Dual enrolled students leap ahead

At the age of 15, when many girls' most pressing concern was what they were going to do Friday night, Tiffany Weaver was starting her first semester of college.
Weaver, although young, is not alone.
Last school year 1,750 FCCJ students were participating in the dual enrollment program and were attending both college and high school at the same time.
Now 18, Weaver is currently finishing up her studies at FCCJ and is looking forward to attending either FSU or Palm Beach Atlantic University for pharmaceutical science.
According to FCCJ's website, dual enrollment is a program that "enables high school students to simultaneously earn both high school and college credits for a single course."
"These students tend to be high level students," said Monica Murr, the college-wide dual enrollment manager. "They are already successful when they enter, since they have to have at least a 3.0 GPA, as well as successfully pass entrance exams, whereas a traditional student has different requirements."
To be eligible for the dual enrollment program at FCCJ, students must attend a high school that has an articulation agreement with FCCJ. All Duval and Nassau County public schools have this, as well as many private and home schools. Also, the student must be a junior or senior, have a designated GPA, and place at a certain level on an assessment test.
In the 2007-08 school year FCCJ had 1,752 total dual enrolled students who enrolled in 5,986 different classes.
Those courses totaled 16,891 credit hours.
Ninety percent of those courses were passed with a grade of at least a C.
"Most of the kids who come to me about dual enrollment heard about it by ear from some other students in their schools," said Ann Karnes, the dual enrollment coordinator at South Campus. "Increased awareness would be better."DUAL ENROLLMENT STATS

Duval County

Participant schools: 21
Student participants: 1,079
Courses passed w/ grade of C or better: 91%

Home Schools

Participant schools: 91
Student participants: 95
Courses passed w/ grade of C or better: 97%

Nassau County

Participant schools: 5
Student participants: 160
Courses passed w/ grade of C or better: 93%

Private Schools

Participant schools: 29
Student participants: 256
Courses passed w/ grade of C or better: 92%