In line with the Lake County School District No. 7’s continued goals of offering enhanced, transferable upper education at the high school level, the school board approved during its Monday, Jan. 14 meeting the immediate inclusion of an Introduction to Psychology 201 class during Lakeview High School’s spring semester.
Taught by Special Education Dir. Lonnie Chavez, the class will directly offer dual credit in conjunction with Oregon Institute of Technology. Through their standardized curriculum, and using the same text as the school, the board gladly allowed the class to move forward.
“As we try to expand our dual credit offerings, we think this will be a great move,” Supt. Sean Gallagher said.
Already with 12 students enrolled in the elective, Chavez looks forward to the opportunity to teach. “We offered both psychology and sociology years ago and we’ve been wanting to bring it back for a while,” she said. Along with the dual credits offered by the sports medicine classes and the agricultural instruction, she said that it would be a wonderful way for the students, who know that they will most likely need to take the class as a prerequisite for their degree, to earn those credits in high school.
When asked if the credits are only transferable with OIT she said, “That is the main question we get.” Fortunately, due to state mandate, the credits will be most likely transferable with all Oregon state schools. With regards to out of state institutions, she did say that the counseling staff calls about the credits before letting the students enroll.
That will not hamper the relationship between OIT, however. “The professor in charge of the psychology department will come and supervise and they show us what they want us to use,” Chavez said. “We have a very supportive relationship with them.” She also outlined the cost savings that the class allows, comparing the $25 per credit the students will pay at LHS with the $150 per credit at OIT.