Nearly 200 parents and students filled the Apollo High School auditorium Tuesday night for the Daviess County Public Schools (DCPS) Dual Credit Information night. While there are numerous opportunities for high school sophomores, this particular informational night was for current eighth-grade students and their parents.
There will be a second Dual Credit Information night for students and their families on Thursday, Jan. 10, at Daviess County High School at 4255 New Hartford Road.
The program will include information about Community Campus, how to apply, what opportunities are available, test scores needed to eligible, etc.
Representatives from the Life Science and Engineering Academies and DCPS Early College Academy will be on hand to answer questions about planning for dual credit courses in your student’s high school schedule.
DCPS College and Career Readiness Coordinator Amanda Jerome suggests the information night as a way to help eighth-grade parents help their children be prepared for early college.
“If there are eighth-grade families considering early college, it’s better for them to know about it early so they can make decisions,” Jerome said.
One of the biggest areas of preparation is ensuring students have ACT scores available prior to the start of the school year and the academies.
“Some of the programs they can participate in when they get to high school, some they have to wait until they are juniors and seniors,” Jerome said. “The two programs they can enroll in as freshmen are Engineering Academy and Life Science Academy.”
Students in the Engineering Academy must have at least a 17 composite on the ACT.
The Engineering Academy is part of Project Lead the Way, which is a nationally recognized provider for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) curriculums. Students enrolled in Engineering have the opportunity to take Introduction to Engineering Design, Principles of Engineering, Computer Programming, and Aerospace Engineering.
“We have varying levels of opportunities,” Jerome said. “But early college academy has grown in popularity over the past few years.”
Students in the Life Science Academy have at least a composite of a 20 on the ACT. Students enrolled in this academy take Human Body Systems, Medical Intervention, and Biomedical Science courses and use Project Lead the Way curriculum to teach those courses.
“We had 93 percent of students that took dual enrollment classes in the fall make all A’s and B’s,” Jerome said. “If they do get dual credit now, they will only be that much further ahead when they do get to college and make a decision.”
The second Dual Credit Information night is tonight at 6 p.m. at Daviess County High School. For more information visit the DCPS Facebook page or email [email protected] for more information.
