Harmonizing Policy: PLA Grant Activities

Institutions and consortia created—or at least planned—their own individual or regional PLA guidelines and policies, modified existing standards, trained staff and faculty in the assessment process, and marketed the benefits and process to students and employers. The TAACCCT grants funded an array of activities in relation to PLA, but we found that most projects that included PLA tended to focus on improving and clarifying policy around what counted for credit and how that credit was assessed at both the college and state level. These policies governed key aspects of PLA, including what types of experience counted for credit, how much credit students should be awarded, and what the credit counted towards in the degree program.

At many of these institutions or consortia, PLA policy existed long before TAACCCT. But the structures were largely independent and varied across colleges in the same system. For example, in Colorado, colleges have been offering PLA credits for 40 years, but each college has followed different guidelines and procedures for assessment.¹ According to the evaluation report, colleges not only differed in their methods of offering PLA—some used standardized exams such as CLEP, some allowed portfolio evaluation, and some did not (see box Type of PLA in section 3 for more on different methods of offering PLA)—but they also differed in criteria for offering the credits. Some offered credits if the CLEP score was four or above, and others only offered credit for scores of five and above.²

During the period in which TAACCCT grants were awarded and implemented (2010–2016), states such as Missouri, Colorado, and New Jersey tried to solve this hodgepodge of policies by providing statewide PLA policy or standards. For instance, the MoHealth WINs project—an effort in Missouri where all 13 community colleges developed healthcare training programs—created statewide standards for implementing PLA.³ The Northeast Resiliency Consortium (NRC), a consortium of seven community colleges from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, developed PLA standards that were later adopted by the New Jersey Health Professions Pathways Consortium. According to the consortium’s final evaluation, “all colleges modified institutional PLA policies, and in a few instances formally approved new PLA policies and processes, particularly for students taking continuing education courses.”