Austin Community College (ACC) is considering several proposals to provide better support for high school students enrolled in dual credit courses. The college is seeking feedback from faculty and staff.

Dual credit students comprise 18 percent of the college's credit student enrollment, with approximately 8,000 students from more than 100 high schools in more than 20 school districts.

"Dual credit in an excellent means of providing affordable and equitable access to higher education for historically underserved student populations and it continues to grow at ACC," says Dr. Charles Cook, ACC provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. "We meet regularly with superintendents to brainstorm ways to improve the programs and we have come up with several recommendations to help solve some of the issues students have faced."

Employees have until February 2, 2020, to review and comment on three proposals:

1. Create a Dual Credit Advisory Committee: This committee will host representatives from all of the internal constituent groups, as well as representatives from the independent school districts, to continuously review guidelines and practices and make recommendations for improvement.
2. Create a Liberal Arts Associate Dean Position: This individual will review and troubleshoot dual credit challenges and facilitate solutions that benefit students, faculty, department chairs, and staff at both the college and high school levels.
3. Implement a pilot year (2020-2021): All dual credit faculty will be required to use Blackboard for two basic functions: to post course syllabi and record student grades. The change is intended to empower and encourage students to take ownership of their academic progress, communicate with faculty and advisors in a timely manner, and seek available help/tutoring as needed. During the pilot year, the college will collect and analyze data regarding student performance and student withdrawals/failures. Extensive opportunities will be made available for faculty development in spring 2020 to prepare dual credit faculty for these tasks starting in fall 2020.