Dual enrollment programs offer more options – Corpus Christi Caller

KINGSVILLE — Monika Ruiz, an 18-year-old senior at Presbyterian Pan American School, hasn't graduated from high school yet, but she already has college credits under her belt.

Last semester, she took English and political science at Texas AM University-Kingsville. This semester, she is taking another English class as well as economics and pre-calculus.

"Being a dual enrollment student has been a great experience for me," Ruiz said. "It has been challenging because the classes are a little more difficult than high school and the expectations are much higher. But all this has helped me be more responsible because I know I have to keep up with my high school classes and activities, while at the same time I have to meet college deadlines."

Dual enrollment programs, in which high school students enroll in college classes while still in secondary school, have taken on enormous importance at universities and community colleges. The push in large part comes because dual enrollment increases the number of students attending a university and the amount of state funding it receives. The programs also benefit students by allowing them to take classes at reduced rates and to enter college with many of their basics out of the way. University officials say it also allows their institutions to serve the communities around them.

Nancy King-Sanders, who oversees the dual enrollment program at AM-Kingsville, said the push toward enrolling high school students in college classes took off after the state Legislature passed a bill in 2007 mandating all high schools provide access to 12 college hours, AP classes or an international baccalaureate.

"Students could have access in all these formats, but most have leaned toward dual enrollment because of transferability and rigor," said King-Sanders, who is associate vice president for student success. She is a tenured full professor in the music department, but also a certified public high school teacher, so she knows both worlds and has helped grow the university's program from about 100 students to close to 1,000.

Now, about 1,000 of AM-Kingsville's 8,200 students are dual enrollment high school students, a driving factor behind the university's recent enrollment growth.

Texas AM University -Corpus Christi's program also is thriving.

They have an open enrollment dual credit program, the Elite Islander, that includes CCISD, Gregory-Portland, Flour Bluff, Calallen and several private schools, including the Corpus Christi School of Science and Technology. The classes are heavily discounted — more than a third less than regular classes. The island university also is involved in the University Preparatory Early College high school which offers a combination of high school and college classes beginning freshman year.

Joe Miller, director of Education and Youth Programs, said dual enrollment gives more than an academic edge.

"They gain skills like time management and prioritizing study skills," Miller said.

part of the norm

There's benefits for the institutions that offer dual enrollment as well. Not only does it provide a substantial increase in numbers of students, it is weighted more heavily in state funding formulas, meaning higher education institutions often receive greater funding from the state for dual enrollment classes, especially those in math and science.

At the same time, the cost to students is cheaper. For example, at Del Mar College, a typical course costs about $550, but a dual enrollment course runs only $350. The college also offers free tutoring services and free online critiques of student work.

Del Mar has been a pioneer in dual enrollment, which makes up about 16 percent of the college's overall population, and includes partnerships with 19 school districts and 25 high schools, according to Patricia Dominguez, Del Mar's director of early college programs. Students can focus on either academic or technical programs.

"Dual credit has been around for 20 years and Del Mar has been a part of the advent of early college education," Dominguez said. "Nowadays, if you don't have early college, you are not part of the norm."

Both Del Mar and AM-Kingsville have created a variety of pathways to accommodate diverse student interests.

Del Mar offers programs at Harold T. Branch Academy for Career and Technical Education, with a focus on practical skills, and programs that allow students to earn a certificate when they graduate. In Flour Bluff, the program is focused on university preparation.

"Tuloso-Midway is very diverse," Dominguez said. "And Gregory — Portland offers 42 hours of course credits, including welding."

The teaching locations are a mix.

"Some students come to campus," she said. "We also send faculty to the high schools. We have credentialed high school faculty teaching courses, and we have classes online. We also serve a substantial number of home school students.

"Under our programs, every ISD gets to create college credit the way they want it," Dominguez said.

AM-Kingsville also offers several different focuses in locations ranging as far as Houston and Brownsville. Many who start as dual credit students end up enrolling at the university full-time after they graduate, even though they had originally planned to go to bigger schools farther away.

"They find that they get to know the campus and that here they aren't a number," she said. "Professors know their names."

Closing the gap

Del Mar and AM-Kingsville have forged a partnership at the Northwest Center for Advanced Studies in Calallen. There, high school students are bused in from throughout the area to take classes ranging from welding to truck driving to American history. The center offers 24 courses and students can earn as many as 10 hours of college credit per semester, with credits transferring to any state college or university in Texas. Courses are open to all students who meet college entry requirements and are offered at reduced rates.

Shannon Lane, executive director of institutional effectiveness at Coastal Bend College, said 35 percent of their students are dual enrollment.

"We have a dual enrollment department that does a lot of outreach to our rural high schools and we have a really large service area of 9,400 square miles and 12 counties, with four campuses in Pleasanton, Alice, Kingsville and the main campus in Beeville. We have lots of first generation, economically disadvantaged students.

"Dual enrollment is our pipeline for getting students to main campus," Lane said. "It is really a point of pride that through our outreach we are instruments that empower these families to see they can achieve college degrees."

She said most students who take dual enrollment matriculate at Coastal Bend, if only for a semester or a summer before moving on to a university. Coastal Bend offers courses in both academic and technical fields.

Mauro Castro, regent's professor of Chemistry at AM-Kingsville, said dual enrollment also offers students a gentle transition to college, something many need to be successful long term.

"They still have the support of their home life, but the freedom of a university and meeting people from all different backgrounds from all over the world," Castro said. "A lot of students get overwhelmed their freshman year. Dual enrollment eases them into college life."

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