Open High School Partners with WSU to Provide College Classes

Utah’s online charter high school, Open High School of Utah, will offer college courses beginning in August through a partnership with Weber State University.

The program, called Online Early Access, differs from concurrent enrollment in that the students are taking the actual university classes that are available online, said Director DeLaina Tonks.

Rather than having classes, which qualify for college credit, taught by the high school teachers, she said Open High School worked for three years to find a partnership that allowed students to take university classes. The high school does also offer concurrent enrollment.

Although Weber State has about 450 classes available online, Tonks said the high school narrowed the list of classes OHSU students can take to 100 that met the school’s graduation requirements.

Online Early Access is only open to juniors and seniors who are full-time students at OHSU. Tonks said the response has already been very positive from students. Registration opened two weeks ago and she said the counselor was overwhelmed with questions from eager students.

“For those kids that want to go faster, it’s a great opportunity,” she said. The classes are free to students, except for a $50 application fee to OHSU and a $30 application fee to WSU.

Tonks said they already have new students coming to OSHU because of Online Early Access.

“It’s a win for them (Weber), a win for us, but most of all it’s a win for those students,” Tonks said.
(5.7.12)