As Plainfield East High School has begun its eleventh year, the curriculum includes new dual credit classes including Culinary Three, Elementary Statistics, Precalculus One: Algebra, Precalculus Two: Trigonometry, and Exploring the Teaching Profession.

Culinary Three is taught by Julie Lotarski and Exploring the Teaching Profession – EDUC 107 is taught by Cindy Egizio. The math dual credit courses are taught by Denise Griffin.

Dual credit courses differ from high school courses because “in a dual credit class, you’re going to get college credit for the course,” Griffin said.

The dual credit courses are organized by Joliet Junior College and East in order to get college and  high school simultaneously.

“I have to follow JJC’s curriculum. So, the assessments are written by me, instead of having to follow district assessments,” Griffin said.

However, dual credit courses still share some similarities with typical high school courses.

“In all of the dual credit courses, there are weighted grades, just like the East courses are,” Griffin said.

Griffin said, “The Precalculus: Algebra 138 and Precalculus Two: Trigonometry 139 are very similar to our honors precalculus. The students get honors Pre-calc credit as well as the dual credit hours which is a total of eight hours (four hours for each class) in 138, 139.”

This is different from the unweighted credit in regular precalculus.

Unlike an AP class, Griffin said, “There’s no AP test in dual credit. [What you earn for the semester is] your grade.”

For any dual credit class, students must earn higher than a C to keep gaining credit in those classes.

The new education course is run by the University of Saint Francis, not JJC. Many college level discussions are held to contemplate the meaning of a lesson taught throughout the year.

Since the education class is a college-level class, teachers do teach lessons like a college professor would.

Egizio said, “Be ready, be willing to get involved and… say what you think, say what you mean [in the course]. Know that it’s going to be a safe space for you to do that in, but that it is really important for you to participate.”

The workload of a student taking a dual credit class often involves more writing and projects than a course giving high school credit only.

“Even the final exams are project based,” Egizio said.