Enrollment is currently open for high school students who are interested in taking concurrent credit classes at South Arkansas Community College during fall.
Concurrent classes are credits that apply toward a student’s high school requirements, but also count toward college classes, which means it would apply toward both degrees. SouthArk also offers dual enrollment classes for high school students, which only count toward a college degree.
SouthArk has a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for students to take these classes with the El Dorado School District, the Parkers Chapel School District, the Smackover-Norphlet School District and West Side Christian School. However, Alejandra Muñoz, College & Career Coach Advisor focused on Concurrent Credit, said she’s willing to work with any high school student interested in taking college courses to look for a way to make that happen.
“If they’re not part of the participating school districts, they might potentially still take classes,” Muñoz said. “We would have to talk to their high school counselors or they might have the program through another college or university.”
Concurrent classes through SouthArk – for students at school districts with an MOU – are offered during the school day either at the student’s high school, at the SouthArk campus or online.
In her role as a college and career coach advisor, Muñoz works with the local high schools as well as students in the school on concurrent credit classes. She said the first step for students interested in participating in the program is to talk to either their high school guidance counselor or come see her.
Depending on the class, there are different test score requirements a student would need to meet. Muñoz said she looks at a student’s ACT score as a measure of whether they’re ready to take the subject on a college level.
For instance, if a student is looking to take college algebra, she looks for the student to have scored at least a 19 on the ACT math section. Similarly, for a student interested in taking a composition class, she looks for at least a 19 on the ACT English section. Regardless of the classes, Muñoz said she looks for at least a 19 on the ACT reading section for any student interested in participating in the concurrent credit program.
However, students don’t need to have taken the ACT in order to participate in the concurrent credit program. Students can take the ACT at any point, but the state only pays for it during a student’s junior year in high school. As such, for students who haven’t taken it, Muñoz said they can take the ACCUPLACER test in its place. The ACCUPLACER test is administered at SouthArk and Muñoz said she waives the testing fee for a student’s first time taking it.
“They can start in 10 grade for a lot of these high schools so they may not have taken the ACT,” she said. “We have them take the ACCUPLACER test, which is just another place test that gives us the scores that we need so that we can determine if the student’s eligible and at that reading level so that they can be successful in the college class. Test scores are a big on because they might want to (take the class), but we need to make sure that they’re also ready for a college class.”
Along with the test scores, students are expected to fill out an application for admission, provide immunization records and high school transcripts.
Classes available include composition I and II, college algebra, history, speech and biological science among others. Other classes, such as the culinary program that’s starting in the fall, are also options for students through the dual enrollment program.
Through the concurrent credit and dual enrollment programs, high school students can complete a certificate of general studies through SouthArk – which is the basic classes for a degree up to 34 hours. That means that courses such as general psychology, civilization and U.S. history are available.
“If they wanted to take other classes, like they might want to take a computer technology class or they might want to take … medical terminology classes, and they can do those as well,” Muñoz said. “A lot of time those classes are not concurrent, they’re more dual. In other words, they’re getting college credit, but sometimes not necessarily credit for their high school.”
This past spring, Mary-Claire Wilcox graduated with her certificate of general studies through SouthArk as well as graduating from Smackover High School.
Muñoz said most of the students with West Side and Parkers Chapel schools do classes their classes online or at SouthArk. At El Dorado High School and Smackover High School, some courses are offered at the high school and some are offered on the SouthArk campuses. Those students also have the option to take classes online.
“Some of the El Dorado students will do the class at El Dorado, like the histories,” she said. “Starting next year they’re going to start coming to the SouthArk campus to do composition I and college algebra. Smackover, a lot of their composition, literature and history classes are on their campus. They have an instructor there who’s qualified to do those. Then the students come to our campus to do college algebra and speech and other classes that they might need.”
Muñoz said it’s peak registration time for the fall semester. Students with the participating school districts receive a discounted rate for the classes, which means that rather than paying $84 per credit hour, students would pay $50 per credit hour with classes typically being either three or four credits. Some of the school districts also help offset the cost. While high school students can register for summer classes, the discounted rate is only offered during the school year.
“It’s a great opportunity,” she said. “I think that students don’t know this is something they can do. They can definitely reach out and learn more about it by contacting me. I’d be happy to talk to the parents as well, we’re really flexible. There’s a lot of pros and advantages. It’s something they get a lot out of and they can essentially graduate two years ahead. When they graduate high school, they can start their university classes and graduate university sooner than they would if they hadn’t started early.”
Michael Shine may be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter and like him on Facebook @MichaelAZShine for updates on Union County school news.