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State grant will help students earn college credit in high school
By Denise Dick
BOARDMAN
A $1 million state grant aims to increase the number of Northeast Ohio students who earn college credit while still in high school.
The Mahoning County Educational Service Center received the College Credit Plus Teacher Support Grant, a joint award from the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Department of Higher Education.
“The idea is to increase the number of teachers qualified to teach the courses, and that would increase the number of courses in the districts and the students taking them,” said Douglas Hiscox, MCESC’s assistant director of teaching and learning.
Teachers in Mahoning, Columbiana, Trumbull, Ashtabula and Portage counties will benefit. Youngstown State University is ESC’s higher education partner in the grant.
For many years, high schools have offered college-level courses to students, allowing them to earn college credit. At YSU, the program is called College Credit Plus.
With the state initiative comes expansion from only high school students to seventh- and eighth-graders. It also increases requirements for those teaching the courses.
The state requires those teaching a College Credit Plus course to have completed at least 18 hours of graduate coursework in the content area they’ll teach. Hiscox said the requirement will begin in 2017.
The grant will help more than 70 teachers from Northeast Ohio to complete credentials they need to teach CCP classes. The money will be spread among the five counties.
Under CCP, there’s no charge to students if the credits are earned at a public college or university in Ohio. Private institutions may charge a fee.
Several schools, both public and private, offer substantial courses to their respective students who want to earn college credit while still in high school.
Mahoning County ESC will administer the grant and work to identify and support teachers to secure the required qualifications. Teachers must apply for the free or reduced cost classes to become fully credentialed for the CCP program.
Grant applications will be located on the YSU website, as well as MCESC’s website beginning today. Interested teachers can apply online.
YSU began offering College in High School in 2006, and it’s grown from eight schools and nine instructors in one county to 44 schools and 140 instructors in four counties last year.