Duel credit students are under prepared for the demand required of a college writing course and this presentation will demonstrate techniques instructors can use to raise the bar for the duel credit student in their writing classroom.

The Goals of this presentation are to address the shortcomings of the duel credit student and provide instructors with techniques to apply to their classroom so that students can be successful Duel credit shortcomings: unprepared for the amount of reading, outside work, critical thinking. Many duel credit students enter a college classroom being grade driven and used to getting grades for simply handing in anything. Instructors have to raise the bar and show duel credit students that quality is more important than quantity, deadlines matter, critical thinking is valued and that reading is essential to academic success. The ways in which instructors hold this line with duel credit students is not by giving them leeway or exceptions, but by holding fast to the rigorous academic standards that colleges are founded on. Giving zeros, not allowing late work, breaking students on the 5 paragraph essay, making students accountable for every reading, and demanding attendance and dialogue in the classroom. Allowing the duel credit student to see themselves as having individual value in the classroom, instead of seeing school as just a grade will improve the students success across the board.

Duel Credit students have the ability to be both the most challenging and most rewarding students on a college campus. The struggle many professors face with duel credit students is that they have developed bad academic habits. With standardized testing at the forefront of secondary education, high school teachers are forced to forego a certain standard of rigor which is necessary for success in a college classroom. If College instructors maintain high standards for these duel credit students, the students will be more successful in the long run.