District planning virtual offerings

College courses set in Huntsville

Next school year, Huntsville High School seniors will have a new option for accumulating college credit while they complete their high school education.

Huntsville High School Principal Ken Harriman is working with the Arkansas Early College High School and Arkansas Tech University to offer eight one-semester online courses for a fee of $25 per course per semester, plus the cost of textbooks, he said.

Classes will be limited to 25 students per class, and priority will be given to seniors interested in enrolling. If space is available, the high school will consider enrolling juniors.

Huntsville High School previously has offered an online college algebra course through North Arkansas College in Harrison, though the cost is $300, Harriman said. School records showed that about a dozen students this year are taking college algebra through North Arkansas College.

The new offerings will give students the opportunity to complete their first year of college while still in high school and without having to pay costly tuition, Harriman said.

“It saves them and their parents a ton of money,” Harriman said.

The Early College High School is part of Virtual Arkansas, a ninth-through-12thgrade program that provides digital courses to public school students through a partnership of the Arkansas Department of Education and the state’s regional education service cooperatives. It’s housed within the Southeast Arkansas Education Service Cooperative in Monticello.

The Early College High School partners with the University of Arkansas at Monticello to offer the courses. The college credits earned can be transferred to any public college or university in Arkansas.

The goal of Virtual Arkansas is to supplement local offerings so that all students, no matter where they live, have similar opportunities, including the chance to take college courses, said Cathi Swan, superintendent of Virtual Arkansas. The program is funded through the state. The colleges oversee the syllabus and train the instructors.

“They’re trying to reach out to students who are firsttime college-goers in their family,” Swan said.

The long-term goal is to increase the number of students entering college so they earn higher incomes and raise the median household income for the state, Swan said.

VIRTUE OF TECHNOLOGY

The Early College High School began as a pilot program in 2005, said Karen Eoff, director of the Southeast Cooperative. This school year, 66 school districts participated, and the program enrolled 961 high school students in online college courses in the fall of 2013 and 893 high school students this spring.

“It’s all a movement to get our kids to realize they can do postsecondary learning,” Eoff said.

Technology allows students to remain at their home campuses and learn from college instructors, Eoff said. The courses combine face-toface interaction through live video technology with online coursework.

Huntsville High School will join St. Paul High School, which is part of the Huntsville School District, in offering low-cost concurrent courses.

St. Paul Principal Daisy Duerr introduced concurrent credit courses to the campus when she became principal three years ago, she said. About 20 students graduate from St. Paul each year, and one senior this year is taking college algebra and U.S. history I and II. Last year, three graduates earned concurrent credit online.

“They have to be motivated,” Duerr said. “You have to be a certain student that’s interested and wants that extra level of instruction.”

The number of high school students taking college courses statewide increased from fall 2009 to fall 2013. A report from the state Department of Higher Education shows that 14,302 high school students enrolled in college courseslast fall, both online and on campus, up from 11,146 high school students who were enrolled in college courses in fall 2009.

WHO WILL BENEFIT

The Higher Education Department is interested in expanding opportunities for high school students to take concurrent courses, but the state funding system for higher education does not provide direct funding for concurrent credit courses, Director Shane Broadway said. A committee of eight chancellors of two-year and four-year institutions met in October to begin assessing what’s offered.

Harriman anticipates that the concurrent credit courses in Huntsville especially will benefit students who are concerned about affording college and lack a high score on the ACT college entrance exam, which is necessary for many scholarships.

The courses could draw some students who would otherwise take Advanced Placement courses, Harriman said. Those courses also lead to college credit if students earn high scores on Advanced Placement exams and the universities they attend award credit based on their scores.

Students must take certain steps to enroll in the concurrent credit courses, Harriman said. They have to score at least a 19 on the ACT exam and enroll in Arkansas Tech.

The university doesn’t charge tuition for the courses, but textbook prices can range from $75 to $150, Harriman said. The $25 course fee goes to Virtual Arkansas to pay for delivery of the course.

The high school will provide students with the computer and camera necessary for the course, Harriman said.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 04/24/2014

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