Jesús Daniel Ruiz Villamil just started learning English when he came to South Division High School from Colombia in 2020. By his junior year, he was earning college credit by taking dual enrollment and Advanced Placement courses. 

“It gave me kind of a freedom to choose and get to know other types of majors and classes that I was interested in,” he said.

By the time he finished his first semester at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he had earned enough credits to be considered a sophomore. 

Ruiz Villamil is one of hundreds of South Division students who have taken advantage of dual enrollment courses. Dual enrollment courses allow high school students to take college classes to earn early college credit.

Some Milwaukee Public Schools students take courses on college campuses like UWM and the Milwaukee Area Technical College and others take courses in their high school. 

At South Division and other schools, students can earn high school and college credit at the same time while taking courses taught by high school professors certified to teach college courses. 

Classes can range from introduction to college English and math to advanced Spanish and Latin American and Caribbean studies. 

‘I belong in a college classroom’

At the beginning of each school year, South Division High School teacher Francisca Meráz reviews her roster of dual enrollment students, looking for strengths and weaknesses to help prepare them for her college-level class. 

Meráz teaches College Writing 100, a college-level English course designed for multilingual students. Over 50% of the students at South Division are English learners, according to the 2023-2024 state report card. That number rose to 62% last school year, according to José Trejo, principal at South Division.  

Students enrolled in Meráz’s course, which she teaches at South Division, receive high school and college credit at the same time, which transfers to UWM. 

Meráz is one of dozens of MPS teachers approved to teach college classes inside Milwaukee high schools. 

Meráz’s class sizes are small to match the close-knit classes at UWM, which she said helps her give more individualized attention to each student and modify her teaching “in a way that I might not be able to in a traditional high school class that’s a little bit bigger.”

Meráz said she tries to build a trusting environment in the classroom because she knows from her own experience that it can be intimidating to write, get and use feedback.

“It’s a lot of reading and a lot of writing. So, it’s the two things that a lot of our multilingual learners don’t necessarily love to be involved in,” Meráz said. “But we build a really positive supportive classroom environment, and that’s a really important expectation from Day One.”

Meráz said she has seen her college writing class give students the confidence to say, “I belong in a college classroom.” Though classes are in the South Division building, she also takes students to the UWM campus to sit in classrooms, collaborating and chatting with college students. 

Meráz said it’s beautiful to see her students make connections with college students with similar backgrounds who are learning the same content. 

“Where they are in their journey as language learners is respected and validated within the university institution,” she said. “That’s really important for them.” 

Courses help students understand career goals

Ruiz Villamil, who now studies sociology and Spanish at UWM, said his dual enrollment courses helped him build the time management skills to succeed in college and decide what he wanted to study there. 

“I felt especially the Spanish class and the Latin American and Caribbean studies taught me to, you know, think about if this could be a real option for me,” he said.

Students also have other pathway options, like earning their Certified Nursing Assistant, or CNA, certificate directly in the classroom. An MATC professor comes to the lab and students get the necessary training to pass the CNA exam and enter the medical field. The CNA course is offered through the National Academy Foundation.

Meráz said students typically either love or hate the CNA program. Either way, she thinks the experience is valuable because students who love it can directly enter the medical field and students who hate it learn more about their career goals.

Trejo said English-learning students tended to struggle with medical terminology in the program. This year, Trejo said, enough English-learning students are in the CNA program to have a cohort to provide specific ESL support to students if they’re struggling.

Dual enrollment in South Division Grows

Trejo said dual enrollment courses at South Division are growing, with more courses and programs offered in the school each year. Last year, the school introduced two new courses and leaders hope to introduce one or two more next year. 

“We’re excited about these courses,” Trejo said. “We’ve seen a lot of value for our students, so we want to be able to obviously continue growing it.”

The most recent state report card, which uses data from the 2022-2023 school year, said 5% of South Division students completed dual enrollment courses. 

But dual enrollment at South Division has grown since then. And students aren’t just participating more; they’re also passing at greater rates.

Two years ago, 69% of South Division students taking dual enrollment courses passed. Tentative district numbers provided by MPS suggest that 88% of students who dual enrolled last school year passed. 

Trejo said offering dual enrollment courses in the high school has worked well for South Division students, many who have unique needs as English language learners. 

Ruiz Villamil liked taking his dual enrollment classes at South Division because he already knew his professors from previous years, which helped him feel more comfortable and adjust to the workload. 

For example, his college algebra teacher spoke Spanish, which helped when he had questions. Taking a class on a college campus right away would have been a much different experience.

“He had more patience. He had more time to explain,” he said. “It would’ve been a completely different thing if I would go maybe to the UWM campus and I have never talked to that professor before.”

Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

This article first appeared on Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.