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Pittsburg High School students could soon be able to graduate with 15 college credit hours without ever stepping foot on a college campus. The school is partnering with Pittsburg State University to offer college-level classes taught by PHS faculty.
According to a USD 250 release, the Concurrent Enrollment Partnership is being offered through the PSU Ready Program and was secured by USD 250 during the fall semester of the 2011-2012 school year. The program allows students to receive college credits in high school courses that have been approved by PSU as college-level curriculum.
Most school districts have similar partnerships with local community colleges, but because of its location, PHS works with Pitt State.
“At a lot of schools, many of the kids are graduating with one full semester of credits complete,” Brown sad. “We’re wanting to build to a point where if a student wanted to, and they could plan a schedule correctly, they could graduate with about 15 hours of college credit.”
District Superintendent Destry Brown said he has been working with PSU president Steve Scott for about three years to get the program up and running.
“We’ve been working off and on trying to work out the details,” Brown said. “Typically, it’s been a program where kids go on campus or they send a teacher to us.”
One of the main benefits of the PSU Ready courses is that they are taught by members of the high school faculty who have been certified by PSU.
“This is the first time they’ve qualified a teacher for us,” Brown said.
That allows for more convenient scheduling, and it also provides a more comfortable environment for the students. High school instructors in the PSU Ready program must:
• Demonstrate possession of a masters degree with 18 credit hours in the assigned course content, Or
• Demonstrate possession of a bachelors degree with at least 24 credit hours in the assigned course content, use the same final examination as given in a representative on-campus section of the course and apply the same scoring rubric for the course.
Students enrolled in PSU Ready courses receive both high school and college credit. To receive the college credits, however, students must complete the necessary paperwork, including a PSU Application for Admission and a PSU Ready Enrollment Form. They must also pay the necessary PSU admission fee, but at a rate lower than what they’d pay on the PSU campus.
Pittsburg High School students could soon be able to graduate with 15 college credit hours without ever stepping foot on a college campus. The school is partnering with Pittsburg State University to offer college-level classes taught by PHS faculty.
According to a USD 250 release, the Concurrent Enrollment Partnership is being offered through the PSU Ready Program and was secured by USD 250 during the fall semester of the 2011-2012 school year. The program allows students to receive college credits in high school courses that have been approved by PSU as college-level curriculum.
Most school districts have similar partnerships with local community colleges, but because of its location, PHS works with Pitt State.
“At a lot of schools, many of the kids are graduating with one full semester of credits complete,” Brown sad. “We’re wanting to build to a point where if a student wanted to, and they could plan a schedule correctly, they could graduate with about 15 hours of college credit.”
District Superintendent Destry Brown said he has been working with PSU president Steve Scott for about three years to get the program up and running.
“We’ve been working off and on trying to work out the details,” Brown said. “Typically, it’s been a program where kids go on campus or they send a teacher to us.”
One of the main benefits of the PSU Ready courses is that they are taught by members of the high school faculty who have been certified by PSU.
“This is the first time they’ve qualified a teacher for us,” Brown said.
That allows for more convenient scheduling, and it also provides a more comfortable environment for the students. High school instructors in the PSU Ready program must:
• Demonstrate possession of a masters degree with 18 credit hours in the assigned course content, Or
• Demonstrate possession of a bachelors degree with at least 24 credit hours in the assigned course content, use the same final examination as given in a representative on-campus section of the course and apply the same scoring rubric for the course.
Students enrolled in PSU Ready courses receive both high school and college credit. To receive the college credits, however, students must complete the necessary paperwork, including a PSU Application for Admission and a PSU Ready Enrollment Form. They must also pay the necessary PSU admission fee, but at a rate lower than what they’d pay on the PSU campus.
“Kids in high school don’t qualify for any financial aid because they’re not full-time students, so they would pay tuition at a higher rate,” Brown said. “So PSU matched what community colleges are charging other kids, so they’re paying the same as what they would get if they were at Girard or Northeast. PSU made it affordable for kids so all of them can do it if they want to. It wasn’t easily done. Pitt State really stepped up to help us on this.”
The first PHS course to take advantage of the CEP was Advanced Composition, which is taught by English teacher Melissa Fite. This semester, students enrolled in the class under the PSU Ready program are receiving college-level English 101 credits.
“This is a great chance for the students to get a jump start on college and to take a general education requirement with a teacher they already know and in an intimate setting,” said Fite, who in 2004 taught English 101 as a graduate assistant at PSU.
Fite began teaching at PHS in 2006 and said she modeled her Advanced Composition course after PSU’s English 101 course.
“Therefore, both courses have certain essay types in common, such as extended definition, remembering, observing, cause and effect and research,” she said in the release. “I also throw in a few elements specific to PHS, such as a commencement address, and I include a reading portion where students read two memoirs. For the most part, however, the classes are quite similar.”
The PHS speech class will be added in the Fall 2012 semester, and students will be eligible to receive Communication 207 credits from PSU. The school is hoping to soon add social studies, math, history and science courses to the program. Karen Kelso, the PHS counselor who helped spearhead the effort to secure a CEP agreement, said the program offers many benefits to the students.
“One of the main benefits is the convenience with scheduling,” she said in the release. “It is our teachers and we fit it into our schedules. Before, if we wanted to offer a college class on the PHS campus, PSU would have to send out one of their own faculty members, which means we have to work even harder to coordinate our schedules with theirs. Having a concurrent course agreement with PSU makes it easier on everyone.
“Most importantly, though,” Kelso said, “this provides a great opportunity for our students to get a head start on their college education. Plus, by providing this during the course of a normal school day, it opens up more time for those students to participate in athletics or activities. They don’t have to worry about taking a night class or asking for a period off during the day to visit the PSU campus.”
Brett Dalton contributed to this report.
