Chase Bell is already earning college credits while still only a senior in high school.
Students may wonder how they can get a head start on college credits. One simple answer is to enroll in a dual credit course.
North currently offers eight dual credit courses including general psychology, rhetoric, college mathematics, basic statistics, pre-calculus, history of civilization, exploring the teaching profession and teaching in a diverse society.
In partnership with local colleges like Joliet Junior College, Waubonsee Community College and University of St. Francis a dual credit course is a college-level course but is taken in a high school setting. Students earn both high school and college credit at the same time.
The workload in a dual credit class is more rigorous than a regular senior level course.
“You don’t necessarily have to attend JJC to get the college portion of the dual credit,” counselor Tom Shaeaffer said. “Rather, you take this transcript from JJC to your four year college, and it is then up to them if they decide to grant you the dual credit towards their own graduation requirements.”
Some students might think that AP courses and dual credit courses are the same. They are not. AP classes and dual credit classes are both advanced courses but do have their differences.
“[Dual credit courses] have a lot of rigor and require a lot of work, just like an AP class,” rhetoric Teacher Yonika Willis said. “But, the biggest difference between an AP course and a dual credit course is that dual credit courses aren’t dependent on a test in order to earn college credit.”
Each district’s dual credit program is different due to its partnering college. Some schools may offer courses other programs do not provide.
“Every district runs different courses and is based on teacher qualifications for the courses that they could run,” Associate Principal Stan Bertoni said. “We work with three schools to provide more options for students.”
Only specific teachers qualify to teach dual credit courses. History of Civilizations teacher Jodi Patel describes the qualifications a teacher needs in order to teach these courses.
“A dual credit teacher must have either a Masters degree in the subject or at least 18 hours of graduate credit in the subject,” Patel said.
Unlike typical high school courses, students must pass a placement test in order to enroll in some of the dual credit programs.
“You have to take the accuplacer test to get into the math and english courses, the rest does not require a test,” Scheaffer said.
The rigor in dual credit classes compared to regular classes is heightened for students. In a survey of 47 North students, 66 percent find dual credit classes to be a little more difficult.
“They’re basically taking what’s meant to be a college class in high school,” rhetoric teacher Harley Brook said. “The expectations are higher, more independent, more intuition about their own work. The readings are more challenging, the writing is longer and more challenging [and] there’s a variety of styles and purposes of writing we have to get through.”
Brook describes the kind of work students can expect while taking rhetoric.
“Content in my class is usually more focused on some issues in American society that we normally don’t get into much depth or detail and anybody who is writing anything in this course has to develop their own unique perspective on whatever it is that they are writing about or analyzing,” Brook said.“The goal is by the time someone is done with my course, I want them to have the basic set of skills they need to thrive as writers in any college course and they can adapt to whatever preferences the professors have and I want them to be able to write in interesting, clear, and insightful ways.”
Though students in a regular class can squeak by with a D and still earn credit, that is not the case for dual credit classes.
“You have to get at least a C or higher to get the dual credit,” Scheaffer said.
Not every student is built for advanced classes in school, so interested students need to be prepared. Bell offers advice for students who might be interested in enrolling in these kinds of courses.
“While I think you should always try to challenge yourself, remember that it’s okay to not do everything,” Bell said, “Just because you normally don’t take honors classes doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try a dual-credit class.”