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Amy Gabriel talks to a student during her dual enrollment English class at Riverbend High.
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Stacy Griffith, 17, looks over a math problem with classmates during dual enrollment pre-calculus at Riverbend High. |
By MELISSA NIX
In Room 152 at Riverbend High School last week, 20 hands were busy writing away on 20 individual pieces of notebook paper.
As the high school seniors grappled with their college-level essay questions, teacher Amy Gabriel made the rounds.
"If this page is problematic," Gabriel said to a struggling student, "look at the next page and try it."
"I look at them both and cry," said Justin Hitchens, 18, tongue in cheek.
Hitchens and his classmates are among hundreds of local students participating in Germanna Community College's dual-enrollment program, which brings college-level courses to area high schools.
Juniors and seniors who score well on Germanna's placement test are eligible. If they sign up, they can earn college and high-school credit at the same time.
Some in Gabriel's class say they elected to take the course because they love English and heard Gabriel was a great teacher.
Others are less crazy about English, but pragmatic: They want to be well prepared for college-level writing.
And most say they prefer the dual-enrolled courses to Advanced Placement classes.
"With AP, you have to pass the test to get the credit, and if you don't, you do all the work for nothing," said Stacy Griffith, 17.
With dual-enrollment, if students maintain a C or better throughout the course, they are automatically awarded a number of college credits. Depending on the course, students can earn six, eight or 10 credits at year's end.
Some area students are walking out of high school and into their first year of college with 20 or more credits in their pocket. The credits transfer to all of Virginia's community colleges and to many colleges and universities across the country, said Canice Graziano, Germanna's dual-enrollment coordinator.
The 17-year-old program offers students college-level courses in biology, chemistry, calculus, business, English, history and psychology at high schools in Spotsylvania, Stafford, Caroline, Culpeper, Madison and Orange counties. Fredericksburg Christian High School joined the program last year.
Dual-enrollment teachers must meet Germanna's instruction standards--a master's degree and 18 credit hours in the content area they teach. Germanna reimburses school systems for their teachers' work according to enrollment numbers, Graziano said.
Last year, 661 local high-schoolers participated in the program. Graziano said she expects this year's figures to be similar.
Rappahannock Community College also has a robust dual-enrollment program, with several hundred students, said Wallace Lemons, dean of the Warsaw campus.
"It's about 25 percent of our enrollment," he said.
Westmoreland, King George and Colonial Beach's school systems are among those that participate.
Germanna's dual-enrolled students pay a discounted rate of $75.65 per credit hour. Rappahannock costs a bit more, closer to $80, Lemons said.
Some counties pick up a portion or all of the cost. Caroline's dual-enrolled students, for example, pay nothing for their classes. Stafford's students pay about $33 a credit--the county picks up 60 percent. Spotsylvania's must pay all of their course fees.
That means Spotsylvania's Stacy Griffith is paying a little more than $900 for the two dual-enrolled classes she takes at Riverbend--English comp and pre-calculus.
That may sound steep to some. "But it's so much cheaper than college tuition," offered Griffith's pre-calculus classmate Kelley Sparks, 17.
Their teacher, Denise Ford, has taught dual-enrolled pre-calculus for the last five years. The 27-year veteran of Spotsylvania schools took a break from writing math problems on the white board to talk about the program last week.
"They're not going to be engineers or mathematicians," Ford said of her class of seven--all of them college bound. "[But] they'll need their math credits. Why not get them here?"
Stafford has had the most dual-enrollment students and offerings in recent years, according to Graziano. About 325 in the county took advantage of the program last fall, she said.
Jim Andrews has taught dual-enrollment English for the past 13 of his 40 years at Stafford High School. This year, he has 78 students taking his college-level English composition courses.
He describes them as bright students who may not want to take AP English, but want to be prepared for college.
"These are top-notch kids," Andrews said. "It's like teacher heaven. Anything you ask them to do, they do.
"I tell the kids the artsy people take AP English, whereas this is a college composition course--and you're the guys who are really going to make money!" he added, laughing.
He said he's more inspired by students who have to rewrite something three times, who work hard to master organization and other necessary skills.
"The kids who really struggle but go off to college and are teaching their suite mates how to write themes--I love them. I just love them."
To reach MELISSA NIX:
Email: mnix@freelancestar.com
