Arcadia High School (AHS) has a variety of Advanced Placement (AP) courses available. From AP Human Geography to AP Art History, students take many AP classes. But is that the only option? 

At many other high schools, including Duarte High School and Monrovia High School, there is the option of dual enrollment. Dual enrollment is a program that is designed to fulfill high school graduation requirements while simultaneously earning college credits for a diploma, certificate, or college degree. Dual enrollment—also called Early College—offers the benefits of getting college credit without having to take an exam at the end of the year, as AP classes do if you want college credit. Many students in dual enrollment are already on track to earn their associates degree by the time they finish high school.

 So why doesn’t AHS have dual enrollment? When speaking to assistant principal Samantha Jung, she provided a lot of information.

“Other schools or districts, if they have multiple schools, usually have each school focus on separate things. For example, one high school might focus on an AP program and another might focus on dual enrollment, but for our school, we only have one high school, and so our focus has really just been AP classes,” said Ms. Jung. “It’s a program that seems to have been really working, so we haven’t really seen a need for other programs.”

Early College students are also exempt from having to pay for registration, tuition, books and other fees. AP classes are free unless you choose to take the AP exam for college credit, in which case it costs money. At AHS, each exam costs $120, which is more than what dual enrollment would cost. 

But if money is an issue, AHS has a solution.

“Students identified through the district already get a discount when they’re taking the AP exams, so if you are to get a discount, the AP exam would be $53. And then for special circumstances, we have a form that students fill out to be able to kind of share with us the situation that they’re going through, and then we’re able to take a look at that and then give them a further discount. And that’s more case by case. So it’s not a set amount but varies based on your situation,” said Mrs. Jung. 

Along with dual enrollment there is also the International Baccalaureate (IB) program as an alternative to AP classes. An IB program is an internationally recognized curriculum that offers a comprehensive diploma program and individual courses. Unlike AP classes, which focus more on specific subjects, IB programs emphasize on courses that teach critical thinking and on more global perspectives. 

For IB classes, the college credit you can get varies, something that Mrs. Jung pointed out, saying, “There’s a wider pool of transference because AP test scores are something that is really widely recognized by many colleges who may not accept the credit score for IB programs or dual enrollment.”

This is especially true since sometimes you’ll only get college credit for a full IB diploma or for exam scores, not just for the classes in general. For high schoolers, students can get an IB diploma or join a career-related program. The IB’s Diploma Programme is recognized by the world’s leading universities, and evidence suggests that higher rates of DP students go on to university than regular students. To get an IB degree you must take a pre-university curriculum, which is made up of six subject groups and a core class that teaches the theory of knowledge, creativity, activity, service, and extended essays. To get a diploma you must take a test and pay an amount similar or higher to the AP exams. 

With IB programs, there’s also a career related programme that requires students to take at least two IB Diploma courses as a career related study. This prepares them to follow their career plans while combining academic classes with their own professional interests. Similar to this program, AHS has Career and Technical Education (CTE), something that provides more freedom than an IB programme. 

Mrs. Jung explained that “CTE classes help students move towards a career. For example, sports medicine. Even if you don’t specifically want to be in sports medicine, if you’re looking to be a doctor or something this will give you a lot of experience as well.”

There are various subjects for CTE classes, including, dance, culinary and food science, engineering, computer science, programming, animation, video production, medical courses, graphic design, business management, work and readiness, and stagecraft.  

Although there are other options besides AP classes, AHS will continue to focus on providing and making sure that our AP and CTE courses are the best they can be. 

Dual enrollment isn’t completely ruled out though, as Mrs. Jung stated that they “definitely aren’t against dual enrollment, but it would take a lot of work. For dual enrollment we would require a teacher who has a master’s in the field they’re teaching, a connection with a community college, and other stuff. It’s not something that could happen overnight, and we’re focused on AP testing and CTE classes right now.”

The IB program doesn’t seem to be as likely since AHS already provides classes that are similar, but dual enrollment is something that AHS could possibly consider looking into for the future, as it provides the opportunity for students to take unique college courses.