Section 1
Running Start Progress Report: 2001-2002

Updates

Running Start slated to be available at The Evergreen State College

The 2002 legislature added Evergreen to the list of universities eligible to participate in Running Start. Three universities were added to the Running Start legislation in 1994 so students who lived in areas where there was not a community or technical college could have access to the program. The addition of Evergreen may signal an emphasis on providing high school students a range of options beyond local two-year colleges.

Admission Policies

High school principals have expressed concern about whether the Running Start admission criteria are consistent and rigorous enough. In response to this concern, the community and technical college presidents commissioned a work group to look into the issue. A comparison of entrance requirements at each college in the state suggested that the local admission process typically requires students to successfully complete standardized reading, writing, and/or math skills tests in order to enroll. The work group analyzed which classes students are able to take as a result of passing each section of these standardized tests. While there is some variation in the scores required by the colleges, the analysis revealed that scores required for Running Start admission were consistent with the scores required for any other student to be placed in a college-level course. The work group also examined the colleges’ academic progress policies and recommended that colleges implement an early intervention system for students who are not doing well academically.

Certificate of Mastery

There is much discussion about the connection between the Certificate of Mastery and Running Start. In order to study this issue in more depth, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges jointly sponsored research on the relationship between the standardized tests used for admission by the colleges and the WASL assessment. An executive summary of this study can be requested from the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges or from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction; the full study is available for download at http://www.k12.wa.us/Research/.

The presidents of the community and technical colleges have tasked a committee to make recommendations about how WASL scores might be taken into account in the Running Start admission process. While the two-year college system is committed to finding ways of linking WASL performance to success in life after high school, WASL scores are being discussed as an additional tool to consider for course placement decisions, not as a replacement for the current standardized tests used by local colleges. This committee will begin its work in January 2003, and participants include representatives from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, universities, two-year colleges and the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges. The committee is scheduled to make recommendations by Spring 2003.

National Dual-enrollment Trend Continues

States are increasingly implementing policies that encourage postsecondary institutions to offer dual/concurrent enrollment courses to high school students. This is due, in part, to the desire to provide advanced academic opportunities to high school students and also to smooth the transition from secondary to postsecondary education.

Dual enrollment has sparked national interest because it is seen to provide:

• Greater access to a wider variety of rigorous academic and technical courses,
• Savings in time and money on a college degree,
• Pathways for students to move "seamlessly" between the K-12 and postsecondary systems,
• Greater collaboration between high school and college faculty and programs, and
• Greater support for students' college aspirations.

Currently, 38 states have adopted policies that encourage some type of dual enrollment approach, while another 10 have institutional-level concurrent enrollment agreements.

At the federal level, the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998 provides funds to states for the expansion and improvement of Tech Prep programs, including the development of articulation agreements between high schools and colleges that link their course offerings and credit for programs in high-growth technical occupations.