College Ready

CHS courses don’t just help students earn credits. They help students prepare for college. In fact, among new undergraduate students at Pitt, those who have taken CHS classes in high school continue on at a rate that is 5 percent higher than their peers who did not participate in CHS.

Skills for success

By taking actual college classes, students develop the time management, test-taking, and study skills they will need to succeed in college, and learn how to manage a college work load. By trying college classes out early, students can identify what skills they may need to further develop and address them, before they get to college.

A sneak peek at college life

The classes provided by CHS are hands-on and immersive—they offer authentic college course content and assessments. Students taking CHS Chemistry come to Pitt’s campus to work in state-of-the-art science labs, and many CHS teachers bring their students to Pitt to tour and explore the campus. The opportunities CHS provides—both inside and outside of the classroom—are like a sneak peek of what college is really like.

Pitt-certified instructors

The key to delivering real college classes in a high school classroom is close collaboration between the high school teacher and Pitt’s expert faculty. Pitt’s CHS program provides training and certification to new CHS teachers, and pairs each teacher with a faculty liaison. The teachers work closely with this faculty mentor and come to campus for professional development at least once per year. It’s a win-win. Students receive high quality, college-level instruction and teachers receive ongoing professional development and support.

Measuring more than one test score

Just as in college, student performance is measured throughout the course. The grade a student receives in a CHS course reflects the work and learning they accomplished throughout the entire year, rather than a single test. In this way, the grade more accurately reflects performance, and students can better measure how they perform at the college level.