Getting a jump on college (at a discount)

MIAMI - In one corner of Miami Dade College's sprawling Kendall, Fla., campus, Tiffany Pineda slips into class. Attenzione! It's time for Italian pronouns and grammar.

In jeans, a black tank top, and red sneakers, she looks like a typical college student. But she's a 16-year-old high school junior.

Like Tiffany, a growing number of high school students are taking college courses before graduation, a practice called dual enrollment that rewards them with tuition-free college credits.

For high schools, it gives students a way to accelerate. It can also help lift the schools' academic standing; in 2010, Florida started to factor dual enrollment into state-issued letter grades.

That has created a surge in dual enrollment through Florida International University, according to FIU provost Douglas Wartzok - an eightfold rise over the last three years.

Across Florida, the number of students who participated in dual enrollment last year rose 23 percent.

In Miami-Dade County Public Schools, students can participate in a number of ways:

They can take a college class at their home school, taught by a Miami-Dade teacher who has been credentialed by FIU, which last year saw about 5,500 students enroll in classes at high schools.

A university professor can come to the high school to teach.

Students can take classes at a college campus.

Students can apply for early admission and take their senior year at a university.

At Westland Hialeah Senior High, about 230 of the 1,950 students - nearly 12 percent - take classes through FIU. An additional 94 go to Miami-Dade College for courses. Those programs not only helped Westland Hialeah lift its state grade to an A from a B, said principal Guillermo Munoz, but they also reflected a change in culture at the young school.

Miami-Dade County schools and FIU share the expense of dual enrollment, which costs the public university about $250,000, Wartzok said. "As the school system gets better, the community gets better, and that's good for everyone, including the university."

The demand for dual-enrollment programs in neighboring Broward County has grown so much that two high schools - Coconut Creek and South Broward in Hollywood - are starting programs in which teachers accredited by Broward College will teach at the schools.