NACEP’s History

Now in its second decade, NACEP has emerged as the national forum for concurrent enrollment. The first national meeting of the concurrent enrollment professionals who ultimately founded NACEP was convened by Syracuse University at the American Association for Higher Education conference in March 1997. At a meeting in 1999, 20 founding institutions officially established NACEP by adopting bylaws and a mission statement.

At NACEP’s national conferences, concurrent enrollment leaders from around the nation have gathered to share best practices, present research findings, and discuss state policy developments. As of May 2019, NACEP has member institutions in 48 states, including:

  • 479 colleges and universities
  • 79 high schools and school districts
  • 43 state agencies, system offices or partner organizations

Standards of Excellence Ensure True College Courses and College Credit for Students

A key concern of the leaders who established NACEP was the quality of college classes offered to high school students by concurrent enrollment partnerships. NACEP’s members include some of the nation’s oldest and most prominent concurrent enrollment partnerships, who share a common belief that institutions of higher education should follow certain best practices to ensure the quality of college classes taught by high school teachers.

To this end, NACEP adopted national standards in 2002 that include measurable criteria in five categories that are markers of excellent concurrent enrollment programs: curriculum, faculty, students, assessment, and program evaluation. In 2004, the first four concurrent enrollment programs were accredited after a team of peers carefully reviewed the documentation on how each program met NACEP’s Standards.

There are 131 dual and concurrent programs accredited by NACEP. Post-secondary institutions with Accredited NACEP programs include two-year public, four-year public, and independent institutions. Further, the importance of NACEP accreditation is recognized in X states through policy or guidance. Ten states either require, encourage, or incentivize NACEP accreditation, five states model their state policy on NACEP accreditation standards,  and an additional 10 states have statue aligned with all or part of NACEP's standards.