If Wisconsin wants an educated workforce that can compete in a global economy, it has to stop thinking in terms of education pieces: K-12, colleges and universities, technical schools. It has to start thinking in terms of one system that students can navigate with ease to get the education they want and need, both in basic knowledge and upgrades when they want them; a system aimed at best serving their needs, offering them enrichment and skills.
An important step in that direction was taken Tuesday with the signing of a dual enrollment agreement by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers and University of Wisconsin Colleges and Extension Chancellor Ray Cross at UW-Marathon County in Wausau. The agreement allows high school students – mostly juniors or seniors – to earn credit that can be transferred easily to state four-year universities or two-year colleges after graduation, along with many private colleges.
Evers said in an interview Tuesday that the initiative “creates some synergy between systems that have not been directly connected in the past,” according to an article by Journal Sentinel reporters Erin Richards and Karen Herzog. “Even though we’re all differently governed, we need to make our systems look more like one instead of two or three or four.”
This helps students in several ways, including reducing the cost of a college degree. That’s more important than ever in light of the increasing cost of a college education. Just last week, UW officials announced a 5.5% hike in tuition.
The devil is in the details, as always.
Much more on credit for non-Madison School District courses, here.
Wisconsin DPI:
UW Colleges and DPI announce expanded dual enrollment program
Program will allow students to take UW Colleges courses at their high schools
High school students in Wisconsin will be able to earn college credits while still in high school under a new dual enrollment program announced by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and the University of Wisconsin Colleges.
Tony Evers, state superintendent of public instruction, and Ray Cross, chancellor of UW Colleges and UW-Extension, signed an agreement and announced the new statewide model for dually enrolling high school students in high school and UW Colleges courses. They spoke at a June 12 ceremony at the University of Wisconsin-Marathon County, one of the UW Colleges campuses in Wausau. UW Colleges is the UW System’s network of 13 freshman – sophomore campuses and UW Colleges Online.
Evers and Cross said the new partnership would allow students across Wisconsin to access UW Colleges courses in their high schools via classroom teachers and online. The new dual enrollment program would accelerate students’ ability to earn UW credits, reduce the cost of obtaining a college degree, and increase the readiness of high school graduates for either college or the workplace. The program should be in place no later than the 2013-14 school year.
“We’re trying to better serve high school students by bringing our University of Wisconsin courses right into their high schools in a cost-effective way,” said Cross. “We’re committed to making these UW credits as affordable as possible for high school students, their families, and the school districts.”
“More students need the opportunity to take advanced courses and earn high school and college credit simultaneously,” Evers said. “This statewide dual enrollment agreement is a great way for students to get an introduction to college coursework and earn credits before even enrolling in a school of higher education. This will increase the number of students who graduate from high school ready for college and careers.”
Additional information is contained in the complete news release. A copy of the Memorandum of Understanding is available online.
The DPI press release is quite brief and lacks details. It seems to involve training high school teachers so they can teach some introductory college courses by coordinating with and getting help from UW system folks who are teaching the same course at a nearby UW system college. Presumably, this solves the problem of the teachers’ unions objecting to it, but has the problem that most WI high schools don’t actually have teachers who are competent to teach many of the college courses at the level of quality UW faculty with Ph.D.s in the field can, e.g., calculus is frequently poorly taught with the students retaking it when they get to college. Advantages of the DPI plan including the students will not need to waste time transporting themselves to and from their local college and can take the classes with their friends, two of the factors that currently discourage many bright high school students from taking college courses on college campuses. This program also seems to require the student’s to pay 1/2 of the normal college tuition for the courses, bringing more $s into the local school districts rather than taking $s away from them as is true with the Youth Options Program. Thus, the teachers’ unions and school districts probably like it. However, the students frequently won’t be getting the quality courses they need so they will be well prepared for the subsequent courses in the field. Unclear is how the tuition fees will be paid for “free and reduced lunch” students; presumably, the fees will be waved for them. I know some other states that have such programs where the college instructors come to the high school to teach the classes rather than attempting to train the high school teachers to be able to do so. However, MTI and current state law probably would prohibit this from occurring because the college instructors typically lack a WI license to teach in high school and the unions would object because it might slightly reduce their FTE positions. The latter is presumably the primary reason the MMSD has been preventing students from getting high school credit for courses taken elsewhere outside of the Youth Options Program, even when taken at UW-Madison.
Janet I disagree with you. There are a number of AP courses being taught across the state, with students receiving scores that are equivent to As and Bs at the college level.
There are also a number of schools who are currently working with their local 2 year or Tech School to offer courses were they get college credits for the course they are taking while in high school.
As far as Calculus, yes there are students who don’t succeed at the high school level, just as there are students who don’t succeed at the college level in this same course. Yes, sometimes it is the teacher who didn’t do a great job teaching, but more often it is the student isn’t emotionally ready to do college level work, rather than be spoon fed, but be able to do assignments without teachers asking and grading each assignment which is often expected when kids take courses like Calc 1 or 2 in the high school.
When one goes to an intro level course in Madison, many are taught my people who don’t have a PhD. In fact, many of the other schools don’t have Professors teaching intro level courses. And when there is a Professor, the discussions are run by graduate students, and in some of those courses it is the graduate students who write and grade the exams.
And you may be surprised, but there are a number of teachers at the high school who have similar degrees to those teaching classes at UW in the intro level. What is taught at the intro level at say UW Madison, can be very different on what is offered at say UW Whitewater or UW Baraboo in the same course, yet if someone transfers the course would probably count at any of the schools.
This has been happening for years, and Evers just wants to expand this program – and has nothing to do with unions. By the way, the difficulty with Youth Options Program hasn’t been MMSD in the past but a problem with UW Madison putting requirements on age, and that the high school students are the last to register – if there is room they can take it, but if not too bad. Check into foreigh language to see where this really happens.
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