Curriculum Alignment

BHCC faculty in mathematics and English are working with their colleagues in several area high schools and community-based organizations to align high school and college curriculum, ensuring students arrive at BHCC ready to take college-level courses.

Partners

  • Asian American Civic Association
  • Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School
  • Charlestown High School
  • Chelsea High School
  • Community Academy of Science and Health
  • Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers
  • Jewish Vocational Services
  • Malden High School
  • Madison Park Technical Vocational High School

BHCC Math/High School Partnership

The goal of our math curriculum alignment partnership is to strengthen the mathematics of high school students and to shorten their pathway at BHCC by bypassing remediation. Students who pass the MAT097 Foundations of Algebra exit exam will be able to register in BHCC’s first-year non-STEM college-level math course, Intermediate Algebra, Statistics or a STEM course without taking the Accuplacer Placement test.

Proposed Model:

  • Students take BHCC’s MAT097 Foundations of Algebra Exit Exam in 10th grade.
  • Passing the exam will allow students to bypass BHCC’s placement test.
  • MAT097 Foundations of Algebra covers the first half of the Algebra I MA State Curriculum.
  • Backward design will be used in a flexible manner to each High School’s local context, to align High School curriculum and to prepare students for the MAT097 exit exam.
  • BHCC faculty will provide support in this process.

BHCC English/High School Partnership

BHCC faculty are working closely with faculty from local high schools to better align English Language Arts curricula in 9th and 10th grade to prepare high school students more effectively for college level work. With some partner high schools, this enables students to take dual enrollment courses for college credit beginning in 11th grade.

Proposed Model:

• Exchange Materials: syllabi, assignments, assessments, evaluations, samples of student work.
• Classroom observations: teachers observe BHCC classrooms, BHCC faculty observe high school classrooms.
• Meetings to align curriculum: discussion of how to align based on exchange of materials and classroom observations.
• Process for identifying students: high school faculty and staff create a process for identifying students for BHCC.
• Integrate practice exams into high school English: share examples of practice exams, set practice exam prep time for students, teacher-student advising time for preparing for the exam.
• Bring faculty together for norming and scoring: run a norming and scoring process for teachers involved in exam prep, exam admin, and for those advising student into the course.
• Administer exam and create for cohort for fall: teachers and BHCC score exams, they choose students for the fall cohort together.