Dual Enrollment Students Not Allowed to Use Textbook?

[Aster]

So today, one of my co-workers informed me that he was having a problem with a dual-enrollment student.

Said student said that he was falling behind in class because he could not write in his required textbook. The student said that his high school had purchased the textbook for the student, but the student was not permitted to write in the book.

What. The. $%&*.

[namazu]

Some high schools use a lending library model for textbooks, and charge students for books that are returned in poor condition.  Other high schools sell students the textbooks, with buyback at the end of the year conditional on the book being resellable the next year.  In either case, there are incentives not to write in the book.

It seems an odd excuse for falling behind in a course, in any case.  Maybe it's a failure of my imagination or a hole in my experience (first as a humanities major, then as a social science major, and then in grad school in the sciences)...  Marginalia are great, but notebooks are a thing, too.

[marshwiggle]

Some high schools use a lending library model for textbooks, and charge students for books that are returned in poor condition.  Other high schools sell students the textbooks, with buyback at the end of the year conditional on the book being resellable the next year.  In either case, there are incentives not to write in the book.

It seems an odd excuse for falling behind in a course, in any case.  Maybe it's a failure of my imagination or a hole in my experience (first as a humanities major, then as a social science major, and then in grad school in the sciences)...  Marginalia are great, but notebooks are a thing, too.

And post-it notes. And bookmarks.

[Aster]

Perhaps I should have mentioned that the "textbook" is a laboratory manual. Like, a textbook that one is required to write-in and turn in to receive assessment scores.

There is little point to a laboratory manual if the student cannot write in it. It is not just a passive reading resource.

But I would also be shocked at the "noobness" for any high school offering dual enrollment to not understand some of the most basic differences between college courses and high school courses. Just buy the $%^& book and give it to the student for personal use, just like every college student has their personal book.

I've had loads of dual enrollment students before and I've never heard of any high school pulling such ridiculous shenanigans.

[AvidReader]

I've taught high school and DE both, and our campus currently does (only) rental textbooks for my core classes, so I'm familiar with this issue. I agree with other posters that there are other ways to deal with this, but if this is (purportedly) the only way the student learns, several brands make clear/transparent/translucent post-it notes, and I've had high school students use these with great success in the past. (Currently Office Depot is selling a pack of 50 for $1.50, which is a lot cheaper than failing a course or buying most textbooks).

Note: I now see this no longer applies to your situation. Obviously, this is the school's issue, but could the student photocopy the book?

AR.

[Aster]

Note: I now see this no longer applies to your situation. Obviously, this is the school's issue, but could the student photocopy the book?

Well no. That would be a clear case of copyright infringement. I mean, a high school could *technically* do that just like sheisty professors sometimes do that, but it wouldn't be formally approved by the publishers or most institutions without specific waivers granted by the copyright holder.

[AvidReader]

Ugh, yes, of course. I just hate to see the student penalized for a school rule.

When I taught a high school class with workbooks and a similar rule, I just made my students write out the answers on notebook paper. That puts a lot more weight on the instructor (it is much more obnoxious to grade when all the answers are not formatted the same way).

Sorry you and the instructor are faced with this unpleasant conundrum.

AR.

[Aster]

It is pretty weird. For many of my previous dual enrollment students, each of those students (or really, their parents) normally just bought the required textbook him/herself. I mean after all, dual enrollment students are enrolled in our institution's college class, not a class at the high school. That said student just so happens to still also be enrolled in high school is really mostly a technicality as far as most colleges are concerned.

I don't know why the high school is even getting involved at this level. High school students are certainly not required to take college-level classes. Regular adults are not required to take college level classes either. If you take a college course, you get the necessary materials. If a high school wants to subsidize the required materials costs for any students that they send our way, they either operate appropriately with those student's purchases, or they get out of the way and let the students (parents) take care of it.

[fishbrains]

I can easily see this happening. My experience is that dual enrollment is an area at the high-school level that gets dumped on some poor, already overworked vice-principal who has a bazillion other fires to tend to. My CC and the high schools now make the students/parents buy their books at the book store (or online)--even the students in DE courses we teach in the high schools.

We have a great DE coordinator who keeps things pretty straight and communicates well. It hasn't always been this way.

[marshwiggle]

I'm curious. Some labs, like chemistry, have supply and "breakage" fees that students pay. Would the school pay for those, or would the student? The principle involved in treating the lab manual like a textbook which the school pays for and owns wouldn't make any sense in that situation.

[AvidReader]

My current university (southern US) and a previous university a few states over both have robust DE programs. I remember that one of my DE students at Previous Uni took extra time to get her books because the school bought them for her and it took a while. Current Uni actually offers courses on the high school campuses, and I think we provide all their books as part of the fee (so the lab notebook would probably not be an issue? I don't teach a lab course, so I don't know). I think both these schools rely heavily on having DE students transfer in. Neither school was in an especially wealthy region, so I suspect that many of the students who receive books at no cost now will subsequently have grants and loans to cover them.

AR.