ECS: 13 key policy components for dual enrollment

During my presentation last week at the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships (NACEP) 2011 national conference, I identified the 13 key pieces of state policy that, adopted as a whole, can greatly enhance student access and quality of dual enrollment programs.

Right now the national picture on state-level dual enrollment policies is mixed--while all but 4 states have legislation or other statewide policies governing dual enrollment programs, it is not clear that any state has "checked the box" on all of the 13 components of dual enrollment policy (a related policy brief will be on the ECS Web site soon). Meanwhile, state and national student participation data suggest that not all students capable of succeeding in a dual enrollment environment are getting into these courses. According to NCES data, just under 7 out of 10 public high schools in 2007-08 had dual enrollment for high school and college credit. I have a hard time believing that in the remaining 30% of public high schools, there isn't a single student who is not motivated or academically advanced enough to succeed in a dual enrollment course.

It could be that many of these 30% of public high schools without dual enrollment opportunities are rural high schools, where high school staff have limited opportunities for collaboration with postsecondary faculty for the offering of dual enrollment courses. If so, that creates all the more imperative for the development of high-quality online dual enrollment programs--North Carolina's Learn and Earn Online is just one model for states to consider. Every high school in the state is eligible to participate, and there is no cost to the student or the student's family. Courses may be accessed during the regular school day or after school, and during the regular school year or, in the case of NC Community College System courses, during the summer break.

Ohio High School and Higher Education Alignment Initiative

According to a [Cleveland] Plain Dealer blog post, Ohio has recently announced the Ohio High School and Higher Education Alignment Initiative, an effort to help K-12 and higher ed. get on the same page to improve high school graduates' college-readiness. According to the post, "Ten grants, each worth $100,000 over three years, will be awarded in January to consortia of high schools, universities and career centers that submit the best proposal to create partnerships so that high school students can move successfully into college. Two grants will be awarded in each of five regions across the state".

Partnerships will align high school graduation requirements with college-readiness expectations. Each partnership must include at least four high schools from at least two districts (at least one district must be participating in Race to the Top), as well as two community colleges or four-year institutions. This alignment will be facilitated by the fact that the "state legislature has required public universities and community colleges to jointly establish uniform statewide standards in math, science, reading and writing by 2013", as the blog post states. The post also cites a spokesperson for the Ohio Board of Regents as saying the chancellor supports a 10th grade college readiness assessment.

Ireland: Also examining secondary to postsecondary transitions

Last month I had the opportunity to participate in a colloquium hosted in Dublin, Ireland by IA/HERO, the Irish American Higher Education Research Organisation. The colloquium this year was focused largely around the leaving certificate or "leaving cert", which might be described in short as a combination exit exam and college entrance exam. Many feel that there are numerous problems with the leaving cert system as it exists now. A Sept. 21 conference on the leaving cert issue convened a diverse array of education stakeholders from across Ireland, including the Minister of Education and Skills, and we American IA/HERO delegates were fortunate enough to be able to attend. In green below is an excerpt from a paper prepared for the conference by Professor Áine Hyland.

The following is a list of some of the key concerns raised by various stakeholders, within and outside the education system:

• Many students are entering higher education without adequate skills (including numeracy and literacy skills) to cope with higher education.
• The Leaving Certificate rewards rote-learning and does not reward problem-solving, critical thinking, or self-directed learning. Consequently many students make the transition to higher education without the generic skills needed to cope successfully at that level

These sound very much like the issues states are grappling with as they re-evaluate high school exams, including exit exams. I heard repeatedly during the colloquium that the new Minister of Education and Skills, Ruairi Quinn, has the leaving cert on his reform agenda. Perhaps changes to the leaving cert can inform improvements to U.S. efforts to embed college-readiness indicators in high school assessments.

Florida: Postsecondary preparation or bust!

Florida has had legislation for a few years requiring high schools to evaluate before the end of grade12 the college readiness of students who've expressed an interest in postsecondary education and who score at certain levels on the reading portion of the grade 10 FCAT or (in the most recent iteration) the math end-of-course exams and math portion of the FCAT. High schools were required to advise these students of identified deficiencies and make available to 12th graders postsecondary remedial instruction. Now in the 2011 legislature, the state has upped the ante--this evaluation of 12th graders' college readiness is for all students, not just those who have expressed an interest in postsecondary education, and 12th graders identified as not being college-ready must complete appropriate postsecondary preparatory instruction before they graduate from high school (see sec. 26, starting on page 56 of H.B. 1255).

While some other states provide these types of courses designed to help students meet postsecondary entrance expectations, this is the first instance I've seen of a state making this type of remedial instruction essentially a high school graduation requirement for students not ready for college. Will postsecondary remediation rates drop substantially after this law goes into effect? Will there be pushback from students (and/or parents) who don't feel they (or their kids) should be required to complete a postsecondary preparation course if their immediate plans don't include college? As with so many other policy developments identified on this blog--it's anyone's guess. But (again as with so many other policies highlighted here), it will be interesting to see how this one plays out--will other states follow Florida's lead, or will Florida amend this law if there's too much negative response from stakeholders or if postsecondary remediation rates do not drop appreciably?