Limiting options?

When Josh Roby came to South Adams High School to teach science 14 years ago, he expected nothing but smooth sailing.

He has a master’s degree, taught biology to college students during his undergraduate years at Ball State University and previously worked for five years as teacher for Norwell High School.

“I have the experience and I’ve loved teaching my kids,” Roby said.

But a rule enacted three years ago by the Higher Learning Commission require more. Roby now needs to go back to school if he wants to continue teaching at the dual-credit level.

In 2015, the commission, the accrediting body for Indiana’s colleges and universities, instituted a new rule that requires dual-credit teachers to have a graduate degree. Teachers now must have at least a master’s degree in the subject area in which they teach, or an additional 18 credit hours in that subject.

Even though the requirements were originally supposed to take effect in 2017, the state was granted an extension, allowing Indiana dual-credit teachers until September 2022 to meet the new requirements.

“I have a lot of opinions about this,” Roby said. “When I did my undergrad at Ball State, for one of my practicum classes I had to teach this 100-level lab class a whole semester — I was in charge of doing everything. So, basically, they trusted me to have enough knowledge back then at a college level to teach it, but now that I have more experience, I guess I’m not really as trusted.”

While Roby does have a master’s degree, he does not have the additional 18 credit hours specifically in biology, which is needed under the new requirements.

“Trying to find the time to take master level biology classes while I am still teaching and taking kids on trips is very difficult,” Roby said. “I’ll be missing family activities too.”

Roby isn’t the only teacher at South Adams being impacted by the new requirements.

South Adams High School Principal Trent Lehman said the school offers many dual-credit opportunities to students. While most teachers currently meet the new expectations, he said the most change will be found in the science department if teachers don’t go back to further their education.

“This will affect our chemistry and biology classes because the teachers in those areas aren’t seen as having the right credentials anymore,” Lehman said. “This isn’t something that is only going to impact our teachers, it could possibly hurt the students and what classes we can provide here.”



What it means

For several years, Jay County, South Adams and Fort Recovery high schools have paired with colleges and universities to offer students the opportunity to earn college credit.

In 2015, 55 percent of high school graduates earned dual credit, compared to 18 percent who earned Advanced Placement (AP) credit, according to the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.

“Offering high school students the chance to earn college-level credits and start their college transcripts is important,” Lehman said. “My nephew graduated from Ball State this year and he basically started as a sophomore with all his credits.

“He was able to gain almost a year of college credit in high school, reducing the college bill by 25 percent. That’s huge in savings for the students and parents.”

If schools aren’t able to retain their dual-credit teachers, some may have to cut the number of courses offered to students and turn back to AP classes.

Like Lehman, this is a concern for Jay County High School principal Chad Dodd. Eleven out of the 34 teachers eligible to teach dual-credit courses at JCHS do not meet the new teaching requirements.

Currently, Jay County High School offers 52 dual-credit courses.

“I think it is reasonable to say we will not be able to offer the variety of courses within math, English, science, social studies — the core content that we do now,” Dodd said. “We may have to offer online courses. One option may be to also use retired teachers to come back and teach a course for a year or so.

“We are going to find other avenues to continue to offer these opportunities, but for me to say we are going to be able to do business as normal, I don’t feel comfortable saying that.”

While principals like Lehman and Dodd are encouraging teachers to get a master’s degree, they are aware of the reality that some may not choose that path as there is no financial incentive.

Putting in the extra time and money without any kind of salary bump may not be worth if for some teachers, Roby said.

“This is all about the money,” he said. “I think the colleges have realized they are losing out on a lot of money and they had a lot of students not having to take the classes anymore.”



What now?

Schools like Ivy Tech Community College, the state’s largest provider of dual-credit, are looking for ways to help teachers meet the commission’s requirements within the next four years.

During spring semester last year, Ivy Tech put together a communication plan for its high school partners in relation to the extension. It asked instructors to sign acknowledgements, stating that they were going to work toward a plan that would put them in a place where they would meet the requirements, said John Newby, Ivy Tech assistant vice president of K-12 initiatives.

“We have about 1,000 high school teachers who are teaching for us and need to do something between now and the end of the extension,” Newby said. “Some of them only need three credit hours — one more course at the graduate level — and some of them, about 400 of them, don’t yet have a master’s degree.”

While Ivy Tech is only a two-year institution, Newby said the college is continuing to make partnering schools aware of other state opportunities like STEM Teach, a grant program established by the Indiana General Assembly.

The Indiana STEM Teacher Recruitment Fund awards grants to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teacher training programs and offers graduate courses to in-service teachers for dual-credit credentialing, according to stemteachindiana.org. Under STEM Teach, tuition, books and other materials for the courses needed to complete dual-credit requirements will be free to teachers employed at public schools.

“I know that it’s not easy to take the time to go back, but there are opportunities out there for our Indiana teachers to continue to teach dual-credit,” Newby said. “Teachers also need to keep in mind that things could happen in the legislator. Perhaps the state may create funding to assist teachers to gain the credentials. So, maybe some more additional incentives will be created to encourages teachers to go back and do the coursework.

“It’s important to keep in mind that we are in the early stages.”

For now, Roby will continue teaching for South Adams as he has all along. While he does plan on looking into online opportunities to meet the new requirements, the biology teacher said he would be fine dropping the dual-credit and teaching the second-year biology class.

“It’s totally up to the school,” Roby said. “There is not a backup plan. I will teach my classes the same way, it just won’t be called dual-credit anymore.”