AUGUSTA, Maine — This year, 17 high school students from Fort Kent are taking classes that allow them to earn high school and college credit simultaneously.
The LePage administration is hoping that students from around the state will be able to do the same under his plan to expand high school students’ access to college courses.
In the northern Aroostook pilot program, the students are taking classes at both Fort Kent Community High School and the University of Maine at Fort Kent. When the teens graduate from the program, they will take home high school diplomas and will have earned enough college credits to possibly graduate with an associate degree, according to Scott Voisine of UMFK.
“I think this has really brought the university and high school together, in planning for the future and looking at educational reform,” Voisine said Monday. “It really has had us both take a look at ourselves. What kinds of things need to change?”
An interim report released Monday by the Governor’s Task Force on Expanding Early Post-Secondary Access for High School Students in Maine, of which Voisine is a member, recommends changes that need to be made all over the state in order for Maine students to make faster progress toward earning college degrees. Gov. Paul LePage formed the 19-member task force last July to develop the recommendations.
Among the task force’s findings was a realization that students in Maine have more opportunities for early college participation than education experts had imagined but barriers such as transportation and funding can get in the way of making those programs available to a majority of students.
“A growing number of Maine’s jobs will require that the people who fill them have some form of postsecondary training under their belt,” LePage said in a press release issued Monday. “We don’t want Maine to miss out on these jobs of the future because our work force isn’t prepared for them.”
Among the report’s recommendations were:
• Calling for colleges to schedule courses at times that are more convenient for high school students.
• Having the Maine Department of Education compile information on early college opportunities in one easy-to-use website.
• Encouraging school districts to work with nearby colleges and regional Career and Technical Education centers to add more dual enrollment courses.
The task force will continue to meet so that members can develop policy recommendations, identify funding sources for early college programs and explore the idea of a “five-year” high school which would let students earn an associate degree within a year of earning a high school diploma.
“Everybody has been willing to say, ‘OK, what’s best for kids?’” Voisine said of the task force. “I think this is a group of people who are positively engaged to change things.”
Recent data from the Mitchell Institute show that Maine high school students who take courses for college credit are more likely to enroll in two- and four-year degree programs, according to the report.
About 80 percent of Maine students graduate from high school in four years, which is above the national average, but only 65 percent of those students enroll in some form of postsecondary education.
A recent analysis showed that almost 60 percent of Maine jobs will require postsecondary education by the year 2018.
Educators such as Voisine say that even if making changes to the way Maine high school students are educated seems expensive and difficult, it’s worthwhile.
“We keep talking about transforming education, in this state and this country,” he said. “We’re all doing more with less. We’re all getting tighter funding. But take what’s not working off the table and replace it with what is working. I think early college is that kind of out-of-the-box thinking … . It’s a good use of taxpayers’ money.”
The task force will next address how to find more funding for early college and how to eliminate barriers that are keeping high school students from accessing this type of program, according to Voisine.
“Our philosophy is to let as many kids as possible, and we can afford, take this opportunity,” he said.
The report on early college can be viewed at http://www.maine.gov/education/earlycollege/report.pdf.
That is great to let the advanced student take college courses as long as you are not talking about the remedial courses in math and english the college needs to teach when our graduates enter.
We need to teach BASICS in thet lower grades and get the teachers teaching again!!
OR eliminate the teachers and go all computers they may do better in some cases
The majority of teachers teach just fine. The problem is the
majority of parents just don’t care about education, or about discipline. They
send their little monsters to school where the teachers really can’t do
anything because their hands are pretty much tied up. Parents run under the assumption
that their kids never do anything wrong and will defend their kids no matter
what they’ve done. It’s pretty much a no win situation for teachers and it is
only getting worse.
Most teachers teach fine . Parents do not always do a good job the system does not let teachers teach kids the really need to know they are too worried about test scores.
A strong education starts at home. Get your kids to school every day (and on time) and take some interest in their lives. Demand rigor from the schools but remember that goes both ways. You cannot demand rigor of your schools and then complain go the principal when your son or daughter does not earn straight As in 5th grade.
Early college opportunities are excellent ways for high school students to experience college courses and earn college credits for much less than the true tuition cost. However, many times those students have to meet college requirements (high enough gpa, etc).
The teachers in the lower grades have been teaching… The sad fact is parents choose not to participate in or support their child’s education. Secondly, many parents think K-5 is nothing more than another form of daycare. Thirdly, many of these parents of poor performing students are illiterate to begin with.
The apple does not fall far from the tree!
This is a great idea. If high school students can experience in high school what a college level course is like and succeed they will be far more likely to see themselves able to do college work and their expectations will change to include college Also high schools should offer Advanced Placement classes which give college credit instead of honors classes which do not give college credit. This gives the student a head start on college credits and saves the parents and kids money. Anything we can do to encourage kids to get more education whether it be technical or otherwise we should be promoting. It is time for some new ideas and freedom to let kids explore all those options out there that should be open to them.
Being in high school, and very intelligent both at an educational level and common sense, and wanted to be an anesthesiologist, high school students can already take college courses. At Caribou High School, they offer many AP classes, and can go to UMPI or NMCC to attend college courses. But don’t shame them if they don’t, high schoolers have enough responsibilities as is.
This is great news for those that are prepared for college level work . However- ask any community college teacher what percentage of their freshman are really ready to undertake courses that can be transferred to our 4 year programs. Many are taking remedial courses in English and math to come up to speed. Our public school teachers have a very diverse group of students working at very different ability levels.
and remember, community colleges accept nearly all who apply (they might not get into their chosen program but they will almost always be accepted). The students who barely skate by in high school get in to community colleges at an alarming rate. It is NO surprise that many need remedial courses.
What if instead of keeping students in high school an extra year and giving
them something sort of kinda like college courses…the Maine Community College System started a dual
enrollment system where it took in highschool students at age 16 or 17 and gave
them the course work needed for them to earn their highschool diplomas–and then
gave them an additional year of college as well! They could call it a Late High
School program!
Why should high school teachers have the monopoly of providing diploma work
for highschoolers? Plus being able to teach college courses? MCCS oughta get in
on some of that action!