IU offers high school diplomas

Since 1999 the Independent Studies Program has included IU High School as a means for students to earn their high school degrees from a distance. Students enroll and take classes online taught by both IU professors and high school teachers.\n"The students never enter a classroom and only know their teachers by e-mail," said IU High School Director Dan Bopp.\nAnne Marie Circle is a high school teacher in West Lafayette. With no equivalent program at Purdue, she took on IU High School's part-time work. She teaches pre-calculus and geometry at her high school and business, personal finance and geometry for the distance-learning program.\n"It's nice to work on my own time, but it's rough not interacting with the students," Circle said. "I try to get some grading done every night so that I can keep up." \nPeter Friedericks is a graduate of the program and said he plans to get his college degree from IU this fall. After living in Virginia, Kenya and Nebraska, his family moved to Tanzania in 1995 as Christian missionaries. After finishing the 10th grade in the Haven of Peace Academy, he completed his degree through the IU program based on a suggestion from the director of the academy. He has taken advantage of the dual-credit option.\n"I particularly enjoyed the dual-credit courses because of the way they challenged me," Friedericks said. "I enjoy challenges, because they push me to succeed and to work harder." \nIU has been offering high school classes since 1920, allowing more than just college students a chance to reach their "educational aspirations," Bopp said. \nAs a lawyer, Bopp was asked to consider the legalities of creating a program offering diplomas which was eventually launched in 1999. Now, high school courses from here can be transferred while high school credits can also be transferred to the IUHS program. Most of the students enrolled in the program do not enroll for all of the required 40 semester credits, but rather finish what they started.\n"Most of these students are training athletes or home schooled," Bopp said. "Some are even in jail. They have various backgrounds and transferring credits is not an uncommon occurrence."\nEven though IU High School gives students an opportunity to get a high school education outside of the traditional setting, it is not a G.E.D. certificate.\n"(The G.E.D.) teaches just the basic skills and is given when a standardized test is taken," Bopp said.\nIU High School is accredited by the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. In contrast to the General Education Development, a diploma from IUHS is not viewed differently from other diplomas.\n"It is a school that offers its full array of courses at a distance and is modeled after a traditional four-year course of study," said Judy Wertheim, dean of the School of Continuing Studies, which IUHS is a part.\nBecause the program demands so much self discipline to complete classes entirely online without being forced to go to class, and with little instructor interaction, only about half of the enrolled students complete their degree, Bopp said. \nCurrently 102 students have graduated. Once the students complete their degrees they receive an authentic leather-bound diploma sent to them in the mail, Bopp said.\n"(IUHS) assists many people with educational aspirations," Bopp said.\n-- Contact staff writer Benjames Derrick at bjderrick@indiana.edu.