PdCHS provides variety of courses for college credit

By Correne Martin

Prairie du Chien High School had 194 students enrolled in transcripted credit courses through Southwest Tech for the first semester of the 2016-2017 academic year. Those students earned 875 college credits, saving themselves a total of $123,882.25 and gaining valuable time spent taking those courses at a two- or four-year post-secondary institution.

Transcripted credit courses are technical college courses taught at the high school, by a high school instructor certified as a technical college instructor, using technical college books and materials. Credits are earned for both high school and technical college simultaneously and earned at no cost to the student, according to Southwest Tech’s credit transfer options report. They are also transferable to all schools within the technical college system and may be transferable to four-year colleges. The grade received in the class is what appears on the student’s college transcript.

Prairie du Chien High School currently offers 25 transcripted credit classes to mostly juniors and seniors, but some underclassmen too. Classes are in six different academic areas: business education, English, math, social science, science and agriculture. Instruction, lab work and exams are all done at the high school. No travel to Southwest Tech is necessary.

Though transcripted credit has been around for about 15 years, according to Mary Johannesen, Southwest Tech career prep and youth options specialist, it has only become a popular high school opportunity within the last five years.
“Basically, it’s free college credit. There is no catch,” Prairie du Chien Dean of Students Karen Sjoberg said.

Students don’t pay anything for the credits and, in the end, the high school doesn’t either. Johannesen said, what happens is, Southwest Tech bills the high school for the cost of tuition and, then, the high school bills Southwest Tech for the cost of the instructor.

“A lot of parents are skeptical but I don’t know if they realize how much of a win-win this is for their child and the impact these classes can have for them,” Johannesen shared. “It puts all students on a level playing field. They can earn college credit while simply satisfying their high school credits and, then, if they weren’t considering college, they might decide to consider it. And, it gives them a head start once they get there.”

A majority of the schools in the Crawford County area have transcripted credit options through Southwest Tech. Prairie du Chien is also working with Upper Iowa University at this time to explore options through there as well.

“We’ve worked really hard and our teachers have worked really hard to provide such a great amount of these classes. We’re certainly unique in that we have so many,” Sjoberg added.

The next closest school in Southwest Tech’s district, in terms of offerings, is Lancaster. The credit transfer options report shows it has eight such courses available to its high schoolers. Fennimore has a total of 14 college credit classes—half transcripted and the other half advanced standing classes (must attend a related Southwest Tech program).

“Our teachers sit in with the Southwest Tech staff to look at the materials they need to teach,” Sjoberg said. “We purchase the same books (that are used in the college course) and are following the same syllabus.”

“The students are expected to meet the rigor and all the competencies of our courses,” Johannesen explained. However, the nice thing about the program is that if students aren’t maintaining a “C” average or better in the class, staff works with them to withdraw from it by the designated drop date, which is as far as 80 percent into the course.

“We don’t want them to get to college and have a “D” or “F” on their transcript forever,” Sjoberg said.

The present school year has seen many more students taking advantage of transcripted credit. Last year, 44 students took 135 credits and saved nearly $19,000. The year before, 28 students enrolled in such classes and attained 54 credits for a savings of about $7,500.

Sjoberg pointed out there have been a number of Prairie du Chien students who’ve stepped onto a college campus as freshmen with credits already on their transcript. In fact, this year, a 2016 PdC graduate who worked extra hard in Advanced Placement classes too entered college at UW-Platteville with 33 credits.

“That’s a whole year that won’t have to be paid [by that student],” Johannesen said.

“Our goal is that, someday, we’ll have students who have associate’s degrees at the same time as their high school diplomas,” Sjoberg said.

“We want to show our students and their parents just how important their junior and senior years are,” Principal Andy Banasik commented.

“Prairie du Chien High School has really jumped on board and looked at different ways they can offer these types of courses to provide the most benefit to the most students,” Johannesen stated. “They’re the only high school we’re working with for our anatomy and physiology course as well as our criminal justice course.”

Local police teach criminal justice class
Southwest Tech received a grant, for the 2016-2017 academic year, to offer area high schools an “Intro to Criminal Justice” class for their juniors and seniors at a low cost to the college of just $100, versus the typical $540 for a three-credit course. Prairie du Chien High School was the only one within the college’s district that chose to participate.

In the first semester, 17 students enrolled. Now, in the second semester, nine students are enrolled.

Prairie du Chien Police Chief Chad Abram is a certified Southwest Tech instructor and agreed to partner with the college and the high school to teach the morning class. Additionally, Tara Henry and Ashley Erickson are certified and fill in as needed.

“I love teaching; it’s another passion of mine,” Abram said. “[The department enjoys] having that working relationship with the school and the kids. It’s first hour, so I’m back at work by 8:45 and Southwest Tech is paying me, not the city.”

Plus, from Abram’s perspective, this is a good way to get into the school and meet with students who might be interested in working for him on the local police force someday. During the first semester, in fact, a couple of seniors showed significant interest in entering the criminal justice field.

Having a police officer as an instructor also shows the students and staff that there’s more behind the badge than what they see on television.

“Just that daily presence (of law enforcement) in the classroom makes it more commonplace, like the officers aren’t just here because someone’s in trouble,” Sjoberg added.

One of Abram’s first-semester students, Ethan Swiggum recognizes, like his peers have, that these officers are just normal people trying to get home to their families safely every night.

“The media definitely portrays police officers as being mostly involved in shootings, but the cops are really here to help us. They’re good people,” stated Katie Zahara, a first-semester classmate.

Helping people is exactly why both Swiggum and Zahara, as well as their second-semester counterparts, senior Joshua Cavanaugh and junior Cheyenne Murawski, enrolled in the criminal justice class.
“With the proper training, I think I could become an officer,” Cavanaugh shared.

Murawski was a little more leery of the dangers that come along with the profession, but she said that part of society and what’s happening in the world is also what intrigues her.

For Zahara, policing in general and learning about the court system were the attention-holding portions of the class. “We got to go to some hearings, we toured the jail,” she said.

Swiggum also noted that the class got to see inside a cop car and listen to local guest speakers from probation and parole as well as the prison system too.

Depending on the demand for the criminal justice class (and the continuation of the grant), Prairie du Chien High School hopes to continue offering it to its students.

Sjoberg said: “We have some busy kids trying to take advantage of some great opportunities, and we’re very happy to do what we can to help them succeed.”