Summer is officially over, and the new school year is in full swing. Along with new students, new adventures and the new year, we are launching a dual-credit pilot program that allows students to take one course at OBA taught by a qualified teacher and receive their usual high school credit as well as college credit for that course through Oklahoma Baptist University.
Leading the charge is none other than Dr. Benjamin Lentz. Dr. Lentz became a teacher after first serving in the Air Force and the Army and attending medical school. His time in the military included service in Iraq. After retiring from the military, Lentz decided to get back into the classroom and attend medical school. After being away from family for so long, Lentz decided it was time to come back home to Enid. When enrolling his daughter at OBA, the Lord opened a door for a job opportunity right here at OBA.
Dr. Lentz teaches a wide range of subjects in the upper-level high school courses. General Chemistry, Human Anatomy & Physiology, AP Biology, and AP Chemistry are his minimum course load. He also teaches a few other elective courses that alternate based on want. Each class for Dr. Lentz operates uniquely, as different subjects have different curriculums. Dr. Lentz said he enjoys the change up every hour and that it definitely keeps him on his toes.
With all of that said, Dr. Lentz is excited about the new dual-credit pilot program that we are trying out this year. Here’s what he had to say about it all:
“This coming year, we will be piloting an amazing opportunity for the students with dual-credit courses. In partnership with Oklahoma Baptist University (OBU) students who enroll can obtain actual college credits on OBU transcripts for the completion of some of their high school courses. Amazingly, OBU and OBA have agreed to do this at a surprisingly reduced tuition price, charging only for the bare minimums, which means the student (and the families) will be paying only about a third to a half of the price per credit hour that other colleges in the area charge. This will be such a boon to our families in these economically difficult times.
Additionally, I am really pleased how the administration and OBU have gone about this process, where we can give students (and families) cheaper college credits without just rubber-stamping classes. For example, our OBA instructors that are teaching dual-credit courses are having to become adjunct professors at OBU which includes demonstrating advanced knowledge of their subjects equivalent to a college instructor. Here again, OBA is blessed with a high percentage of teachers with masters or doctorate degrees.
This year I will be piloting our first dual-credit science course, taking our previous one full year Human Anatomy & Physiology class and restructuring and aligning it to fit the same content and rigor as two separate OBU courses: Human Anatomy and Human Physiology. We will complete the first course of Human Anatomy in the fall and then the second course in Human Physiology in the spring. Each class is worth four (4) hours of college credit, so our students stand to earn eight (8) credit hours this year, which they can apply towards their college undergraduate degrees. Students who elect to take the class for college credit have extra readings, assignments, and even extra questions on exams that ensure they are meeting the rigor of a college-level course. This means that we will have a mixture of students in the same class, some taking it for college credit and some just for high school credit, but the bar for the grade will be raised to different expectation levels.
Finally, while we are still working out the mix of classes, in addition to dual-credit courses we are still offering AP Courses. Similar to dual-credit courses, students in AP courses can earn college credit. However, instead of just completing the course, AP students study a specific subject during the year and then take a common multiple hour exam over all the material at the end of the year. Depending on how they score on this exam, different colleges will give the student often between 3 and 10 college credit hours. AP Exam scores range from 1 to 5, with 5 being excellent, and most schools offering college credit for scores of 3 or above. I was very excited to recently learn this month that the average score for my AP students’ exams last May was an outstanding 4 with a third scoring a perfect 5.”
OBA also accepts concurrent college courses from government universities as elective credits. This flexible option allows an increasing number of students to use elective hours to do online classes for both OBA and the University/College’s credit. We are grateful that our teachers are excited to take on the dual-credit opportunities for students. In addition to Human Anatomy & Physiology, English Composition I taught by Daniel Cummins will be offered for dual-credit as well. We hope that this is just the beginning for dual-credit options at OBA!
