The Early College Academy

---

The Christian School at Castle Hills was on to something when adding the ability to earn college credit.  They advertise “Highly motivated students can earn up to 60+ hours of transferable Dual Credit Classes and graduate from High School with 50% of their College education already behind them by earning Dual Credit with their High School courses.” Sounds great when you consider being half way done with college by time you finish high school! Here is what you should know about “the Best Dual Credit Academy in San Antonio.”

The classes your child takes will add costs on top of the private school tuition you are already paying.  We paid $300 for a 3-hour class.  Colorado Christian University (CCU) told us they charge $200.  When considering the cost of college at the major schools your child is interested in, this may be a decent rate especially considering the idea of earning credits early.  However, attending a college like San Antonio College will only cost you $100.  Here is another interesting thing we learned about registration for these courses. The Christian School at Castle Hills doesn’t register your student for their semester courses right away.  They wait until the semester is nearing the end to register with the college.  For the Fall 2022 semester, The Christian School at Castle Hills registered with CCU on or around 22 November.  Two things this does if your student must drop a course. One, we were told by the school, there are no refunds. Second, your student is never registered so the transcript is not affected.

You should also know, some of these courses have a multiplier towards the high school GPA.  The multiplier is higher than any other multipliers, like honors.  This could mean, if your child is in contention for a Valedictorian or Salutatorian, they might need to take the dual credit courses to be competitive.  The extra cost could be a strain for families who might already be struggling to cover the tuition.  Keep in mind, The Christian School at Castle Hills told us they do not track class rankings other than the top students. This could mean even if your student is in the top quarter, they may not get a ranking for college applications.  Take Texas Tech University, for example.  They take applications based on Top 10%, then by quarters.  Each quarter has higher requirements for ACT and SAT scores.  If your student is not ranked, you’d have to apply to Texas Tech University in the bottom category of “all others,” which has additional requirements to examine your student using the whole person concept.  Dual Credit at The Christian School at Castle hills, although optional, could be a must.

The Christian School at Castle Hills told us that ALL credits transfer and they publicize this on their website.  Although, that statement may be true, you should know some very important information regarding credits.  Not all the credits will apply to the degree your student plans obtain from the college of their choice.  Given that The Christian School at Castle Hills emphasized a ”take one dual credit course, take all” in the informational meeting, you have to understand that several courses may only apply as an elective and still may not apply towards the degree.  For example, the British Literature I & II will transfer as an elective but will not apply towards a Landscape Architecture degree at Texas Tech University.  That’s $600 of money we would’ve spent for college credits and 2 semesters of English courses that will not apply.  This could also mean a student may take dual credit courses from Sophomore to Senior year in high school and still have to take basic courses once they get to college.  This may not get your student to completing high school with “50% of their college education already behind them.” To make sure the dual credit course will apply to the college and degree of choice, you must check with the college your student plans to attend to see how the courses offered at The Christian School at Castle Hills will apply.  Texas Tech University has an online system where we can input the course to check.  Additionally, some classes offered will not get the multiplier which means they may LOWER your student’s GPA.

Check the qualifications of the “instructor” for the dual credit course.  CCU is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) which lays out requirements and guidelines for how dual credit programs are executed.  The dual credit course must also provide the same experience as it would on campus. The syllabus and instructor for each course must be vetted and approved by CCU.  Not all teachers for dual credit courses at The Christian School at Castle Hills were registered with CCU (as told by CCU as of 21 Oct 2022) and therefore, might not be vetted to teach your student’s dual credit course.  HLC says that faculty teaching these courses should “hold a master’s degree or higher in the discipline or subfield.  If a faculty holds a master’s degree or higher in a discipline or subfield other than that in which he or she is teaching, that faculty member should have completed a minimum of 18 graduate credit hours in the discipline or subfield in which they teach.” Instructors are also supposed to be evaluated.  Based on student reporting, these evaluations weren’t noted in their dual credit courses.