September 2012 Insider - South Piedmont Community College

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The Insider September 2012 Early Childhood Ed certified nationally South Piedmont Community College’s Early Childhood Education program has earned national accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Program Director Sharon Little was ecstatic after SPCC President Stan Sidor made the announcement during convocation on Aug. 6. She had not expected to hear anything until late August. “We are beside ourselves,” Little said. “It has been a process.” The accreditation, which came with no conditions, is good for seven years. SPCC is one of only 16 community colleges in North Carolina to currently hold NAEYC accreditation. Maria Lander, Sharon Little, Carilyn Raymond and Trinisha Dean pose with the certificate signifying the Early Childhood Education program’s national certification. “For our program, it means we are meeting national standards as far as teacher preparation for early childhood professionals,” Little said. “These are the highest standards that any early childhood program could meet. “Having accreditation is going to do several things,” she added. “It opens up opportunities for us to receive more grant funding in other areas that will enhance our program. Now that word is getting out nationally about accreditation … I think students are going to be looking for programs that are accredited. This is just a great opportunity for South Piedmont to be in the forefront of this. It’s just been wonderful.” Little, faculty member Carilyn Raymond, Smart Start Program Director Trinisha Dean and Dean of Applied Science and Technology Maria Lander did much of the work on the self study and preparation for the site visit. Because of the number of other departments involved in the NAEYC site visit, however, Little said that “this is, to me, everybody’s accreditation because everybody worked so well with us to provide what we needed. ... I’d like to thank everybody at the college who helped us prepare.”
The Insider September 2012 College, Career Transitions class begins South Piedmont Community College has launched its first College and Career Transitions class. The class is an Adult Basic Education/General Education Development class for students interested in curriculum programs in Early Childhood Education, Medical Office Administration or Computer Information Technology. Mechanical Engineering will be added as an option next spring. “The goal is to prepare students to be lifelong learners, to do well on the tests necessary to get into college, and when they get into college to compete and be successful,” said Kelly Stegall, SPCC’s Accelerating Opportunity coordinator. The class is being funded by an Accelerating Opportunity grant that was announced in December. SPCC Stegall will receive $75,000 a year for three years to fund the program. The grant is funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Jobs for the Future. SPCC is one of nine community colleges in North Carolina to receive grant funding for the project. While enrolled in the class, students will receive direct, contextualized instruction in their chosen pathways; intensive math tutoring; CPR training and College Placement Test preparation. The class will include components from the Human Resources Development Department and students will learn strategies for success in college. By the time the class ends, students should be prepared to pass the GED, place into college level courses on the College Placement Test, be fully informed regarding college expectations and prepared to succeed in their entry-level college courses. “The whole point of this is to kind of revamp or shake up the way that Basic Skills is taught,” Stegall said. “Oftentimes, Basic Skills is taught in a lab type situation where students come in and work individually on whatever they need to work on. This is based more on a direct teaching model. Everyone’s going to be learning the same thing at the same time, which is very different from the way we do Basic Skills now. It’s not only holding us to a higher standard, but it’s requiring more from the students as well.” Stegall predicts that this is how basic skills classes will be taught nationwide within five years. “While there are other states that have been doing this for a bit, this is something new for North Carolina,” she said. “By piloting it in North Carolina, we can act as models for other community colleges in North Carolina.” Students will be tracked over a three-year period to determine their successful completion of a college-level certificate, diploma or degree. Because of limitations in space the number of faculty available, the class size will be capped at 20, but a new class will begin every semester.
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September 2012 Insider - South Piedmont Community College

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