2 Districts to Share College Courses: They Will Expand Advanced Offerings for High School Students.
Posted on: Tuesday, 20 June 2006, 09:00 CDT
By Kirk Beldon Jackson, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.
Jun. 20--Two Lehigh Valley school districts that offer college courses to high school students will begin a joint program this fall.
Starting in the 2006-07 school year, Northern Lehigh and Northwestern Lehigh School District students will not only be able to take college-level courses at their own schools, but each others' as well.
Northern Lehigh and Northwestern Lehigh staff approved as adjunct professors by Lehigh Carbon Community College will teach the courses, referred to as "dual enrollment" because students can earn both high school and college credit, said Northern Lehigh High School Principal Philip Bertolino.
In some cases, LCCC professors themselves will teach the classes, either at the high schools or through video-conferencing, he said.
Local officials believe it is the first Lehigh Valley dual enrollment program to involve more than one school district. An advantage of the partnership is that it gives students access to courses not available at their own school, said Leah Christman, coordinator of data and technology for the Northwestern Lehigh School District.
"They really complement each other," she said of the two districts' curriculums. "We offer more in the way of sciences and some electives and they're offering more in the way of history and different electives," she said.
Northern Lehigh will offer German, Spanish, history, introduction to psychology and English.
Northwestern Lehigh will provide courses in anthropology, political science, introduction to criminal justice, modern social problems, and introduction to sociology. It also will offer classes in biology, computers, broadcasting physics, music theory, drawing and painting, food preparation, anatomy and physiology.
The courses also cost less under the program. A typical course at LCCC costs about $93 a credit, while one taught by an adjunct at a high school costs about $30 a credit, said Patricia Gardner, director of prior learning and credentialing at Lehigh Carbon Community College.
Dual enrollment programs grew out of concern that high school students were not being prepared adequately for college, said Gerald S. Edmonds, director of Project Advance, a dual enrollment program run out of Syracuse University.
Edmonds said he believes Syracuse's program, which began in 1972, was among the first, and one at the University of Connecticut may have started in the 1950s.
Interest in such programs has increased since 2000 -- a development Edmonds attributes in part to educators' search for an alternative to advanced placement testing. He noted that student enrollment in Syracuse's Project Advance has grown 34 percent since 2002.
Lehigh Carbon Community College started offering dual enrollment in 2000, Gardner said. This fall, it will work with 30 or 31 districts in six counties, she said.
Northwestern Lehigh was one of the first districts to work with the college, and Northern Lehigh joined last year, she said.
Dual enrollment received a boost in Pennsylvania last year, thanks to education legislation that included $5 million for such programs, Gardner said.
Educators from Northern Lehigh and Northwestern Lehigh believe their districts have much in common.
Both have the same white collar-blue collar mix of students, and the schools are not that far apart in distance, Bertolino said.
Moreover, they are athletic rivals.
"We just thought it was a great fit and a great opportunity for both communities," he said.
kirk.jackson@mcall.com
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Source: The Morning Call, Allentown, Pennsylvania
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