One of the new movements in K-12 education is to get students started in college early, often by offering high school courses in which students get college credit for completion.
At nearby Sac State there is ACE certification, and students who complete ACE certified courses at high school get credit for completing the equivalent course at Sac State. It's a two-fer, and a good way to help students get an inexpensive (free) start at college. For years I tried to get my statistics course ACE certified, but the math department at Sac State threw up every hurdle they could. Eventually my point of contact there told me point-blank that they'd never approve my course because that would take students away from them.
I turned my attention to the local community college district and tried to get a Memorandum of Understanding with them that would essentially do the same thing as ACE--students who completed my stats course would also get credit for the equivalent course at the local community college. It never went anywhere for the same reason--fewer students would have to take math at the CC, risking jobs.
Last winter I was asked if I'd be willing to "facilitate" a dual-enrollment stats course; the students would learn stats asynchronously via distance learning from the community college instructor, but I would also have them in a high school class to answer questions, ensure they keep up with all the college requirements, etc. It was not the model I was looking for but it was the only option I had, so I said yes.
It was a rocky start. Even though I'd been working on this since last school year, I still had no books and calculators for my students when school started a month ago. And when, a week and a half later, the local community college semester began, I still didn't have the materials. And from my few communications with the instructor, I had some doubts about the curriculum.
We're now a few weeks into the year and things have settled down into a smooth rhythm. After I (finally) received a copy of the instructor's syllabus, I saw that he actually did plan to teach the course mostly as a normal elementary statistics course. After I raised the book and calculator flags with some of my district suits, books and calculators were shortly delivered. Students are now familiar with Canvas, the "Google Classroom" of college, and are able to navigate the assignments and expectations without problem.
I don't think the instructor does much work! From what I can tell, all of the work our students do is done online--and it's graded automatically. I'm sure he did a lot of work on the front end and now it runs on autopilot. I have much to learn about setting up a classroom this way.
I don't have access to Canvas so I myself cannot see the assignments or the grades; embedded in all the various dual-enrollment classes is a "success coach" who keeps us high school teachers informed. Ours went to my school, and while he did not have me as an instructor, he understands our school "culture" and the information I need and why. I have to submit in-progress grades by the end of this week, and on Thursday my success coach will send me all student grades directly from Canvas.
After a very rocky start this is turning into a good experience both for me and for my students. I have confidence that it will continue to be one.
5 comments:
Of the options to earn college credit while in high school, dual enrollment is the odd one. Advanced Placement is run by the College Board, and districts can offer AP courses if they comply with the requirements. In Ohio, students can take courses at a community college paid by the district. The community colleges profit from that arrangement. Dual enrollment is taught by us, but blessed by the college. Who profits from that? It isn't clear. The students can benefit from any of these arrangements.
Because we can't tell who profits from dual enrollment, it isn't clear who is running it. You tried to implement a dual enrollment course, but got nowhere. Out of nowhere, Admin asks you to facilitate a dual enrollment course. How did that come about? Did your efforts kick them into gear? Does somebody know somebody, and it was just a coincidence that you were asked?
At my school, it was similar. Teachers had no ability to initiate dual enrollment courses or have any idea why we have the ones that we do.
I doubt it was my actions that got district people motivated to move in this direction. Rather, the local community college district started offering these dual-enrollment classes and my district took them up on it. Only 2 schools in my district offer non-AP stats, and since mine is one, *that* is why we were asked by our district people if we wanted to participate.
As for AP, I'm not a fan. While I agree that where should be an outside/disinterested arbiter for assessing achievement if students are to receive college credit, I have very strong feelings about California's constitution and the requirement for a "free" public education. Students shouldn't have to pay $100 to take a test, not even to get college credit, if the course is offered in our public schools; such a cost divides our students into haves and have-nots, and that is *not* what public schools should be about.
But there's more. You'd be amazed at how much taxpayer money is spent on AP tests. Someone at school has to order the tests, and we at school collect the money (and send it to the College Board) as students sign up. Then our custodial staff has to organize a testing location (often dozens of tables in the gym), and someone has to supervise the administration of all the AP tests. Then school employees, again on the taxpayer dime, organize and collate the testing books, answer documents, scratch paper, etc, and box it up and send it (on the taxpayer dime) to the College Board. Bottom line--not only do they get around $100/test, but they get the taxpayers to pay for most of the work so they earn even more profit! If that isn't a form of crony capitalism, I don't know what is.
It would be better, IMNSHO, for the state to create its own AP-like test.
Until that happens, though, my dual-enrollment class is about as good an option as we're likely to get.
One thought about not being able to see assignments in Canvas - the instructor might be willing to add you as either a TA or an observer. The observers are linked to specific students, but you might be able to set it up for each of your students. Even being an observer of one student would let you see what the assignments are.
And, thanks for the post about who profits from DE. I used to teach at a CC and now teach at a homeschool co-op. I tried to work with the local CC (not where I used to teach) about starting a DE course at the co-op, since my class covers everything that a CC class would cover. They had so many hoops that I'd need to jump through that it was completely impractical. My own kid is taking their first DE class and can't believe how much easier it is than most of the co-op classes.
I'm not an expert on school finance but I think there is a double-dipping issue with dual enrollment. The community college and your district are both under the umbrella of the county office of education, which means both parties can't earn apportionment simultaneously unless they split it.
In my experience, typically CCs/JCs are happy to earn that apportionment, and sometimes they try to leverage the dual enrollment relationship to earn additional apportionment from running credit recovery classes for high schools. That can be lucrative for the CC/JC if done right. Even the high school teachers can earn some extra cash teaching those classes. With a software product like ALEKS-- the trick with that is getting the CC/JC to spiff the high school students the licenses-- it could be a huge win-win for all the parties.
However, I think the best "dual enrollment" deal I ever saw was run out of a local California State University math department. They were running more sections of Calculus I/II off-campus (at local high schools) than on-campus at the CSU. It was very clever in that the CSU *and* the high schools were earning apportionment off the same class, because they are not both under the county office of education umbrella. The deal was, the teacher of the class had to meet the minimum qualifications for being an adjunct in the CSU math department, meaning they needed at least a master's degree (MA/MS) in mathematics, even if they were never paid a dime by the CSU. The students had to meet the minimum qualifications to enroll in calculus I/II at the CSU-- at that time, it meant passing the qualifying exam, but I am unsure of what it may mean now, since the CSU has eliminated remedial math-- and if they qualified, it was great deal. They paid no tuition, just a small record-keeping fee so that their grades would be transcripted at the CSU, and from what I can recall, there was no micro-management from the CSU in the form of "use this text, give this many exams, cover chapters XYZ" or such as that. It could be different now; it's been nearly 30 years since I taught one of those sections.
Even if they have since added some micromanagement stuff, this was an even bigger win-win for all the parties, and probably still is. The record-keeping fee the students paid was less than $10 at the time, and there was none of the concentrated stress that flows from the AP exam system. The students earned a grade that was recorded on a California State University transcript, and all they had to do was pass a qualifying exam and take the regular old calculus course that was taught at their high school. Since you have a legit MA/MS in mathematics, you ought to consider hitting up your local CSU math chair and ask that person if they're interested in earning some apportionment off a class which you teach and they don't have to pay a dime for. Obviously there would be some real legwork getting this up and running, but you could make a real strong "equity"-based argument for something like this.
I'm sure the deans and all those higher-ups were pretty happy with the cash flow that this generated over the years for this particular CSU campus. I'm guessing the trick for the CSU campus is ferreting out the local high school teachers who meet the minimum qualifications (legit MA/MS in math), and convincing them to volunteer to facilitate.
Clemsondana--I was told directly that the CC would *not* allow me even read-only access to Canvas. I'm pretty sure there's some fiefdom issues they're trying to protect.
$bill, I'm sure there's nothing illegal going on as it's all being done above board. Being encouraged, perhaps. The law you referenced must've been changed.
As for the CSUS math chair--it was CSUS that fought me tooth and nail. Their first reason for not approving ACE certification was that I didn't have a masters degree. When I got one they changed to "there's so much going on in the department that we don't have time to pursue this".
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