Overview
CT State Community College offers an array of dual enrollment options for eligible high school students. The High School Partnership Program allows eligible juniors and seniors to take up to two college credit bearing classes available on campus, online, or hybrid taught by the college faculty member. These courses are tuition free for students. Through partnerships with the local school districts, students may be eligible to take concurrent enrollment courses taught on the high school campus by credentialed high school teachers who are mentored by the college faculty. These courses are college credit bearing courses that are transcribed as CT State Community College courses. Eligible high school and home-schooled students may also benefit from additional courses on campus, online or hybrid taught by a college faculty member. These circumstances are reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the college campus for available space and slots in the class being offered.
Programming and Partnerships
CT State Community College’s High School Partnership program provides students access to the majority of our courses. These range from general education courses like English, Math, Biology, and Art to technical courses including but not limited to courses in healthcare, manufacturing, culinary arts, and computer science. Our concurrent enrollment course selection varies by high school as it requires high school faculty who meet the same credentialing and training as college faculty. These courses are typically technical courses in nature.
Existing partnerships include:
- Accelerated College Consortium - CT State Community College - Asnuntuck
- Gateway to College - CT State Community College - Gateway
- College Connections - CT State Community College - Housatonic
- High School Partnership - CT State Community College - Capital
- Bridges - CT State Community College - Middlesex
- PTEC - Norwalk Public Schools and CT State Community College - Norwalk
- Great Path Academy - Hartford Public Schools and CT State Community College - Manchester
- Quinebaug Middle College - EASTCONN and CT State Community College - Quinebaug
- Torrington High School and CT State Community College - Northwestern
- Three Rivers Middle College - LEARN and CT State Community College - Three Rivers
- Waterbury Career Academy - Waterbury Public Schools and CT State Community College - Naugatuck
- High School Partnership New Britain - New Britain Public Schools and CT State Community College - Tunxis
Student Eligibility
Dual credit students, whether taking the course through High School Partnership or through concurrent enrollment (College Career Pathways), must meet the same pre-requisite requirements as other CT State Community College students taking the same course. Prerequisite requirements vary from course-to-course. Prerequisites can involve meeting placement requirements or additional foundational courses to have been taken with passing grades prior to enrolling in a more advanced course.
Instructor Credentials for Concurrent Enrollment Courses
High school teachers who are looking to teach as a concurrent enrollment teacher for CT State Community College must meet the same requirements as our teaching faculty. Typically, this is a master’s degree in the field (although an exception or alternative minimum qualification may be applicable in certain cases). In subject matters where a master’s degree does not exist such as in many technical fields, the individual should have a terminal degree or certification in the field and recency in the occupation.
Registration and Fees
"Whether taking a high school partnership course or a concurrent enrollment course students must complete the high school partnership application (CT State Dual Enrollment Application) and participate in a mandatory student orientation to register for the course.
CT State Community College has many courses that transfer within our state higher education institutions. As with all cases of transfer credit, the receiving institution determines which credits they transfer in and how and if they are transferred to count towards the degree program the student is seeking enrollment in. This typically is based on the program of study’s required courses needed to meet the degree requirement and equivalency of student learning outcomes.
Currently under our High School Partnership Program, eligible juniors and seniors can take up to two college credit-bearing courses in the fall and spring semesters tuition and fee free. Students and/or parents or school districts in some instances are responsible for the costs of books and transportation. Concurrent enrollment courses taken through a partnership between a CT State College campus and a local school district vary in cost by partnership. Typically, those that charge a fee do so by credit and students/parents and/or the school district are responsible to cover the costs of the book and transportation charges when applicable.
Students who participate in the High School Partnerships Program through CT State Community College have their tuition and fees waived. In order to be eligible to participate, a student must be a junior or senior in their high school class and have met eligibility requirements including meeting the prerequisite requirements of the course, being in the 80th percentile of their class and having a minimum 3.0 grade point average. Students not meeting this requirement may still qualify if their principal or guidance counselor provides a letter to the campus noting that the student would benefit from taking the course requested.
Supports for Multilingual Families
CT State Community College supports learners and their families for whom English is not their primary language in a multitude of ways. We grant credit for prior learning when a student is fluent in a former language. We also provide academic tutoring and coursework in English as a Second Language when a student needs such services. In addition, many of our promotional materials are available in several languages. (CT State campus resources for ESOL students). We also have personnel that support International Student and have policies and procedures to support these learners (CT State resources for international students).
Contact Information
Requests for information about options for students wishing to take college classes at CT State while still enrolled in high school can be sent to the following email address: CTState-DualEnrollment@ct.edu.
Beginning June 19, 2023, contact:
Dr. Levy Brown
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
LBrown@commnet.edu
860-612-7006