One of the biggest questions facing learning leaders in
society today is how to create a system of learning that allows for equality in
opportunities for students. There are
many ways in which learning leaders can attempt to address this issue. For
example, my colleagues who advocate for a fair system of school funding are
doing yeoman’s work in trying to adjust a system that is more responsive to a
school and community’s needs. Besides the fiscal issues there is also a need to
address equality of academic opportunity for students. There are many facets in this area that need
fixed, but the one that I am going to discuss today is equality of opportunity
for college credits for high school students.
Specifically, I will discuss dual enrollment.
Dual enrollment is a program where high school students take
a college class while still in high school.
This has many obvious benefits.
First and foremost, most dual enrollment credits are significantly cheaper
than the credits the same student will take once they are a full time student
enrolled in college. Therefore, students that have this opportunity benefit
financially over those students that do not have the opportunity. Dual enrollment models have evolved over
time. I believe the latest iteration of
the dual enrollment model offers the greatest promise for poor, isolated
underserved students, families and communities.
The first generation dual enrollment model was rather
simple, and geographically limited. In
this model, students from high schools close to a college or university could
physically take classes at the college or university and receive college and
high school credit for that class. In
effect, once they passed the class, they would receive a transcript from the
college and get high school credit. This
model was good for those few (very few) students who lived close enough to a
college campus and/or could arrange transportation to the campus. Unfortunately for the VAST majority of
students, this model did not offer any significant improvement in academic
opportunity.
The second generation of dual enrollment was a slight change
from the first generation model. In the
second generation model, college professors would physically (or in some cases
virtually) teach students from a high school, in the high school itself. Again, the class would count toward high
school and college credit. This model
attempted to address the lack of opportunity of the first model by having one
person travel instead of a large number of students. There are two significant drawbacks to this
system. First, the matter of geography
was not really addressed. This model
still favored students and schools that were located near a college campus. Second, in this model, if a high school did
not have enough students enrolled in the class, then the class would not be
offered. Since the pool of potential
students in this model is limited to the high school, most smaller to midsized
high schools discovered this flaw in the system.
In the third generation of the dual enrollment model there
was a significant change to address the weaknesses of the first two
models. In this model, colleges and
universities would certify high school teachers and the curriculum they teach
and then count that high school class as a college class. In other words, the students will be taking
the same class that they normally would in their high school schedule, except
that the class will also give them college credit. This model largely addressed
the problem of geography. Geography is
not a deterrent for students and staff.
In effect, any college or university that chose to do so could partner
with any high school located anywhere, to offer a class that would be counted
both as a college class and a high school credit. This allows for flexibility for students,
families and schools to offer a certified, high quality class that will allow
students to earn a college credit. The
weaknesses in this model for those of us concerned with equality of learning
opportunities is that smaller and midsized high schools will still have limited
opportunities to offer a class (the pool of students to choose from is too
small). The simple math is that if there
is not enough students to offer the class, then the school cannot offer it and
the students lose the opportunity to take the class.
The IU8 Dual Enrollment 4.0 Model seeks to address the
problem that small and midsized high schools confront by not having enough
students to offer a class. In this
latest iteration of the dual enrollment model, classes are decoupled from an
individual high school and offered across a broad array of high schools. Thus,
the pool of potential students for a class is much larger. In our model, students take the class in a
blended format meeting face to face two or three times a semester and doing the
rest of the work in an online format.
The other important aspects of the IU8 model are:
·
IU8 takes care of all of the logistics.
We have the teacher, the curriculum, the learning management system and
the agreements with colleges and universities.
·
The cost is $300.00 per class for a 3 credit
course. We believe strongly that
equality of opportunity for learning experiences must not have as a barrier
financial cost. We are not happy even
with $300.00 and will look to lower the cost even further in the future.
The IU8 model of dual enrollment also gives students,
families and schools flexibility in how they use the courses. We
believe that the best educational (learning) decisions are made within the
context of local circumstances, thus we allow local constituents to decide
how they will use the courses. For
example, a school may decide to count the class as a high school credit, or
they may not count it as one of their graduation requirements. Some schools may financially assist students
in taking the class, others will not… that is a local decision (as it should
be). Students and families may decide to take the
class on their own and get the transcript from the university with little or no
involvement from their high school. We
believe this latest iteration of the dual enrollment model gives local schools
and communities the most flexibility to customize the learning experience for
students.
All models of dual enrollment are being used today to help
students navigate their learning environment.
All of the models have their strengths and weaknesses and we believe
that dual enrollment 4.0 offers the least amount of barriers for all students
across financial and geographical landscapes.
