FAIRMONT — Students at Fairmont Area Schools, in partnership with Minnesota West Community and Technical College, will be able to earn an Associate of Arts degree in conjunction with their high school diploma.
Fairmont Area School’s principal of curriculum, instruction and research, Kim Niss, said that they began working on greatly expanding their college in the school (CIS) classes about five years ago.
“That students really could take all of their classes at Fairmont High School to earn their Associate degree, that was always the goal, that we could offer that in house with our instructors,” said Niss.
Minnesota West has worked with administrators and teachers at Fairmont to develop a plan to work with students who want to earn an Associate of Arts degree while still in high school through a combination of college in the schools courses, some online courses and transfer courses.
Fairmont currently offers 26 CIS classes. Niss said the number of classes has been steadily increasing each year. She estimates that five years ago there were only about six CIS classes offered at Fairmont High School.
In the past, students could take PSEO classes elsewhere, but Niss said they found that they were losing money and also that if Fairmont offered it, students would take it there.
“Our school board actually created a policy that they would pay for teachers to get their credentials. That encouraged more teachers to go back to school to be able to do that,” Niss said.
She called the situation a “win-win.”
“The school board made a commitment to pay for the credentials for our teachers and our teachers made the commitment to go back and get them. That’s why Fairmont can offer so many more classes than other districts around us and really the state,” Niss said.
She said a lot of the teachers already hold a master’s degree, but to teach CIS classes they need a Masters in the discipline they’re teaching.
“A lot of our teachers get their masters in ed leadership, but they have to go back and get their masters in mathematics or English or economics,” she explained.
There are currently 12 teachers at Fairmont High School teaching CIS classes, but Niss said several others are currently getting the credentials to do so.
Fairmont High School teachers need to go through an approval process from Minnesota West as it is the accredited college institution.
Kayla Westra is the dean of liberal arts and k-12 partnership at Minnesota West. She’s the key contact person for Fairmont Area Schools and reviews the classes Fairmont offers as well as approves the credentials Fairmont teachers receive.
The district is currently about four classes away from being able to have a student take all of the classes needed to obtain an AA degree exclusively through Fairmont High School. However, Niss said they have plans in the works for three of them. Any other credits needed can be obtained online through Minnesota West.
Niss said if a student doesn’t want to get the whole AA degree, they can still take as many CIS classes as they want and graduate high school with some college credits under their belt.
“It comes down to the cost savings for families. If they leave high school with their AA degree, they truly have two years of college complete and just have to finish up two more years. The CIS option provides financial savings for students,” Niss said.
Students in CIS classes at Fairmont are actually dual enrolled at Minnesota West, meaning they’re receiving the classes required to graduate high school, as well as receiving college credits.
“Physics and chemistry is a good example because in the state of Minnesota students need to take one or the other, but we offer CIS in both. When they take a CIS course it’s also meeting their high school requirement,” Niss explained.
The CIS classes are for students in their junior and senior years, but there are some exceptions where sophomores can take the classes as well.
Niss said they’re also looking at growing CIS options in the vocational area as well. There is currently a CIS welding class and a CIS cadet teaching course through the University of Minnesota.
Niss said some Fairmont High School staff members are training on tools including a Degree Audit Review System that allows students to track their progress toward an AA degree, as well as Transferology, a system that allows students to determine if their earned credits in high school will transfer to another college or university they’re interested in attending.
"degree" - Google News
August 20, 2021 at 01:06PM
https://ift.tt/3gkeyZf
FHS students can earn AA degree | News, Sports, Jobs - Fairmont Sentinel
"degree" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2zPqEHn
https://ift.tt/2WkjZfX
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "FHS students can earn AA degree | News, Sports, Jobs - Fairmont Sentinel"
Post a Comment