Editor’s note: The OBSERVER is running a series of articles on Sundays regarding education. This week’s article focuses on Advanced Placement and college credit courses.

Every school district strives to make its students college and career ready. As for the first part of that mission, every area school has begun to offer some form of early college credit options.

All local districts offer courses through Jamestown Community College’s College Connections Program and many offer College Board’s Advanced Placement courses.

Both AP and the College Connections Program offer students the opportunity to earn college credit while still attending high school. This allows students to save money and get a head start on their higher education.

“We are preparing students to take that next step. I think most people in society today realize that if students don’t continue on with higher education in some form, then they are going to be at a disadvantage,” Fredonia High School Principal Todd Crandall said.

JCC classes are taught by a JCC-certified instructor and require students to take an Accuplacer test before being enrolled in the class.

According to the respective websites, districts can offer as many as 30 AP and over 75 JCC classes to students. The classes districts do offer are taught in house by an instructor or through distance learning, so students do not need to leave their high school to earn college credit.

The number and type of classes offered varies by district based on student demand and teacher availability. (The following statistics are based on the 2014-2015 school year.)

“There is great demand, not only because of the credit, but because of the rigor of those courses. A student will leave here with nine college credits in English, which will definitely help, but it’s also the rigor, it’s what they’re learning in the process to become a better writer that is going to translate to everywhere they go in their post-secondary plan, even if it’s a two-year trade school, employment or the military. Those students are going to be better writers for it,” Westfield Guidance Counselor Scott Cooper explained.

The average number of AP classes offered in the 10 local school districts is four to five. Meeting that average number were Chautauqua Lake, Forestville, Pine Valley Silver Creek and Westfield school districts. Brocton and Cassadaga Valley do not offer AP classes and Dunkirk only offered chemistry.

Above the average were Fredonia and Gowanda.

Virtual AP was provided through E2CC BOCES for the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years through a grant. The grant allowed 12 teachers to teach 12 subjects and provides students with iPads or Chromebooks with internet built in so the lessons could be accessed anytime through distance learning online. The AP final exam is also paid for through the grant.

According to Josh Gregory, E2CC BOCES public relations officer, VAP will continue to be offered to districts after the grant expires this yet through a tuitioning agreement like that of VoTech.

Participating in the program this year were Chautauqua Lake, Forestville, Gowanda, Pine Valley, Silver Creek and Westfield.

Cooper explained Westfield High School utilizes VAP, but includes classroom instruction.

“The Virtual AP, the way we offer it, is our teachers teach the course and it is sort of a blended learning situation, where the students get face-to-face time with the teacher and then outside of the school day they do a lot of guided work outside of your traditional hours. A majority of our students do that, but we do have a couple students who are taking it all online because we can record the lessons,” he explained.

According to Crandall, Fredonia High School offers traditional AP courses, taught in house. He noted at one point Fredonia offered 11 AP courses, but declining enrollment has decreased the number of classes over the past 10 years that he has been principal to eight.

Unique to the 10 districts, Forestville utilizes the College Level Examination Program (CLEP), also provided by College Board.

Although CLEP is less known, classes are similar to that of AP and a final exam tests mastery of subjects and material typically taught in entry-level college courses. High School Principal Patrick Moses explained these classes, like traditional AP, are taught in house.

Although AP has had a long history at Fredonia, the demand for college credit classes has led high school to make offering more JCC-credit classes a priority.

“We are also recognizing the demand for the JCC credit courses. Students that might not necessarily start at a four-year university, they may start at a two-year community college and transfer. That’s why we are trying to expose students to that opportunity to encourage them to move on to that two-year school,” Crandall said.

The average number of college credit classes offered at the 10 local districts is eight to nine. Above that average were Cassadaga Valley, Chautauqua Lake and Dunkirk. Dunkirk and Chautauqua Lake offered the most college credit courses at 15. Included in its total, Chautauqua Lake offers four engineering courses offered by the Rochester Institute for Technology through Project Lead the Way.

Project Lead the Way focuses on science, technology, engineering, and math programs in order to help students develop the skills needed to succeed in a global economy.

Meeting the average number of college credit classes was Gowanda and Pine Valley. Below the average were Brocton, Forestville, Fredonia, Silver Creek and Westfield.

According to High School Principal Jason Delcamp, Brocton has focused more on JCC credit courses than AP, but is working on increasing its offerings across the board.

He said some of the changes in requirements for JCC certifications have allowed Brocton to explore offering more of these college-credit classes in the future.

He also noted AP classes are offered through a new program, Odyssey, which provides online electives to students in a variety of areas. He said they are investigating those opportunities for students for the 2015-2016 school year.

Moses said Forestville High School tries to go the extra mile on an individual basis to do what is best for its students’ futures.

“We try and retrofit our program to fit what our students’ needs or wants are. We have done some creative things, one student in particular last year he took AP Music Theory, so this year he is taking an online college course in his ‘free time.’ We just really try to facilitate that process. The opportunities are out there, it’s just a matter of connecting the dots and figuring out how we can make it work to provide those opportunities,” he added.

The 3-1-3 program through SUNY Fredonia is offered at Brocton, Cassadaga Valley, Dunkirk, Fredonia, Pine Valley and Silver Creek school districts. The name of the program reflects the three years a student spends in high school, one transitional year taking classes in high school and college and then three years at college. Students are selected based on high school grades and SAT/ACT scores. The program includes traveling to campus during a student’s senior year and paying for the cost of classes taken.