What distinguishes the ADP from other limited-residency programs is the fact that students have the opportunity to study face-to-face with experts who live in the student’s home community. We refer to this model as community-based education. This means that each of our students’ home communities are extensions of the ADP learning community. With the guidance of core faculty, students create study contracts with local mentors who support the students’ learning in one to three courses. Each study contract spells out the learning objectives, activities, and materials chosen by the student, mentor, and core faculty to satisfy the academic standards of the ADP and move the student toward competence in her or his field. Being ready and able to identify local mentors is one of the more challenging aspects of being an ADP student. Yet, working with local mentors, students build a network of professionals in their field of study that often lead to rewarding internship and employment opportunities. Further, by involving committed practitioners in their programs, students can better design their programs to anticipate the demands of working in their chosen field upon graduation. Mentors must meet or exceed the ADP criteria for mentor credentials—a minimum of a master's degree, substantial teaching experience at the college level, or alternative demonstration of expertise—and are paid a small stipend for their services. Core faculty may assist students to a greater or lesser degree in creating study contracts and finding mentors in their communities, depending on the academic program of each student.
Emphasis on Social and Ecological Literacies
Among the learning outcomes expected from each mentored course is an increased awareness of and personal responsibility toward issues of cultural diversity (including but not
limited to race, ethnicity, class, gender, and lifestyle) and the relationship of the human community to the natural environment. That is, students are asked to consider the social justice and environmental implications of their field of study throughout their programs. Consideration of these perspectives begins in the Explorations course and influences the creation of the Degree Plan, which must include at least two upper-division courses focused on the social and ecological literacies relevant to the student’s competence.
Credit for Life Experience
As experiential learning is an integral part of the philosophy of Prescott College, we recognize that a great deal of academically meaningful learning occurs through professional experiences outside of the classroom. The ADP has established a path for adult learners to earn college credit through the mechanism of Life Experience Documentation. Students who seek academic credit for Life Experience enroll in a preparatory course that teaches them how to properly document their prior learning in one of three types of portfolios. Completion of a portfolio is writing intensive and requires the integration of theoretical and practical knowledge in coherent chapters that observe the editorial style of the American Psychological Association or the Modern Language Association. All portfolios are evaluated by experts in the student’s field of study.
Degree Planning
With the guidance of core faculty, students create a curriculum that is academically sound, balanced, and personally meaningful. Student research, consultation with core faculty, and experience with mentors culminate in a document known as the Degree Plan which students should submit by the end of their first semester. The Degree Plan (DP) lists all completed and proposed courses in the competence, an elected breadth (i.e. minor) and the Liberal Arts breadth. This curricular road map allows the student to plan ahead for future coursework and know how long it will take to finish the degree. Once the DP is approved by core faculty, it is reviewed by a faculty committee to ensure that it is feasible and appropriate to the student’s goals and the requirements of the ADP. This document becomes part of the student’s permanent records and provides evidence to future employers or graduate schools of the intentional nature of the student’s academic program.
Narrative Evaluation
Students who do not like the idea of becoming a number at a traditional college or university tend to be the same students who prefer not to be assigned numerical or letter grades for their work. In the ADP, narrative evaluation of student work is the norm. Each course ends with the student and the mentor each completing a narrative evaluation that considers the learning objectives laid out in the study contract and the degree to which those objectives were met over the length of the course. Any student may opt to receive letter grades for all courses in addition to the narratives; this is a choice that students make after they consult with core faculty at Orientation. All narrative evaluations become part of the student’s permanent file and may be used to calculate a grade point average in future years, if necessary.
Demonstration of Competence: The Senior Project
Prescott College believes that for learning to be fully assimilated, it must be applied in an authentic setting working through real-world challenges. As a capstone experience, ADP students are required to complete a Senior Project (also known as a Demonstration of Competence) that typically involves an internship, service-learning, or experiential immersion in the student’s competence area. For example, students in the teacher preparation programs demonstrate their readiness to teach through supervised student-teaching in a public or private school. A student with an Expressive Arts competence might create a collection of paintings for exhibition in a local gallery or curate the work of others as an intern. Community organizing, designing and delivering sustainability workshops in your home town, or composing a grant proposal with members of a local non-profit are other examples of Senior Projects. Some students may complete their Senior Project with prior experiential learning through the Life Experience Documentation process.
Other Requirements
To complete the program, students must additionally meet the Mathematics and Writing Proficiency requirements of the College. Students meet the Math Proficiency requirement by passing a brief written examination or completing a college-level math course as approved by the core faculty member. The course may be completed as a mentored study or at another institution. Writing proficiency is demonstrated primarily through the submission of a formal research paper that meets the ADP Required Research Paper Guidelines. Students’ writing is evaluated in their first semester and the core faculty may require additional writing courses or activities of any student whose writing skills could hinder progress toward the degree.
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