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Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is partnering with the St. Clair and Madison County Regional Offices of Education (ROE) to introduce a Dual Credit Educators Preparation Program (DCEPP). The goal is to grow the number of dual credit-qualified teachers in Illinois by providing resources to support their ability to take the requisite graduate-level coursework. Helping teachers become qualified to teach dual credit courses then helps students have access to more college level course work during high school.

SIUE will make grant funding available on a competitive basis to any high school teachers in the St. Clair and Madison County ROEs with preference given to teachers from high-need local educational agencies (LEA). The awards will cover tuition and fees, plus a stipend. After the grant funds are fully expended, courses will remain open to additional enrollees paying tuition and fees up to course capacity. 

“This grant program can make a significant impact, because St. Clair and Madison Counties have multiple districts considered high needs,” said Mary Ettling, interim director of the SIUE Office of Educational Outreach. “Poverty rates are high, while drop-out rates, chronic truancy rates and mobility rates are all above the state averages. Another area of concern is the number of high school teachers teaching out of endorsement area in our smaller, rural districts. Increasing access to dual credit courses is especially important in these areas.

“There are situations where teachers are not teaching in the academic subjects or grade levels for which they were trained, and other incidences where a large number of teachers have emergency, provisional, or temporary certification or licensing.”

The SIUE College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), home of secondary education programs and primary location of the necessary graduate course work in content areas such as English, mathematics, history, biology, chemistry, communications, geography and environmental sciences, is providing courses in these areas in multiple formats to be available during the summer term.

The Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) has awarded grants totaling $2 million to SIUE, Southern Illinois University Carbondale and Northeastern Illinois University. The funds are from the final round of higher education grants from the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Improving Teacher Quality grant program.

More information is available at siue.edu/dual-credit/index.shtml.

Photo:  Mary Ettling, interim director of the SIUE Office of Educational Outreach.