Author: Employee
Company: ADE

Course Approval Requirements

The course approval process is for any secondary course which is not one of the 38 required by the Standards of Accreditation.  It is also mandated by law for any honors courses for which weighted credit is desired or for any weighted concurrent credit course. The superintendent or the principal must submit the request in writing, accompanied by the following elements.

Please answer the following questions in depth and include a course curriculum guide with a list of instructional materials intended for this course.  

Deadline for submission is June 1 of the school year before you intend to teach the course if a school is submitting only one (1) course for approval.  The deadline for submission of more than one course is May 1 of the school year before you intend to teach the courses.

1.	 	What will be the name of this course?  
2.	 	What is the length of the course (one-semester, two-semester, or two-year course)?
3.	 	Who will teach the proposed course(s) and in what area(s) does she/he hold a teaching license?
4.	 	In what area do you wish to give credit for this course?  
5.	 	How much credit are you asking to give for the course?
6.	 	Describe the student population this course is designed to instruct.
7.	     What Arkansas Curriculum Framework does this course involve?  Specify the learner expectations 
        the course covers.                                        
8.	 	What instructional strategies will be used to address diverse learner needs?
9.	     How does this course prepare students to demonstrate proficiency on any End-of-Course                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
        Examination given by the Arkansas Department of Education?
10.	 	If there are prerequisites to taking this course, please list and explain each of them.
11.	 	List the teaching resources, materials, and equipment to be used in the course.
12.	   Give at least five examples of performance-based/open-ended assessments to be used in the course. 
13.	   Include the rubrics to score these.
14.	   Describe and give examples of how this course will stress application, problem-solving and higher-
        order thinking skills.
15.	 	Describe and give examples of hands-on activities or labs that will be done in this course.

Additional Quality Points
a)	        Schools applying for weighted credit as an honors course and/or weighted concurrent credit 
b)	        coursemust specify ways in which the honors/weighted concurrent credit courses(s) meet and 
c)	        exceed the Arkansas Curriculum Frameworks and are comparable in rigor to Advanced Placement
d)	        courses.

•	After the review by the course approval committee, requests receive one of three possible responses: approval, disapproval, or request for further information.  Schools will be notified in writing of committee findings, but often other communications occur before, during, and after the committee review.
•	
	Students must take the state assessments that are based on the state curriculum frameworks, and schools must insure that students are well prepared to demonstrate proficiency on the state assessments.  Failure on the part of a school to prepare students can constitute a due process 

Arkansas Department of Education 
(November 2001)

        error.