COLLEGE CREDIT PLUS
What: Eligible students can take college-level courses to earn high school and college credit simultaneously.
Who: Ohio students in grades 7-12 who apply to a participating Ohio college and are accepted.
Where: All Ohio public school districts and public colleges must participate, and private schools and colleges can opt-in. Courses can be taught at the college by college professors, or at the high school by teachers who earn adjunct professor status. Classes can also be taken online, if the college offers them that way.
When: CCP takes effect for the 2015-16 school year. School districts had to offer information sessions explaining the program before March 1, and students must declare their intention to participate by April 1.
Why: Ohio officials want more college graduates, and they say this program — which replaces existing PSEO and dual enrollment systems — will give more students inexpensive access to college.
Cost: There is no cost to students if they are enrolled in an Ohio public college or university. The high school and the college split the cost, which can range from $40 to $160 per credit hour, well below standard college costs. Private colleges that choose to participate will negotiate a cost within the $40 to $160 window, and may charge the student some portion of that amount.
Sources: Ohio Department of Education, Ohio Board of Regents
Middletown students now have another educational option.
Students in grades seven through 12 now can take classes at Sinclair Community College under the new Ohio’s College Credit Plus program.
But Superintendent Sam Ison and board members expressed concern that some high school students aren’t prepared for rigorous college courses. Ison said teachers, counselors and parents of those students will have to collaborate to assure students are ready for the added workload.
DeAnna Shores, a board member who teaches at Miami University Middletown, said some of her students are “clearly not ready” for college. She understands why some parents want their children to take free college courses while in high school, but she believes some students are “being rushed into the world.”
Lauren McGarity, director of special projects for the Ohio Board of Regents, said “one of the best arguments” for students and parents is, the more college courses you take while in high school, the more dollars you’ll save.
Under the agreement with Sinclair, students can take courses in any of the following ways: College courses taught at a high school by a high school teacher; college courses taught at MHS by a Sinclair instructor; college courses taught at Sinclair by a Sinclair instructor; or college courses taught online.
The district will pay the college $40 per credit hour taken by its students and reimburse them for text books. The rate was approved by the Sinclair Board of Trustees on Jan. 31, said President and CEO Steven Johnson.
The district is expected to sign similar agreements with Cincinnati State Middletown and Miami University Middletown, though the cost per credit hour is expected to be higher at MUM, Ison said.
Sinclair is located at 444 W. Third St., Dayton.
Ohio’s College Credit Plus program became law in June, and has an April 1 deadline for students to opt-in for next fall’s classes.
Ohio public school districts and public colleges are required by law to offer College Credit Plus starting this fall, and private high schools and colleges can choose to opt-in, according to the Ohio Department of Education. The private school model may require the student to shoulder some cost, but significantly less than they would on a traditional college path.
College Credit Plus will replace the state’s existing early credit programs — the Post Secondary Enrollment Option (PSEO), where students travel to a college to take classes, and dual-enrollment alternatives, where students take classes for college credit at their high school, online, or under some other local arrangement.
But it comes with one important, tougher requirement. It is a true dual-enrollment program that requires the student to apply to, and be accepted by an Ohio college in order to simultaneously earn high school and college credit.
Marianne Cotugno, faculty director at Miami University Middletown, said it’s her understanding that CCP students would have to reapply to attend the university full-time after graduating high school.
“We’ve long been involved with offering college credit,” Cotugno said. “We have good existing relationships with districts.”
Cotugno said this past fall there were 483 students completing PSEO at the regional campuses, and another 86 in dual-enrollment courses at Warren County Career Services and in Centerville.
Cotugno said the university already practices many of the requirements of College Credit Plus, including classroom observations and assigning advisers to the high school students.
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