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High School Articulation

Students interested in Credit for Prior learning through Credit by Examination for courses taken in high school are eligible to earn college credit by earning an ”A" or “B” in career-related “articulated” high school courses. An articulated course is one in which the high school teacher and the Mt. San Jacinto College faculty have “formally agreed” that the high school course outline, syllabus, textbook, midterm and/or final exam are comparable to those in a course of the same major at MSJC and that the final exam score will be used as a credit by exam for the comparable MSJC course (California Education Code § 55051). The district will award college course credit for high school articulated courses under the following circumstances:

  • Course must be articulated with MSJC prior to student taking the course
  • Students must complete the MSJC application, obtain an MSJC ID number, and create a CATEMA account
  • Students must earn an A or B in the high school course and pass the approved credit exam with a 70% or above to earn credit for the course, indicated with a “P” on their transcript
  • In most instances, faculty at MSJC have deemed the course eligible for a letter grade; in these courses, students who pass the approved credit exam with an 80% or above will earn the letter grade of “A” or “B,” depending on the faculty-determined grading scale, and a letter grade will be posted to their transcript
  • Articulation credits will be awarded to the high school student’s MSJC transcript within one semester after the high school instructor posts student grades in CATEMA. MSJC will not require articulated students to meet the 12-unit residency requirement prior to posting these units

University of California (UC) Office of the President Transfer Credit Practice:

Internally Administered Credit-by-Exam: In the context of transfer, the UCs use “credit-by-exam” to refer to the process by which a student can earn credit for a course by taking an exam created and administered by the California Community College (CCC) discipline faculty that demonstrates the student’s knowledge of what would have been learned in the course. To receive UC credit for coursework assessed by credit-by-exam coursework, the course in question must be:

1. Listed in the CCC catalog

 2. UC transferable

3. Posted to a specific term

4. List specific units and a passing grade

High School Articulation via Credit by Exam: The means by which faculty at any given California Community College assess a student’s gained knowledge to be equivalent to a course in that college’s catalog is under their purview. UC may accept “credit by exam” if the credit is posted to a specific term with units and a grade, and the course for which the student earned credit is UC-transferable. CCCs should ensure any high school articulation agreements in place with UC-transferable courses are preparing students for subsequent lower division and upper division coursework. In the event that UC faculty identify any students – transfer or otherwise – with specific CCC course credit as being unprepared academically to persist, it is within their purview to revoke a UC-transferable CCC course’s course-to-course articulation, which would initiate a phase-out of that course-to-course articulation at that specific UC campus. UC Transferability and UC eligibility areas would continue to be honored since they were approved at the system level.

Recommended Best Practices for CCC-High School Articulation (CIAC)

  • CCC faculty and high school instructors, in consultation with Curriculum Chair, should review the course outline of record (COR) and verify that the topics, learning outcomes, and final examinations or final assignments reflected in each COR (the CCC-based one and the high school one) are equivalent to each other

  • Hours of instruction, writing and reading, lab hours are all elements to consider in alignment with UC transferability guidelines

  • CCCs and high school partners should follow all relevant Education Code guidelines

  • UC does not award credit posted to a third-party institution’s transcript. Credit is only considered from the original institution’s official academic record. UC does not award credit for: work or volunteer experience, vocational or technical training, and personal enrichment courses; remedial academic or pre-baccalaureate courses, especially in English and mathematics; or College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) or DANTES Subject Standardized Tests (DSST) exams.​