This year is the first year that Loudoun County Public Schools offered the Dual Enrollment (DE) English 12 option for high school seniors.  The course is partnered with Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA), meaning the high school seniors who successfully complete the course can earn six college credits.

Last year’s graduating class did not have this option.  They could take either English 12 Academic, AP Language and Composition, or AP Literature and Composition.  In order to adjust, seniors now can take the Dual Enrollment course in place of AP Language.  This year, 100 students are enrolled in the course.

The option seemed attractive to the incoming senior class because it was advertised as a course more challenging than academic, but less than AP Lit.  Senior Justin Martinez said that this was a deciding factor, “I was looking for something in between.”  Martinez took AP Lang last year, he notes that DE is “harder than AP Lang.”

Senior Maryam Hajialigol agrees.  In a junior class meeting last year, she decided that DE would be “exactly what [she was] looking for.”  Just one quarter into the school year, and Hajialigol finds that the class was not what she expected.   Based on comparisons with her classmates, Hajialigol can tell that the workload is much greater than that of AP Lit. She attributes much of this to the confusing structure of the course.

Hajialigol explains that her teacher, Mr. White, teaches the same class at NOVA once a week.  At Potomac Falls, however, he meets with the students more often and can spread out the workload over the course of the week.  This allows for a more relaxed class in school, but students still have homework to keep them occupied at home.

Since this is a college-level course, college-level workload is expected and college level credits can be awarded.  However, the credits do not transfer to every college or university.  They transfer to many of the popular schools nearby, such as George Mason, Virginia Tech, James Madison University, and the College of William and Mary.  For students such as Hajialigol who are not looking into any of these schools, Hajialigol warns that it is a “waste of [her] time.”