Purpose and Benefits of Dual Credit

MBU ECP serves over 40 high schools located in the St. Louis metro area and in eastern and mid-Missouri communities. The program includes public and private high schools and provides classes in schools as large as 2,500 students and as small as 100 students. Early College Partnerships offers MBU credit through various methods of delivery: EXCEL Dual Credit, Achieve Credit-by-Exam, or Dual Enrollment. Achieve is a model for earning college credit through University-created exams or assessments. Missouri Baptist University receives an increasing number of requests for alternatives to dual credit in high schools challenged to find teaching candidates with suitable credentials for dual credit teaching. Through MBU Achieve, students who register will complete University-created assessments which are written and graded by an assigned MBU faculty member known as the Achieve Instructor of Record (IOR). Assessments most commonly are in the form of exams, but they can also be in the form of papers, essays, projects, labs, and final exams. Students will be required to complete three assessments for a 3-hour course, four assessments for a 4-hour course, or 5 assessments for a 5-hour course. The assessment score average will determine the final letter grade that will appear on the transcript. Achieve can be a more challenging model than EXCEL dual credit or dual enrollment because  there are no other opportunities for credit such as quiz grades, attendance, or homework,  the assessments are not written by the high school instructor and critical thinking regarding terminology or structure may be required of the high school student, and  there are fewer assessments that cover a larger portion of the course content. Courses in the MBU Achieve program will be transcripted as regular college courses with course numbers, titles, and credit hours matching those used in the on-campus, face-to-face classes.

PURPOSE AND BENEFITS OF ACHIEVE

Achieve offers regular MBU courses, typically general education courses taken by college freshmen and sophomores, in biology, chemistry, English and math.

Students and their parents should consider Achieve because it

 introduces students to college level coursework in a more controlled environment and often at a somewhat slower pace,  provides a cost-effective way for students to start their college career,  may eliminate the duplication of general education courses during the freshman and sophomore college years,  provides students with flexibility once enrolled in college, reducing the need to carry a heavy course load each semester,  provides students the opportunity to finish college a semester early or double major in the same amount of time it would normally take to graduate with a single major, and  provides flexibility for students to study abroad if they wish, without being penalized for missing coursework at their home college or university.