KnowledgeWorks Foundation Report Finds Promise and Problems in Ohio's Early College Access Policy
DATELINE: CINCINNATI, Ohio July 24
CINCINNATI, Ohio, July 24 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- KnowledgeWorks Foundation released a report today that for the first time assesses Ohio's Post Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) policy, adopted 18 years ago to provide early college access to high school students and recently expanded by the state assembly.
The report, The Promise of Dual Enrollment: Assessing Ohio's Early College Access Policy, finds that high school students who take college courses through PSEO may be more likely to attend college and get degrees faster than the general population of high school graduates. However, researchers concluded that data is not available to determine whether those outcomes are a result of the early college access. The report calls for additional data to be compiled to determine the policy's effectiveness.
The report also finds that a relatively small portion of Ohio's eligible students take advantage of the policy and notes a lack of diversity among its participants. Only 5% of Ohio's high school students take advantage of the policy, and of these PSEO participants, nearly 9 out of 10 are white and two out of three are female.
The analysis comes as the policy is set to expand. The Ohio General Assembly included nearly $5.7 million for PSEO in the budget it adopted in June, realizing one of the goals Gov. Ted Strickland set out in his 2006 campaign platform. Recent state budget proposals for PSEO are seeking to add several million dollars to increase participation.
According to the KnowledgeWorks report, Ohio redirected $17.8 million from local districts to colleges to pay for tuition, book and fees for PSEO students in 2004-05, the most recent year for which data is available. Strickland has called the loss of funds to local districts a disincentive to participation.
In 1989, Ohio established the Post Secondary Enrollment Options policy to pay the cost of tuition and books for 11th- and 12th-grade students who take college courses for both high school and college credit. The policy was expanded in 1997 to include students in grades 9 and 10. Between 1998 and 2004, more than 55,000 students earned credit that could be applied to college degrees.
"It's certainly worth celebrating that Ohio's PSEO policy has allowed thousands of high school students to earn college and high school credit at the same time at no cost to them. PSEO is a 21st-century approach to learning that should continue," says Nancy Taylor, senior public policy officer with KnowledgeWorks Foundation. "But poor data has restricted the state's ability to track such fundamental matters as whether the policy encourages students who would not otherwise have been college bound to attend college. Current policy discussions need to address broader access or we will continue seeing the disparities in participation we see now."
KnowledgeWorks Foundation ( http://www.kwfdn.org/ ) funds, facilitates and empowers communities throughout the nation to improve education. With a focus on transforming the national education landscape based on forecasts of future education needs, the foundation employs education experts and enlists innovative partners to equip the nation to thrive in a global competition for talent and knowledge.
CONTACT: Andrea Hines of KnowledgeWorks Foundation, +1-513-929-1335
Web site: http://www.kwfdn.org/
SOURCE KnowledgeWorks Foundation