Note: This story is the second of two parts.

Bulloch County's three public high schools saw the number of their students dual-enrolled or joint-enrolled at a college or university rise from 201 in the last school year to 387 this year. That's a 92.5 percent increase - almost double.

Ogeechee Technical College is experiencing the largest gain in area high school students dual-enrolled in its courses, and East Georgia State College and Georgia Southern University also have efforts underway to increase dual enrollment.

When Jan Moore, known for her other public role as the mayor of Statesboro, started work July 1 as Ogeechee Tech's first dean of students, overseeing the college's High School Initiative became part of her mission.

"I'm keenly interested," Moore said last week. "The state of Georgia has been very proactive and gracious in encouraging students to go ahead and get postsecondary credit, whether it's certificates or it's academic courses through Accel."

Ogeechee Tech
At Ogeechee Tech, there are two kinds of courses available for dual enrollment. Courses in specific skill areas, such as welding, nurse assisting and basic cosmetology, lead to certificates at the end of a semester or a year.

These provide simultaneous credit at the student's high school but usually not credits toward a further college degree. A special category of HOPE Grant pays the tuition.
In contrast, the state's Accel program pays tuition for certain academic courses that yield transferable credits toward
two-year or four-year college degrees. These also can provide credits at the student's high school, often fulfilling specific graduation requirements there as well.

While universities such as Georgia Southern have a larger variety of Accel-eligible courses, Ogeechee Tech and other state technical colleges also offer Accel core classes that will transfer to university system schools.

In neither case does the tuition funding count against a student's maximum credit hours for a HOPE Scholarship or HOPE Grant beyond high school.

"With the cost of education, every parent needs to look at this opportunity very, very closely," Moore said.

As the largest part of the 92.5-percent increase, Statesboro High, Southeast Bulloch and Portal students dual- or joint-enrolled at Ogeechee Tech rose from 50 last academic year to 171 in 2014-15.

Meanwhile, Bulloch County Schools' shared enrollment with Georgia Southern, East Georgia State and all other colleges combined increased by 65 students to a total of 216.

OTC certificate programs
Ogeechee Tech has offered a Nurse Aide certificate program on high school campuses for years, and these students count as dual-enrolled. Portal High School and Statesboro have Nurse Aide programs.

This year, Ogeechee Tech added two certificate programs, Emergency Medical Responder and a cosmetology program called Shampoo Tech, at Statesboro High.

For this fall, Ogeechee Tech and Statesboro High plan to add a fourth certificate program, Mechatronics Specialist, at the high school. Its content is expected to fit with an OTC associate degree under development.

Plans also are underway for Accel-eligible OTC classes, such as freshman English and math, to be taught at the Statesboro and Portal high schools. Southeast Bulloch is working on bus transportation for dual-enrolled students.

Meanwhile, Ogeechee Tech has ramped up its efforts to offer the Compass test to area high school juniors, with a few sophomores also taking it. The SAT or ACT can be submitted for admission to technical colleges, but Compass scores are used more often.

In addition to sending staff members to high schools to administer the test, Ogeechee Tech this year started testing high school students on its own campus. This was done in January on Fridays, when OTC classes are not in session. Bulloch County Schools provided bus transportation for its students.

"In Bulloch County alone, we have tested over 500 students, the vast majority being juniors, since January 1," Moore said.

Additionally, OTC administered the Compass test to about 150 students at Screven County High School. Most of these were tested in a single day at the school in Sylvania.

Ogeechee Tech's dual enrollment count from all high schools, 72 students in the previous academic year, increased to about 160 students this year, Moore said. She said she hopes there will be more than 250 this fall.

For more information on OTC's Accel program, contact Moore at (912) 688-6026 or email her at jmoore@ogeecheetech.edu.

East Georgia
East Georgia State College currently counts 69 high school students as dual-enrolled on its Swainsboro, Statesboro and Augusta campuses.

"We're making a real, concerted effort to increase our dual enrollment everywhere, especially in Bulloch County, too," said East Georgia Director of External Affairs Elizabeth Gilmer.
Recently, the college distributed a booklet to high schools in 18 counties offering to establish Accel classes at any of the schools. To make this a reality, a minimum of 12, and preferably 20, students must sign up for a particular class, Gilmer said.

While Accel covers tuition, East Georgia exempts dual-enrolled students from its mandatory fees. Ogeechee Tech also does this. The students who take classes on the OTC campus buy their own books, but books are provided for free for the certificate courses at the high schools.

However, students at East Georgia State College's Statesboro campus are assessed Georgia Southern University's activity fees and technology fee. These total $756 for students registered for four or more credit hours.

For more information on East Georgia's dual enrollment program, contact Brandy Murphy at (478) 289-2022 or email her at bmurphy@ega.edu.

Georgia Southern
Georgia Southern still plays host to more dual-enrolled students than Ogeechee Tech, but only by a small margin.

After ebbing to 126 students in fall semester 2013, the university's dual enrollment count rose to 179 students last fall and 192 this spring, according to information from the admissions office provided by a GSU spokeswoman.

Of the 179 last fall, 148 enrolled for the first time. And of those 148, about 130 were from Bulloch County.

"We expect dual-enrolled student enrollment to continue to grow," Jan Bond, GSU associate vice president for marketing and communications, said in an email.
Accel students pay university fees, and all dual-enrolled students purchase their own books, she confirmed.

Only a $100 technology fee is charged to Accel students taking three or fewer credit hours. But for those taking four or more hours, mandatory fees total $756, according to the Accel page at http://admissions.georgiasouthern.edu.

"The cost of this varies depending on how many classes the student takes," Bond wrote. "This legislative session ended with a new bill regarding dual enrollment and, pending the governor's signature, could lead to changes that could decrease the cost to students even more."

A final version of Senate Bill 132, the Move on When Ready Act, was approved by both chambers of the Georgia Legislature last week. The bill would require all participating colleges and universities to "waive all mandatory and non-course-related fees for eligible high school students" and provide books at no charge. It also would authorize the Student Finance Commission to make grants to high schools for transportation.

Georgia Southern has an admissions counselor who works with dual-enrolled students and visits the local high schools regularly.

"We have also changed our advisement model on campus for dual-enrolled students, with a dedicated academic advisor in First-Year Experience," Bond said.

Students interested in dual enrollment at Georgia Southern should speak with their high school counselor or contact Maria Laurato, coordinator of freshmen recruitment and Accel in the GSU admissions office, at marialaurato@georgiasouthern.edu.

Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.