At Gretna High School, Dual Credit classes are offered through Metropolitan Community College. However, this is different from what most high schools do. More commonly, high schools offer Advanced Placement (AP) classes. AP classes are rigorous classes offered to help students prepare for college. At the end of the class, students pay to take an exam that decides whether they get college credits for the class or not.
“They’re a national network of courses that schools can put into place. You have to have your teachers trained to teach those classes,” Principal Theresa Huttmann said.
AP classes offer benefits such as helping to prepare students for college and giving them the chance to earn college credit.
“They speak to what students need to know in preparation for college and beyond. They run the gamut from languages to the sciences, to, in my case, I taught AP Literature, which is the capstone course for English,” said English teacher Tim Kaldahl. Kaldahl teaches dual credit Composition I, II, and Introduction to Literature classes at GHS. He taught AP classes at Omaha Westside High School for five years.
The AP offers more than 30 courses. Some of the most commonly offered AP courses include AP English Language and Composition, U.S. History, English Literature, and World History.
“We used to have it. We used to have one AP class back when I first started, and it was one teacher. It was AP Language and Composition,” Huttmann said.
After that teacher left, Gretna stopped offering that class. Instead, they went a different route.
“We have always gone the route of dual credit. So with dual credit, you have a guarantee that you can, if you pass the class, you have a guarantee that you have those credits,” Huttmann said.
There are good reasons behind the school’s decision to stick with dual credit in place of AP.
“We haven’t done it because we’ve always kind of felt that dual credit is more of a guarantee for college credit than AP is. Unfortunately, AP is more universally accepted if you pass the test. So if you do get a 4 or 5 on the test, it will go to almost any college, whereas some of our dual credit classes, they might not transfer as that class,” Huttmann said.
There are also downsides to dual credit classes.
“So for example, if you take dual credit psychology at Gretna, you will get a credit through Metro Community College. And if you go to a college somewhere else where they don’t accept community college courses, it probably will only transfer as an elective class,” Huttmann said. “So they’re not going to say you can’t use it, but you might not be able to use it specifically towards one degree.”
One downside of AP classes is that you have to pay to take the test. The cost is about $85, and even though that isn’t extremely expensive, the cost can add up when a student is taking multiple AP classes. In contrast to that, dual credit classes are free of cost.
“They kind of achieve the same purpose. But some people just view AP as better, more rigorous, more important in some worlds,” Huttmann said.
Huttmann also shared that the school is looking at adding AP courses in addition to dual credit courses.
“It has a really positive connotation in the education world,” Huttmann said.
Having AP classes at Gretna will certainly be beneficial for everyone.
“We have a dual credit biology course right now that most aligns with AP Bio,” Huttmann said, “So we’ll probably double dip that one first and then social studies, the history department, is in a curriculum cycle.”
Huttmann said that the AP courses won’t be added next year, but possibly the 2027-2028 school year.
