Information for Counselors and Principals
Continue to main contentGiving students the option to earn college credit in high school provides a cost saving way to earn required credits and encourages them to further their education after high school. To get started you'll need to learn how to get students enrolled for Early College Programs, and how to get your faculty approved to teach. If you have questions, please reach out to the Early College Programs team.
Getting Started
Enrolling is simple with our new automated electronic enrollment process. Students visit with your high school counselors or our Early College Programs team to ensure eligibility. Once the enrollment window opens at your school, work with your counselor to sign-up through our electronic registration system. It's that easy!
Faculty Qualifications and Support
High schools seeking to have a faculty member approved for Early College Programs instruction will submit a letter of nomination from the principal naming the recommended faculty member and specifying the course to be taught. This nomination will be supported by the concurrent submission of the nominee's resume and college transcripts. Nominees must possess minimally the master’s degree [i.e. the M.A. in history] in the discipline or a master’s degree with a minimum of 18 credit hours in the discipline exclusive of method and survey courses [i.e. M.A. in teaching with 18 hours in the discipline]. There is an exception, the sponsoring academic department may require additional information from faculty applicants provided these requirements are congruent with the requirements placed on applicants for part-time faculty positions on campus.
Nominations will be submitted to the Office of Early College Programs and that office will screen all applicants for compliance with CBHE and University criteria for Early College Programs and off-campus faculty. Qualified nominations will then be submitted to the subject academic department for review. The process of review and appointment for each department will be the same as for the appointment of any part-time faculty member.
The department chair or designee will advise the Office of Early College Programs in writing of departmental action, and where an Early College Programs instructor is approved, written notification should be in the form of a letter of appointment that will become part of the Early College Programs faculty member's permanent personnel file. The Office of Early College Programs will advise the highschool of the final disposition on faculty nominations.
Process for Instructor Approval
Educational Degree Requirement: A master’s degree in the field of study (History, English, Math, etc).
Please create a packet that includes the following items:
- Prepare an Online Application Form
- Application (Complete)
- Signatures (Candidate and Principal)
- Transcripts (both undergraduate and graduate) of the teacher applicant.
Please send all materials to earlycollegeprograms@semo.edu.
Upon receiving the application packet, the Early College Programs Office will share pertinent information with the appropriate department chair requesting consideration for approval.
When the department chair has decided the Early College Programs Office will notify the principal and applicant.
English Adjunct Approval Process
As required by the Coordinating Board, faculty teaching Early College Programs EN140 ""shall typically have a master's degree"" in English. In addition, the Department of English requires the following information, documents, and qualifications of those who are applying to teach this course:
- A curriculum vitae, including complete transcripts.
- A letter of recommendation from the teacher's principal. This letter must include, for example, commentary on the teacher's qualifications to teach the course, the appropriateness of this course to the school's demographics, and other pertinent information. A letter that merely asks the department to consider the candidate will be considered insufficient, and the application will be returned as incomplete.
- A letter of application from the teacher, discussing, for example, backgrounds in teaching composition, relevant workshops and other training opportunities taken, general philosophy-of teaching composition, and the type of students who would enroll in this course and the teacher's expectations of those students.
- Demonstrated background experiences or training in-composition theory and tile use of the holistic approach to evaluation gained either as a graduate teaching assistant or adjunct in the Department of English at Southeast Missouri State University or through the successful completion of EN600: Orientation Seminar.
Background in composition theory and/or holistic scoring gained at another college or university as a graduate teaching assistant or faculty member may be sufficient to meet this criterion. Applicants should provide a thorough synopsis of such experiences in their letters of application.