By Tyah Davis
On the first day of school, the students who had enrolled in Biology II Honors received some news they didn’t expect.
“This will be a Dual Enrollment class,” stated Courtney Norton, the Biology teacher.
Hearing of this news, some students decided to switch out of the class, but others decided to stay.
The Biology II Honors class is associated with Louisiana State University of Eunice Biology 1001 course. At least 300 other Louisiana high school students are also enrolled in the program in order to have the chance to earn at least three college hours per semester. They will also have a science elective on their transcript.
By the class being a college course, students already had certain expectations.
“It comes with a lot of studying. I’ve been in dual enrollment classes before but this is different from any other I’ve had,” stated Payton Stevens, a student enrolled into the Biology 1001 course. “This is a good class overall. It’s definitely an eye opener for me to expect how college will be.”
This Dual Enrollment course has also changed Norton’s perspective as well.
“I was able to have access to the teaching materials but not any of the professor’s test questions. This has made it really difficult to know what she expects from our students.” Norton continued, “Not having the test materials or access to the grades is a disconnect between teachers and students which can also keep the course from proceeding like a normal college course.”
Yet with these difficulties both Norton and her students overcame the challenges of the course. Sixty of The Swamp’s students decided to stay enrolled until the end of the fall semester.