Running Start Progress Report: 2001

Running Start Coordinator's Guide

Section 1
Running Start Progress Report: 2001-2002

Table of Contents

Introduction	Updates
Options for Students	Summary
Growth Continues	Enrollments
Benefits	Data for Students Entering Fall 2001
Characteristics of Students	References
Research Findings	Contact Information

Research Findings

Western Washington University’s recent study about how Running Start students transition into the university showed:

Study participants reported feeling well prepared academically for Western. Students found community college a good bridge to the four-year environment. As one student said, “Community college was very, very hard and it definitely prepared me academically.” Having already learned to navigate the culture of one college system, they felt well prepared to tackle another.
All students said that their exposure to the broader range of courses at the community college had helped them choose their major field of study at Western.

A national study of dual-credit programs released last year by the Pew Charitable Foundation lists a number of benefits of such programs, including savings in both costs and time, efficiency of learning (reduced repetition between grades 11-14), enhanced admission and retention rates in college, improved transitions from high school to college, allowing students to “test the waters” of college learning, improving students’ access to college and providing professional development for faculty in high schools and colleges. This study found that:

By creating alternatives to traditional high-school-to-college transition, dual credit programs provide additional points of entry into post-secondary schooling for students whose options would otherwise be much more limited.
Dual-credit programs can blur the line between high school and college by integrating the two systems and thereby create a continuum of learning from high school to college.

The Washington State Institute for Public Policy released a study in 2001 that indicated:

Running Start is the most readily available college-learning option for high school students.
About half of the high schools report increases in enrollment and offerings of other college-learning opportunities in the last three years. High schools are trying to encourage students to stay on the high school campus by creating learning options to compete with Running Start.