NON-CREDIT COURSES

This listing contains information on non-credit courses approved in accordance with the categories of instruction listed in Education Code Section 84711.

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Each course entry contains the course number, course title, standard course hours (i.e., hours per week, based on an 18 week semester), as well as the following information: college, course classification, basic skills, TOP code, and non-credit category. These course attributes are standard for courses that are offered at more than one college in the District. Course attributes that can vary by college are not listed.

The listing provides the following information on non-credit courses:

1. College

One or more of the following letter designations which indicate the District colleges approved to offer the course:

2. Course Classification

The State Chancellor's Office uses the following coding system to classify courses:

A. Liberal Arts and Sciences: Courses equivalent to courses offered at the freshman and sophomore level at four-year institutions of higher education.

B. Developmental Preparatory (Non Basic Skills): Courses intended to meet the academic and personal needs of educationally disadvantaged students.

C. Adult and Secondary Basic Education (Basic Skills): Courses intended to provide pre-collegiate instruction in basic skills.

D. Personal Development and Survival - Non-Handicapped: Courses intended to assist students in personal and career development.

E. Courses for the Substantially Handicapped: Courses designed specifically for persons with disabilities.

F. Parenting and Family Support: Courses intended to strengthen the family as a unit.

G. Community and Civic Development: Courses in citizenship and civics.

H. General and Cultural: Courses which provide instruction of broad general interest to enhance cultural development.

I. Occupational Education: Courses intended to prepare students for a career or occupation without the need for subsequent training or education in an institution of higher education.

The appropriate Course Classification Code is listed for each course.

3. Basic Skills

Non-credit basic skills courses are courses in reading, writing, computation, and English as a Second Language.

4. TOP Code

The TOP Code is a code assigned to a course in keeping with the parameters contained in the State Chancellor's Office Taxonomy of Programs. The Taxonomy describes the codes as follows:

The taxonomy continues to categorize degree and certificate programs that combines both occupational and non-occupational programs in a format and courses under a common numbering system and lexicon into three levels. This taxonomy continues using a standard format to codify the offerings of the community colleges. It is a classification of disciplines, subdisciplines, and fields using up to a five-digit code. It allows for a free sixth digit, with the exception of 4930 series, that can be used by local colleges to identify program variants. The three-level structure parallels the federal Classification of Instructional Programs system, thus facilitating ready cross-over for federal reporting purposes.

Discipline. Following the federal logic, although not its precise terminology, the most general level of the taxonomy consists of twenty disciplines, at somewhat different levels of generality, ordered alphabetically. This level is indicated by the first two digits of the six-digit code treated as one two-digit number. Although local data are aggregated to this two-digit level for some state purposes, this number is not adequate to characterize the objectives of occupational programs nor of course subject matters specifically enough to be useful for most other purposes. Programs cannot, therefore, be reported with only two digits; but must be categorized within a four-digit or "subdiscipline" level as described below.

Subdiscipline. The next level of the taxonomy is also indicated by a single, two-digit number, the third and fourth digits of the code taken together. These numbers indicate logical subsets of the first twenty codes and are ordered logically, not alphabetically, on the basis of program similarities. When categorized only at this level, programs are assigned a four-digit code. Subdisciplines are used to categorize occupations that are either broad in scope or whose specializations are more varied than can be consistently distinguished and tracked at the state level.

A program categorized at this level is presumed to prepare a student generally for a broad occupation, but a given college can have two or more degrees or certificates with more specifically defined goals, whose graduates do not in fact qualify for the general occupation, but only the specialty. (See also 5.1 of the 1994 Curriculum Standards Handbook, Volume I, of the Chancellor's Office.)

Field. The third level is indicated by one number only and is a logical subset of the second level. It is used when necessary to define several specialties within a subdiscipline that are sufficiently agreed upon as to be consistently reported at the state level and widespread enough to merit state tracking. Such codes are also used to indicate the system's few "one-of-a-kind" programs that require special recognition at the state level.

The sixth and last digit has no significance in the state system, with the exception of 4930 series. This digit, where used, is presumed to characterize some aspect of a program that makes it a subset of the higher two or three levels of the state coding structure, but it need not. It is controlled locally and used for local purposes with no expectation of consistency of usage or meaning across districts.

5. Non-credit course category

A – English as a Second Language (ESL)
B – Citizenship for Immigrants
C – Elementary and Secondary Basic Skills
D – Health and Safety Education
E – Courses for Persons with Substantial Disabilities
F – Parenting
G – Home Economics
H – Courses for Older Adults
I – Short-term Vocational Programs with High Employment Potential

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