An agreement between Central Alberta school divisions and Red Deer College will provide new opportunities for both students and staff in Chinook's Edge School Division, superintendent Kurt Sacher said.
The board of trustees at Chinook's Edge carried a motion in support of a memorandum of understanding between the Chinook's Edge, Clearview, Prairie Land, Red Deer Catholic, Red Deer Public, Wild Rose, and Wolf Creek school divisions and Red Deer College during its regular meeting on March 13.
The agreement involves exploring options to enhance learning opportunities in Central Alberta by promoting high school and a transition to post-secondary education. It means a new cooperation on opportunities such as the “School Within a College” concept, dual-credit programming and the “Reading College” initiative.
Superintendant Kurt Sacher said Chinook's Edge has reason to be excited for this new partnership with Red Deer College considering its successful cooperation with Olds College.
“We've had lots of success with our partnership in Olds working with Olds College and similarly we would like to partner with Red Deer College on a number of initiatives. I think the board is very excited about making more of a formal connection and partnership with Red Deer College for a number of reasons,” said Sacher.
On top of opportunities such as the School Within a College concept, dual-credit programming and the Reading College initiative, Sacher said opportunities to share facilities and library resources that staff can use for enhanced learning also exist. He said it's a pretty easy decision to publicly endorse a partnership with Red Deer College.
“We are seeing down the road a whole host of reasons to connect with the college.”
Red Deer College hosted a media event on March 27 when the memorandum of understanding was signed.
“The purpose of the signing of the memorandum today was to engage the college with all of the seven school districts within Central Alberta with the intention of working towards providing programming – the dual-credits, the School Within a College and the Reading College – so that as we trial these we expand them beyond the local area,” Red Deer College vice-president of academics Brad Donaldson said.
Dual-credit programming allows high school students to take college level courses so they can earn credits in both high school and college. This can occur on both the course level and the program level, Donaldson explained.
“For example, health-care aide, they can graduate from high school and can also graduate with a health-care aide's certificate,” he said.
The School Within a College concept allows students currently in high school to participate in college programming while completing high school courses at the college. It's similar to dual-credit programming but the learning takes place at college rather than at high school.
The Reading College initiative aims to help much younger students. The initiative helps Grade 3 students improve their reading skills during a four-week program at the college during the summer.
“Studies have found that children who come out of Grade 3 with poor reading skills are at a higher risk of not completing high school. So it gets them back onto a good academic path so that they can be successful through their remaining grades in the public school system,” Donaldson said.
The memorandum of understanding, titled Learning Pathways in Central Alberta, was created as a result of an education summit held at Red Deer College last August.
