Senior Shannon Kennedy has just completed the second chapter in her consumer education course. She sets down her laptop, grabs her swimsuit, and meets her friends at the pool. She is not a fan of summer homework, but taking consumer education over the summer was a no brainer, knowing this meant more room in her schedule senior year.
“It gave me the opportunity to take other classes during the school year,” senior Shannon Kennedy said. “I was able to make the course fit to my own schedule.”
Kennedy is one of 84 students who started an alternate study course during the 2013-2014 school year. Alternate study works as an equivalent to either a semester or a full year of a high school course. Students can sign up for up to two full credit alternate studies or four half-credit alternate studies in their tenure.
“The two most popular reasons to take an alternate study course are that the student needs more time in their schedule to take other things they need for post-secondary or for interest,” Devore-Benitez said. “The other reason students who need to make up courses.”
According to Devore-Benitez, consumer education is the most popular alternative study course overall.
Consumer education is a state requirement that minimum has to meet 50 minutes a day for nine weeks, however District 99 packages the course as a semester long course or its equivalent in alternative study. There are four options to fulfill the credit: the consumer education course, the consumer math course, or the personal economics; the final option being an alternative, out of school study.
Before July 2010, The Illinois Board of Education offered the Illinois Consumer Education Proficiency Test (ICEPT), which allowed students to test out of the consumer education course with a passing grade. Since then, the test was discontinued due to the lack of Illinois budget for the test.
“If the ICEPT was an option I would taken it and probably tested out. A lot of this stuff was things I already knew or things my parents taught me. It would be good to be given the opportunity to show what you already know,” Kennedy said.
Consumer education, among other courses are offered through independent programs through Brigham Young University, Keystone, Teens on Campus, and College of DuPage courses.
Junior Alice Couteille used an alternative credit course the summer before her junior year.
“I took a BYU out of school study to gain more of an algebra background to get into AAT 400 or AAT in general. [When I transferred from Canada], my math credit was [sufficient as] a prerequisite for geometry, but not enough for AAT,” Couteille said.
Above all, Devore-Benitez stresses that most students underestimate the rigor and time consumption of an independent study.
“It’s not a blow off class, and you have to be focused and be able to set your schedule as far as planning things out for when they need to be done,”Devore-Benitez said. “It’s the responsibility of the student and his or her family to fully complete everything on time.”
Rachel Krusenoski | Editor-in-Chief