Laramie County Community College is now the first college in Wyoming to receive accreditation from the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships.
NACEP, the sole accrediting agency for concurrent enrollment programs, endorses only those programs that adhere to the highest standards so that students experience a seamless transition to college and teachers benefit from ongoing professional development. Accreditation by NACEP helps ensure that college courses taught in high schools provide the same high quality, rigorous content as those taught on campus.
According to LCCC’s administration, the accreditation was successful due to the strong partnerships it has with Laramie County School Districts 1 and 2, Albany County School District 1, and LCCC’s faculty and academic leadership.
The chair of NACEP’s accreditation commission, Jaclyn Dumond of the University of Southern Indiana, remarked that LCCC’s program is one of only 98 concurrent enrollment partnerships nationwide accredited NACEP.
“Laramie County Community College has demonstrated to its peers that the college courses it offers in high schools are of the same high quality as college courses offered on campus,” Dumond said.
LCCC President Joe Schaffer acknowledged the extraordinary work of Rakhshi Hamid, LCCC’s high school program director, in completing the accreditation process over the past year. “This is a major accomplishment for the program, and we’re grateful for the efforts of our faculty and high school partners in making this happen.”
The accreditation also provides a level of quality assurance for students and their families. “Parents and students should feel confident in the offerings coordinated by LCCC and their schools. More important is the assurance that they have access to some of the finest early college opportunities in the nation,” Schaffer added.
To earn accreditation from NACEP, concurrent enrollment programs conduct a self-study, document how their programs adhere to NACEP’s seventeen standards, and undergo a thorough peer-review process conducted by a team of representatives from NACEP‐accredited programs as well as the NACEP Accreditation Commission.