Indiana struggling with change for dual-credit teachers

high-school-classroom

Educators around Indiana are struggling over how to deal with an impending change in academic requirements for those who teach dual-credit high school classes.

Officials say more than 65,000 Indiana students took courses that gave them college credit last school year, but worry many teachers won’t meet a rule that they must have 18 credit hours from master’s degree-level courses in the subject they’ll be teaching.

That requirement comes from the private accreditation group for Indiana colleges, which says it is meant to ensure those classes are taught by someone with college-level expertise.

State officials don’t know how many of Indiana’s 2,900 dual-credit teachers will be affected.

Todd Bess of the Indiana Association of School Principals says the rule could decimate dual-credit offerings.