Mondovi receives Partnership Award from CVTC for participation in dual credit program

by Beth Kraft

For Mondovi students looking to get a head-start on a college degree while still in high school, a dual credit program is growing in popularity.

This year 149 students were enrolled in eight classes at Mondovi High School that will allow them to receive direct credit on their transcripts when they continue their education at Chippewa Valley Technical College. 

The new initiative, known as CVTC’s Dual Credit Program, is a great way for high school students to save time and money on a college education after they graduate from high school.

For its outstanding participation and cooperation in the program, Mondovi High School was one of four schools recently honored by CVTC with the Partnership Award.

The Bloomer, Cadott and Chippewa Falls high schools also received the award.

Mondovi School District Administrator Cheryl Gullicksrud said the high school currently has 11 transcripted credit classes that are already in place or in the process of being approved.

Some of the transcripted credit classes Mondovi offers are in technology education, business education, FACS, physics and agriculture, to name a few.

“Those teachers have to put quite a bit of time in,” Gullicksrud said of Mondovi staff members, who work with CVTC instructors to make sure their curriculum aligns in order for students to earn college credits.

A great deal of back-and-forth communication between teachers at Mondovi and CVTC takes place, Gullicksrud said.

According to Amy Mangin, who works out the agreements between CVTC and high schools participating in the dual credit program, there must be a “one-hundred percent competency match” between what is expected of a CVTC student and what is expected of a high school student.

The transcripted credit program began to take shape at Mondovi a few years ago. One class enrolled 12 students in 2012-13, and the 2013-14 school year saw 25 students enrolled in two dual credit classes.

High school students earn full credit directly through CVTC just as if the student took the class at the college. The credits are then transferable to other colleges, such as UW-Eau Claire, UW-River Falls and UW-Stout, with whom CVTC has agreements. Dual credit classes differ from advanced placement (AP) courses in that students do not have to pass a test or meet a certain grade level to qualify for the credits.

“We are looking for ways to create pathways from high school to CVTC,” explained Margo Keys, Vice President of Student Services at CVTC.

“It’s part of the lifelong learning and career pathway initiative going on in technical colleges and in education as a whole,” commented Mangin.

Mondovi High School teachers Ann Fath, Dave Fath, Kristel Tavare, Courtney Deetz and Shay Lehman were approved to teach dual credit classes during this past school year.

CVTC is in the process of looking into adding dual credit classes in early childhood education with Tavare and in horticulture and animal science with new ag teacher Darin Gray.

During the 2014-15 school year, CVTC had dual credit agreements with 33 high schools involving 93 teachers—an increase from 30 schools and 70 teachers involved in the program the previous year.