DMPS Offers Most, Best Choices for Students
Des Moines Public Schools is not a one-right-answer district. It’s an all-of-the-above district.
In today’s Des Moines Register, Advanced Placement Coordinator Amber Graeber and Career & Technical Education Curriculum Coordinator Connie Sievers respond to a recent article in the newspaper that failed to tell the full story about options available to students who are seeking advanced coursework.
Click here to see a copy of the editorial.
Below is the text of their guest editorial, as submitted, discussing the array and benefits of advanced coursework available at Des Moines Public Schools. Coursework that makes Des Moines Public Schools a district of choice.
DES MOINES SCHOOLS OFFER DIVERSE OPTIONS FOR LEARNERS
Des Moines Public Schools is committed to believe in every child and, no matter their circumstance, will support them in achieving their potential and realizing their dreams. In our work to ensure that students are college and career ready, we offer many different pathways to meet student needs.
A balanced package of college and career options is needed in schools and we offer that at DMPS. Unfortunately, the Register’s editorial “Concurrent enrollment cuts college costs in Iowa” provided a misleading view of the different options for students.
For example, the Register said “parents and students should understand that AP courses do not necessarily result in college credit.” The same is true of concurrent enrollment courses. Students must earn a passing grade in a concurrent enrollment course in order to earn college credit through a partnering community college. The student receives a transcript from the community college showing credits earned through concurrent enrollment. This credit may or may not be applied to a student’s college transcript depending on the receiving institution.
In many Career and Technical programs, concurrent credits transferred into the community college results in one year towards the associate’s degree in that Program of Study. Last year, DMPS Career and Technical students earned a total of 11,626 concurrent credits from DMACC alone. If a student does decide to transfer to a four year institution, the credits earned at DMACC may transfer as elective credits. DMACC’s partnership with in-state institutions provides a great opportunity for students and families to learn about credit transfers through DMACC’s articulation agreements with Iowa colleges and universities (https://go.dmacc.edu/advising/pages/courseguide.aspx).
The Register failed to share that similar information is also available for families regarding Advanced Placement programs. Credit earned with a passing score of a 3, 4 or 5 on an Advanced Placement exam is accepted by over 94% of colleges and universities across the country and families can search by college or university to see credit policies (https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/creditandplacement).
The Register went on to discuss the “the cost of AP courses to students’ families and taxpayers.” This is misleading and inaccurate. There is no cost to take an AP course for students’ families. The cost to take an AP exam does fall on the individual student or family, not taxpayers or individual school districts. However, private grants such as the Prairie Meadows Community Betterment Grant have supported students who qualify by covering the exam costs not already covered by a College Board waiver and financial support from the Iowa Department of Education.
The Register argues the cost of AP is too much for families and taxpayers but then later celebrates concurrent enrollment as the better option because “[t]he state allocates tens of millions of dollars to fund this opportunity.” It left out the fact that this money comes taxpayers.
The Advanced Placement program is one where school districts can provide equitable access. Teachers attend a four-day summer training to teach a specific AP course. Student access to concurrent enrollment is based on the availability of a certified instructor. Concurrent instructor qualifications are extremely different for each program area. In academic areas a certified instructor might be required to have a minimum of 12 graduate credit hours in the specific field (i.e. 12 graduate hours in economics to teach concurrent enrollment economics).In Career and Technical programs, certified instructors are required to have work experience; usually between 6,000-8,000 hours in the field. Not surprisingly, these individuals can be hard to find. For this reason, opportunities to take concurrent enrollment courses vary greatly by school and by academic year as teachers move, change positions or teach new courses.
Despite the challenges of finding enough certified instructors in every course, Des Moines boasts an outstanding array of concurrent enrollment opportunities in many comprehensive schools, especially through one-of-a-kind programming at Central Campus. Areas of instruction include business education, world language, mathematics, automotive technology, animal sciences, computer science, culinary arts, English/language arts, health sciences and home-building.
The bottom line is that our task as a school district is to provide many options to support our diverse learners in becoming college and career ready. We make that happen by providing programs such as Advanced Placement, concurrent enrollment, and International Baccalaureate to offer high levels of learning and rigorous coursework that prepares our students.
Families deserve options and accurate information about them. This isn’t a battle between programs. It is an opportunity for students to choose the best fit. Our students choose to take AP and IB courses. Our students choose to take concurrent enrollment courses. We offer them choices and then we support them. DMPS is not a one-right-answer district. It’s an all of the above.
