Centennial offers a variety of ways to earn college credit. Not just in school, but outside of school as well. For some time now, AP classes and College Now classes have been available for students to receive college credit inside of school. Also, CAL & ACE offer college credit, emphasizing career preparation at on off-campus site. And starting next fall a Mt. Hood Middle College Program will be available for students.

With the AP classes, an in-school opportunity, it’s a bit more challenging to receive the credits as simply taking the class won’t earn a student college credits.  Instead, students must earn acceptable scores on the respective AP exam to earn corresponding college credit.

College Now, also an in-school opportunity, is very similar to AP classes. However, in order to receive college credit, registration must be submitted online. A student may be taking the class, but if he/she hasn’t registered, s/he will not be eligible for college credit. Unlike AP classes, College Now students do not need to pass an exam to earn credit but they do have to earn a C or better in the class.

CAL (Center For Advanced Learning) & ACE (Architecture, Construction, & Engineering) are charter schools that also offer college credit. With CAL, five career fields are available: Health Sciences, English, Mechanical Engineering, Digital Media & Design, and Computer Information Systems.  However at ACE, the main focuses are Architecture, Construction and Engineering. These programs, while offering college credit, give students an opportunity to explore different fields of careers as well as participating in hands on projects.

Soon enough, Centennial School District will be signing a contract with Mt. Hood Community College to offer students a Middle College Program. This means students enrolled at CHS will be able to take all of their courses at MHCC, earning college and high school credits at the same time. College Placement Exams will be given to interested students in order to determine their readiness Middle College.