Amarillo College’s new eight-week classes might well be game-changing for some, life-changing for others – like Courtney Honeycutt, who must attend college full time in order to retain her residency at Buckner Family Pathways.

Thanks to AC’s burgeoning eight-week class structure, Courtney will be able to take two classes in the first half of the upcoming fall semester and two more during the second eight weeks.

By taking four classes this fall, but only two at a time, Courtney can maintain her full-time status and still have plenty of time for her 10-month-old daughter Kaydence and the son she will give birth to in mid-October – right around Fall Break.

“I don’t know what I would do without these eight-week classes,” Courtney said. “It spaces out the classes so I only have to deal with two at a time, and that’s going to give me more time for my kids. If I had to take four classes at once, there is no way, with just Kaydence in my lap, I’d be able to do all my homework.

“And the second eight-weeks will be online classes,” she said. “With a baby on the way, that has taken a lot of worry off my mind because it’s something I now know I can handle.” 

Buckner’s provides affordable housing, access to childcare assistance and a variety of other services for single parents like Courtney, but to live there she is required to be a full-time student in good standing, a status through which she also qualifies for maximum federal financial aid – a very good thing, indeed.

History Professor Brian Farmer, whose class Courtney successfully navigated this summer, said AC’s inclusion of more and more eight-week classes, was inspired, at least in part, by people like Courtney.

“She is the reason, or at least one of the reasons, why this shift to eight-week courses is so important,” Farmer said. “This format breaks the semester up into manageable portions, allows her to stay in her apartment, to get financial aid, spend necessary time with her family and, ultimately, to stay in school.”

AC began infusing its course catalog with eight-week classes last year and they at once became both popular and effective. At least 50 percent of AC classes are available in the new format this fall, with at least 80 percent expected to be available by next spring.

AC, thanks to the new format, not only experienced a staggering 9.3-percent increase in contact (classroom) hours last spring, but the College has so far seen an 11.84-percent shift of part-time students to full-time status.

At the same time, there was a 9-percent increase in student-success rates among 8-week students as compared to their traditional 16-week counterparts.

Not so long ago, one had to be enrolled in no fewer than four classes at once to be considered a full-time student at Amarillo College. That’s a tall order for any single parent, but especially for the mother of a 10-month-old, with another on the way.

That is not the order of things today.

August 8, 2016