Southeast, high schools praise dual-credit course program

Southeast Missouri State University and area high school officials are touting the success of a growing and much-demanded program aimed at increasing the access to dual-credit courses to high school students in the region, particularly rural schools.

Aimed at area high school juniors and seniors, dual credit offers online courses taught by university instructors with assistance from high school teachers. The program provides a workaround to regulations that require high school teachers to attain higher educational standards to teach the university-level courses. School districts, especially rural ones, found it difficult to find teachers with the proper qualifications, university officials said.

Rick McClard, director of dual credit at Southeast, said the program started last fall with a trial run among a limited number of schools. This year, 41 schools -- from St. Louis to the Arkansas border and "one or two schools in Illinois" -- are participating, he said.

Traditionally, dual credit classes were taught face-to-face by high school teachers who held master's degrees and at least 18 credit hours of graduate-level course work in a subject area. The teacher was approved and supervised by a university professor, according to information from Southeast.

Dual credit courses and enrollments now are included in the state's annual evaluation of school districts, creating a demand for the courses.

So, Gerald McDougall, interim provost and dean of the Donald L. Harrison College of Business at Southeast, said university officials devised a solution.

"What we came upon was we can offer these courses online using our faculty as the primary instructor, using the high school teacher as that teaching assistant mentor that's in the classroom on the high school campus providing assistance and extra supplemental explanation, perhaps giving additional examples to what is available online," McDougall said at a recent Southeast Missourian editorial board meeting. This allows Southeast to deliver dual credit courses anywhere, he said.

"And we can bundle high schools, so Oak Ridge might have three students, Kelly might have two. It's not unusual to have five, six or seven high schools ... participating in one online course section," McDougall said.

High school students may access the courses via the Internet from their high school, home or public library, according to a news release issued in April.

The dual credit hour rate is $85 per credit hour, a discount from the usual rate of $228.75 per credit hour, according to emails from Ann Hayes, news bureau director at Southeast. McClard said the university offers dual credit courses such as sociology, psychology and others that have not been offered in previous years.

Advance High School principal Shana Kight said her school started using the program this year. Kight said it's not like an interactive TV class where students see and hear the instructor. The professor's lesson is emailed to the classroom teacher, who puts it up on a projection screen. Sometimes the lesson takes the form of a PowerPoint presentation or it could be a video lesson.

The classroom teacher can supplement the material to "help further the understanding of the content and information," Kight said.

"For being a small school district," Kight said, "it's a wonderful opportunity that we otherwise probably wouldn't have if Southeast Missouri State University wasn't offering the set up like they are.

"With this model, they have an actual teacher in the classroom where they can ask questions and get help in a timely fashion. This is the first year for this program. We're working through some of the faults that the program has and are trying to make changes to make it better. Without it, I wouldn't be able to offer the level that our students need," Kight said.

She said this is a "wonderful connection" that's being made between secondary and higher education.

"Many times, there's a disconnect between secondary and higher ed. This is an opportunity to make that connection," Kight said.

Oak Ridge superintendent Gerald Landewee and Cape Girardeau Central High School principal Mike Cowan agreed the initiative is a great educational tool.

"This opportunity with Southeast allows our teachers to co-teach with the university professor to be able to offer these opportunities for the children," Landewee said.

Cowan said he thinks dual credit is a "wonderful asset to any high school."

"I appreciate very much what the university is hoping to do. I think anything that we can do in our high schools to offer our students a more rigorous course of instruction we want to support," Cowan said, adding that Central High tries to offer as many dual credit and advanced placement classes as possible.

Dual credit courses are available to high school juniors and seniors with a 3.0 grade-point average and the recommendation of a principal or counselor, according to information from the university.

In Southeast's program, the university's faculty member is the instructor of record who designs the course, the exams, the problems and exercise sets and does the grading "so they're getting a college-level experience," McDougall said.

Classes are provided in the students' high school and will be open to students who wish to take higher-level content courses but aren't enrolled in dual credit. Dobbins said many students come to university campuses for dual credit classes.

"Probably the largest provider like that is our Sikeston regional campus. Sikeston High School brings students out to the regional campus. Teachers would have background in the course being taught. So often now, if a high schoolteacher pursues a graduate degree ... it's for administration," McDougall said.

Along with the online courses with a high school teacher as a facilitator and having students come to a college campus to take dual credit classes, McClard said other dual credit options include face-to-face classes with a content specialist and online courses that are regular college classes taught by college instructors.

McDougall said the growth of dual credit has been "phenomenal," prompting Southeast to extend the program throughout its service region to allow students who haven't had access to it before to take advantage.

"Students that package dual credit, maybe they take an [advanced placement] course, then there's also something called early college credit," McDougall said. Early college credit allows a high school senior who has met all their graduation requirements to enroll in a Southeast class get college credit for it, he said.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

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