Hours vs progress
When a program is set up based on attendance hours rather than specific points of completion in the curriculum, how does the TWC decide if a student is not progressing fast enough? For example, the student attends well above the required number of attendance hours per week, but does not complete the course curriculum inside of two months (where others have taken two weeks or less) because they don't feel they are comfortable enough with the information to take a certification exam.
Angela,
The progress requirements vary based on program length and type of training (distance education is much different from residence schools) and, for TWC CSC are based on academic achievement, not timeliness of course completion. Under 200 hours, progress must be evaluated at the middle and end of each progress evaluation (grading) period. Programs longer than 200 hours must have progress evaluations at least every 8 weeks (see the rules for details). It is up to the school to determine their progress policies that comply with the TWC CSC rules. Another issue is the school's policy for maximum time to complete. For accrediting and USDOE financial aid purposes, the standard policy is a student must be on track to complete within 150% of the normal (scheduled) time to complete. TWC CSC expects all schools to address this in their catalog. Determining such a policy is less clear for self-paced and other types of programs that don't fit the usual format of terms, semesters, trimesters, etc. I don't know if this answered your question - would need more information to understand your programs. As usual, you can also contact TWC CSC for clarification.
Thank you,
JP Mehlmann
Thank you, Joe, that is a really complete explanation...you saved me some research time!
