Olympic College changes dual credit course requirements

Olympic College has lowered student competency grade requirements from a “B” to a “C” to qualify for college credit in the Career and Technical Education Courses, according to a presentation at the North Mason School Board meeting Monday.

North Mason students can now receive college credit “upon successful completion of the dual credit course with a grade of ‘C’ (2.0) or better,” according to a letter from the Olympic College CTE Dual Credit Office.

CTE is expanding and focusing on developing the Health Science program into multiple pathway options, according to the presentation.

In the next 4 years, CTE hopes to expand robotics into additional courses in the 2025/2026 and 2026/2027 school years and will also have Intro to Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources, Field Biology and Marine Biology classes for those years.

An EMT course has been included this school year and has fire department EMT instructors. Students “will graduate ready to take the National EMT License exam,” the proposal states.

Students can also earn CPR for profession rescuer and other certifications.

The CTE program is looking for more industry partners in the area to help with job skills and internships, according to the presentation.

2024 – 2025 academic goals

The board also heard about academic goals for this school year.

The district hopes to have 100% of North Mason students:

■ Reading at grade level by third grade.

■ Meeting standard on Smarter Balanced Assessment in ELA (English Language Arts) and Math at seventh grade.

■ On track for graduation at ninth grade.

■ Graduate, with 85% on time.

According to the 2023/2024 Smarter Balanced state results, 83.6% of students graduated in four years for the 2022/2023 school year while 80% of North Mason students graduated in that same time frame.

Statewide numbers for students on track for college-level learning without needing remedial classes for spring 2024:

■ 50.3% ELA

■ 39.7% Math

■ 43.5% Science

North Mason students:

■ 32.9% ELA

■ 26.0% Math

■ 33.3% Science

Statewide numbers for students showing foundational grade level knowledge and skills or above for spring 2024:

■ 70.8% ELA

■ 62.7% Math

■ 62.0% Science

North Mason students:

■ 59.6% ELA

■ 49.2% Math

■ 50.2% Science