Illinois Working to Increase Dual Credit Opportunities for Students

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Published on October 24 2019 10:16 am
Last Updated on October 24 2019 10:16 am

The Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE), Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), and the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) say that qualified high school dual credit teachers may now request an endorsement on the Professional Educator License for teaching dual credit courses. The availability of this endorsement will help meet the growing demand for dual credit teachers as more and more students seek to earn college credit while in high school.

Dual credit is an instructional arrangement in which an academically qualified high school student enrolls in a college-level course, and upon successful course completion, concurrently earns both college credit and high school credit. IBHE, ICCB, and ISBE collaborated to create the new endorsement for nine content-specific disciplines: English composition, English literature, general math, statistics, calculus, speech, history, biology, and psychology.

Participation in dual credit is growing in Illinois. Students in the 10th through 12th grades took more than 165,000 dual credit courses from 2016 to 2018. Enrollment grew by more than 3,000 courses between the 2016-17 and 2017-18 school years. ISBE anticipates seeing another record increase when 2019 data is released Oct. 30.

A teacher must meet the faculty credential standards set by the Higher Learning Commission, IBHE, and ICCB to receive the endorsement. These standards require the teacher to complete a master’s degree within the discipline or any master’s degree with 18 graduate credit hours of coursework within the discipline being taught. The partner college or university offering the dual credit course will evaluate those teachers applying for the endorsement to determine eligibility. The Dual Credit Quality Act requires all public community colleges and universities that engage in dual credit to honor the endorsement.

Teachers interested in applying for the endorsement can learn more at www.isbe.net/Pages/Dual-Credit-Endorsements.aspx.