Progress Education
“learning;
Seniors in Jim Haney’s AP government class work on a worksheet during class on Dec. 18 at Albert Lea High School. HannaH Dillon/albert lea tribune
Albert Lea High School is It’s more than Sometimes actually Riverland Community College just school
you apply it in
StuDentS cHallengeD witH tougH claSSeS By Hannah Dillon
hannah.dillon@albertleatribune.com
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life.”
reparing for college may seem daunting for some seniors, but two Albert Lea students are taking an academic approach to it. Emily Solum and Megan Lindely have taken a number of advanced classes for gifted and talented students at Albert Lea High School — classes that can help them prepare for college and even beyond that. “It’s more than just school learning; you apply it in life,” Lindely said. The advanced classes Solum and Lindely have taken are College in the Schools and Advanced Placement. College in the Schools — or CIS, as students and faculty call it — is offered at Albert Lea High School through Riverland Community College. The classes are taught at the high school by ALHS faculty. Students must be in the top third of their sophomore class, the top half of their junior class and score at college level on the Accuplacer test to be eligible for CIS courses. CIS courses offered at ALHS are Humanities English 12, Writing College Papers, PreCalculus A, Pre-Calculus B, Humanities Social 11, Intro to Computers and Microsoft Word. Grossklaus also said there are firefighter and certified nursing assistant classes at the high school that are offered through Riverland. In addition to CIS classes, the high school offers three Advanced Placement classes: calculus, biology and government. Solum said she likes her CIS and AP classes because it helps her prepare for the future and save money once she graduates and goes to college. Lindely said she likes to be challenged and work for her grades, and believes that her experience with AP and CIS will reduce the reality check she might get at college. Solum and Lindely have taken AP biology, Writing College Papers, Humanities Social 11, Humanities English 12 and AP government. The CIS and AP classes are for students who could be considered gifted and talented;
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Jim Haney teachers AP government and Humanities Social Students participating in the 11 at Albert Lea High School, two classes in the College in College in the Schools courses at the Schools program. Albert Lea High School in 2014-15
DOOR DOOR by
This is the door at 200 N. Broadway to ISC Financial Advisors and to Northwestern Mutual. It is the former Albert Lea City Hall, a building known for its stone arch entryways.
however, these students aren’t sorted or put into a separate group, Albert Lea High School Principal Mark Grossklaus said. Rather, the students select which classes, tests and opportunities they want to pursue. Besides CIS and AP classes, there is the College Level Examination Program and extracurricular activities such as the math team, Knowledge Bowl, chess club and First Robotics, among others. Though they both offer college credit, Grossklaus said there is a difference between CIS and AP classes. CIS classes are similar to what college coursework is. Faculty that teach CIS classes need a master’s degree or higher and students get dual credit with Riverland. AP classes give students high school credit, and students can earn college credit by taking the AP test for the class. The AP test holds weight throughout the country, Grossklaus said, and a college can look at a student’s AP test and offer credit for a course. Grossklaus said Advanced Placement classes are also higher rigor than College in the Schools classes. In the realm of language, College Level Examination Program, or CLEP, is the AP of Spanish at the high school, Grossklaus said. Students in Spanish levels 4 and 5 are the most prepared to take the CLEP test to earn college credit, he said, but the exam is not required to pass the class. In addition to in-the-classroom programs, Grossklaus said the high school also has a Lead the Way Program that infuses industrial technology in the school. Students in the child development class work at the preschools and shadow the caretakers to learn, and this has received great feedback from the community. “The community has been very good to the high school,” Grossklaus said. Students can also go through the youth apprenticeship program with the Workforce Center at Riverland to get internships at businesses around town. This is ideal for students interested in going to work after high school rather than college, Grossklaus said, as a four-year university isn’t the answer for every student. If CIS, AP, CLEP or the other programs at the school aren’t the right fit for a student, they
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Pages of the longest paper Albert Lea seniors Emily Solum and Megan Lindely ever had to write
See CLASSES, Page 3
5.7
Average credits a student can earn from a College in the Schools or AP course at ALHS
ide? What’s ins
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