Gainesville ISD is proud to partner with North Central Texas College to offer a wide variety of dual credit options, including academic and career and technical courses.  Dual Credit is an opportunity for 9th - 12th grade students to earn college credit and high school credit simultaneously.  This year, Gainesville High School had 85 students enrolled in at least one dual credit academic course and an additional 60 in one of the NCTC certification programs.  A total of 1,635 college credit hours were earned!

Academic Route

Students who choose the academic dual credit route have several options for taking college courses, two of which require committing to the Collegiate Academy in 9th grade and following a dual credit course plan for all four years.  The first option is to earn an Associate degree, which requires completion of 60 college credit hours. The second option consists of earning 42 college credit hours to be considered “core complete”, which enables the student to have a block of courses that can be transferred to any state university in Texas. The advantage of both of these options is that students can enter a university with one-third of their bachelor’s degree complete. The third option is for students to enroll in dual credit courses later in high school, typically earning between 3 and 30 college hours.

The GHS Class of 2024 had eight students who completed the Collegiate Academy with four earning an Associates degree and four obtaining core completion.

The students who earned an Associate Degree are Carl Little, Lisette Moreno, Justin Peters, and Joey Stephens.  Students who are Core Complete are Emily Martinez, April Mendez, Melanie Moreno, and Daniel Quevedo.

Technical Route

Students who choose the technical route as juniors have the potential to earn industry certification before graduation, allowing them to enter the workforce immediately after high school. These hands-on programs give our students the experience and confidence needed to be successful in their chosen career. If they attend part-time during the fall and spring semesters, they may graduate with a certificate in two years.

The Class of 2024 included five students who obtained a cosmetology certificate, which required four semesters in the program. Those students are: Guadalupe Galan, Emily Galvan, Emily Mesta, Leslie Morales, and Alicia Munoz.

In addition, 15 students earned a Level 1 welding certificate. A Level 1 certificate requires 15-42 credit hours and is usually completed in one to three semesters. Welding certification students are Gabriel Archilla, Ezequiel Coyaso Perez, Erick Flores, Jose Flores, Jennifer Gomez, Ingrid Hernandez Palacios, Jaelin Jefferson, Alvaro Lira, Angel Martinez, Omar Ramos, Lucas Riddle, George Salmeron, Corey Steinmetz, Enrique Gomez, and Alan Bustos.  Overall, this is the largest group of technical certificate graduates in one class.