Center Offers College Credit to Area Students
North Point Educational Service Center, the Educational Service Center of Lorain County and Bowling Green State University/Firelands College have formed a partnership to help area students earn college credit while in high school.
The initiative was funded through a $225,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Education and earmarked for students in Region 2 (Erie, Huron and Lorain Counties). It is part of a statewide effort to deliver high-quality coursework and instruction in mathematics, science and foreign language and to encourage students to pursue college degree programs after graduation from high school. Sixteen grants were awarded across the state and recipients were encouraged to develop innovative strategies and programs that would achieve the grant's two goals.
Dr. Andrew Kurtz, Associate Dean/BGSC Firelands, noted, "We wanted to create a program that would engage high school students and utilize the expertise of area teachers. What we created was a "win-win" situation for all involved." The Region 2 initiative is a win-win strategy. It provides area students with challenging coursework and awards them college credit for successfully completing that coursework. It recognizes the expertise of high school faculty by designating them as adjunct faculty and assigning them a college mentor to help them "tweak" their high school offering into a college level course. It saves districts and parents money by underwriting the cost of tuition payments. And, it builds a bridge between K-12 schools and colleges and universities.
Five (5) districts signed on to participate in the initiative: Berlin-Milan Local Schools, EHOVE Career Center, Huron City Schools, Perkins Local Schools and Keystone Local Schools. Each district nominated staff members who's degrees/experience would qualify them as college faculty. The credentials of these individuals were then weighted by appropriated college faculty, department chairs and college administrators and a determination was made as to who would be "accepted" into the project. These teachers then took a graduate course in post-secondary pedagogy, through Bowling Green State University, and with the assistance of a college-colleague, they re-engineered the high school courses into a college one. At the completion of this effort the teachers were awarded adjunct status.
Once the faculty was in place, the project next solicited student participants with the assistance of high school guidance counselors and principals. Project officials recruited students, coordinated schedules and arranged for student enrollment and orientation. This fall one hundred and twenty-six (126) students are taking four hundred and fifteen (415) hours of college coursework. The subjects they are studying include: Biology, French, Geology and Mathematics.
In August, the Center received some additional good news. The Ohio Department of Education opted to renew its endowment to Region 2 for another year. Project officials are currently soliciting district interest in participating the next round of dual credit offerings.
