Over 300 students from across the Pulaski County School District (PCSSD) this year are getting a head start on their continued education. District-wide events this week began with students at Joe T. Robinson High School on Thursday morning.
Arkansas State University (A-State) is the new concurrent enrollment partner of PCSSD, offering up to 90 free college credit hours that count toward high school graduation and a college degree.
Each semester, a student can take up to 15 tuition-free credit hours. The courses on offer are all at the college freshman or sophomore level, and they are taught by both high school teachers and A-State online faculty.
Alex Dunn, A State Director of College Programs, launched the program Thursday and Friday this week, meeting with 315 students at five PCSSD schools. She said freshmen are now included in this initiative for the first time.
Participating PCSSD schools include Maumelle High (70 students), Mills High (20 students), Robinson High (80 students), Sylvan Hills High (125 students), and Sylvan Hills Junior High (20 students).
All students must have a minimum ACT reading score of 19 or equivalent and a 2.75 high school grade point average for admission to the program.
Classes span multiple departments in the Fall semester, including history, English, math, biology, psychology, and statistics. Click here for a list of currently available classes.
"They are able to just push that and transfer that into any university they are choosing," Dunn said.
Eleventh-grader Avery Head, a student at Joe T. Robinson High School, is in her third semester of taking dual enrollment classes.
"It is really good because I can see some of how the courses work and how hard they are," she said.
A parental consent form is necessary to take A State concurrent enrollment. For more information on the program, visit this link.
"Definitely do it, and then make sure that you use all of your resources to figure everything out," Head advised.