Amplified: The Chesapeake Public Schools Podcast
At Chesapeake Public Schools, we are dedicated to providing a world-class education that empowers every student to reach their full potential and discover their life's purpose. "Amplified: The Chesapeake Public Schools Podcast" is the official podcast of the Chesapeake Public School System, where we aim to share the stories behind our story, celebrate the spirit of learning, and connect our community through the power of audio.
Join us on this exciting podcasting journey as we delve into the heart of Chesapeake Public Schools where we will showcase the stories of students, teachers, parents, and community members who contribute to the success of our school district.
Through engaging interviews, thought-provoking discussions, and informative episodes, we will explore a wide range of topics related to education, innovation, and personal development. We will also keep you informed about upcoming events, initiatives, and opportunities within our school system.
We invite all parents, teachers, students, alumni, and community members to become part of this amazing venture. Your support, engagement, and feedback will be invaluable in shaping future episodes and ensuring that we continue to fulfill our mission of educational excellence.
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Amplified: The Chesapeake Public Schools Podcast
The Benefits of Dual Enrollment
🎙🎧 In this episode, Christine Sperelakis-Babb, Coordinator of College Readiness from Chesapeake Public Schools, and Holly Desteli of Tidewater Community College guide us through a better understanding of the dual enrollment program in Chesapeake Public Schools. They share how dual enrollment not only accelerates academic achievement but also paints a clearer path for students stepping into higher education. Make sure to listen today as they take us through the benefits of dual enrollment, from earning college credits to gaining a head start on career-focused certificates. 🎓 #InspireCPS
Welcome to Amplify the Chesapeake Public Schools podcast.
Speaker 2:Chesapeake Schools is located in the Hampton Roads area of southeastern Virginia. We serve 40,000 students in 45 schools and three centers. This podcast is designed to tell the stories behind our story and to introduce and celebrate the people and programs that make us one of the premier school districts in Virginia.
Speaker 1:Hey Richie, how's it going?
Speaker 2:Good man, good, I'm actually making it through the winter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, because last time we spoke you weren't kind of feeling well, I don't think anybody likes how the weather goes up and down.
Speaker 2:Right, well, I do like it going up, I mean, we had a couple of days it was 80. Yeah, I know so that gave me hope.
Speaker 1:I turned the AC on Hope Springs Eternal.
Speaker 2:You turned the AC on right. I opened my windows. Yeah, yeah, it was not in.
Speaker 1:January yeah, I know, you know. One thing that's good is we get to go do some winter sports, like I went skiing with our family.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we took the family skiing and it was definitely funny. Yeah, because I learned. Actually, I'd never heard this before because I don't ski, why not? I don't like it and so but I learned about French fries and pizza Just from that story, I think.
Speaker 1:I could ski. I think you could. I mean, it was definitely a scary moment in my life. We took Leanna up and she did like a couple of classes, not like a professional class.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:We took a little class with us and then we were like you know what, let's just get on the slope. So we went, we took her and I am halfway kind of down the slopes of the mountain and my wife is kind of holding her and helping her go down. We're on the buddy slopes.
Speaker 3:I mean this is not steep at all, right Right.
Speaker 1:So she kind of lets her loose and she's like Matt, you got to stop because she's coming your way, and so she's going full on, skis forward, and that's what we call French fries French fries.
Speaker 3:French fries and.
Speaker 2:I'm yelling at her going pizza, pizza, so like the tell me what do you think the other people on the slopes? Thought they said they don't deliver out here. I know right, they were probably like watch out.
Speaker 1:Dad, you're going to get run over, which happens, right yeah, right yeah. But anyways, how about this a second February episode? I know we got a lot going on we do we do.
Speaker 2:I mean, we'll get into this, but we talked about CTE month in our last episode, but also in that division of college and career readiness we talked about career readiness. We're going to talk about college readiness today and some of the dual enrollment opportunities available to people. So it's a bonus episode. February is a short month and you get two episodes. Who does that for you? We do, we do.
Speaker 1:All right, here we are with Christine Spurlakis-Babb, who's the coordinator of college readiness with Chesapeake Public Schools, and we also, on the phone, have Holly Distelli, who is at Tidewater Community College, as the dual enrollment manager for the Chesapeake campus. Right, so we're here and we're in the studio. Actually, Holly is over the phone as we're doing this.
Speaker 2:She's over the phone and you know this has nothing to do with dual enrollment, but we always try to get to know our guests some. Why are you on the phone, holly?
Speaker 4:Hello everybody. Thank you so much for having me today, really appreciate it. I'm on the phone because I'm expecting my second child here very soon, so I'm not able to travel as much these days. So I am kind of working remotely until this baby comes. So I am here at my house and so happy I can join you all this morning over the phone and talk about dual enrollment.
Speaker 2:Fabulous, that's fabulous. Do you know if it's a boy or girl?
Speaker 4:We're having a baby girl.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, all right, you have a name, you have a name, you have a name picked out, yet we do.
Speaker 4:We haven't released the masses yet.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right. Well, this is not the place this is not the place to do it. If you haven't told anybody because of our millions of listeners, then everybody will know. Yeah, that's true, All right, so now, Chris, you have been and you don't have to say how long, but you've been in the school system for quite some time. Tell us a little bit about your background.
Speaker 3:Yes, I have been in the school system for quite a while. I was a teacher at Great Bridge High School, taught science, moved into administration, was once an instructional specialist and now I am the college readiness coordinator for Chesapeake Public Schools. All right.
Speaker 2:I think a good place to start would be what is dual enrollment?
Speaker 3:Great question and dual enrollment are courses that students can take while they're in high school and they earn dual credit. They earn credit for high school towards graduation and they earn college credit from TCC.
Speaker 2:Okay, so obviously there's a benefit for the kids. Holly, what's the benefit to TCC for doing the student enrollment program?
Speaker 4:Well, it's a really great opportunity for us to introduce high school students to these college classes right there at their high school. So it's for us to kind of like educate students on what it's like to be enrolled in college classes. And for some students we try to encourage them to even come to TCC after they finish their high school to finish, maybe, a program with us, if they are just taking dual enrollment courses with us. So for us in the end we sometimes just get more enrollments after high school graduation, which is always a wonderful thing.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, Christine. What grade level are the dual enrollment courses being offered?
Speaker 3:The majority of our dual enrollment courses are for juniors and seniors. We do occasionally have some sophomores enrolled as well. And we have a variety of courses and programs. We have things like advanced cybersecurity, auto body, we have college composition, we have US history, we have physics, so some of our courses are taught at the high school and some of our courses are taught at TCC. We also have things like Western civilization, electricity, just to name a few.
Speaker 2:Wow. So it's the whole gamut from what we would call traditionally academic or regular school classes, but also a number of career readiness. We'll call it courses or trades. Yeah right, Wow.
Speaker 4:We have a really great program set up with Chesapeake Career Center through our career and technical education programs to help students who might not necessarily want to just go on and get a four-year degree after high school but are really interested in getting into a trade and making money as soon as they can graduate from high school. And so we have several opportunities through the Chesapeake Career Center through dual enrollment, where students can get a certification in a specific field and then go on and start working in that field once they finish the certification.
Speaker 4:That's awesome so it's not just about those transfer classes that do go on to a four-year school, but also focusing in on those students who might just want to get some hands-on experience in the classroom and go out and make money.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so how does this work? Does a student have to apply to TCC and be accepted, or can they? Because they're a Chesapeake Public School student, they can just sign up. How does that work?
Speaker 3:All right. So students do schedule for the courses. They do have to apply for the program, they do have to be accepted into TCC, and then they also request these courses through our scheduling and have to meet some minimum requirements.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and basically for those requirements, if a student is looking to take one of our career and technical programs through the Career Center, those students just need to have a minimum GPA of a 2.0 or higher and be accepted into the Chesapeake Career Center to be part of those career technical dual enrollment opportunities.
Speaker 4:Now, for students who are looking to take classes that do transfer on to a four-year college university, such as college composition, US history, Western civilizations, things of that nature, pre-calculus physics, they will need to make sure they have at least a 3.0 GPA to place into that program and then, depending on if it's a math course or not, we would look at different math requirements. If they are trying to get into a course that has either a math placement requirement to it, such as math pre-calculus, or, like physics for example, does have a math prerequisite built into it For the most part, if they don't have the GPA, we can look at standardized test scores such as the PSAT, SAT, ACT, and if students still aren't meeting the measurements in either of those categories, they can always come to TCC and schedule their placement test to take the placement test to place into their course they're trying to get into.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot of ways. It sounds like there's a real effort to work to get kids into the program if they are interested in doing so.
Speaker 4:They're definitely. Yes, we want to make sure we can try to help these students progress in whatever area that they're looking to do post-high school, whether it go into a trades field or to just get a jumpstart on those college credits.
Speaker 1:Right. So if I'm like a junior or senior that's interested in this program, what or who would I need to talk to to get this conversation started to apply?
Speaker 3:First of all, when we start in the high school, during scheduling we schedule for the upcoming school year. Usually in January and February, counselors do presentations. I'll talk about dual enrollment, but if you have questions about dual enrollment you can reach out to myself as a college readiness coordinator, the guidance counselors directly in the building Each high school has a dual enrollment person in their building and then, of course, to Holly at TCC. All of us can help guide students and answer questions.
Speaker 2:Now it's been admittedly a very long time since I was in college, but I do know from my experience that if you're getting, okay, thank you yeah okay, that's not get specific. If you don't get college credit, in my experience, unless you're, you pay for it, unless there's some money involved. So what's the cost for students coming into the student enrollment program?
Speaker 4:So the cost right now for students to participate in dual enrollment to get the dual credit is $45 per credit hour and students directly pay the school For that. They don't pay TCC, so they'll directly pay their school the $45 per credit hour.
Speaker 1:That's relatively cheap.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 4:So then because the TCC tuition just went up. We're like, oh yeah, this is so much better yeah no kidding.
Speaker 2:So it's a money saving thing too for students. Now if they're taken let's say I'm taken, and you count the number of college credits they're getting, not the number of high school credits they're getting right to determine that cost. So if I want to take, say, western civilization, how many credits is that? I mean, is that just one TCC college credit or is it three?
Speaker 4:It's three credits per semester. So dual enrollment Western civilization which we offer at Grassfield High School right now, that is a three credit hour course and we actually have students take it as a year long course. So they're going to get three credits in the fall for Western civilizations one, and then three credits in the spring for Western civilizations two. So a total of six college credits.
Speaker 1:Now and I heard you say that it's offered at Grassfield High School Are there certain things that if it's not offered at one school that you can still get involved in or take, or if you're not at that school?
Speaker 3:We do have some high schools that offer courses, like Deep Creek High School has the physics, and then she mentioned Western civilization at Grassfield, and so if students can't take it at their home school, then they do have the option. Some courses are offered through CVA and then also through virtual Virginia. So they have other opportunities to take the dual enrollment courses.
Speaker 1:Right. So even if it's not offered at this school, they still have the chance to take it.
Speaker 2:So now, obviously a course like electricity. I mean, that's hands on, you got to be there, right? So? But are these other courses? Are there online options for them, like Western Civ or physics or any of those courses?
Speaker 3:Okay, so currently CVA offers college composition and US history dual enrollment and again, when students sign up it all depends on what the students schedule for each year. So if we have enough students sign up for a CVA dual enrollment course, then the course makes we offer it virtually but also virtual. Virginia offers the dual enrollment courses. So we have a lot of opportunity. But each year it kind of depends what the students are signing up for, like some of our more popular classes the college composition in the senior year and then also the US history courses. So it a lot just depends on what students are signing up for each year.
Speaker 2:So do either of you have like a number of courses. I'm just curious, just an overall number of courses that are offered as dual enrollment courses.
Speaker 4:I mean it's really when you include those career and technical programs, because they're very robust. Like we offer career studies certificates in almost all of those programs. So students are graduating from TCC and at high school with a career studies certificate and some type of certification to make them eligible in that industry. So there's a lot of classes involved with the career side. When it comes to the more transfer focused courses that we offer, we have English composition, us history, western civilizations, geology, physics. I have teachers for tomorrow programs. I feel like I'm missing some.
Speaker 3:Environmental science.
Speaker 2:Environmental science, really Environmental science, yes, wow.
Speaker 4:All these courses are taught through the high school. Oh okay At the high school which is really great.
Speaker 4:They don't have to go anywhere if they're in classes, which is really great because these are just part of our courses, our dual enrollment courses that we offer at the high school. They're taught by their high school instructors Got you, who are credentialed to teach college classes, so the students don't even have to leave their high school or in some cases don't even have to leave their computer because they're taking it through CBA and can just complete those requirements and get college credits knocked out, while in high schools, I love the example of a student who starts as a junior and they are doing US history their junior year and then they decided to college composition their senior year and now that we're offering pre-calculus, they could be adding that either junior or senior year, so they could technically graduate from high school with 15 credit hours already finished, which is basically one semester's worth of classes.
Speaker 1:Right, I mean I had a four year college. That sounds awesome because again I went to school those first years or kind of just those classes just to kind of get you through like the 100 level mass and things like that. So you knock that out beforehand. I think that's a great thing.
Speaker 2:And you find that the majority of these courses they transfer right, I mean once you have those TCC credits, yeah, so now I know from some experience that there's at least one. I remember we used to send the electricity kids over to TCC because we just didn't have the space for it. Is that? Is that still the case? And are there other classes where career center kids end up going to the, going to the campus?
Speaker 4:We do have students that are bust over from the Chesapeake Career Center to come on to our campus for their coursework. So Mechatronics is really popular program. All of our Mechatronics students come over to our campus right across the street from the career center and participate in their classes there. Electricity students do the same thing. Our emergency medical technician program, the EMT program, is housed over on our campus. Basic machining, which is a new program this year and we're hoping to have it continue to grow next year, but those basic machining students will come to our campus as well. So those are just some of the programs that will come over from the career center and be on our campus and use our spaces.
Speaker 2:Okay, wow, and so is there a website or a place that kids can go to see all these options and get some of these explanations?
Speaker 4:So our website at TCC kind of is more of like a global approach to what dual enrollment is, but it has my contact information on there and, honestly, the school counselors in the dual enrollment points of contact in each school counseling office have a plethora of information about ways that students can get started with dual enrollment and just to help ask any questions that they might have. I'm always a resource for students when I'm not on leave and so, yeah, it was the. If they have questions, they can always reach out to their school counselor. Chris mentioned they can reach out to her, they can reach out to me, because every school district has unique programs for dual enrollment and unfortunately, it's not one cookie cutter way of doing it. Jess Beekville has one of the most expansive dual enrollment programs and we have so much to offer like you just can't put it all out there on the website, unfortunately.
Speaker 3:Well, I want to let you know too. So we have a new Canvas course called College Readiness that we're getting ready to roll out soon. That includes ways to get into dual enrollment, all the things that kids need to be college ready and career ready as they graduate. So it's for grades nine through 12. And also, too, Chesapeake Public Schools will have a college readiness website coming soon as well.
Speaker 2:Okay, great, All right. Well, I have to say, Holly, my curiosity's gotten the best of me. You have to tell me about your dog.
Speaker 1:I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2:Not at all not at all.
Speaker 4:I have two Coonhound pointer mixed puppies who are just a year old Wow. They love that mommy's home with them right now.
Speaker 3:They love that Great they're in the work day.
Speaker 4:So, the fact that mama's home and they can be out playing around and they love to play with one another.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, that's great, and it sounds like they want your attention. So we appreciate you guys coming in today. Is there anything we left out? Yes, there is. Is there anything that you want to share? You want to get out there?
Speaker 4:Well, I did want to just kind of highlight two special programs that we have that are geared for students who are looking to get the most out of their high school and dual enrollment opportunity, and they're two of our transfer pathway programs. We have two pathways that students can choose between the uniform certificate for general studies we call it the UCGS for short which is 31 to 32 credit hours of college classes that students can complete. They would start the program beginning this summer of their sophomore year and then they would finish it up by their senior year and they would have basically half an associate's degree already completed by doing the UCGS. So that's one transfer pathway we have. And then the other one is actually getting a full associate's of science in our social science program.
Speaker 4:So that's also available for students who are rising juniors. They would begin that summer of their sophomore, going into junior year, and they would take their first three sets of classes with us that summer. And it's a combination. Both programs are a combination of AP courses and exams, as well as dual enrollment courses that they can take to their high school and then classes that they come to TCC to take during those summer months. So both wonderful opportunities to knock out a lot of college credits with a combination again of AP scores from those exams, dual enrollment courses and just TCC classes they would come here to take.
Speaker 2:And so that sounds very exciting. But I think part of the message also is if you're a junior and you're gonna be a senior, there's still opportunities. There's still some courses that you can take and get this dual enrollment credit right.
Speaker 1:Man, that's a great thing, there are lots. There are lots, yeah, lots wow, that is impressive.
Speaker 2:There's a little something for everyone. Yeah, and again, I'm just gonna so again. The contact for students and their families would be their high school guidance counselor or the dual enrollment liaison or contact person in their school right.
Speaker 3:Well, I just want to let you know that also, chesapeake Public Schools is working on growing our dual enrollment program. So we are constantly looking to grow the program again to appeal to students, to encourage more students to enroll. It's a great opportunity for students to know what college courses are like and to work at that level. So we do encourage students to definitely try to take a dual enrollment course throughout your four-year high school career.
Speaker 2:Well, guys, we really appreciate your time. I feel a lot smarter. I know me too.
Speaker 1:I feel a lot smarter about this now right, I can talk about it.
Speaker 2:So thanks again, holly. We wish you the best with your new born. I know that's great and I know you're very excited, and thank you for taking your time, and your dogs too, and your dogs.
Speaker 3:Don't forget the dogs, don't do not. Thank you guys. Yeah, thank you very much, chris. Thanks for being with us.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much and we will talk to you guys again soon. Thank you. Well, there's another informative and fun episode of amplified the Chesapeake Public Schools podcast. We want to take just a minute to take the mystery out. We now know the name of Holly.
Speaker 1:Distelli's baby. That's right. So first off, congratulations, holly and your family, for the birth of your daughter, and the name that they decided on is Avalon Hope Distelli. So, congratulations, it's a beautiful name.
Speaker 3:It is.
Speaker 1:Congratulations to your family Again. Thanks for being on the show right before, technically, you went into labor.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, I'm just about yeah. So we didn't want to leave you hanging on that, we didn't want to create a mystery and you, for the rest of your day, go. I wonder what the baby's name is but, that's how we try to look out for you. In fact, speaking of looking out for you, stay tuned. Another episode coming in March.
Speaker 1:That's right. Our next episode is going to be all about school safety, so make sure you tune in and listen and subscribe to amplify the Chesapeake Public Schools podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts, and if you have any further questions regarding dual enrollment, make sure to contact your school counselor, or you can even visit our Chesapeake Public Schools YouTube channel, where, earlier this month, the Department of Family and Community Engagement just recently hosted a dual enrollment webinar.
