County’s Dual-Enrollment Program Allows High School Students To Earn College Credit
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Chastity Jones is happy to know she’ll have freshman English under her belt by the time she checks into her Spellman College dorm room for her first semester.
Jones earned credit for the college course during her senior year at Page High School through the Williamson County school system’s dual-enrollment program.
“I love it,” Jones says, about her freshman English class at Columbia State Community College in Columbia. “I meet new people all the time, and it introduces me to what college life will be like.”
Not only has she earned valuable college credit, Jones also expects to be more confident when she officially starts college in fall 2008 at the Atlanta-based school.
“I was very nervous at first, but now that I’ve been introduced to the college environment, I know what’s going to happen,” she says. “It helps a lot.”
For the past several years, high school students who meet certain academic requirements have been allowed to take courses at Columbia State Community College, Nashville State Community College, O’More College of Design in Franklin and the Tennessee Technology Centers scattered around the state. Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro became another option in January 2008.
About 60 students sign up each semester for dual enrollment, says Rebecca Cain, career counselor for Williamson County Schools. The addition of MTSU is expected to push those numbers even higher, Cain adds.
Some students attend classes on the college campuses, while others take college-level courses offered at their high schools.
Thanks to scholarships funded through Tennessee’s education lottery, many students are eligible to receive a total of $300 per semester to pay for college-level courses.
“They can get the money twice a year, which means they can take two classes for practically no cost at one of the community colleges,” Cain says.
Williamson County High Schools Director Dan Hampton says students are more motivated when they know that work done in high school will be credited toward a higher-education degree.
“I think it’s one of the best things we can do, especially for those kids taking career and technical classes,” Hampton says.
Through agreements with certain colleges, even some high school-level courses, such as computer-aided design and culinary arts, may be counted as college credits, he says.
“More and more kids are going for that,” Hampton adds. “There are some kids that can go into college with 15 to 21 hours in their back pockets.”
Although the Franklin Special School District only goes through eighth grade, Williamson County Schools’ dual-enrollment program is still a selling point to families moving into the district, says David Snowden, executive director at FSSD.
“Once they transition into high school, having the opportunity for dual enrollment would be a benefit for anyone,” Snowden says.
Story by Renee Elder
Photo by Brian McCord
