By Illinois Radio Network

SPRINGFIELD – In Illinois, access to educational resources is limited in rural schools.

One of those resources is higher level course options for students and it’s having a negative impact on college enrollment for students in rural communities.

Cindy Hamblin, director of Illinois Virtual School, said rural schools typically are unable to offer a robust catalog of high school courses when their student enrollment cannot support numerous course options. IVS, the statewide virtual school established by the Illinois State Board of Education, has a solution. It offers online courses taught by a certified teacher. Course credits are added to students’ transcripts, Hamblin said.

“Using IVS does allow the rural schools to expand their course offering to higher levels, to more elective courses, even AP (advanced placement) courses,” Hamblin said.

According to a report by the Governor’s Rural Affairs Council (GRAC), between 2011 and 2015, 37 percent of people over the age of 25 in rural communities had only a high school education. In urban communities, 25.4 percent of people over the age of 25 had only a high school education.

IVS is doing its part to bridge the education gap by offering 147 core and elective courses for high school and middle school students.

“We have 40 learning recovery courses for students that fall behind. Making those higher level courses available to students, whether it’s electives or core, will help them be better prepared,” Hamblin said.

Rural schools can’t offer a diverse selection of electives and advanced placement courses because of low teacher salaries, a lack of school funding and a lack of broadband, according to the GRAC report.

Hamblin said students with access to online AP courses can take the AP test and earn college credits. This can lessen the financial burden for rural area parents.

“If they earn a high enough score, they automatically can get that college credit when they enroll in college so therefore that reduces the tuition for that student,” Hamblin said.

Hamblin said working with community colleges to offer dual credits is another solution, but the current system prevents that from happening statewide.

“We need a solution on articulation among the community colleges that an approved dual credit course approved by one community college can also be utilized throughout the state,” Hamblin said.

As it stands now, every community college would have to go through a course approval process with IVS, which is hindering the advancement of the dual credit option.