T he cure for skimpy, inadequate high school course offer- ings is often as close asthe nearest community college. In the past decade, the search for more challenging academic fare has led thousands of high school juniors and seniors to community colleges where the courses they take may satisfy high school graduation requirements, in addition to giving them a jump on a college degree. Currently 23 states permit “dual enrollment,” a policy allowing high school students to take college courses without sacrificing their high school status or eligibility to partici- pate in extra curricular activities. Between 1993 and 1997, according to the latest available data, the percentage of under-18 part-time enrollment in community colleges rose from 1.6 percent to 4.9 percent, an increase of 206 percent in four years. There are many reasons why high schools fail to meet the educa- tional needs of some students. One is related to geography: Rural states such as Utah and Vermont typically have small schools that cannot offer the wide array of course choices found in larger, comprehensive, metropolitan area high schools. Indeed rural schools everywhere face similar problems. Long before their junior year, gifted students often tear through the most advanced classes that even a big high school can offer. But average high school students who have carefully plotted a college preparatory curriculum also frequently find that they have run out of courses to take by the middle of their junior or senior year. Some succumb to the “senior slump,” take only one or two courses and loaf or work a part-time job. But more and more of these students, recognizing the advantages to an early start on a costly college education, are signing up for classes at community colleges. Capturing disengaged high school students is a community college success story, and not onlyin Vermont. Sometimes transporting these students just for a class or two into the more challenging environ- ment of a community college puts students who never considered themselves college material on a college track. “High schools don’t work for every student,” observes Bette Matkowski, Dean of Enrollment at the Community College of Vermont, the state’s only community college. Matkowski sees three distinct groups of teenagers at the school’s 12 branches: Those looking for enrichment or advanced courses because their high school doesn’t offer them, home-schooled students whose parents lack the expertise to teach a particular subject, and disen- gaged students who mentally have dropped out of high school. Vermont is not a “dual enroll- ment” state, so parents must pay the community college course fees unless federal funds kick in for eligible students. Despite the $406 cost of a three-credit course, the Community College of Vermont counts about 250 under-18-year-olds among its 8,000 to 9,000 students. In some places, such partner- ships are frowned upon by high schools. Politics, money and union power are all factors in the turf wars that occur as states seek to offer students more educational choices. But there are striking examples of cooperation and innovation. Willow River High School in Duluth, Minnesota, is a rural school with only 600 students in grades K- 12. The school was financially strapped, didn’t have many academic options to offer, and its kids weren’t going on to college. Willow River stood to lose about $5,000 in state per pupil aid for every student they lost. In order to keep their students, Willow River turned to the Internet and Lake Superior College, a nearby institution with an enrollment of about 3,000 that offered on-line college courses. Now, every semester, 20 of Willow River’s top students are selected to participate in an Honors on-line college credit program offered by Lake Superior. Normandale Community College in Bloomington — Minnesota’s largest community college with an enrollment of about 7,500 — each semester enrolls about 500 high school students in college level courses. Freshman English and college algebra are among the most popular courses. Many students take 15 to 18 credits a semester and most do so during the regular school day, furnishing their own transportation to school. In the South, Alabama turned to dual enrollment and the community colleges in 1997 after more rigorous high school graduation requirements kicked in. The new standards require students to take four years of math, English, science and social studies plus pass a high school exit exam. Some systems in the state couldn’t meet the higher require- ments with their existing course offerings. Others had students who had exhausted all Advanced Placement and honors courses offered at their high school. Dual enrollment seemed to be the answer for both groups. Students need a “B” average or higher to participate. By enrolling in college courses, they receive both college and high school credit. It takes six semester hours of college courses to constitute one high school credit. Davenport Central High School in Iowa also offers community college classes right on the premises of the high school. More than 300 of the 1,400 students in the high school are taking one or more college classes through Scott Community College, located six miles away, according to Associate Principal Reginald Shoesmith. As in Minnesota, the Iowa high school sees the arrange- ment with the community college as a good deal for everyone. And while few can disagree that there’s great merit in extending education opportunities such as these to all our students, the community college route may also reflect the inability of American public high schools to keep up with the needs of American high school students.Community Colleges: Educating Today’s High Schoolers
