Troy University and Houston County Schools have announced an articulation agreement that will allow some students at the Houston County Career Academy to receive college credit.

Starting this fall, high school students who pass through the HCCA’s education-in-training program will earn credit hours at Troy University.

Dr. Hank Dasinger, Dean of the College of Education, said the class at the academy is designed to help students interested in teaching become acquainted with the field.

“Our team on the Troy Campus looked at this three-course sequence at the career academy and realized it looks exactly like what we would teach to brand new students who want to go into teaching,” Dasinger said. “We went to work building an Introduction to Teaching course, lined it up with that three-course sequence here at the academy and signed the agreement with Houston County Schools that, for students who complete that sequence, if they come to TROY, they get credit for that course.”

Students who complete the course will receive three credit hours at TROY.

Dana Bell, the education in training teacher at the HCCA, said the “introduction to education” class is designed to help students decide if education is the right path for them and, if so, which area of education they’d like to pursue.

“We cover elementary, special education, high school, counseling – we cover everything so that they know all the avenues they can go into and then make a good choice,” Bell said. “The students go to elementary classrooms so that the children are smaller and younger than them, but several of our students want to become high school teachers or counselors.”

Dasinger said discussions are underway with state officials to expand this program statewide.