Peregrine Academic Services Reaches Out to NACCE Members

Peregrine Academic Services Reaches Out to NACCE Members in Its Effort to Aid
Community Colleges in Responding to Increased Calls for Accountability

Springfield, MA – March 4, 2011 – Peregrine Academic Services, LCC, has chosen the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) as its partner in an effort to prepare community colleges to effectively respond to growing demands for accreditation and accountability being placed on higher education institutions. Through a communications package that includes a free webinar among other outreach mechanisms, Peregrine Academic Services will educate NACCE members across the country about its new direct assessment tools that are designed specifically to help community colleges accurately measure learning outcomes.

"Pressures regarding accreditation and accountability are increasing due to declining state revenues and pressure by the U.S. Department of Education on higher education accreditation entities to improve their level of scrutiny of learning outcomes assessment,” said Olin Oedekoven, Ph.D., Peregrine Academic Service’s president and CEO. "We are pleased to partner with a growing and influential organization like NACCE to get the message out about how we can help community colleges respond to these pressures.

"To prepare community colleges for this accountability storm, we have created online examination services for program-level assessment at community colleges,” added Oedekoven. "These services are based on a highly successful model developed for baccalaureate and graduate degree programs. These new assessment tools deal with business and business-related degree programs; however, we can develop similar assessment tools for other community college degree programs as well.”

"We are very aware of the increased scrutiny community colleges are under as state budgets become more and more constrained,” said NACCE Executive Director Heather Van Sickle. "We are excited about partnering with Peregrine Academic Services to alert our members of solutions they can use to respond to these increased calls for accountability in higher education.”

Unique Offerings

Unique with the tools from Peregrine Academic Services is the ability to customize the exam content to align directly with the degree program. Other similar services usually cannot be shaped to address the unique nature of an associates degree program. The program-level assessment tools offered by Peregrine Academics allow school officials to select the topics needed for assessment and the ability to create new topics based on the program’s curriculum.

Program-level assessments are typically conducted by having students take the online exams twice within their academic program. Early in the program, students take the online exam that has been specifically selected to align with their program curriculum. Just before program completion, students again take the online exams. The difference in scores between the two exams is the school’s direct measure of success with the program’s learning outcomes. This assessment process is known as internal benchmarking.

Peregrine Academic Services can also provide external benchmarking. Exam results from graduating students can be compared with an aggregate sample from other programs so that school officials have a better indication of how they measure up. Collectively, the internal and external benchmarking approaches can demonstrate accountability to agency regulators, departments of education, accreditation authorities, and other key stakeholders.

About Peregrine Academic Services, LLC

Peregrine Academic Services, LLC is a subsidiary of the Peregrine Leadership Institute, LLC headquartered in Gillette, WY. Peregrine Academic Services was formed in 2009 to address the growing demand for Common Professional Component accountability and accreditation for business schools and programs associated with the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) and the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE). The company provides on-line testing and learning related to business programs for higher learning institutions and assist these schools with obtaining and maintaining their accreditation requirements. For more information, visit http://www.peregrineacademics.com.

About NACCE

The National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) is an organization of educators, entrepreneurs, and distinguished business development professionals providing quality programs and services in entrepreneurship education and serving as advocates for community-based entrepreneurship. Founded in 2002, NACCE is at the heart of the "entrepreneurship movement.” Through membership, an annual conference and exhibition, a quarterly journal, monthly webinars and podcasts, a dynamic list-serv, and other resources, NACCE serves as the hub for the dissemination and integration of knowledge and successful practices regarding entrepreneurship education and student business incubation. These programs and courses advance economic prosperity in the communities served by its member colleges. NACCE is a founding member of the White House-led Startup America Partnership. For more information, visit http://www.nacce.com.