The Utah State Board of Education recently awarded Park City High a certificate for exemplary education. The 2026 certificate is for having the highest percentage of English learners statewide enrolled in college-level classes.
Melanie Moffat teaches students learning English as a second language at the high school. She said it’s amazing to receive the recognition.
“It makes you feel like all this work you've done is paying off,” she said. “There are programs that work for the students, they do have the ability to do extremely well if given the opportunity and if given the proper support.”
Over 95% of Park City high schoolers whose first language isn’t English are enrolled in Concurrent Enrollment (CE) classes. The courses are taught by Park City teachers using Weber State University or Utah Valley University curriculum and assessment tools.
Almost 41% of English learners at Park City are enrolled in another type of college-level class, called Advanced Placement (AP). Colleges and universities nationwide allow students to skip introductory courses if they’ve passed specific AP exams.
Around 20% of Park City High students’ first language isn’t English. Moffat said they are successful in college-level classes thanks to the Dream Big program. It was started 10 years ago to help first-generation students be prepared for college.
Through the program, Moffat said students prep for college-level classes the summer before they take them.
“We prep them in the summer to know how to take notes, Cornell notes, how to study,” she said. “The AP teacher comes in and teaches a prep class in the summer, so that when they get to the class in the fall, they're not intimidated.”
Getting to know the academic language before the class is especially helpful for students to feel comfortable in rigorous courses.
Moffat said during the second year of the program, after a summer chemistry prep course, teachers were already seeing a difference. The chemistry teacher told Moffat an English language learner raised their hand the first day of class and confidently gave an answer.
“She said it changed the total dynamic of the class. Kids were saying, ‘I want to sit next to him, he knows what he's doing,’ and that is irreplaceable,” Moffat said. “It leveled the playing field.”
A decade later, the program has seen lots of success, with about 82% of program participants attending college.
“Another thing that has been really exciting to see, is when Dream Big kids come back and work in the community,” Moffat said. “We have a student, and she got her degree in public health, and now she works for the People's Health Clinic.”
But if students aren’t ready for the Dream Big program, Moffat said the district has other programs to help them. For example, the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol program provides instruction in K-12 students’ native language, typically Spanish, as well as in English.
Moffat said one student who began attending Park City schools in eighth grade knowing very little English is now taking aviation courses at the high school.
“He wants to be a pilot. He's taking Concurrent Enrollment English, Concurrent Enrollment Math, which means he gets high school and college credit,” Moffat said. “It's amazing to think that he came and in five years, he's college-ready, and he's graduating with about 20 college credits.”
The state board plans to feature Park City High School's success as a model for other districts at an Alternative Language Services meeting March 25.
