A Message from Neal Kauffman,
Manager of BEST Partnership at Joliet Junior College
Dual Credit Articulation Agreements are agreements that were developed between individual high schools and/or Career Centers and Joliet Junior College. In essence, in specific classes, high school students will be able to earn both high school and college credit simultaneously. Students are enrolled both at the high school and at the community college at the same time. This will save the students both time and money as they complete their education. Student can then choose to attend JJC or transfer those credits to another institution.
The second type of arrangement for students to earn college credit is simply called Articulation Agreements which again are agreements that were developed between individual high schools and/or Career Centers and Joliet Junior College. In essence, these agreements state that if a student completes a specified course or courses with a grade of "B" or above while in high school, Joliet Junior College will recognize that coursework as equivalent to a specific JJC course and award the student college credit. The articulation agreements were developed through the JJC BEST Partnership, which brought together the highs school teachers and the college faculty to look at course content in specific areas of study. If there were enough similarities between the high school courses and the college curriculum, then articulation agreements were signed to give the high school students college credit once they enroll at Joliet Junior College. These agreements are reviewed every two years to insure that course content at either the high school or the college has not changed significantly. The student that earns the college credit will be enrolled in the next advanced course at JJC and must earn a minimum of a "C" or better in order to get the college credit for the articulated class.