Dear Two-Year Presidents, CEOs, Deans, and Director; Big Sky Pathways Colleagues; GEAR UP Dir, ETS Dir, and Dual Enrollment Taskforce:
As you all know, there is a major effort underway to increase the visibility of our State's dual enrollment programs, promote the dual credit incentive program, and respond to inquiries from teachers interested in the program.
We have set up an initial website http://www.mus.edu/DualCredit/default.asp and are beginning to receive quite a few responses.
It has become clear to us that we need some help here at OCHE over the next year to coordinate and respond to the high level of dual enrollment activity which is starting to occur. As a result, we realized we need to identify someone who is able to work with us to help coordinate this effort. Thanks to the great support from Dean Hietala and Gallatin College MSU, Ms. Amy Williams will be working with us here at OCHE half time over the next year assisting with the coordination of the Dual Credit Incentive Program. Her duties in this temporary assignment will include (for her OCHE dual credit duties, Amy will report directly to me):
· Coordinate Montana Dual Credit Incentive Program
o Serve as the point of contact (name and contact) for teachers to respond – listed in letter going out to all Montana high school teachers and on OCHE website. Work directly with interested teachers to connect with their local two-year/community college for high school based dual credit teaching opportunities
o Work with OCHE to coordinate the design and set up of website for the Dual Credit Teacher Incentive Program
o Assist with development of procedures for verification that dual credit courses are taught and tracking of credit incentive teacher vouchers
· Create and recommend statewide web-based template for dual enrollment web presence at the campus level and statewide dual enrollment website on both the MUS and OPI webpages
· Interface with Big Sky Pathways, GEAR UP, and Educational Talent Search to grow dual enrollment awareness and opportunities
· Provide Deputy Commissioner for Two-Year and Community College Education and OCHE with suggestions and advice for growing statewide dual enrollment including: high school based dual credit, online partnerships with the MT Digital Academy, and college-based dual credit.
· Facilitate certification of teacher qualifications between the participating high schools and the colleges
A major part of Amy's responsibilities will be to work with teachers who are interested in teaching dual credit in their high school by serving as the single point of contact for OCHE to help them connect with your colleges and navigate the process of getting approved at each respective college.
In addition, she will serve as the link between the dual credit teacher incentive Montana Dual Credit Incentive Program and the staff in GSL who track the teachers receiving coupons. Communication will be critical for this effort over the next year as well.
I will be inviting Amy to attend our June 12 retreat here in Helena where we will spend some time talking about our statewide Dual Credit Incentive Program and next steps.
Amy's contact information is:
Amy Williams, Coordinator, Montana Dual Credit Incentive Program
amy.williams12@montana.edu
(406)994-3991 (office)
(406)209-3566 (mobile)
Many thanks to Amy for her willingness to take on this assignment between now and June 2015.
Sincerely,
John
John E. Cech, Ph.D.
Deputy Commissioner for Two-Year and Community College Education
Montana University System
PO Box 203201
2500 Broadway, Helena, MT 59620-3201
Phone: 406-444-0316 Fax: 406-444-1469
Cell: 406-670-0848
E-mail: jcech@montana.edu
