Changes that accompany new presidential administrations often raise new questions, if not outright consternation about directions in national educational agendas. One Indiana high school is being proactive in seeing that refugee high school students have opportunities to succeed in college by taking dual credit courses alongwith their non-refugee classmates. Students receive dual credit for Fort Wayne, Indiana High School as well as East Allen University. “Principal Doug Hicks states, “Students can earn their high school diploma and an associate’s degree in a four-year period” (State Impact). For all students who take dual credit, getting dual credit is a significant benefit; however, it is especially important for students who may have just learned to speak English.

This is certainly the case for one of the nation’s largest Burmese refugee communities, Fort Wayne, where Burmese refugees account for 20% of the student population. The Indiana program, in addition to helping students succeed, reinforces American academic concepts such as giving credit to other people’s intellectual property by not plagiarizing, and probing questions about society through the study of literature.

SOURCES:
http://indianapublicmedia.org/stateimpact/2017/01/25/fort-wayne-dual-credit-high-school-refugees/

http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/schools/New-school-s-grads-a-step-ahead-13193010