Ridgewood High School is proud to offer its students the opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school. Students can enroll in either dual credit or dual enrollment courses during their high school career.
The Dual Credit program allows our high school students the opportunity to satisfy high school graduation requirements while simultaneously earning college credit. District 234 currently has agreements with Loyola University, Northeastern Illinois University and Triton College. High school instructors and college adjunct faculty deliver college level course content within the walls of RHS.
Dual Enrollment means that students take a course at one of the colleges or universities previously mentioned. They can then receive credit for the course on their high school and college transcripts. We have partnerships right now with NEIU & Triton for Dual Enrollment courses. Ridgewood has maintained dual-credit partnerships for the past 20 years.
Assistant Principal, Gina Castellano shared more information about our students earning college credit at RHS.
“I think this program is absolutely awesome! Currently all of our freshman earn Dual Credit in Mobile Makers and PLTW, which means our freshman already have college credit. We are working very hard to get students more and more college credit in high school, so that they can graduate with not only an RHS diploma, but possibly an associate’s degree. There is more work to be done, but we are definitely on our way,” said Castellano. “I think the more we get the word out to families and students, the better. It is an unbelievable opportunity and gives students a way to really get ahead
The work our students are doing with dual credit ties right back into what our students are doing at RHS. We want our students to explore fields of study that will help them choose a career for life after Ridgewood. Dual Credit provides them an opportunity to not only get a head start on college, but to explore courses not currently available at RHS.
It also allows our students to earn certifications before they even leave high school. Our students taking the CNA course at Triton (which is a one semester course) allows them to start working in the healthcare field immediately and earning a great income. Starting out, some hospitals and centers are currently paying up to $18/hour. Students who are wanting to apply to medical school will need 1,000 hours of paid experience in the medical field in order to get in. Taking this Dual Enrollment course allows them to start working in healthcare and clocking those hours for medical school.
Currently, we have students in a Triton Criminal Justice Cohort. This means they spend part time at Triton and part time at RHS. They take 3 CJA courses each semester at Triton and students come out earning a Criminal Justice Administration Law Enforcement Certificate.
We have another group of students working with our teachers and NEIU faculty in their education program. Students who aspire to have careers in teaching are invited to explore this three-semester Education Experience. Through our collaboration with NEIU, these students will complete 20 hours of classroom observation hours ordinarily required as part of the pre-student teaching program in college. By completing these observation hours while still enrolled in high school, our Education Experience students will have an advantage over other college Education majors. The observation hours can be applied if students subsequently enroll at NEIU or may be transferable to the college of their choosing. They also take multiple courses over at NEIU including Ed Psych and School as a Social Institution.
For Dual Enrollment, there are too many course possibilities to list! nce the university or college gives our students the “OK “to take the course with them, they can start taking college level courses and earn both high school and college credit. Currently, RHS administration members are working on the possibility of offering Dual Enrollment courses in the summer to give students more access.This list will expand in the next month or two since we are adding to the Dual Credit program through Loyola.
The following RHS courses earn a student Dual Credit:
| Ridgewood Course Name |
Post-Secondary Institution |
Post-Secondary Course Name
|
| Honors Biology |
Triton College |
Principles of Biology 1 |
| Marketing |
Triton College |
Sales Force Management |
| Business Incubator |
Triton College |
Entrepreneurship |
| Introduction to Business |
Triton College |
Introduction to Customer Service |
| Mobile Makers |
Triton College |
IOS Applications Development |
| Introduction to Computer Programming |
Triton College |
Computer Science 101 |
| PLTW |
Triton College |
Engineer Design Graphics/CAD Autodesk Invent Design & Rend
|
| AP Italian |
Triton College |
Elementary Italian I & II |
| AP Italian |
Loyola University |
Italian 101, 102 |
|
Honors Pre-Calculus
|
Triton College |
College Algebra Elementary Statistics
|
| AP Language |
Triton College |
Freshman Rhetoric & Comp I & II |
| AP Spanish |
Triton College |
Elementary Spanish I & II |
| AP Spanish |
Loyola University |
Spanish 101, 102 |
| Physical Education 1-4 |
Triton College |
PED 106: Total Fitness |
| School as a Social Institution |
NEIU |
EDFN 215 School as a Social Institution |
| English 4 Honors |
Loyola |
Interpreting Literature |