Happy Wednesday!
Shelley Branine spent twenty years as a teacher and left the classroom carrying $50,000 of student debt. She's since written a book about the way out, Finish College in High School, and by the time her own two daughters reached high school she had one goal: they would not start adult life the way she did. Both graduated college debt-free, and one finished her degree about a week before she finished high school.
The tool she used has a boring name and a frustrating number of versions of it. Dual enrollment, concurrent enrollment, running start, depending on your state, lets a high schooler take real college classes for real college credit, usually at no cost. Shelley walked me through exactly how she ran it, starting both girls in 10th grade with one easy class they actually liked.
In the episode:
Why she calls AP the riskier bet, and what happens to the credit if your kid gets a C
What this program is even called where you live (search the wrong word and you'll find nothing)
Where the free college seats are hiding, and why your school may not bring them up first
What made her daughter want to quit high school classes for college
The student-loan warning she now repeats like she's talking about tobacco
- Ela
P.S. Applications for fall close July 1. If OpenEd has been on your mind, this is the week to start - apply here.
Also worth a listen
What a 13-year homeschool veteran does differently in high school - Angela Rigby on concurrent enrollment
What neuroscience tells us about homeschooling - Dr. Claire Honeycutt