by 100 noncollegiate organizations--businesses, government agencies, associations, and labor unions--had been established through the Program on Noncollegiate Sponsored Instruction. These figures represent the results of course evaluations conducted nationwide by the New York State Education Department, the Consortium of the California State University and Colleges, and the Department of Education of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, agencies that participate in the program.

Recently, the program extended an invitation to higher educational officials in the other 47 states to establish the capability within their respective states to collaborate in the program. A growing list of colleges, now numbering more than 300, are reported to have granted credit or are favorable to granting credit based on the program's recommendations. Credit recommendations are printed in A Guide to Educational Programs in Noncollegiate 07:ganizations. Copies of the 1976 edition are available a t a cost of $6 from the ACE Publica-

254 ALTERNATIVE HIGHER EDUCATION

tions Division, One Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C. 20036. A new edition was scheduled to be published in late 1977.

Additional information about the activities of the Office of Educational Credi~t.may be obtained by writing to L. E. Boswell, Assistant Director for Publications, Office on Educational Credit, American Council on Education, One Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C. 20036.

E D I T O R ' S N O T E

William A. McCallum, Senior Editor

Alternative Higher Education is very pleased to announce the formation of the Coalition for Advancement of Alternatives in Post- secondary Eduction. The Coalition grew out of a series of meetings in which many of the groups involved in the areas of alternative postsecondary education felt that a national group was needed. The goals of the coalition are as follows:

A. To increase understanding of the goals, character, problems, achievements, and needs of the alternatives in postsecondary education and to develop support within the postsecondary education community itself, government a t all levels, the private sector, and the general public.

B. To promote collaboration between and among participating organizations and other interested groups on problems of mutual concern.

C. To improve the sharing of communications and information among the organizations in this field, both domestic and international.

D. To increase financial support for alternatives in postsecondary education. E. To promote at all levels of government public policy favorable to the develop-

ment of needed alternatives in postsecondary education. F. To identify priority research and evaluation needs and encourage efforts to

meet them. G. To promote a common ter/ninology for alternatives in postsecondary educa-

tion and to facilitate its use and understanding.

For further information, contact Mr. Fran Macy, General Secretary Coalition for Advancement of Alternatives in Postsecondary Education, 405 Oak Street, Syracuse, New York 13203.