The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) and Indiana Commission for Higher Education (ICHE) have awarded Indiana University three grants that will allow the university to continue its work preparing high school educators to teach in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects.
Starting in 2022, the Higher Learning Commission, a regional post-secondary accrediting agency, will require all dual-credit instructors to possess a master’s degree and at least 18 credit hours in the subject they teach. As a result of this change, there was a need to help teachers meet these requirements. The grants, two from ICHE to support the Advance College Project (ACP) Teacher Pipeline and IU Southeast’s Growing Tomorrow’s Teachers program, and one from IDOE, enable dual-credit teachers to receive scholarships for graduate courses at Indiana University.
The partnerships between IU and the ICHE and IDOE began in 2017 and, according to a participant survey conducted by Sondhi Solutions on behalf of IU:
- 94 percent agree or strongly agree that the online format of these courses improves their ability to take them;
- 88 percent agree or strongly agree that the online format of these courses improves their ability to be successful in them;
- 87 percent agree or strongly agree that the course(s) have added to their knowledge of the dual-credit subject(s) they teach; and
- 84 percent agree or strongly agree that they will be able to apply the knowledge they’ve gained to their dual-credit teaching.
“We are very grateful to IDOE and ICHE for their support and are very pleased that we will be able to continue our work throughout the state of Indiana both to help educators develop professionally and advance the dual credit program for high school students,” said ACP program director Mike Beam.
Currently, there are 1000 certified ACP instructors serving more than 25,000 students across four states.
Advance College Project, a program of the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, is nationally recognized for dual-credit delivery in high schools across Indiana. It is a dual-enrollment partnership between Indiana University and more than 1000 teachers in high schools throughout Indiana and surrounding states. IU courses taught through the Advance College Project program provide both high school and college credits (known as concurrent or dual enrollment) and allow students to fulfill high school graduation requirements as well as start building credits toward their college careers.
For more information about ACP, please contact program director Pat Cannon at pcannon@indiana.edu.