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| Faulkton dual credit students with teacher Nikki Melius |
This month, high school juniors and seniors across South
Dakota begin another round of reduced-cost dual credit courses at our state’s
technical institutes and public universities. These courses are available at
the cost of $40/credit hour. That represents a tremendous cost savings, and the
opportunity wasn’t lost on the more than 1,000 students who took such courses
during the fall semester. I applaud these ambitious young men and women.
I got to meet several Faulkton students enrolled in dual
credit courses last fall and was immediately impressed by their motivation and
sense of responsibility.
Dual credit courses are college-level; not college-level
adapted for high school. For instance, if a Faulkton student signs up for a
dual credit college algebra course at South Dakota State University, her
classmates are SDSU students. These classes are rigorous.
The distance from Faulkton to SDSU? About 160 miles. Which
means that student isn’t driving to her class three days a week, where she
could talk with classmates and simply raise her hand if she has a question. Like
the Faulkton students I met, many students take the $40/credit dual credit
courses online. They don’t meet their instructors or classmates in person. Students
must email, text or telephone their instructors if they have questions. These
classes require initiative.
Technical institute and university calendars and schedules
don’t completely match those of the K-12 system either. One student I met
explained that while Faulkton had a day off, he had a test to take in his dual
credit course. Professors don’t check in with their students daily to ensure
they’re making progress on assignments and projects either. As one student told
me, “It’s kind of a learning curve to change, because you go from having daily
assignments to, ‘Okay, this is what you have for these next two weeks. Get them
done.’” These classes require strong time management skills.
All of this might sound like a heavy weight for high school
shoulders. So I asked, would they do it again? Yes was the nearly unanimous
response. Why?
One student points out the cost savings: “You don’t have to
take it in college and pay twice as much.”
Another likes that his dual credit course (Introduction to
Theater) is getting him ahead: “With my major, I’d be able to go straight to
the acting classes instead of having to take that theater class that first
semester.”
“These students are now our best advocates for the program
because they’re very honest and they’ll tell fellow students that there are a
lot of benefits, but it does change your learning,” says Nikki Melius, the teacher
who administers Faulkton’s dual credit program.
The future is bright for these motivated young people, and
because of them, so is the future of South Dakota.
Ruth Raveling is the South Dakota Department of Education's information specialist.
