High school students may be getting off easy when it comes to earning college credit for their classes, says the president of UVSC.

Utah's concurrent enrollment program offers students the possibility of graduating from high school with an associate's degree, or at least with some college credit. But policing the program, which relies mostly on high school teachers, is key, said UVSC president William Sederburg. "We're very concerned that we do concurrent enrollment right."

A bill pending in the Legislature would require students to pay $30 per credit hour for the program, plus the $30 registration fee and cost of books that they already pay. UVSC spokesman Derek Hall said the program costs the college about $60 per credit hour, and the state currently funds about $35 of that cost.

Most of the classes are taught on high school campuses by high school teachers who must have a master's degree, Sederburg said. Many are mixed classes, meaning some students are seeking college credit, and others are not. "Right now, the huge percentage of our enrollment is in mixed classes where there are relatively few students taking the course for college credit. In many of those cases, no additional work is being required of the student. We want to move toward the majority of the students taking them for college-level credit and that the teaching is a college-teaching level and not a high-school level."

That means more money is needed to hire more people to supervise the program, Sederburg said, and to make sure each department is regulating concurrent enrollment the same way.

Last year, about 4,300 high school students got UVSC credit for their classes, Sederburg said. "We need to make sure credits are related to degrees that a student can earn. We want to make sure the grading is similar to the grading that's in the college course. We want to make sure the instructor is evaluated on a regular basis so quality instruction is being held."

Besides more staff, the college would use the extra money to offer more training during the summer for teachers, and to help integrate them into the college by having them attend departmental meetings and keep tests current with other college-level classes, Sederburg said. He also said he would like to see the college offer more summer activities to give students a taste of the college experience.

But high school students and administrators say the classes already place a higher demand on students than their other high school work.

Dave Mower, assistant principal at Lone Peak High School in Highland, said there is a difference between high school courses and concurrent enrollment. "They're college-level classes. They have college curriculum." In mixed classes, concurrent enrollment students do extra work, he said. "Much of the time they're learning similar curriculum, but there are additional requirements for the concurrent enrollment."

Springville High Principal Ann Anderson said in mixed classes at her school, all students do college-level work. "There's certain things UVSC requires to be taught and those are taught to everybody, whether they're getting concurrent enrollment credit or not."

Teachers meet with UVSC department faculty and get extra training, Anderson said. "There's some real collaboration that goes on there to make sure it is at the college level."

Provo High Senior Taylor Orton, 17, said he has taken concurrent enrollment classes but not signed up for the program, so he gets no college credit. "As a junior, I didn't really take the time to do it." He plans to attend Brigham Young University but said he's not worried about not getting the credit for the same work as others who did. "All the classes I was doing concurrent enrollment for, I was getting AP credit for anyway."

Alex Probert, 17, a Provo High senior, said she is taking a catering class in which some students are getting college credit and some are not. "If you're in concurrent enrollment, it doesn't make it any harder."

She never signed up for the program because she said she plans to go to college out of state. "I actually have been one of those people that hasn't paid the $30 because I'm not going to go to UVSC, so I figured that doing those classes, they won't transfer to where I want to go."

Anna Chang-Yen can be reached at 344-2549 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it