College in the High School has new offerings for students

Pitt-Bradford will expand the offerings it makes to high school students this year at Bradford Area High School and St. Marys Area High School.

The offerings are part of a dual-enrollment program called College in the High School, for which qualified high school teachers teach Pitt-Bradford courses in high school for Pitt-Bradford credit.

Grades for the courses are given by the teacher and are based on the student’s performance on graded assignments, quizzes, assigned texts and a final exam that is provided by the appropriate department of the university.

In Bradford, the expanded courses are Petroleum Technology and Environment and Safety.  In St. Marys, planned new offerings are Algebra II, Composition I and Pre-calculus. Spanish I has been added to the line-up of offerings at Ridgway Area High School.

Other possible offerings for the fall of 2012 that may be added are Cinema and Geography at Austin Area Junior/Senior High School; Composition II in Bradford; and Calculus in St. Marys.

“Schools are looking for ways to provide advanced classes to their students,” said Dr. Lauren Yaich, who coordinated the College in the High School program until recently. Instructors for the program are high school teachers, but are required to have at least a master’s degree or its equivalent and are trained by Pitt-Bradford.

One of the largest advantages for schools, students and parents is the price of classes. The program offers college courses for $125 each, a 92 percent discount. Yaich supervised the program for the past two years. The new supervisor will be Dr. Stephen Robar, associate dean of academic affairs.

Teachers Kelly Burford at Ridgway Area School District and James Wilkinson at Coudersport Junior/Senior High School were the first to take Pitt-Bradford up on its offer of college credit during the regular high school day when the program premiered in 2005.

Unlike the Advanced Placement exam, which requires that students make a final score on an AP test at the end of the semester or year, College in the High School students follow the same syllabus as the students at Pitt-Bradford, cover the same material and take the same final exam.

The first courses introduced were computer science and communications, but the offerings have expanded to include French, English, physics, art, Spanish, management, mathematics, biology and health.

The program has continued to grow over the years from 43 students enrolled in 2007-08 to 253 students in 2011-12. Districts that participate now include Otto-Eldred, Cameron County, Oswayo Valley, Smethport Area, Austin Area, Galeton Area and Northern Potter.

Bradford Area School District began participating in 2010-2011 with Paul Piccioli and Shannon Stitt Reese offering college-level math classes.

“The program works very well, and the students and administrators love it,” Reese said. “I think it is a great opportunity for students to get college credit.”

While students at BAHS have long had the option to take discounted college classes on campus through Pitt-Bradford’s Bridges program, College in the High School gives them the same advantages without the scheduling and transportation difficulties.

According to James Baldwin, Pitt-Bradford registrar and former director of College in the High School, students who have earned credits through College in the High School have had few problems getting the credits to transfer. The only exceptions, he noted, have been military academies and Ivy League schools. Some colleges and universities do place a cap on the total number of credits that a first-year student may transfer.

Students who arrive at college with a few credits already under their belt have more confidence about their ability to do college-level work, he said, and more free credits to pursue a double major or other courses.

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