CELL endorsed

Jay County High School’s Early College program has been endorsed for its effectiveness and quality.

The Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning at the University of Indianapolis informed JCHS officials Friday that the school’s program had been endorsed. Principal Chad Dodd announced the news at Monday’s Jay School Board meeting.

“This is a big prize,” said Jay Schools superintendent Jeremy Gulley at the meeting. “And there’s not a lot of schools that get to this point. …

“It just feels like we got through that tape you break through at the end of the race and we won.”

Jay County is now one of 41 schools statewide that have received the endorsement from the Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning. The list also includes Winchester, Delta, Muncie Central, Richmond and New Castle.

Dodd noted that the Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning has pushed an effort to encourage schools to organize its college credit offerings. Previously, he said, they were more hit and miss rather than having a clear path toward credits that would be widely transferrable.

Now the goal is to try to complete a full freshman year (30 credit hours) while in high school.

“That way when a kid leaves, all those credits go,” said Dodd. “Before this, the colleges kind of got to pick and choose what credits they would take. And now we’re offering the ones on the transfer library. Kids get to take them wherever they go in Indiana.”

Jay County High School, which has long had dual-credit classes but officially launched its Early College program in 2018, now offers dozens of courses, including English, math, science, world languages, fine arts, social studies, agriculture, business, health science, manufacturing and other disciplines.

Dodd noted that the program focuses on more than just academics. There’s an effort to expose students to what college is like so they are socially prepared as well. That includes gathering the Early College students to study together, talk about challenges, plan college visits, meet with former JCHS students who are in college and have Zoom tours of dorm rooms and campuses.

“It’s more than just academics,” said Dodd. “For us, it’s about the transition into college. We’re exposing them to the curriculum. That’s easy to do. … But how do we expose them to the other aspects? That was an important part of the program for us.”

Eleven JCHS teachers are certified to teach core curriculum and 12 are certified to teach career and technical education courses.

“And there was no incentive, no extra money, nothing,” Dodd added. “They did this because they wanted to offer opportunities for kids.”

The incentive comes in a different form.

“While there’s not financial benefit for me, the benefit is that kids are heading out of here much more prepared than they were before,” said Chrissy Krieg, who teaches two college composition courses through Ball State University.

(Students also have the option of taking college classes online through Ivy Tech Community College, Ball State University, Indiana University and others that are partners with JCHS.)

Vickie Reitz, former director of guidance at JCHS and now a Jay School Board member, started the push for the Early College program endorsement about six years ago.

“It would be a big money saver for our students and put them ahead of the game,” she said of the reason for starting the effort. “And also they would have support to start that college program with the teachers being available to help them.”

That’s been a major advantage for Jay County High School senior Ashlyn Dow. She finished her junior year with 33 college credits already under her belt, including a criminal justice course. (She hopes to become a lawyer.)

About half of her classes this year are for college credit either with JCHS teachers or online.

“It’s awesome,” said Dow. “It’s kind of a relief, because I can either finish college in three years, or four years with not as busy of a schedule. I just think it’s nice to not have to pack my schedule …

“It just allows us to take so many classes for a lot cheaper …”

It takes years for an Early College program to become endorsed, with the first step being to collaborate with the Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning and designing and implementation plan. The next several years are spent building a curriculum with higher education partners, preparing staff and providing guidance to early college students. The school then collects and analyzes data to demonstrate that the program is effective.

The final step of the process came Thursday when representatives from the Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning met virtually with students, parents, teachers, staff and administrators who have been involved with the program. They interviewed each group about their experiences and received the call Friday that the endorsement had been approved.

“These newly endorsed Early College High Schools have documented evidence of quality programs that help high school students graduate high school and accelerate into post-secondary education, whether at a four-year institution or a career/technical program,” said Sandy Hillman, CELL director of Early College, in a press release. “These students’ accomplishments are true game-changers for them and their families.”

After being endorsed, a program is expected to continue to develop its early college opportunities. Endorsements are reviewed every three years.