Wright State wins $700,000 grant to help high school teachers earn credentials to teach college courses

A state grant of more than $700,000 will enable Wright State University to help high school teachers qualify to teach college courses in high school.

The $702,820 grant is part of $10 million in funding allocated by the Ohio General Assembly as part of the Straight A Fund.

The grant is for a partnership with Clark State University and about 30 high schools to support their teachers getting credentials from Wright State to teach college courses at their high schools.

It will create nearly $500,000 in scholarships for the teachers — in which Wright State will add $162,000 — to reach a goal of 60 teachers completing their credentials.

“With this grant, more students will be able to take college courses without leaving their high schools,” said State Superintendent Richard A. Ross. “That allows students to get a jump on their college education in a learning environment that is already familiar to them.”

Prior to the grant proposal, Wright State had identified four credential programs for high school teachers — History, Composition and Rhetoric, Mathematics and Statistics, and Earth and Environmental Sciences.

The grant will fund the development of a new online/hybrid course for History as well as Composition and Rhetoric that will introduce the teachers to college teaching of the liberal arts. The grant will also create a course for Mathematics and Statistics that sets the foundation for teaching calculus.

The grant will also create two additional credential programs — Music and Physics. Online versions of the programs’ graduate courses will be made more accessible to the teachers, and the physics courses will be revised to ease transition.

The $10 million in funding, made jointly by the Ohio Department of Education and Ohio Department of Higher Education, earmark $5 million to universities to develop programs and offer free or reduced-cost courses to teachers. The remaining $5 million enables colleges, universities and high schools to identify and support teachers as they obtain the qualifications to teach post-secondary courses.

“Providing this funding for teacher credentialing will ultimately allow more students to take advantage of College Credit Plus, which is great news for students and families looking to save potentially thousands on the cost of a college education,” said Ohio Department of Higher Education Chancellor John Carey. “And having more teachers in our high schools with these qualifications helps secure a strong future for the College Credit Plus program.”

College Credit Plus gives eligible students the opportunity to earn college credit from any Ohio public college or university, or participating private college or university, while simultaneously earning high school credit for the same class. Students taking College Credit Plus courses from a public college or university have no costs for tuition, books or fees.