Coldwater readies for college credit program

COLDWATER - Coldwater High School officials are preparing for the start of the new College Credit Plus program in the 2015-16 school year.

The program replaces Ohio's post-secondary enrollment options and dual-enrollment programs, school board members learned at Tuesday night's meeting.

Two fundamental conditions exist for the program. Students must be enrolled in both college and high school, and they will earn transcript college and high school credits upon successfully completing the college course.

"Advanced placement, articulated credit, and transcripted credit are all there for the students, but they are not the same in how they are implemented and the money behind them," superintendent Rich Seas said.

Students have three ways to participate in college courses through the new program: high school teachers may teach the course, a college may send a professor to school or the student can attend class at the college.

Seas did not know the costs of the the three options but said college and district officials may negotiate the prices.

Teachers in the program must complete 18 college credit hours in the subject but are not required to have a master's degree, Seas said.

"A lot of our teachers at the high school do not have a master's degree in their content area," he said.

Wright State University-Lake Campus, Rhodes State College, the University of Toledo and Edison Community College have all presented information about College Credit Plus to the students, Seas said. State officials are still working on the program.

Final rules will be issued in February, according to Seas.

"They're building the plane as they fly it. In other words, we do not have all the answers to CCP," he said.

A second big topic at Tuesday's meeting was Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers testing that freshmen will take in February.

Students will be tested in math, language arts, social studies and science. Thirteen sessions will require 1,025 minutes out of class between February and May, principal Jason Hemmelgarn said.

"It is one week each for math and English, science and social studies. It is a massive undertaking," Hemmelgarn said.

Tests are on a five-point scale. Eighteen points are needed to graduate.

"Students need at least four points each in math and English and six points total between science and social studies," he said. Students have four years to obtain the points needed to graduate.

Also on Tuesday, board members approved the retirement of middle school teacher Jill Eilerman, effective Feb. 27. They also approved the retirement of middle school teacher Joyce Howell, effective at the end of the school year.