Plainfield Students Save $209,000 with JJC Dual Credit

Editor's note: The following is a press release issued by District 202:

District 202 students saved $208,650 this past fall in potential college tuition expenses through the district’s ongoing partnership with Joliet Junior College to offer “dual credit” courses in several vocational subjects. 

District 202 offered seven classes this past fall for which students could get college credit: Introduction to Computer Technology; Computer Applications; Desktop Publishing; Orientation to Business; Foods 2; and two English Rhetoric courses.

District 202 staff teach the courses as “adjunct Joliet Junior College Professors” at one of the district’s four high schools, allowing students to earn both high school and college credit through Joliet Junior College. The college credit can then be transferred to any two or four-year college or university that accepts transferred credits.

Students successfully passing the courses do not have to pay the tuition that they would have normally been charged, had they actually taken the classes in college. 

This fall, 640 District 202 students took one or more of the seven Career and Technology Education classes. That’s about half of the 1,311 students during the 2011-12 school year.

The $208,650 in potential tuition savings is also roughly half of the total savings realized in the 2011-12 school year, when students saved about $422,000 through the dual credit partnership.

By school: 

• 93 Plainfield High School – Central Campus students saved $29,853
• 204 Plainfield South High School students saved $65,377
• 229 Plainfield North High School students saved $76,826
• 114 Plainfield East High School students saved $36,594

“We are on par to match or exceed the amount our students saved last school year, which continues to speak well for our partnership with Joliet Junior College,” said Dr. Dan McDonnell, director for high school curriculum and instruction.

“Joliet Junior College helps our community in many ways, and saving our students money is obviously one of the best in this difficult economy,” McDonnell said.

The tuition savings are calculated based on tuition of $107 per credit hour at Joliet Junior College. The cost – and savings -- would be even more if they were based on tuition from a four-year university.