Dual Credit Partnership

Dual Credit Court Reporting Partnership between Del Mar College and the Corpus Christi Independent School District

Collaboration between Del Mar College (DMC) and the Corpus Christi Independent School District (CCISD) has led to a Dual Credit program that allows high school students to earn college credits before they graduate.

Students can earn up to 10 hours of college credit toward the DMC’s college-level program by earning a “B” or better in their coursework and enrolling in the College’s program within two years of graduation from high school.

Darcy Gohlke, DMC Professor of Court Reporting, says that the high school students in the class utilize technology to master skills that often prove daunting to college-aged students. “Each student has his or her own computerized writer and computer,” Gohlke says. “It’s interesting to watch them hear words, then write them and then receive reinforcement from the computer as to whether they were successful with their writing.”

Gohlke first proposed a high school-level court reporting program to CCISD in 1999, which was first offered at Miller High School in 2000. Now, Collegiate High School students have the opportunity to take court reporting classes while at the College.

Del Mar College offers an associate in applied science degree in court reporting and a certificate in information reporting. Gohlke says the College’s program, which launched in 1972, also offers an online court reporting course. The class has attracted students from 35 states and international students from Canada, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom since the program went online in 1998.

Upon graduation, students seeking employment as court reporters must pass the Certified Shorthand Reporting (CSR) Exam, a competence test given by the Court Reporters Certification Board in Austin.

• Court reporting graduates who successfully pass the rigorous CSR exam have at least four areas of reporting to consider:
  • A freelance reporter can take depositions and provide out-of-courtroom services that usually include a per page fee in addition to a flat job fee. Nearly two-thirds of all court reporters are freelancers who work outside the courtroom.
  • Courtroom reporters earn a salary plus a per page fee.
  • Reporters can also provide Communication Access Real-time Translation services (real-time writing for the deaf and hearing impaired on a closed circuit viewing screen).
  • Broadcast captioners provide captions of live television programs for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers through real-time technology that instantly produces English text.

While incomes vary greatly depending on the amount of time reporters are available to work, Gohlke says that an official court reporter at the Nueces County Courthouse generally makes between $40,000 and $50,000 a year. According to the National Court Reporters Association, court reporters make an average of more than $60,000 a year.

Projections in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2008-2009 Occupational Outlook Handbook show the need for court reporters will grow by 25 percent by 2016, faster than the average for all occupations over that time span.