[House Hearing, 111 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
52-241 PDF
______
2009
HIGH SCHOOL/COLLEGE
DUAL ENROLLMENT PROGRAMS
=======================================================================
FIELD HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EARLY CHILDHOOD,
ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
COMMITTEE ON
EDUCATION AND LABOR
U.S. House of Representatives
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD IN FLINT, MI, SEPTEMBER 18, 2009
__________
Serial No. 111-31
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and Labor
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GEORGE MILLER, California, Chairman
Dale E. Kildee, Michigan, Vice John Kline, Minnesota,
Chairman Senior Republican Member
Donald M. Payne, New Jersey Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin
Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon,
Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott, Virginia California
Lynn C. Woolsey, California Peter Hoekstra, Michigan
Ruben Hinojosa, Texas Michael N. Castle, Delaware
Carolyn McCarthy, New York Mark E. Souder, Indiana
John F. Tierney, Massachusetts Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan
Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio Judy Biggert, Illinois
David Wu, Oregon Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania
Rush D. Holt, New Jersey Joe Wilson, South Carolina
Susan A. Davis, California Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington
Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona Tom Price, Georgia
Timothy H. Bishop, New York Rob Bishop, Utah
Joe Sestak, Pennsylvania Brett Guthrie, Kentucky
David Loebsack, Iowa Bill Cassidy, Louisiana
Mazie Hirono, Hawaii Tom McClintock, California
Jason Altmire, Pennsylvania Duncan Hunter, California
Phil Hare, Illinois David P. Roe, Tennessee
Yvette D. Clarke, New York Glenn Thompson, Pennsylvania
Joe Courtney, Connecticut
Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire
Marcia L. Fudge, Ohio
Jared Polis, Colorado
Paul Tonko, New York
Pedro R. Pierluisi, Puerto Rico
Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan,
Northern Mariana Islands
Dina Titus, Nevada
Judy Chu, California
Mark Zuckerman, Staff Director
Sally Stroup, Republican Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EARLY CHILDHOOD,
ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
DALE E. KILDEE, Michigan, Chairman
Donald M. Payne, New Jersey Michael N. Castle, Delaware,
Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott, Virginia Ranking Minority Member
Rush D. Holt, New Jersey Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin
Susan A. Davis, California Peter Hoekstra, Michigan
Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona Mark E. Souder, Indiana
Joe Sestak, Pennsylvania Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan
David Loebsack, Iowa Judy Biggert, Illinois
Mazie Hirono, Hawaii Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania
Jared Polis, Colorado Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington
Pedro R. Pierluisi, Puerto Rico Rob Bishop, Utah
Gregorio Sablan, Northern Mariana Bill Cassidy, Louisiana
Islands Tom McClintock, California
Lynn C. Woolsey, California Duncan Hunter, California
Ruben Hinojosa, Texas
Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
Jason Altmire, Pennsylvania
Dina Titus, Nevada
Judy Chu, California
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on September 18, 2009............................... 1
Statement of Members:
Hinojosa, Hon. Ruben, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Texas............................................. 4
Hirono, Hon. Mazie, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Hawaii............................................ 5
Kildee, Hon. Dale E., Chairman, Subcommittee on Early
Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education.............. 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 2
Additional submission:
Princinsky, Dr. Julianne T., president, Baker
College, prepared statement of..................... 47
Payne, Hon. Donald M., a Representative in Congress from the
State of New Jersey........................................ 3
Statement of Witnesses:
Brooks, John Otis II, 5th year Mott Middle College High
School student............................................. 17
Prepared statement of.................................... 19
Lotfi, Vahid, Ph.D., interim provost and vice chancellor for
academic affairs, University of Michigan-Flint............. 10
Prepared statement of.................................... 12
Shaink, M. Richard, Ph.D., president, Mott Community College. 14
Prepared statement of.................................... 16
Additional submissions:
Table: ``Minority Growth Overtime for Mott Middle
College High School''.............................. 44
Quantitative results charts.......................... 45
Skorcz, Stephen, MPH, FACHE, president and CEO, Greater Flint
Health Coalition........................................... 20
Prepared statement of.................................... 20
Svitkovich, Thomas, Ed.D., superintendent, Genesee
Intermediate School District............................... 7
Prepared statement of.................................... 9
Webb, Dr. Michael, associate vice president, Early College
High School Initiative, Jobs for the Future, Early College
High School Initiative Student Information System.......... 22
Prepared statement of.................................... 23
HIGH SCHOOL/COLLEGE
DUAL ENROLLMENT PROGRAMS
----------
Friday, September 18, 2009
U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Early Childhood,
Elementary and Secondary Education
Committee on Education and Labor
Washington, DC
----------
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 1:12 p.m., at
the Northbank Center Ballroom, University of Michigan, 432
North Saginaw Street, Flint, Michigan, Hon. Dale Kildee
[chairman of the subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Kildee, Payne, Hirono and
Hinojosa.
Staff Present: Lillian Pace, Policy Advisor, Subcommittee
on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education.
Chairman Kildee. A quorum being present, the hearing of the
subcommittee will come to order. I would like to make an
opening statement and then call upon my colleagues for that,
but I want to point out that this panel is a great
representation of America. We have, first of all, Donald Payne,
my seat mate from New Jersey, an African-American. We have
Ruben Hinojosa from Texas, a Hispanic-American. We have Mazie
Hirono from Hawaii, Japanese-American, and the son of Ireland,
Dale Kildee. This represents America, the greatness of America,
and I'm very proud to serve with these people on the education
and labor subcommittee.
I'm pleased to welcome the committee here. I could not
think of a better location for today's hearing. Just like many
communities throughout the nation, Flint, Michigan is not
without its challenges. In the face of record unemployment and
significant economic downturn this community is working hard to
change its future, a future which rests in the hands of today's
students.
Earlier this year, in his address to a joint session of
Congress, President Obama asked every American to commit to at
least one year of college and pledge to do more to make college
accessible and affordable for all Americans. This is an
important goal for communities like Flint and one we can
accomplish if we invest in initiatives that give every American
the opportunity to pursue higher education.
In Michigan and a growing number of states across the
country dual enrollment and early college programs have emerged
as a promising strategy to accomplish this. Dual enrollment and
early college programs enable students to earn high school and
college credits simultaneously, fulfilling the requirements for
a high school diploma by putting them one step closer to a
college degree.
Students participating in an early college program, for
example, typically graduate with between 30 and 60 college
credits tuition free. This translates to as much as one or two
years of college education. For nearly half of African-American
students and 40 percent of Latino students attending high
schools where the majority of the students do not graduate we
must change our approach. We owe the same commitment to our
low-income students who are five times less likely to earn a
college degree than our middle- and upper-class students.
Indeed, a significant number of gifted students are high school
dropouts. Very often they become bored and are not challenged
and drop out. Dual enrollment and early college programs
provide these students with challenging opportunities, and they
see their academic performance blossom and grow.
To build on this success I've introduced the Fast Track to
College Act with my Senate colleague, Herb Kohl, from
Wisconsin. This legislation would invest in the expansion of
successful dual enrollment and early college programs and
provide resources for the establishment of new programs
nationwide. It is my hope that more at-risk students have the
same opportunity as the students and alumni of Mott Middle
College and Genesee Early College.
Today we will hear from one of these students as well as
administrators and partners in Genesee County's two early
college programs, Mott Middle College and Genesee Early
College. I hope today's testimony provides our committee with
greater understanding of the potential dual enrollment programs
have for reforming our nation's high schools and increasing
access to postsecondary education.
I want to thank all our witnesses for their time this
morning, and I would like now to yield to the other members of
the subcommittee and actually go by order of seniority and call
upon Mr. Payne from New Jersey.
[The statement of Mr. Kildee follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Dale E. Kildee, Chairman, Subcommittee on
Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education
I'm pleased to welcome my fellow Subcommittee members to my
hometown. It is an honor to have each of you here today. I also want to
welcome the public, and our witnesses, to today's hearing on high
school/college dual enrollment programs.
I cannot think of a better location for today's hearing. Just like
many communities throughout the nation, Flint, Michigan is not without
its challenges. In the face of record unemployment and significant
economic downturn, this community is working hard to change its future.
A future, which rests in the hands of today's students.
Earlier this year, in his address to a joint session of congress,
President Obama asked every american to commit to at least one year of
college and pledged to do more to make college accessible and
affordable for all Americans.
This is an important goal for communities like Flint, and one we
can accomplish if we invest in initiatives that give every american the
opportunity to pursue higher education.
In michigan, and a growing number of states through the country,
dual enrollment and early college programs have emerged as one
promising strategy.
Dual enrollment and early college programs enable students to earn
high school and college credit simultaneously, fulfilling the
requirements for a high school diploma while putting them one step
closer to a college degree. Students participating in an early college
program, for example, typically graduate with between 30 and 60 college
credits--tuition free. This translates to as much as 1-2 years of
college education.
With nearly half of african-american students and 40 percent of
latino students attending high schools where the majority of students
do not graduate, we must change our approach. We owe the same
commitment to our low-income students who are five times less likely to
earn a college degree than our Middle-and upper-class students, and
gifted students who make up 20 percent of high school dropouts. Indeed,
a high number of gifted children are at risk-of dropping out because
they lack the academic challenge in their current programs.
Dual enrollment and Early College programs provide that
opportunity. Students at these schools have seen their academic
performance improve, their future opportunities expand, and their
support system grow.
To build on this success, I have introduced the Fast Track to
College Act with my Senate colleague Herb Kohl. This legislation would
invest in the expansion of successful dual enrollment and early college
programs and provide resources for the establishment of new programs
nationwide. It is my hope that more at-risk students have the same
opportunity as the students and alumni of Mott Middle College and
Genesee Early College.
Today, We will hear from one of these students, as well as
administrators and partners in Genesee County's two early college
programs--Mott Middle College and Genesee Early College. I hope today's
testimony provides our committee with greater understanding of the
potential dual enrollment programs have for reforming our nation's high
schools and increasing access to postsecondary education.
I want to thank all of our witnesses for their participation in
today's hearing and I look forward to your testimony.
______
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and let me
say that it's a real pleasure to be here to participate in the
hearing of your subcommittee dealing with high school/college
dual-enrollment programs.
Let me just say to you in the audience--and I'm sure I'm
not telling you something that you don't already know, but
Congressman Kildee is probably the most respected member of the
United States Congress because of the great ethical and moral
leadership he has. He is a person that we all admire, and when
I came to Congress I was very privileged to have a seat close
to him. I've gotten closer over the years, and I look--at each
term I look forward to joining his subcommittee because of all
of the innovation and interest that he has in all of his
constituents, so it's an honor to be here with him.
Let me just say that I have a daughter who was educated
here, actually at Michigan State. I don't know which one of the
Michigans is less expensive, but I know the one that she went
to was tough for out-of-state students, you know. But let me
say it's always great to be here.
I've been to Flint before and it's really great to see your
town just fighting back. We all have been hit with the economic
downturn, but it tells the character of people when things get
tough, you know, the tough get going. They won't accept no, and
I think that the character of this region and of this
particular district that Mr. Kildee leads I think is certainly
exemplified as we came through the town and saw various
projects beginning and people highlighting parks and talking
about art.
And I think that perhaps the downturn will give us an
opportunity to once again appreciate things around us, you
know, our backyards and the color of the leaves and the things
that perhaps we got away from in the great economy. I'm not
saying therefore we should always have a bad economy; however,
I'm simply saying that we are turning to things that we--we're
realizing and opening new doors. I know we'll all come back, we
will certainly deal with the issue, but I just wanted to say
it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you.
Chairman Kildee. Thank you, Mr. Payne.
Mr. Hinojosa, from South Texas.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank
Chairman Dale Kildee for holding this field hearing and for
welcoming me to his congressional district. We have worked
together on many education issues in Washington, D.C., so I'm
delighted to be here to listen to the witnesses on the issues
of early college and the dual credit enrollment programs. But
before my prepared remarks, I commend you for your selection of
your new chancellor, Ruth Person, as someone who has roots in
Texas. The chancellor and I have already met and made friends.
I am delighted to be here and to share with you that I also
wanted to briefly share what we've done in my state of Texas on
these issues that we will hear the panelists tell us about
their successes.
In the year 2006 our Texas state legislature enacted
legislation to increase dual-enrollment-credit programs in all
of our school districts. The legislation requires each school
district to implement a program under which students may earn
at least 12 semester credit hours of college credit in high
school. I'm pleased however that some of our local school
districts are offering far more than 12 hours of college
credit, as I heard Dale say is happening here.
In the last decade Texas has been--has seen participation
rates in dual-enrollment-credit programs grow significantly. In
the year 2000 there were 18,000 students enrolled in dual-
credit programs. Six years forward, the year 2006, that figure
climbed to 42,000 students. Participation rates for Hispanic
and African-American students have increased significantly due
to the expansion of early college high schools and the dual-
enrollment programs in our state. In Texas we have found that
students that take dual-credit courses are more likely to
enroll in postsecondary institutions and graduate.
I am one of the founders of the South Texas Community
College back 15 years ago. We opened our doors with 800 college
students and today, 15 years later, we have 23,000 students. We
changed the name to South Texas College. It's located in
McAllen, Texas and serves my congressional district and has
partnerships with 19 school districts and 42 high school sites.
The difference is that we have cities like McAllen with four
high schools, and that's where the difference is.
The number of students served by the dual-enrollment
program at South Texas College has grown from 425 high school
students in 1999 to 8,400 this year. Early college high schools
and dual-enrollment programs have served as a strategy for
dropout recovery in my district. I'd like to highlight the
impressive work of Pharr San-Juan Alamo. We call it PSJA for
short.
In 2007 the school district established the College Career
and Technology Academy, which included a partnership with South
Texas College to offer dual-credit opportunities for young
people. In the short two-year period they have significantly
improved the graduation rate for our largely Hispanic and low-
income students through the work at that academy. They cut the
dropout rate by 70 percent and increased the number of
graduates from 960 to 1,600 students in only two years.
I am pleased to inform you that Melinda and Bill Gates
Foundation have recognized PSJA Superintendent Dr. King with
many honors and large school grants to promote math and
science. Thus the PSJA school district just opened a T-STEM
early college high school. In Texas T-STEM early college high
school provides advanced educational opportunities for all
students to exceed graduation requirements by obtaining an
associate's degree before graduating from high school.
T-STEM early college school in Texas creates career
pathways for STEM fields, which is science, technology,
engineering and math, particularly for Hispanic and low-income
students, and I'm pleased that we are expanding this successful
model.
Finally, as I approach my closing I want to say thank you
to Congressman Kildee. He does an excellent job. We look up to
him because of his many experiences, his wisdom, and he has
been a very strong supporter of the changes and improvements
that we want to make to No Child Left Behind. So I thank you,
sir, and I want to say that the formula for success is
connecting high school students to college early and providing
them with enriched and rigorous coursework and connecting them
to our local community colleges and universities before the
students leave high school.
I look forward to hearing from today's witnesses about the
work that is being done here in Michigan and I hope to take
back your ideas to my own congressional district. Thank you. I
yield back.
Chairman Kildee. Thank you very much, Ruben.
And now a woman who could have chosen to be in Hawaii right
now but chose Michigan instead, Congresswoman Hirono.
Ms. Hirono. Thank you, Chairman Kildee, and aloha,
everybody. Obviously I'm pleased to be here because I serve on
Mr. Kildee's subcommittee and I also serve on Chairman
Hinojosa's subcommittee. Education is really foundational. I am
a first-generation immigrant, and English is not my first
language. I am the first in my family to go to college, and
aside from my mother who changed my life by bringing me to this
country so that her three children--I was brought up by her as
a single parent so that her three children could have a future
in a better place than where we were.
Education has been the great equalizer in my life, and so I
certainly understand all of our focus on making sure that
education, which is a continuum--it starts before birth and all
throughout life--education is a continuum and we need to do
everything we can at the federal level to make sure that we are
partnering with the states, with the counties, with other
jurisdictions, with the philanthropic community to create
opportunities for our people.
And especially at a time when our country is losing ground
in terms of educational attainment vis-a-vis other countries,
we need to be even more diligent in what we're doing, and I am
looking forward to your testimony because early college
programs and dual-enrollment programs are yet other ways that
we can ensure, especially for our young people who might
otherwise not be able to go to college, not be enticed to go to
college, to be able to have that experience.
We've done a lot in our committee on education and labor in
the House to promote these kinds of opportunities, and just
yesterday we in the House passed a very important bill that
enables more people to be able to go to college through
expansion of our loan programs, federal loan programs, to
support our community colleges. And for me particularly as a
proponent of quality early education there's a huge piece in
partnering with the states to provide them grants to enable our
states to create quality early-education opportunities for all
of our children.
And then--well, on a personal note, my family has--we've
covered two of the big universities in this state because my
husband is a University of Michigan graduate and his sister is
a Michigan State graduate, so that just about covers, you know,
a lot of the field. I'm very happy to be here, look forward to
hearing your views. Aloha.
Chairman Kildee. Thank you very much, Congresswoman Hirono.
I will now introduce all the witnesses and then we'll start
with Tom Svitkovich testifying, but I'll introduce them all.
Our first witness, Dr. Tom Svitkovich, serves as
superintendent of the Genesee Intermediate School District. He
has been an educator for nearly 45 years. He served as a math
teacher and a building administrator at various levels prior to
becoming deputy superintendent in the Wayne-Westland Community
Schools. He served as superintendent of the Carmen-Ainsworth
Community Schools for five years and joined Genesee
Intermediate School District as superintendent in 1987. He
holds two master's degrees and earned his doctorate from Wayne
State University.
Dr. Lotfi currently serves as the interim provost and vice
chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Michigan-
Flint. He is the chief academic officer for the university and
oversees the Genesee Early College program which convenes on
the university campus. Dr. Lotfi also holds the rank of
professor of management science, School of Management at U of M
Flint. He has a B.S. in electrical engineering and an M.S. and
Ph.D. in operations research from SUNY in Buffalo.
Dr. Richard Shaink, who happens to be my neighbor near my
home here in Flint, has served as president of Mott Community
College since March of 2000. Prior to that he served in various
educational and business roles including a former college
campus president, multicampus vice president, instruction dean,
college, business industry director, shopping center general
manager, industrial sales representative, production line
supervisor, full-time high school teacher and an adjunct
instructor at Michigan State University and Lansing Community
College. He received his Ph.D. in educational administration
from Michigan State University but says that he is most proud
of the associate of arts degree he earned at Jackson Junior
College.
John Otis Brooks, II, is a Flint, Michigan resident. He has
attended Mott Middle College High School for the last three
years and will graduate in June 2010 with both a high school
diploma and associate's degree in business management from Mott
Community College. He has already earned 32 college credits and
has been on both the high school honor roll and the college
dean's list, and he initiated several all-school projects
including a student mentorship program. He is an award-winning
bowler and loves basketball and sign language. He plans on
attending a four-year university to complete a bachelor's
degree in business management.
Stephen Skorcz I've met many times here in Flint and in my
office in Washington, has been president of the Greater Flint
Health Coalition since mid 1997. He has worked in healthcare
for 50 years, has spent the last 32 years heading hospital and
community coalitions committed to voluntary planning and
coordinating health services in their communities. Mr. Skorcz
spent ten years working in the Canadian healthcare system on
health policy and planning, and is president of the Hospital
Council of Metro Toronto. In addition to the coalition activity
he has been a hospital administrator in both Chicago and New
York City. Stephen has undergraduate degrees from DePaul
University, the University of Illinois in Chicago and a master
of public health, MPH, in hospital administration from Yale
University.
Dr. Michael Webb leads the early college high school
initiative capacity building work for Jobs for the Future. This
includes support for the network of 13 early college
intermediary organizations and management of the early college
student information systems, a secure system of confidential
collection of data about students attending early college
schools throughout the United States. Prior to joining Jobs for
the Future he served as vice president of New Vision for Public
Schools where he helped lead the effort to create smaller
schools in New York City. As director of education at the
National Urban League he was a voice for community involvement
in mathematics and science education reform. Dr. Webb received
a B.A. in engineering, English, ethics studies from St. John
Fisher College, an M.A. from San Francisco State University and
a doctorate of education from Teacher's College Columbia
University.
Welcome to all our witnesses, and now we'll call upon our
first witness, Tom Svitkovich. But before we begin let me
briefly explain our lighting system. The five-minute rule
exists in Congress and that applies to members of Congress and
the witnesses. Everyone therefore will be limited to five
minutes of presentation or questioning. The light is green when
you begin to speak. When you see the yellow light it means you
have one minute remaining. When the light turns red your time
has expired and you need to conclude your testimony. Please be
certain that you speak into the mic and there is no chair to
throw you out of there if you do go a little over. We're
somewhat flexible because we want to hear what you have to say,
so Tom.
STATEMENT OF THOMAS SVITKOVICH, ED.D., SUPERINTENDENT, GENESEE
INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL DISTRICT
Mr. Svitkovich. Good afternoon. Thank you, Chairman Kildee
and members of the community for the opportunity to address the
Fast Track to College Act. The Genesee Intermediate School
District is pleased to be the operating agent for the Genesee
Early College. We were the successful recipient of the state
grant which enabled us to build this program from the ground
up. Our first steps included developing a partnership with the
University of Michigan-Flint, our region's three hospitals,
Hurley, Genesys and McLaren, the Greater Flint Health Coalition
and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
The program is focused on students with a strong interest
in pursuing a career in the health employment sector. The
student body includes future doctors, physicians' assistants
and medical technologists. It is an extremely rigorous program.
Each student who graduates after five years will earn a high
school diploma and 60 transferable college credits.
The power of our program is that it quickens the pace and
allows students to enter their medical profession of choice a
year earlier. It also guarantees a higher success rate for
students after graduation as they pursue their degree. Out
first steps also included working with our partners, hiring a
talented staff and solving the ever-present financial
challenges to ensure that we could operate the program. These
financial issues will continue to plague us since we were one
of a handful of the nation's early colleges located on the
campus of a four-year institution of higher education.
This program includes first-hand experience with physicians
and other medical specialists. The power of the place, the
power of the university, the power of the hospital setting is
extremely important. We cannot build this kind of learning
environment in a traditional high school. The program is
totally different, innovative and extremely effective. Even
with the initial infusion of capital from both public and
private partners, the long-term success of this intensive on-
site learning environment requires additional resources.
We are no strangers to the challenges of operating middle
colleges and early colleges. We were the first middle college
in Michigan and one of a few in the nation to open its doors 20
years ago. Today nearly--well, it's really over--today over 400
students attend Mott Middle College. These students have all
dropped out or have experienced limited success in a
traditional high school. They are now graduating--and you'll
hear about this soon--with college courses, and some leave with
an associate's degree. We pattern the Genesee Early College
after our successful Mott Middle College program. These two
schools are prime examples of why the Fast Track to College Act
is essential. Without the help of the federal government we
will not be able to deliver our promise to the brightest and
best, nor to those with amazing potential that will go
unrealized without these types of programs.
Our support for Fast Track to College Act is based on
several factors. First, research shows that students who
complete a minimum of 26 hours of postsecondary credit while
still in high school have an 85 percent chance of finishing
their bachelor's degree. Second, we see an important economic
need to prepare more medical professionals to fill positions
and maintain service capacity as our baby boomer population
transitions into retirement. Finally, we believe the Fast Track
to College Act reflects upon the many years of experience and
success we've had at our Mott Middle College.
A federal investment in Fast Track to College Act programs
can provide schools serving low-income students with resources
and incentives to establish and support early college high
schools. Such an investment will help more students obtain a
postsecondary credential by exposing them to the rigors of
college-level work, motivating them to continue their
postsecondary education and saving them money in the process.
With your support we can begin to break down the walls
created by poverty. This is an opportunity for students that
they otherwise will not have without your support. It is about
giving our young people the opportunity to compete and win in a
world economy.
I want to again thank you, Congressman Kildee and the
members of the committee, for this opportunity, and I will be
very happy to answer your questions, but before I do so I'd
like to introduce President Larry Ford. Larry Ford is president
of the Genesee Intermediate School District and he's been with
us for several years and he's a strong advocate and supporter
of both our middle college and the early college. Larry Ford
was on board when we first set and started Mott Middle College;
in fact, we're celebrating our 19th birthday this year. So I
really want to thank Larry for his support and for being here
this afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Kildee.
Chairman Kildee. Thank you very much.
[The statement of Mr. Svitkovich follows:]
Prepared Statement of Thomas Svitkovich, Ed.D., Superintendent, Genesee
Intermediate School District
Good afternoon. My name is Thomas Svitkovich, and I am the
Superintendent of Genesee Intermediate School District (GISD), which is
Genesee County's regional educational service agency.
Our organization is pleased to be the operating agent for the
Genesee Early College, a high school on the campus of the University of
Michigan-Flint. We were the successful recipient of a state grant which
enabled us to build this program from the ground up. Our first steps
included developing a partnership with the University of Michigan-
Flint, our region's three hospitals (Hurley Medical Center, Genesys
Regional Medical Center, and McLaren Regional Medical Center), the
Greater Flint Health Coalition, and the Charles Stewart Mott
Foundation. This concept of an early college is also supported by the
21 constituent K-12 school districts in Genesee County, along with
districts bordering the county, who send us their students.
The program is focused on students with a strong interest in
pursuing a career in the health employment sector. The student body
includes future doctors, nurses, physician assistants, and medical
technologists, as well as students pursuing just about every other
health related career you could think of. It is an extremely rigorous
program, including a full high school curriculum and two years of
college work. Each student that graduates from our program will earn a
high school diploma and 60 transferrable college credits.
Many of our students will complete their bachelor's degree at
University of Michigan-Flint, some will transfer to schools in the
area, and some will leave the state to pursue their baccalaureate
coursework in the nation's colleges and universities. Middle College
and early college research has proven that five year programs for high
school students located on a college campus which includes significant
college work all but eliminates the dropout possibilities faced by
today's first and second year college students. The power of our
program is that it quickens the pace and allows students to enter their
medical profession of choice a year earlier. It also guarantees a
higher rate of success for our students after graduation as they pursue
their degree.
Our first steps after the collaboration was formed included working
with our partners, hiring a talented staff, and solving the ever
present financial challenges to ensure that we could operate the
program. These financial issues will continue to plague us since we are
one of a handful of the nation's early colleges located on the campus
of a four-year institution of higher education. We are pioneers in the
development of these types of programs that are highly effective and
have a positive impact on our economy. In the future, the equation for
this program can be transferred to engineers and other high demand
professions, quickening the pace for getting the right people into new
programs to move our economy forward.
This program, because of our very effective partnerships with the
health community, includes first hand experience with physicians and
other medical specialists. The power of the place, the power of the
university, the power of the hospital setting is extremely important.
We cannot build this kind of learning laboratory in a traditional high
school. The program is totally different, innovative and extremely
effective. It cannot be delivered without leveraging resources from a
variety of sources. Even with the initial infusion of capital from both
public and private partners, the long-term success of this intensive,
on-site learning environment requires additional resources.
However, we are no stranger to the challenge of operating middle
colleges and early colleges. We are celebrating the 19th anniversary of
Mott Middle College on the campus of Mott Community College. We were
the first middle college in Michigan, and one of a few in the nation to
open its doors nearly 20 years ago. We have been extremely pleased with
the growth and evolution of this program, especially the success of our
graduates. Today, nearly 400 students attend Mott Middle College. These
students have all dropped out or experienced limited success in a
traditional high school setting. These students enter our program with
an average GPA of 1.6. A few years later, they graduate with an average
GPA of 3.1 and all have completed a minimum of a handful of college
courses. Some leave with an Associates Degree.
We patterned Genesee Early College after our successful Mott Middle
College. These two schools are prime examples of why the Fast Track to
College Act is essential; especially with regard to the high rigor
required for success in the health employment sector. Without the help
of the federal government, we will not be able to deliver our promise
to the brightest and the best, nor to those with amazing potential that
will go unrealized without these types of programs. These students have
made sacrifices and choices for opportunities which surpass those
available through a traditional high school experience. They are
capable of succeeding in a very competitive environment with our help,
and we are doing our best to ensure their success
Our support for the Fast Track to College Act is based on several
factors. First, we believe this legislation reflects the research that
supports the development of early colleges and middle colleges.
Research shows that students, who complete a minimum of 26 hours of
post-secondary credit, while still in high school, have an 85% chance
of finishing their bachelors' degree (Adelman, 1999). Second, we see an
important economic need to fill vacant medical positions. This is true
at the national level, but especially on the local level. There is a
demand to prepare more medical professionals to fill positions and
maintain service capacity as our baby boomer population transitions
into retirement. We also see the need because of the rapidly growing
need for technical knowledge within the field, like the new micro
surgeries and the pervasive use of technologies. New doctors will have
this knowledge. Finally, we believe the Fast Track to College Act
reflects upon the many years of experience and success we've had at our
Mott Middle College.
A federal investment in fast-track programs can provide schools
serving low-income students with resources and incentives to establish
and support dual enrollment programs and early college high schools.
Such an investment will help more students obtain a postsecondary
credential by exposing them to the rigors of college-level work,
motivating them to continue their postsecondary education, and saving
them money in the process. With this support, we can begin to break
down the walls created by poverty. Aside from the economic, health, and
poverty factors, however, the bottom line is students. This is an
opportunity for students they otherwise will not have without your
support. It's all about giving our young people the opportunity to
compete and win in a world economy.
I want to again thank Congressman Kildee and members of the
Committee for this opportunity. I am happy to answer any questions you
may have.
______
Chairman Kildee. Larry and I date back at least to 1964.
Mr. Ford. That's right.
Chairman Kildee. Been friends ever since and I appreciate
all you've done.
Our next witness is Dr. Lotfi.
STATEMENT OF VAHID LOTFI, PH.D., INTERIM PROVOST AND VICE
CHANCELLOR FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
Mr. Lotfi. I welcome this opportunity to present the
extraordinary partnership between our university and Genesee
Intermediate School District which has resulted in the creation
of the Genesee Early College. Today I'll speak to the success
of this venture from the perspective of the university and how
well these students have assimilated into our campus culture.
First, a bit about the university. The University of
Michigan-Flint is one of three campuses of the world-renowned
University of Michigan. We offer over 120 degree programs
including two doctoral degrees. More than 7,700 students are
enrolled on our campus. The symbiotic relationship between the
campus and its community is evident in this city. We are the
area's 11th largest employer, spending millions of dollars
annually in Genesee County. We are known for our commitment to
the university both economically and through partnerships such
as the GEC.
The GEC is a direct response to the State of Michigan
Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth. In a report
issued by the commission in 2004 there was a specific
recommendation for expanding the opportunities for early
college achievement. We joined the GISD responding to the
charge in 2007 with this unique school which allows us to
provide an integrated K-16 experience for our students
preparing them for careers in health professions. GEC is a
lifeline providing accessibility to college education that is
not readily available to many deserving students.
Parents and students have found our campus to be a warm,
welcoming place conducive to quality education. Last week over
150 students arrived on our campus. Impressive statistics from
2008, 2009 academic year clearly delineate the success of these
students in the university setting. GEC students were enrolled
in 78 separate UM-Flint courses and collectively earned over
1,900 college credits. The average 12th grader had 26 college
credits and 11th graders on average 13 credits. But more
importantly the overall grade point average of these students
in their college courses was slightly higher than that of our
own freshmen students. Their accomplishments are simply
outstanding. We are extremely pleased with the level of
aptitude and preparedness these students are showing in their
studies.
Now I have an example that goes above and beyond statistics
and truly illustrates the character and dedication of GEC's
students. It's a story of two students who sought to join the
most prestigious program on campus, the honors program. Thaer
Farhan and Abdul Kazmi are two GEC students who have decided
they want a challenge. They approached the director of the
honors program, Dr. Thum, asking if they could enroll. Noting
their strong academic record Dr. Thum agreed and after a year
in the program Dr. Thum describes Thaer and Abdul as
hardworking and goal oriented. This success has resulted in Dr.
Thum allowing two reserve seats for Genesee Early College
students every year in the honors program.
It is an indisputable fact that people with education
beyond the high school diploma have an economic advantage.
Further, it's been proven that the key to sustained fiscal
viability for a state is to have a highly educated work force.
The GEC is precisely the right place at the right time,
exposing our children to college environment during high school
will increase the likelihood they will matriculate through to
an undergraduate degree and beyond.
Now a little bit about two more families. The Mateen family
has always told their children they will go to college.
Jonathon and Tamra Mateen are Genesee County residents. They
have two children, Janay and Jonathon, who are with us here,
both GEC students. Janay is a senior who is actively pursuing
the field of anesthesia. When she graduates she will have
earned more than 60 college credits. Jonathon is sophomore.
Professor Donna Fry is the director of the physical therapy
program and the mother of 17-year-old twins, Kathryn and
Kristina, who are with us as well. They are 13th graders who
have earned 41 UM credits with perfect grade point averages,
4.0. She is also extremely pleased with this experience.
The GEC is just one example of why Congressman Kildee's
H.R. 1578, the Fast Track to College, is so essential to the
future of our state and the economy. By investing in early
college education and dual enrollment the Fast Track is the
right track to providing our children with necessary tools to
compete in a global state. I strongly encourage the support for
the Fast Track to College since I witness every day the solid
results that come from well-executed early college programs.
It's been an honor to talk before you. Thank you for your
time. I'd be happy to answer any questions you have.
Chairman Kildee. Thank you very much, Dr. Lotfi.
[The statement of Mr. Lotfi follows:]
Prepared Statement of Vahid Lotfi, Ph.D., Interim Provost and Vice
Chancellor for Academic Affairs, University of Michigan-Flint
Partnership and Progress: The Success of the Genesee Early College at
the University of Michigan-Flint
Good afternoon. My name is Vahid Lotfi, and I am the Interim
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of
Michigan-Flint. I welcome this opportunity to describe in some detail
the extraordinary partnership between this university and the Genesee
Intermediate School District which has resulted in the Genesee Early
College. What I will speak to today is the success of this venture from
the perspective of the university, and how well these students have
assimilated into our campus culture as they pursue their career
interests in the varied areas of the health professions.
But first, a bit about our campus.
The University of Michigan-Flint is one of three campuses of the
world-renowned University of Michigan. We offer more than 120 degree
programs, including undergraduate, graduate and two doctoral degrees.
More than 7,700 students are enrolled on our campus. The symbiotic
relationship between a campus and its community is evident in this
city. The University of Michigan-Flint is the area's 11th largest
employer, spending millions of dollars annually within Genesee County.
The University of Michigan-Flint is known for its commitment to the
community both economically and through partnerships such as the
Genesee Early College.
The Genesee Early College is a direct response to the State of
Michigan's Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth which had
the charge of developing a plan to double the number of college
graduates in the state. In a report issued by the Commission in 2004,
there was a specific recommendation for expanding the opportunities for
Early College achievement. The report states, quote, ``* * * Rather
than hold its students back, Michigan must be willing to accelerate the
pace of learning to realize education gains that will translate into a
stronger economy and better jobs.'' We joined the Genesee Intermediate
School District in responding to the charge in 2007 with this unique
school, which allows us to continue our commitment to providing an
integrated K-16 experience for students, preparing them for careers in
high-need, understaffed health professions pathways. The Genesee Early
College is a lifeline, providing accessibility to education that is not
readily available to all deserving students. The combination of high
school and university classes gives bright young minds the chance to
achieve at a high level, and gain access to one of the University of
Michigan campuses.
Parents and students have found the University of Michigan-Flint to
be a warm, welcoming place that provides an atmosphere, conducive to
quality learning. Last week, over 100 Genesee Early College students
arrived on our campus. They join what will be the largest student body
in the history of our university when our official enrollment numbers
are released next week. Impressive statistics from the 2008/2009
academic year clearly delineate the success of these students in a
university setting.
During the last academic year, Genesee Early College students were
enrolled in 78 separate UM-Flint courses and collectively earned over
1,900 UM-Flint (college) credits. The average 12th grader last year
earned 26 UM-Flint credits and 11th graders have completed on average
13 credits. The overall grade point average of these students in their
UM-Flint courses rose last year to an average of 2.87 compared to 2.62
for students who fall under the First Time In Any College (FTIAC)
category.
These accomplishments are simply outstanding, and we are extremely
pleased with the level of aptitude, preparedness and dedication these
students are showing in their studies. University of Michigan-Flint
faculty report that students from the Genesee Early College not only
keep up with their fellow students, but in some cases excel beyond
those who have graduated from high school. Now, an example that goes
beyond the statistics and truly illustrates the character and
dedication of Genesee Early College students to their education. It is
a story of two students who sought out the opportunity to become part
of the most prestigious program we offer at the University of Michigan-
Flint: The Honors Program.
The University of Michigan-Flint Honors Program consists of the
best and brightest students. With an emphasis on research at the
undergraduate level, the Honors Program offers students the chance to
work one-on-one with professors to develop special projects. This
method has led to a remarkable record of success. Graduates from the
Honors program have been accepted in the most distinguished graduate
and professional schools in the country including Harvard University
and the Mayo Clinic, and 100% of honors program students applying to
medical schools, graduate schools, and professional schools have been
accepted.
Thaer Farhan and Abdul Kazmi are two Genesee Early College students
who decided they wanted a challenge. They approached the director of
the Honors Program, Dr. Maureen Thum, asking if they could enroll.
Noting their strong academic records, Dr. Thum agreed. After a year in
the Honors Program, Dr. Thum describes Thaer and Abdul as hard-working
and goal oriented. She reports they have not only kept up with the
college students in the Honors Program, they have higher achievements
than some of their peers. In fact, Dr. Thum, who is also one of our
English professors, states that Thaer and Abdul both write at a level,
even higher than that of some high school graduates. As a result of the
positive experiences of Thaer and Abdul, Dr. Thum has reached an
agreement with the Genesee Early College to admit two new students each
year to the UM-Flint Honors Program. As Dr. Thum recently said,
``Genesee Early College students deserve the opportunity to be at the
university level to discover what it is like to have a completely
different level of competition.''
It is an indisputable fact that people with education beyond a high
school diploma have an economic advantage. Furthermore, it has been
proven that the key to sustained fiscal viability for a state and
region is to have a highly educated workforce that can utilize
creativity and innovation to provide solutions to today's problems and
invent tomorrow's industries. The Genesee Early College is precisely in
the right place at the right time. With approximately 80% of our alumni
living and working in the state of Michigan, the University of
Michigan-Flint can help to increase the number of people who have
postsecondary education in the state because of its affiliation with
the Genesee Early College. Exposing our children to a college
environment during high school will increase the likelihood they will
matriculate through to an undergraduate degree and beyond. I will now
share with you the stories of two families, the Mateens and the Frys
who are advocates for ensuring positive university experiences for
their children.
The Mateen family has always told their children they will go to
college. Jonathon and Tamra Mateen are two lifelong Genesee County
residents. Both are employed in the health professions at Hurley
Medical Center here in Flint. They have two children, Janay, who is a
senior, and Jonathon--a sophomore--who are enrolled at the Genesee
Early College. As parents, Mr. and Mrs. Mateen are extremely pleased
with the experience their children have had at the Genesee Early
College. Janay is a senior who is actively pursuing a career in the
field of Anesthesia. When she graduates, she will have earned her 60
college credits. The Mateens say they feel the Genesee Early College
has given their children a distinct advantage, helping Janay and
Jonathon focus on their studies while keeping an eye to the future.
Professor Donna Fry is the Director of the Physical Therapy
Department at UM-Flint and the mother to 17-year-old twins, Kathryn and
Kristina. They are 13th graders who have already earned 41 UM-Flint
credits and perfect grade point averages. They did all of this while
being incredibly involved, participating in everything from the UM-
Flint Wind Symphony to volunteering for the Obama campaign to playing
on the UM-Flint Ultimate Frisbee team. As a parent and education
professional, Professor Fry is pleased with the outstanding experience
her daughters have had at the Genesee Early College. Professor Fry
states, ``Medical clinical rotations through the Genesee Early College
helped them to understand more about patient care and firmed up their
interest in doing research in medical fields of study. Both girls are
very mature for their age and the university environment allowed them
to grow socially and to develop their self-identity as individuals much
more than I think a typical high school environment would have
allowed.'' The Mateens and Professor Fry firmly believe that being part
of a university community so early in their lives, their children will
be prepared to face the job market of tomorrow and excel.
The Genesee Early College is just one example of why Congressman
Kildee's bill, H.R. 1578, the Fast Track to College Act, is so
essential to the future of our state and country. By investing in early
college and dual enrollment programs, the Fast Track is the right track
to providing our children with the means necessary to compete on a
global stage. Through the example of the Early College, you see how a
university and its community partners can work together to provide an
extraordinary educational experience for students who are willing to
eschew a traditional high school setting for a learning environment
that is both accelerated and accommodating. I strongly urge support for
the Fast Track to College Act, since I witness every day the solid
results that come from well-executed early college programs. It is
precisely the type of partnership that must occur on a broader level,
bringing together government, the educational system, and the people in
the best interest of our children.
As you have heard, the Genesee Early College is a key component in
providing accessibility to education in this community. A
recommendation worth considering is to continue to invest significantly
in Pell Grants and other federal programs so that successful graduates
of the early college can complete their degrees with the comfort of
knowing their education will continue to be funded. This financial vote
of confidence would be particularly meaningful to these students and
their families.
The campus community of the University of Michigan-Flint is united
in the belief that this type of community partnership is essential to
the advancement of our state. It is part of our mission to be civically
engaged, working with other leading institutions to find solutions to
critical issues that impact us all. During these difficult economic
times for our state and our country, it is heartening to see the
substantial support we have received from the Governor, Lieutenant
Governor and legislators who approved the funding for this initiative.
It is exactly this type of investment that will help Michigan to
building a promising future for students such as Thaer, Abdul, Janay,
Jonathon, Kathryn and Kristina. Let the Genesee Early College and
others like it serve as a bold statement about the priorities that we
are setting for the state of Michigan in the years to come.
Thank you for your time today, and I welcome your questions.
______
Chairman Kildee. Dr. Richard Shaink, my neighbor.
STATEMENT OF M. RICHARD SHAINK, PH.D., PRESIDENT, MOTT
COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Mr. Shaink. Thank you very much, Chairman Kildee and
members of the subcommittee, for the invitation to speak at
today's hearing. As president of Mott Community College I
welcome this opportunity to tell you about the success of Mott
Middle College High School and the impact it is having on the
lives of students it serves. Mott Middle College High School is
located on our campus and is a partnership between Mott
Community College and the Genesee Intermediate School District.
The students are earning college credit at MCC while attending
9th through 13th-grade school. Its sole purpose is to serve 400
at-risk youth who have become disengaged from education.
Established in 1991, it is the longest-standing middle or early
college in Michigan and possibly in the country.
Due to the demonstrated success of Mott Middle College High
School we are in our 16th year of the National Replication
Project funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. This
effort is providing technical assistance to community colleges,
school districts and other organizations in over two dozen
communities each year who are establishing their own middle or
early college. As an outgrowth of this replication work the
Center for Early and Middle Colleges in Michigan was
established by the Michigan Department of Education with
support from Mott Foundation to ensure that middle and early
colleges in Michigan that have started are being planned and
have the capacity to become viable and remain sustainable.
The center's located at Mott Middle College High School and
is directed by Dr. Chery Wagonlander, principal. The high
school was one of the first middle colleges to participate in
the Gates Early College Initiative through the Middle College
National Consortium. Additionally, Mott Community College was
funded through the U.S. Department of Education to operate a
tech prep demonstration project, a program that supports the
efforts of successful middle and early colleges.
The practice at the high school and its replication efforts
are based on design principles that began in New York in the
1980s through the Middle College National Consortium. They
continue to incorporate current research on engaging at-risk
youth and are seen in the most successful middle and early
colleges across the country. The design principles together
create an environment for the success of students who have
traditionally been under served in our public schools,
particularly the students who are unmotivated, under prepared
for high school work, disengaged from their education and/or
first-generation college bound.
You have received detailed information regarding the impact
of middle college high school. I would like to highlight
several of those successful benchmarks. Data for the past 16
years indicates students enter with a grade point average of
1.6 and exit with a high school grade point average of 3.1.
Over the 17 years of dual enrollment Mott Middle College High
School students have successfully earned a total of 5,455
college credits with an average GPA of 2.92. Last year's
graduation class--graduating class averaged 19.2 college
credits per student. 13 of those students earned 24 or more
college credits and two graduated with double associate degrees
from Mott Community College.
The high school serves as a national lab setting for middle
and early college replication research and outreach. It has
hosted visitors from all over Michigan, the United States and
several other countries. Its curricula, affective skills
initiative and small schools design have been replicated at
multiple sites. Mott Middle College High School in
collaboration with the New York Center for Media and Learning
has been a national site for the American Social History
Project since 1993. And since the Center for Early and Middle
Colleges in Michigan was launched, six technical assistance
conferences have taken place on our campus hosting 12 Michigan
programs.
In conclusion I think it's important to note that this is a
time when community colleges are being considered major players
in helping the individuals from all walks of life to access
higher education. In the area of high school college dual
enrollment community colleges, including Mott Community
College, have been in the forefront of successfully addressing
the needs of at-risk youth. An expansion of these efforts can
help to meet the critical need of leaving no one behind and we
support a Fast Track legislation. Thank you for your time.
Chairman Kildee. Thank you very much, Dr. Shaink.
[The statement of Mr. Shaink follows:]
Prepared Statement of M. Richard Shaink, Ph.D., President, Mott
Community College
I would like to thank Chairman Kildee of the Subcommittee on Early
Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education for the invitation to
speak at today's hearing. As President of Mott Community College, I
welcome this opportunity to tell you about the success of Mott Middle
College High School and the impact that it is having on the lives of
the students it serves. Mott Middle College High School is located on
our campus and is a partnership between Mott Community College and the
Genesee Intermediate School District. Students earn college credit at
Mott Community College, while attending this 9th through 13th grade
high school. Its sole purpose is to serve at-risk youth who have become
disengaged from education. Established in 1991, it is the longest
standing middle or early college in Michigan; and, one of the longest
standing in the country.
Due to the demonstrated success of Mott Middle College High School,
we are in our sixteenth year of a National Replication Project funded
by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. This effort is providing
technical assistance to community colleges, school districts and other
organizations in over two dozen communities each year, who are
establishing their own middle or early college. As an outgrowth of this
replication work, the Center for Early and Middle Colleges in Michigan
was launched last year. The Center is located at Mott Middle College
High School and is directed by Dr. Chery Wagonlander, Principal. It was
established by the Michigan Department of Education, with support from
the Mott Foundation, to ensure that middle and early colleges in
Michigan that have started and are being planned have the capacity to
become viable and remain sustainable.
Mott Middle College High School was one of the first middle
colleges to participate in the Gates Early College initiative through
the Middle College National Consortium. Additionally, Mott Community
College was funded through the U.S. Department of Education to operate
a Tech Prep Demonstration Project, a program that supports the efforts
of successful middle and early colleges.
The practices at Mott Middle College High School and the
replication efforts are based on Design Principles (see Appendix 1 for
more details) that began in New York in the 1980's through the Middle
College National Consortium. They continue to incorporate current
research on engaging at-risk youth and are seen in the most successful
middle and early colleges across the country. The Design Principles
together create an environment for the success of students who have
traditionally been underserved in our public schools; particularly
students who are unmotivated, under prepared for high school work,
disengaged from their education, and/or first generation college bound.
You have received detailed information (see Attachment 1--Mott
Middle College Student Data--September 2009) regarding the impact of
the Middle College High School. I would like to highlight several of
those successful benchmarks. Data from sixteen Mott Middle College High
School cohorts indicates an average entering GPA of 1.6 and exiting
high school GPA of 3.1. Over the seventeen years of dual enrollment,
Mott Middle College High School students have successfully earned a
total of 5,455 in Mott Community College credits with an average GPA of
2.92. Last year's graduation class averaged 19.2 of Mott Community
College credits per student. Thirteen of these students earned twenty-
four or more college credits and two graduated with double Associate
Degrees.
Mott Middle College High School serves as a national lab setting
for middle and early college replication, research and outreach. It has
hosted visitors from all over Michigan, the United States and several
other countries. Its curricula, affective skills initiative and small
schools design have been replicated at multiple sites. Mott Middle
College High School, in collaboration with New York Center for Media
and Learning, has been a national site for the American Social History
Project since 1993. And, since the Center for Early and Middle Colleges
in Michigan was launched, six technical assistance conferences have
taken place, hosting up to twelve Michigan programs.
I think it is important to note that this is a time when community
colleges are being considered major players in helping individuals from
all walks of life to access higher education. In the area of High
School/College Dual Enrollment, community colleges, including Mott
Community College, have been in the forefront of successfully
addressing the needs of at-risk youth. An expansion of these efforts
can help to meet the critical need of leaving no one behind. Thank you
for your time.
APPENDIX 1
Middle College National Consortium Design Principles
These Six Design Principles are based on work that began in New
York in the 1980's and continue at Middle Colleges across the country.
The Design Principles are also based on current research on engaging
at-risk youth. Each one of the Six Design Principles is important to
the success of students who have traditionally been underserved in our
public schools; particularly students who are unmotivated, under
prepared for high school work and disengaged from their education.
These Six Design Principles are:
Power of the Site--Locating schools on a college campus is
integral to student motivation and success and to an enduring
collaborative partnership. It is a visible symbol to the community of a
dual accountability for student outcomes and academic success. Students
are treated as college students and see themselves as college
completers.
Teaching and Learning--Developing students' literacy
skills is critical to academic success. Schools regularly engage
students in rigorous, in-depth academic work, use active intellectual
inquiry and sustained writing and revision in all classes.
Student Assessment--Schools design a system of assessment
that provides multiple opportunities for students to publicly exhibit
what they know and can do. Assessments grow out of classroom work and
provide on-going feedback to the school community, the teacher, the
student and the parent on a students' progress toward achieving
academic proficiency.
Student Support--`Smallness', less than 100 students per
grade level, helps to create a learning community for students and
teachers and provides opportunities for flexible and innovative
structures to support students academically and emotionally.
Democratic School Governance--Purposefully designed
structures provide for everyone's voice to be heard and respected in
the decision-making process with regard to hiring personnel, managing
budget, determining curriculum and pedagogy, developing students'
activities and any other policies that affect the daily life of
students and faculty.
Professional Development--Staff participates in on-going
professional development that focuses on student success. Time during
the school day is provided for staff development and the creation of
professional learning communities. New teachers are mentored in order
to help them to understand and to implement the goals of the community.
______
Chairman Kildee. Mr. John Brooks.
STATEMENT OF JOHN BROOKS, STUDENT, MOTT COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Mr. Brooks. First, let me thank Chairman Kildee and the
subcommittee for giving me the opportunity to testify at this
hearing to support early college programs. My name is John
Brooks. I attend Mott Middle College High School in Flint,
Michigan and will graduate in 2010 with a high school diploma
and an associate degree. I feel fortunate that my mom came to
me and told me about this program. Now I will be the first male
and sibling in my family to earn a college degree.
While at Mott Middle College I have maintained a 3.35 high
school GPA and I will complete my associate's degree in
business management. After I graduate I plan on going to a big
university and becoming a great business manager.
Mott Middle College has helped me and my family in so many
ways. My peers and I think one of the program's greatest
strengths is it provides free college tuition. If I did not
attend Mott Middle College I probably would not have gone to
college due to my family's financial situation and the lack of
mental and academic support in the traditional high school
setting.
In fact, I have friends who without MMC would not have
started college or maybe even graduated from high school
because of poverty, having children or not seeing a future for
themselves past high school. At our school all students are
looked at as college bound and can become college successful.
At Mott Middle College we are like a family. Everyone
supports everyone. Our teachers are here for us during school
and outside of school. During my time at Mott Middle College I
was able to start a mentor program to help some of the students
who do not have the support at home and outside of school. We
also started a Peace Maker and Peace Jam program for our zero-
tolerance rule for fighting.
Mott Middle College doesn't just enroll us into classes and
pay for them, our teachers give us more one-on-one attention
than regular high schools. The teachers help us when we need
it, whether it's schoolwork, helping us figure out which
college classes to take or helping us look for scholarships to
pay for additional college when we leave. They also send us on
leadership trips like the one I attended in Canada in 2008. It
was a Rotarian leadership conference in Ontario.
We also have a more diverse student population, so there
are really no cliques or groups. Students set examples for each
other. Everyone is expected to be a role model. Because our
school is small, everyone is acquainted with each other.
MMC creates more opportunities for students because they
get a head start on college credits and get a good introduction
on a college atmosphere. Our college requires students to take
at least three early college seminars to prepare us to earn
good grades in our college classes and mature as responsible
adults. We also have FOCUS groups where the teachers and the
students get to know each other like a family. During this
class time you can get help on homework or have fun with others
and communicate. We also have college public safety on our
campus, so it makes it a safe environment.
So some may ask what's different about going to high school
on a college campus. Being on a college campus forces us to act
mature like adults because we are in class with adults, we have
lunch with adults, we ride the bus with adults, so we become
adults. I asked some of my fellow classmates how is MMC
different from a traditional high school and they told me,
quote, it's like we're at home, everyone is friendly. The
teachers interact with us more and we get more one-on-one
attention. When we come here we want to do better. It's a more
diverse student population. It gives us a different look on
life. We have more responsibilities as students.
I would like to end my testimony by saying we come in as
students, we leave as scholars. Thank you.
Chairman Kildee. Thank you very much, Mr. Brooks.
[The statement of Mr. Brooks follows:]
Prepared Statement of John Otis Brooks, II, 5th Year Mott Middle
College High School Student
First, let me thank Chairman Kildee for giving me the opportunity
to testify at this hearing to support early college programs.
My name is John Brooks. I attend Mott Middle College High School in
Flint, Michigan and will graduate in 2010 with a high school diploma
and an Associate's Degree. I feel fortunate that my Mom came to me and
told me about this program. Now, I will be the first male and sibling
in my family to earn a college degree.
While at Mott Middle College, I have maintained a 3.35 high school
GPA and I will complete my Associate's Degree in Business Management.
After I graduate, I plan on going to a big university and becoming a
great business manager.
Mott Middle College has helped me and my family in so many ways. My
peers and I think one of the program's greatest strengths is that it
provides free college tuition. If I did not attend Mott Middle College,
I probably would not have gone to college due to my family's financial
situation and the lack of mental and academic support in the
traditional high school setting.
In fact, I have friends, who without MMC, would not have started
college or maybe even graduated from high school either because of
poverty, having children, or not seeing a future for themselves past
high school. At our school, all students are looked at as college bound
and can become college successful.
At Mott Middle College we are like a family; everyone supports
everyone. Our teachers are here for us during school and outside of
school. During my time at the Mott Middle College, I was able to start
a Mentor Program to help some of the students who do not have the
support at home and outside of school. We also started a Peace Maker
and Peace Jam Program for our ``zero tolerance'' rule for fighting.
Mott Middle College doesn't just enroll us in the classes and pay
for them. Our teachers give us more one on one attention than regular
high schools. The teachers help us when we need it, whether its school
work, helping us figure out what college classes to take, or helping us
look for scholarships to help pay for additional college when we leave.
They also send us on leadership trips like the one I attended in Canada
in 2008. It was the Rotarian Leadership Conference in Ontario.
We also have a more diverse student population, so there really are
no ``cliques'' or groups. Students set examples for each other and
everyone is expected to be a role model. Because our school is small,
everyone is acquainted with each other.
MMC creates more opportunities for students because they get a head
start on college credits and a good introduction to a college
atmosphere. Our school requires students to take at least 3 early
college seminars to prepare us to earn good grades in our college
classes and mature as responsible students. We also have FOCUS groups
where the teachers and students get to know each other like a family.
During this class time you can get help with homework or have fun with
others and communicate.
We also have college public safety on our campus, so it makes it a
safe environment.
So, some may ask ``What's different about going to high school on a
college campus?'' Being on a college campus forces us to mature and act
like adults because we are in class with adults, we have lunch with
adults, we ride the bus with adults; so we become adults.
I asked some of my fellow classmates ``How is MMC different from a
traditional high school?'' They told me:
``It's like we're at home; everyone is friendly''
``The teachers interact with us more and we get more one on one
attention''
``When we come here, we want to do better''
``It's a more diverse student population. It gives us a different
look on life''
``We have more responsibilities as students''
I would like to end my testimony by saying, we come in students, we
leave as scholars.
______
Chairman Kildee. Mr. Stephen Skorcz.
STATEMENT OF STEPHEN SKORCZ, MPH, PRESIDENT AND CEO, GREATER
FLINT HEALTH COALITION
Mr. Skorcz. Thank you, Congressman Kildee and distinguished
committee members and panelists. I am Stephen Skorcz, the
president and CEO of the Greater Flint Health Coalition. And
today on this panel I represent an industry that employs
people. And while all of the educational institutions in our
community are important for the future employees, they all
train for our organizations in healthcare. We have a special
affiliation with Genesee Early College because of its
commitment in the healthcare arena.
I just want to highlight--and my testimony has been
distributed, but I will only highlight a couple of points, one,
of the Greater Flint Health Coalition itself and its
uniqueness, especially in this day and age of healthcare
reform; and the other is Flint's unique role in something
called Sector Workforce Development, especially in healthcare.
The healthcare industry in Genesee County supports
Congressman Kildee's Fast Track to College Act. About the
coalition itself, it is probably one of the most unique
collaborative exercises in healthcare in the nation, and indeed
in Genesee County healthcare leaders, business, labor,
education do cooperate. In fact, this is an organization that's
submitted to President Obama three months ago a position on
healthcare reform that all the diverse participants can agree
to. So we were hoping to be invited to Washington, D.C. To
teach Congress how to do it, but we'll see.
The other thing that I would like to mention is that the
healthcare providers in Genesee County are critical important
players to the educational programs and especially to Genesee
Early College. The hospitals, healthcare providers and myself
served on the advisory committee for the Genesee Early College.
We practice, as I stated, in Flint, Michigan. This aspect of
Sector Workforce Development, and what I mean by that is we
have in this community taken traditional workforce development
and turned it on its head. While traditional training and
workforce development has done the training and education part,
they generally--individuals by and large have been on their own
to find those careers that will give them and make them
gainfully employed.
We do hope in Flint we do this in a different way, and that
different way is to make the employers in the driver's seat
where the healthcare sector employers actually define the jobs
that they need for the future and impact workforce development
so the individuals who then go through those programs can be
gainfully employed.
We are delighted to be here today and supportive of the
work this committee is doing. Thank you very much.
Chairman Kildee. Thank you very much.
[The statement of Mr. Skorcz follows:]
Prepared Statement of Stephen Skorcz, MPH, FACHE, President and CEO,
Greater Flint Health Coalition
Congressman Kildee, and distinguished panelists, it is my pleasure
to speak to you today.
I am Stephen Skorcz, the President & CEO of the Greater Flint
Health Coalition here in Flint, Michigan. I am happy to be here today
to provide you with comments on the healthcare industry's perspective
on the efforts that have been highlighted by the other panelists today.
More specifically, I will tell you about the Greater Flint Health
Coalition's efforts related to the Genesee Early College and also some
about our work to further develop a concept known as Sector Workforce
Development (which puts healthcare employers in the driver's seat for
developing their future workforce). What you will learn today is that
your support to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
and advance
Congressman Kildee's Fast Track to College Act can help communities
like Genesee County continue activities like the Genesee Early College
and achieve even greater success with our Sector Workforce Development
efforts. The success of these Sector Workforce Development efforts will
satisfy the growing demand for skilled healthcare workers.
To start, please allow me to provide you with some general
background on the Greater Flint Health Coalition. The Greater Flint
Health Coalition is a 501(c) 3 organization. It is a highly successful
regional collaborative that serves as a successful community and
institutional partnership. Our Board of Directors broadly reflects the
community of Genesee County and we have had significant success in
pursuit of our mission (which is twofold): to improve the health status
of the citizens of Genesee County and to improve the quality and cost
effectiveness of the health care system in our community. We became
involved with the Genesee Early College during the proposal development
process because it aligned with the work being done in our Flint
Healthcare Employment Opportunities Program (or F-H-E-O as we call it)
which provides training and educational opportunities for individuals
who are seeking a career in the healthcare field. The FHEO Program
serves low-income individuals, the unemployed, dislocated workers,
incumbent workers and youth. We've worked hard to make the FHEO Program
a success and believe that it has set the stage for programs like the
Genesee Early College to be a success. For more background on the FHEO
Program and the Greater Flint Health Coalition, please see attachments
to this testimony.
Looking more closely at where we stand today with the Genesee Early
College, I serve on the Genesee Early College Advisory Committee which
advises the Early College staff on various issues. There are other FHEO
Program partners who are also involved in this Advisory Group including
representatives from Genesys Health System, Hurley Medical Center, and
McLaren Regional Medical Center. Having these employers at the table is
very important.
When I describe the FHEO Program or Genesee Early College as a
sector workforce development program this means that we are turning
traditional workforce development on its head. What once was a system
that trained people first and then sent them out to find jobs is now
(under Sector Workforce Development) one which targets employers in a
specific industry first to define their employment needs and then train
people to meet those needs. The industry we target is health care and
its employers fill leadership roles and set the agenda to help us
develop the healthcare labor force. This is more than just simple
consultation. Employers provide direct leadership and drive how we
serve participants.
A specific example of this necessary type of employer leadership is
seen in the group of employers who were convened by the Coalition to
serve as a Genesee Early College Subcommittee. When the staff needed
advice on student internships, an employer Subcommittee came together
to better frame the student internships and provided information on
which clinical experiences would be most beneficial for up-and-coming
students seeking healthcare careers.
More recently, the Coalition has been working to bring interested
Genesee Early College Students in to observe the activities of one of
our 20+ Committees and Task Forces. As students do research on the
field, our committee activities can expose them to real world
practitioners dealing with specific and pressing issues all in a
consensus-based environment. What an opportunity for young people to
learn! To get involved, students must do a write-up on why they want to
observe a Committee, interview with staff, debrief with staff after all
meetings, and do a write-up on the experience.
The concept of Sector Workforce Development is taking hold around
the nation because it works. Recently proposed legislation called The
Strengthening Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Success (or
SECTORS) Act has given the concept further credibility as a national
model. Whether the work is done through an activity like the FHEO
Program or the Genesee Early College, there is a high level of employer
commitment for Sector Workforce Development in Genesee County and we
want to see continued growth. I urge you to reauthorize the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act and support Congressman Kildee's Fast Track
to College Act. These will help the residents of Genesee County by
building the skills of young people to meet employer needs over all
industries but, most importantly, the skills needed to address the
shortages of healthcare workers throughout Michigan and the U.S.
Thank you for your time.
______
Chairman Kildee. Dr. Michael Webb.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL WEBB, PH.D., ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT,
EARLY COLLEGE INITIATIVE, JOBS FOR THE FUTURE
Mr. Webb. Chairman Kildee and the State members of the
subcommittee, I am very pleased and honored to be here to
present testimony before you today. My testimony will build on
the experience of the early college high school initiative, a
national effort to significantly increase the number of
unrepresented students who attain a college degree.
I am associate vice president for Jobs for the Future.
Through research, action, advocacy JFF develops promising
education and labor market models that enable American families
and companies to compete in a global economy.
As education secretary Arne Duncan noted recently, only 38
percent of young workers have a college degree. This is a lower
percentage than nine other countries and no higher than a
generation ago. It's a sad reality today that one-third of high
school students don't graduate and more than half leave high
school unprepared for college-level academics. Yet, as the
United States pulls itself out of the most severe financial
crisis since the Great Depression, it is the level of
preparation of our work force that will ultimately determine
our economic strength and our ability to compete in a global
economy.
Gaps in educational attainment are caused by failure at
critical points. For every ten students who start high school
approximately two-thirds of them will get a high school diploma
and five will enroll in a postsecondary institution. Fewer than
three of these will complete a bachelor's degree within ten
years. The statistics for students of color are far worse with
just over half of African-Americans and Latinos completing a
high school credential.
However, completing high school is not enough to compete in
today's economy. A high school diploma will no longer enable a
young person to gain a decent-paying career. A four-year
college graduate earns two-thirds more than a high school
graduate does. An associate's degree translates into earning
significantly higher than those earned by an individual with a
high school diploma.
Early colleges are small schools designed so that students
can earn both a high school diploma and up to two years of
college credit or an associate's degree. The early college high
school initiative began with a captivating, though radical,
concept: Challenge, not remediation, will make a difference for
those young people who are least likely to attend college and
for whom society often has low aspirations for academic
achievement.
The philosophy behind this approach is grounded in the
expectation that most students have the intellectual ability to
succeed in college. What many students do not have,
particularly students whose parents did not go to college, are
college expectations, meaningful college exposure, sufficient
academic rigor in their K-12 classes and the habits of mind
required for college success.
The first year of college is a critical time. For many
students the lack of adequate preparation in high school means
the need for remedial non-credit courses. Ultimately this means
wasted money and time and results in low college completion
rates. Early college schools help to compress the time to a
college degree and provides support to help students transition
to and through the first year or two of colleges without the
need for remediation.
Today the number of early college schools has grown from
three during the 2002-3 school year--and Mott Middle College is
one of them--to more than 200 early colleges across 24 states.
The schools enroll 42,000 students. Half the students are the
first in their family to attend college. Nearly 60 percent
qualify for free or reduced lunch. Three-fourths are students
of color.
Though the initiative is young, we are seeing significant
successes. In 2008 early college schools open four or more
years graduated nearly 2,300 students with a graduation rate of
92 percent. 90 percent of the graduates earned college credit
with 40 percent earning more than a year of college credit.
More than one student out of ten earned an associate's degree
or two years or college credit.
Despite the severe retrenchment in the state budgets, a
number of states have continued significant investments in
early college and even appropriated new investments. North
Carolina leads the nation with 69 early colleges. New York
state recently established a program to create 22. Michigan has
made a substantial investment in early colleges to develop its
workforce in the fields of allied health. Texas is also
planning to open additional early colleges, adding to the 29
that are already in existence.
The early evidence indicates that early colleges are
fulfilling their mission. By changing the structure of high
school and compressing the number of years to a college degree
and removing financial and other barriers to college, early
college high schools will increase the number of
underrepresented youth who attain a postsecondary degree. Thank
you.
Chairman Kildee. Thank you very much, Dr. Webb.
[The statement of Mr. Webb follows:]
Prepared Statement of Dr. Michael Webb, Associate Vice President, Early
College High School Initiative, Jobs for the Future, Early College High
School Initiative Student Information System
Dear Chairman Dale E. Kildee and members of the Committee: I am
pleased to have the opportunity to testify today before the Committee
on Education and Labor on the issue of ``High School/College Dual
Enrollment Programs.''
My testimony today will build upon the experience of the Early
College High School Initiative, a national effort to significantly
increase the number of underrepresented students who attain a college
degree.
I am associate vice president at Jobs for the Future. Through
research, action, and advocacy, JFF develops promising education and
labor market models that enable American families and companies to
compete in a global economy.
Higher Education Attainment is Lagging
As Education Secretary Arne Duncan noted recently, ``Only 38
percent of young workers have a college degree, a lower percentage than
nine other countries, and no higher than a generation ago.'' It is a
sad reality today that one-third of high school students don't
graduate, and more than half leave high school unprepared for college-
level academics. Yet, as the United States pulls itself out of the most
severe financial crisis since the Great Depression, it is the level of
preparation of our workforce that will ultimately determine our
economic strength and ability to compete in a global economy.
Gaps in educational attainment are caused by failures at critical
points. For every ten students who start high school, approximately
two-thirds will get a diploma, and five will enroll in a postsecondary
institution. Fewer than three will complete a Bachelor's degree within
ten years. The statistics for students of color are far worse, with
just over half of African-Americans and Latinos completing a high
school credential.
However, completing high school is not enough to compete in today's
economy. A high school diploma will no longer enable a young person to
gain a decent paying career. A four-year college graduate earns two-
thirds more than a high school graduate does. An Associate's degree
translates into earnings significantly higher than those earned by an
individual with a high school diploma alone.
Preparation, Support, and Success in Higher Education
Early college schools are small schools designed so that students
can earn both a high school diploma and up to two years of college
credit or an Associate's degree. The Early College High School
Initiative began with a captivating, though radical, concept:
challenge, not remediation will make a difference for those young
people who are least likely to attend college and for whom society
often has low aspirations for academic achievement.
The philosophy behind this approach is grounded in the expectation
that most students have the intellectual ability to succeed in college.
What many students do not have--particularly students whose parents did
not go to college--are college expectations, meaningful college
exposure, sufficient academic rigor in their K-12 classes, and the
habits of mind required for college success.
To make the early college proposition succeed, secondary and
postsecondary partners have had to rethink traditional curriculum
sequences, find creative ways to align and connect high school and
college experiences, and provide the academic and social supports
students need to succeed in an intensive early college program. The
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has provided significant start-up and
implementation funding for the initiative. Carnegie Corporation of New
York, the Ford Foundation, and the W.K Kellogg Foundation also provided
early funding.
The first year of college is a critical time. For many students,
the lack of adequate preparation in high school means the need for
remedial, non-credit courses. Ultimately, this means wasted money and
time and results in low college completion rates. Early college schools
help to compress the time to a college degree and provide support to
help students transition to and through the first year or two of
college without the need for remediation.
Strengthening the Pipeline to and Through College
Today, the number of early college schools has grown from 3 during
the 2002-03 school year to more than 200 early college schools in 24
states. The schools enroll 42,000 students. Half the students are the
first in their family to attend college. Nearly 60 percent qualify for
the free-or reduced-lunch program. Three-fourths are students of color.
A number of schools include the middle grades in order to begin
rigorous academic preparation at an earlier age.
Though the initiative is young, we are seeing significant
successes. In 2008, early college schools open 4 or more years
graduated nearly 2,300 students, with a graduation rate of 92 percent.
Ninety percent of the graduates earned college credit, with 40% earning
more than a year of college credits. More than one student out of 10
earned an Associate's degree or two years of college credit.
Based on emerging data, early college graduates are likely to
immediately enroll in college at rates higher than other high school
graduates. In the first study of enrollment patterns, 89 percent of
early college graduates enrolled in college right after graduation,
compared to 67 percent of a nationally representative sample of
graduates taken from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS).
Early college students tend to be low-income and students of color,
characteristics that correlate with low college-going rates. Yet, this
same study showed that early college graduates were nearly 65% more
likely to enroll in college immediately after graduation than students
in the lowest economic quartile in the NELS sample.
Early college graduates also enrolled in four-year colleges at
rates higher than low-income graduates in the NELS study. Enrollment in
four-year colleges is a predictor of greater success in attaining a
Bachelor's degree.
The Power of Place
More than half of early college schools are located on a college
campus. Two-thirds are located on a two-year college campus. Schools
not located on a college campus include in their design activities to
create and reinforce the college experience for their students.
Talk with any students attending an early college school on a
college campus and it will soon be clear that there is a positive
effect brought about by the location. Expectations for student
behavior, recognition, and a sense of belonging all contribute to the
development of students' college-going identity. This is particularly
important for students who lack the tradition of college going in their
family and community.
In Lean Times, A Growing Investment
Despite the severe retrenchment in state budgets, a number of
states have continued significant investments in early college and even
appropriated new investments. North Carolina leads the nation with 69
early college schools. New York State recently established a program to
create 22 early college schools. Michigan has made a substantial
investment in early colleges to develop its workforce in the fields of
allied health. Texas is also planning to open additional early college
schools, adding to the 29 that are already in existence.
The evidence supporting the growth of early college schools
continues to build. Jobs for the Future has established a Student
Information System to provide data on the progress and outcomes of
early college students and their schools. With three graduating classes
of significant numbers, JFF is also tracking postsecondary enrollment
of graduates as they progress through higher education.
The early evidence indicates that early colleges are fulfilling
their mission. By changing the structure of high school, compressing
the number of years to a college degree, and removing financial and
other barriers to college, early college schools will increase the
number of underrepresented youth who attain a postsecondary degree.
______
Chairman Kildee. Now we'll have some questions. I recognize
myself first for five minutes.
Dr. Lotfi and Dr. Shaink, these students are able to
accomplish what they're accomplishing through the services you
provide in cooperation you have with the school districts, and
they do that without paying any fee. How do you fund--Dr. Lotfi
first, how do you fund those programs, where would you find the
dollars for that?
Mr. Lotfi. The Genesee Early College is actually owned and
operated by the Genesee Intermediate Schools, so the students
do come with funding from the states that they would have
otherwise received if they would have been attending a regular
high school, so there is some degree of funding to support
them. I'm not completely convinced that that is sufficient
because obviously the Genesee Early College program has got an
enhanced program, so they do come with certain degree of the
funding. And I'll leave it to Dr. Svitkovich to perhaps comment
more on that.
Mr. Svitkovich. If I may, Mr. Kildee?
Chairman Kildee. Yes.
Mr. Svitkovich. They have a foundational allowance that we
get through the----
Chairman Kildee. Hold your microphone a little closer,
please?
Mr. Svitkovich. They get the foundational allowance through
the City of Flint. Now, our partner, fiscal agent, is the Flint
Community Schools, so the high school student we have at
Genesee Early is funded identically to any other high school
student in Michigan.
We take that money and we use it in a couple of ways; one,
we have to pay for the high school operations, and two, we have
to pay the college tuition that U of M charges for the college
courses. We're fortunate that University of Michigan-Flint here
does special consideration to give us some breaks. They also
provide us space and security and all the facility kinds of
things that a normal school would be paying on their own, so
there is a partnership here.
The issue that comes up, and both he and I agree on this,
is there just isn't enough funding to make it work for both
partners, and that's why we've been existing with our initial
startup grant. Mott Foundation has been generous with us to
help us along the way, but as you know, the Mott Foundation
will do--they won't operate a program but they will get us
started, so that's why we look to the Fast Track to College Act
to fill the void that will certainly come at a later date.
Chairman Kildee. Dr. Shaink, do you want to----
Mr. Shaink. Yes. Well, both our gentlemen explained the
issue from the perspective of tuition and also Dr. Svitkovich
did talk about the fact that each of our university and college
does give in-kind services. We provide the space, we provide
the security, we provide some of the other things and we're
very proud and pleased to do that because we just see--the
important thing is to see what it does for our students and the
outcome, if they had not attended one of our middle or early
colleges where would they be, and we're just excited to see the
outcome and how successful they are because of that partnership
we have.
Chairman Kildee. My bill would authorize $140 million over
six years. You already are in place, you're one of the
pioneers, Flint's one of the pioneers, your program is
certainly one of the pioneers. As a matter of fact, when the
president spoke to us the other night Lamar Alexander came in
just before the president and I shook hands with him also, and
he mentioned his visit to Flint, mentioned this program. So
you're already a pioneer in this.
If we were to authorize and appropriate this $140 million
under my bill, how would you use that? Could you use it to--
more than just increase the number of students, could you make
improvements in the program? Maybe both Dr. Lotfi and Dr.
Shaink could respond to that. Are there improvements you can
find in the program or keep the continuity maybe smoother or
try to recruit even more?
Mr. Shaink. Absolutely there is, and one of the things
though, we would look to our partner and to the middle college
administration. They are always continuously improving their
curriculum and that's the area that we can really improve on in
the services that are provided to the students. We would--at
this point we look at not necessarily recruiting more students
at this particular high school because we feel that there is
power to have a smaller-size program, we have 400.
But what it can do is provide more staff and more
counselors, more faculty, and--that are working back and forth,
so yes, we can always use that, but technology is improving and
we look at the technology that we can provide. Those are always
challenges for any of us, and that money would be able to
provide that.
Chairman Kildee. Dr. Lotfi, is there any special training
or education you can give to your college people who are more
used to dealing with older students when they deal with the
younger students? Is there some orientation for those teachers?
Mr. Lotfi. Absolutely. Actually we have discovered some
synergies that really were not expected. For instance, in the
Genesee Early College by the second year we discovered some
need for additional tutorial services for some of the students.
Some select students who needed extra help, the GEC high school
students. So what we have done is we have taken our best and
brightest college students and employed them. We have hired
them to serve as tutors for the GEC high school students and
the tutorial services, so that's one discovery.
But certainly we can provide additional support services
both in terms of professional development for our own faculty
because these students are--when they take college credit
courses they are not distinguished when they are sitting in an
average college level class as GEC students. The faculty don't
necessarily know that these are GEC students as opposed to our
own freshman or sophomore student. So definitely we could use
some support for professional development, but also we are
delighted to discover that some of the more higher-achieving
GEC students by the 13th year they are now tutoring our college
students. For example, the Welsh daughters that I mentioned,
Kathryn and Kristy, have completed the 40 credit hours and they
were such advanced in chemistry, taking organic chemistry, they
have now been hired by the chemistry department to provide
tutorial services by the college students. But certainly these
are really synergistic developments that we are just
discovering as we are moving forward, and we could use support
for professional development and additional support services
for the students.
Chairman Kildee. Thank you very much. I see my time for the
first round has expired. Mr. Payne.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much. I thank each of the
witnesses for your fine testimony. I would like to find out
from the administrators of the program, each of--any one of the
three of you that are involved with it could answer.
The--how is the funding--is there a--is it set up as a
normal high school and funding from the regular school budget
for that particular town or is it funds that are--come from--
I'm just kind of more interested in how you work the funding
out?
Mr. Svitkovich. There are students--they are high school
students, so in Michigan every school district gets a per pupil
from the State to operate their particular programs, and it's
called foundation allowance. Therefore, since the Flint
Community Schools is our fiscal agent for both Mott Middle
College and Genesee Early College, we or Genesee ISD, the
service agency for this region, get the foundation allowance
for the operation of both the early college and the middle
college, just like Flint would get the foundation allowance for
the operation of one of their own schools, and that's the first
step.
We pay the governmental rate, of course, for the handling
and doing all the processing of the paperwork. That's not
enough and has never been enough to be able to support college
tuition and the high school curriculum even though the colleges
have given us space, security, technology support. We've worked
together in terms of staff development, these kinds of things.
It still has not been enough.
So there are additional dollars that both the intermediate
school district finds to support the program. One good example
would be we use some of our career tech money to support an
internship that goes on at Mott Middle College where all
students have to have a realtime job intern experience.
We use some of that same career tech funding to support
clinicals that occur in the hospitals with our Genesee early
college students, so it's an expensive program because of the
power of the place, and it doesn't work like a traditional high
school.
In my experience I have always found that if you give a
per-pupil allocation there are some students that are not going
to use or need that full allocation, and that money can be
shifted to more expensive students. That has occurred
traditionally, especially in special education, and I know
members of the Congress are very much aware of all of the
additional costs for special education students.
This is very much a similar program because there are such
external costs. And as I mentioned in my testimony, the whole
notion of this program being on a four-year campus makes it
much more expensive and that's why it's so unique, because the
majority of middle colleges and early colleges do indeed exist
on a community college campus.
But many students who want to become physicians aren't
interested in starting their career in a community college
setting, so that's why we shifted to the four-year institution,
because they wanted to start their career in a college setting,
university setting.
Mr. Payne. Yes?
Mr. Lotfi. I think the per-pupil concept was really
designed to support the students throughout the high school
life of four years with 20 credit hours or whatever it may be.
It was not designed--the per-pupil funding has not been
designed to pay for instructional expenses for the additional
60 credit hours that they have for college. Early on we
discovered that, and in order to be a good partner with the
Genesee Intermediate Schools on our campus we decided to
subsidize that, but we can only do this subsidy to a very
limited extent. It is not sufficient to a full-blown version,
and so we made special considerations for the Genesee Early
College as when they dual enroll in our university college
courses not to charge them the full tuition.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Chairman Kildee. And the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My first question is to Dr. Shaink. There you are.
Mr. Shaink. Yes.
Mr. Hinojosa. As a program designed to help at-risk youth
does the Mott Middle College use some type of early warning
indicator system to identify individuals who might be at risk
of falling behind or dropping out of the program?
Mr. Shaink. Absolutely. Right from the very beginning one
of the things that I've been impressed with is how the staff
administrators interview the students and also work with
families. And one of the key things is working with families
because it's not just changing one--a student's life, it's
changing the entire family's life.
And so there's conversation from the very beginning of what
the expectations are when coming on campus, that they are in an
adult setting and that they--not only they, the student, but
also their families, are expected to uphold that expectation,
and so that's really clear.
In addition to that, because of the size of the program--in
our case 400, maximum 400--faculty and staff are able to really
work on a one-to-one basis with each of the students. They
treat them not as just a student, they look at the entire whole
of the student, their life. And so many of the at-risk students
that come to us have life issues, and so it's important on a
day-to-day basis to keep in touch with the student and how
they're doing.
I know, having been a former high school teacher, and I
know that that is what they do, they just check on the students
as they come in, well, how are you doing, Johnny.
Mr. Hinojosa. May I ask you a question regarding this? I
like what I hear from you, but give me an estimate of how many
of your minority students are dropping out and not finishing
this program, African-American children, what percentage, and
Hispanic students, how many are not graduating?
Mr. Shaink. If I can't give you that information right now,
we will get that to you. We do have one of the----
Mr. Hinojosa. If I could get the answer to that later----
Mr. Shaink. You surely can.
Mr. Hinojosa. My time is running out and I want to ask more
questions.
Chairman Kildee. We'll keep the record open for 14 days for
additional testimony.
Mr. Hinojosa. Excellent. I'd like to ask Mr.--is it
pronounced Skorcz?
Mr. Skorcz. Skorcz.
Mr. Hinojosa. What role did the Greater Flint Health
Coalition play in the proposal phase of this Genesee Early
College?
Mr. Skorcz. Yes. The healthcare sector in the Greater Flint
Health Coalition specifically were involved in the planning and
helped create the partnership to support the early college. We
would eventually also be part of the advisory committee that
continues to advise the early college. For example, recently
there's been a discussion on internships, and what we did was
the hospitals helped define those internships so that they
would be an asset to the program and added value to the types
of internships that should occur.
Mr. Hinojosa. I think your program will be greatly needed
if we are to be able to give health insurance policies to some
45, 47 million more people who are uninsured, and so the need
to produce allied health workers, particularly nurses and
physicians' helpers, those who can help primary care doctors,
would be greatly needed. And I would ask is there a way that
you all are tracking the students that go through your program?
Mr. Skorcz. Well, really the early college is tracking
those programs. We do have as a Greater Flint Health Coalition
something called the Flint Healthcare Employment Opportunities,
which is a different older population in the community, people
who haven't worked for many years, entry-level people, people
who are in entry-level jobs currently in healthcare who wish to
get additional credits to get promoted. And by that we hope to
increase the slots available at the entry level, and more
recently we've had a grant from the Department of Labor for
dislocated workers, especially auto industry.
Mr. Hinojosa. That's very important, sir. My last question
goes to Mr. Brooks.
Mr. Brooks, do you feel that minority students are being
helped to have accessibility and to be able to afford higher
education, those that you are mentoring and helping out?
Mr. Brooks. Yes, I do, and that's because not only is it
free college but the support that the teachers give us, they
give us the mindset that we can go farther and do better as
individuals, not just as students.
Mr. Hinojosa. Please let them know that the House of
Representatives just passed a bill yesterday which we are
sending to the Senate, and it--if it passes the Senate and the
President signs it, there will be $80 billion over the next ten
years to help in terms of the accessibility and affordability
for all students to go to colleges and universities.
The Pell grant will go up. It was 4,000 just two years ago.
It will be 5,700, and it will go to 6,900 in just a few years.
So we have direct student--we will have under this bill direct
government loans with a very low interest rate and there will
be no reason to not have the money necessary to pursue a
college education. With that I yield back.
Chairman Kildee. Mr. Hinojosa is being very humble. The
landmark bill that passed yesterday emerged from his
subcommittee, from his mind and his heart. He worked very hard
on that bill. It had to be a very happy day for you yesterday
when that bill passed.
Mr. Hinojosa. It was. I did somersaults after the vote.
Chairman Kildee. I let him handle higher education, I do K-
12, but on this we see how the two come together. We've
demonstrated it here in Genesee County, we put it together. I
would like to replicate this throughout the country. If people
want to see how these programs work, let them come to Flint and
Genesee County. We've got it here. Thank you very much. The
gentlelady from Hawaii.
Ms. Hirono. Thank you very much. Since this program is very
much focused on helping at-risk students to be able to succeed
in high school and also college and in life, how do you go
about identifying the students who should be encouraged to
participate in this program? Any of you can respond to that.
Mr. Svitkovich. There's a partnership. There are 21
constituent districts, there are K-12 districts here in Genesee
County serving our 80,000 students. They have all approved
these programs as legitimate alternative-school programs, plus
neighboring counties also have an access to the programs as
well. And when students meet the criteria, either in the middle
college because they're at risk of dropping out--you heard the
grade point statistics I'm sure that were shocking to you--but
they're having a difficult time in a traditional high school.
Then they either look at one of several alternatives.
They may be running an alternative program within their own
district. There may be another opportunity. The Baker College--
Julianne Princinsky was introduced earlier, president of Baker
College--has a career academy that operates on a similar basis.
That might be an option for them. Or there's an application
process for the Mott Middle College. If the student meets the
criteria and can fit, then they're off and running, and the
same process occurs with the Genesee Early College. So it's a
professional to professional relationship as well as
advertisements directly to the parents because if you were
watching our local TV or watching--or listening to local radio
or reading our local press, you would find out about the
Genesee Early College or Mott Middle College as an opportunity
for your student. So that's pretty much the way it occurs.
Ms. Hirono. So--excuse me. So what you're describing is a
range of options that a student, at-risk student, would have.
You know, you said if a student meets the criteria for MCC
then----
Mr. Svitkovich. The process goes.
Ms. Hirono. So what's the criteria particularly for----
Mr. Svitkovich. First of all, they have to have some
difficulty in the traditional school. They're either--most of
the time they've already dropped out. Two, they have to have
some ability to be able to perform in an environment. There has
to be a potential there.
Ms. Hirono. How do you determine that?
Mr. Svitkovich. The leadership of the school has a rubric
that they run through, and it's pretty effective. They can make
a selection that works well. For the most part students that
apply are accepted because they do meet the criteria in both
cases.
Mr. Lotfi. In the case of Genesee Early College I think the
genius is in the admission process, which includes a personal
interview. It is a little different than the way we admit our
regular university students. In this case students are
interviewed so they could not necessarily have a 3.5 GPA to
automatically get into a university, and having a relatively
lower GPA, but the principal, the counselors, they analyze
their transcripts, and more importantly, they interview each
and every one, because in order to become part of the GEC, the
Genesee Early College program, at least on our campus, they
have to give up certain things. For example if they want to
play football they can't do that because we do not have a
football team. So we want to make sure that student is really
committed to coming here and going through that sacrifice,
giving up certain amenities that they would have in their high
school, in return earning 60 transferable free college credits.
And our--statistically we are very young, obviously. We are
in our third year, so we have not graduated our first cohort
yet, but we have tremendous success in terms of dropout, we
have less than a couple of percent.
Ms. Hirono. And that dropout rate is low not because you're
kind of cherry picking them?
Mr. Lotfi. No, absolutely not.
Ms. Hirono. In terms of trying to replicate this program,
because it sounds like a program that's very successful, what
are the most important factors that would go toward some other
state replicating your program?
Mr. Shaink. Well, I would say it's really on the design
principles, and you have a handout, the design principles, and
that really is the basis of making sure that it does focus on
the at-risk students. And I agree that it's the interview
process, it's the process that--what we get excited about is
we're actually taking at-risk youth and we are turning them
around, as we've indicated, from 1.6 to a 3.1 grade point
average, and we're not just cherry picking. And the family and
the student has really got to want to be in that position.
Ms. Hirono. Has anybody from Hawaii come to visit you? Not
yet?
Mr. Lotfi. But we would love to have them.
Mr. Svitkovich. We'd love to visit Hawaii and give you the
information. Have us over.
Mr. Shaink. January?
Ms. Hirono. Thank you.
Chairman Kildee. Thank you, Ms. Hirono.
Dr. Webb, Congress in the last few years has been moving
around, touching, twisting, turning over the problem of
transfer of credits from one higher education unit to another.
We have not done really very much on it, but it is our concern,
we recognize that difficulty. Do students participating in dual
enrollment face challenges transferring their college credits
to colleges not affiliated with the program?
Mr. Webb. Absolutely. That's a problem here in Michigan as
elsewhere in the country. States that have been really
successful in creating those seamless opportunities for
students have articulation agreements among at least the public
institutions, public two-year, four-year, the colleges and
universities. Articulation agreements would say that for this
syllabus for this course this will be recognized in all the
public institutions in the state. It really takes that kind of
agreement among the higher-education institutions about what
constitutes the content and request the accountability
associated with every course and agreement about that in order
to help create that seamless transfer.
Where that doesn't exist, then it's ad hoc. It's actually
haphazard for the student who could earn 60 college credits and
find that he or she has no place to put them upon graduation
from high school. So this is really a big problem nationwide,
and some states, Texas included, California among the two-year
in the Cal State University system, but not the University of
California--and other states. Ohio has made some really great
progress in this area.
This is an area that I think along with the other issues
that were mentioned has to be in place for replication. There
has to be an agreement that at least the state--that the public
institutions in the state will come to the table to begin the
process of thinking about articulation transfer agreements.
Chairman Kildee. Is there a role for either the state
government to help facilitate those transfer of credits or the
federal government?
Mr. Webb. Absolutely. New York state recently announced an
RFP to create 22 early colleges within the next five years, and
in order to apply for that the institutions involved, which
will be primarily public institutions, have to agree that
they're going to sit down together and they're going to figure
out how credits will be transferred from one institution to
another, and that's where the state which is holding the money
and the state which is authorizing this new program has the
power to bring folks to the table and from the bully pulpit
address a really critical issue in early college and a dual
enrollment in general.
Chairman Kildee. Well, the power of the dollar could be
used in both places, could it not?
Mr. Webb. Absolutely.
Chairman Kildee. We hesitate to interfere with the autonomy
of any educational institution of higher education. But when
there seems to be maybe an unfairness or arbitrariness in not
accepting transfer, do you think that maybe the use of the
dollar might encourage them to sit down to the table?
Mr. Webb. Absolutely. And if they won't go all the way,
they can think about core courses that will be transferable.
What is the set of courses, even whether it's a technical set
of courses or liberal arts set of courses, that everyone will
agree upon. Let's start with a core set of courses, a core
curriculum, if you will, that's the place to begin. The
autonomy is a major issue and not just in Michigan but all
across the county. State systems don't want to be told by other
systems which credits they're going to accept, and even
campuses within the same system don't want to be told but to
agree upon a set of core courses or core curriculum for
transfer is one positive step in the right direction.
Chairman Kildee. Mr. Brooks, can you tell me a little more
about the mentor program you established at Mott Middle College
and who helped you establish the program and how many students
participate?
Mr. Brooks. Last year we had a certain amount of kids that
weren't doing too well, and a couple of my teachers came up to
me and asked what can I do to help make not only the students
better but the school. So I went home and I thought, and I
thought of a mentor program because that will not only help the
students academically but if they don't have the support at
home or any type of support period, that's what the other peers
and the other students and the mentors are there to help for.
And I started it last year, and now I have a co--like a
coworker type. Her name is Danielle, so she's helping me. And I
have approximately about 15 students in there right now and I
still have people signing up, so the program is increasing as
we speak.
Chairman Kildee. Thank you very much. My time is expired.
Mr. Payne.
Mr. Payne. Thank you.
Mr. Brooks, say if you went to your normal high school you
were probably scheduled to go to, how do you think you would be
doing, do you think you would be doing as well, maybe you have
the special ability anyway, or do you think the fact that
you're in a setting you're in gives you the incentive to do
better and why?
Mr. Brooks. Academically I would still be successful, but
what it was is when I changed to Mott Middle College the
teachers actually cared about the students. It's not like
they're getting paid to teach and it's another day they have to
come to work, they are willing to come to work and help the
students succeed and they want us to be just as successful as
they are.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much.
Dr. Webb, the--well, let me ask another, perhaps any of
you--in some--we have some specialized high schools that are
not this type, but in Newark. What do you think about the
possibility for a student to go to say Mott Middle College, not
necessarily having the ability to participate in sports or if
they--would they be able to be assigned a public high school
which would have done that, a special school so that they can
participate? I don't know, maybe, Mr. Brooks, you might know?
Mr. Webb. Well, nationally that is something that happens
quite a bit where the comprehensive high school or the high
school to which the student would have been assigned had he or
she not gone to early college, is the place where a student can
go back with permission and participate in activities, sports
and other activities, the caveat being they have to maintain a
certain GPA and they have to maintain satisfactory progress in
their courses in order to continue that. But it's fairly common
practice because sports is engrained in the American culture
and even early colleges which hold the promise of so many
benefits still aren't compelling enough without sports for
students to feel satisfied with that academic experience.
Mr. Svitkovich. Mr. Payne, if I may, the specific in
Michigan is the Michigan High School Athletic Association will
allow our students at both Genesee Early and Mott Middle to
participate in high school sports activities with the
permission of their local district, and that's the catch. Some
districts do, some districts don't, and that's the issue. And
the reason they'll allow that is both of these schools, Mott
Middle and Genesee Early, are considered alterative schools so
the student can participate in their local districts' programs
but with the permission of the local district.
The other part that's challenging to us and extremely
difficult, the schedule that we have established is not a
traditional high school schedule. As you know in a traditional
high school athletic practice happens when the bell rings for
the most part. Well, there's no bell here, so they're given
advanced chemistry and they've got to be in their chem lab. So
those are the kinds of things that inhibit that. There are
really two avenues, the local district, one, and the fact that
the structure itself doesn't lend itself easily to that kind of
thing.
Mr. Payne. We even have a school in our district that has
athletic practice before school and they have to be there a
6:00, 6:30 if they want to participate in sports going to the
normal school.
Dr. Webb, this is sort of a general question. We've always
heard about North Carolina, New York, you know, the states, and
Michigan now--of course we have to include Michigan--but
certain states seems like it has more of an initiative. And I
wonder in your opinion, does that come since education is so
local, do you think it's the individual governor or what is--I
know North Carolina had a governor who really took education to
heart. Even in New Jersey we had to have a decision, a court
decision, that said all schools had to be funded at the same
level, and therefore no school district could be funded at a
higher level.
So the court, unless we had a constitutional provision that
was done in the 17--1800's, 1700's, that said every student is
entitled to a thorough and efficient education, so if the
student just sued the constitutionality of their school and won
the case--anyway, what do you see as the spark in North
Carolina or in New York like this Jersey case?
Mr. Webb. I think in the same vein that the State of
Michigan has made a decision about its economic feature and
what it's going to need to be prosperous, other states have
made that decision too. In Texas, for example, the leadership
of the former governor as well as the higher education system
resulted in the decision to expand early colleges. In New York
state it really wasn't led by the governor so much as it was by
legislators and the Department of Education, but in every case
there's a champion with power that sees that education is
integrally tied to the economic future.
But in states where it works very well, it works well
because there are a set of policies that are conducive to early
college. For example, in Texas they have something called Hold
Harmless, so the local district does not lose anything if a
student is taking high school and college courses. The local
district gets its full allocation of per-pupil allocation and
the college gets its full allocation of FTE, and so there's no
penalty for being a partner in early college.
In places where it works well, either through waivers or
through regulations, they put in place a set of policies that
help to make it work. They deal with the funding issues, they
deal with transfer of credit, they deal with seat time, which
is major barrier for many early colleges. If you're taking a
college course you're not sitting in that seat for the same
amount of time as you are if you're sitting in a high school
course, so what does that mean, that the college course is not
worth as much as the high school course? Of course you know
that's not the case.
So in those states where early college is proliferating and
working the legislators and other officials are really working
on those policy issues. I think here in Michigan we're seeing
the same thing, that as Chery Wagonlander mentioned to me
earlier, one by one they're addressing those barriers to
effective programming and financing.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much.
Chairman Kildee. Mr. Hinojosa.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for having another
round of questions. I want to address a very important question
that our Chairman Kildee asked, and I will expand in just a
moment. The question was do students participating in dual-
enrollment programs face the challenges transferring their
college credits to colleges and universities not affiliated
with this program.
I want to get as many students into college, but in looking
at the college accreditation process that the proprietary
schools go through versus accredited colleges and universities
like you have here in Michigan and other states, is it possible
that your Michigan state higher education coordinating board be
the group that would tackle this question that he asked so as
to set the standards at such level that it would be easy to get
those agreements that colleges and universities would accept
our students from this early college course program that we are
discussing? I'd like to ask that of the chancellor.
Ms. Person. I know I'm not a witness, but if I could help
answer that in any way, we don't have a higher education--we
don't have anything like we did--we do in Texas for higher
education coordinating where there is no one single entity that
sort of controls all higher education.
Mr. Hinojosa. If you don't have a similar entity as ours,
who in the state of Michigan could be that entity who could
tackle this problem because it's very important?
Ms. Person. There are probably the couple different
entities, and I'll yield in a minute to my colleague from the
community college sector. For the four-year colleges and
universities, public colleges and universities, we do have a
president's council, so that's one avenue. And I'll yield to
Dr. Shaink to speak about the two-year schools.
Mr. Shaink. To answer your question, all of the students
who attend Mott Middle College High School take college
credits, they transfer, period. And the reason why is we--the
community colleges and the universities along with the K-12
system fall under the North Central Accreditation. In our case
it's the higher learning commission is the division of it, so
we have standards. We work with the public institutions. We
work across the board to make sure that we have the same
credential for instructors that we're following. We're working
with the different universities and colleges to have
articulation agreements, so in our case we are always aware of
that, making sure that the courses that they are taking as part
of the system of working and the power of the site where our
teachers, our faculty, our counselors can work with the
teachers and faculty of the high school and with the students.
Mr. Hinojosa. Please know that we've had field hearings on
higher education in California, New York, different places, and
this question, this issue that the chairman asked is very, very
important. And there's no question that the proprietary school
student enrollment has quadrupled in just the last five years,
and it's a multi-billion-dollar business for them.
And many of the students who are graduating, in my opinion
at least some of them--I don't know the percentage, but it's
questionable about the preparation. It seems like there are
articles in major newspapers that talk about other students
taking the tests for them because it's done online and a lot of
cheating on tests, and so it makes their degrees questionable.
And we do not--we need to have the same type of regulations on
those proprietary colleges as we have on our public colleges as
yours.
And know that when I heard the chairman ask that question I
said thank you, Mr. Chairman, for bringing that up because it
certainly did come up in the field hearing we had from east
coast to west coast. So with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
My time has run out.
Chairman Kildee. Thank you very much. The gentle lady from
Hawaii.
Ms. Hirono. Thank you. There's no question that a caring,
competent and qualified teacher is really foundational to the
success of any classroom and the students, so Mr. Brooks has
mentioned several times how important the teachers are in this
program. And my question is who gets to teach in your program,
how do you find them, what do you pay them, do they get more,
do they get special kind of training, do you need teachers with
particular kinds of attitudes to be part of this program?
Mr. Svitkovich. The question is since we're the employer of
all those teachers, first of all, they have to meet the highly-
qualified standard and they have to meet the certification
standards in the state of Michigan, so those are given as a
point. And I'm thinking of a particular teacher as I describe
this to you.
I knew this teacher for, oh, at least three years before he
came to work for us, and I knew him when he was a high school
student and I knew him from a standpoint of how he looked, how
he acted, what his intellect was, what his interests were. And
when we finally got him into the process and interviewed him--
and our process requires a committee interview of staff,
interview of the administration, ending with a private
interview with me that is truly an interview, so there are many
steps that a person goes through.
This teacher is extremely successful at Mott Middle
College, and I would consider him one of our best, for he was a
graduate of Mott Middle College, and he would not--if he were
here testifying today he would tell you that I would not have
graduated from high school had I not had the opportunity to go
to Mott Middle College for the same reasons that this young man
explained. And he became an excellent candidate.
And those are the kinds of people that we look for. We look
for people that are highly skilled, highly trained and are
very, very empathetic and understanding within the work force.
They also have to take on additional responsibilities for
continuous improvement, staff development, stand evaluations,
all of the things that I would consider normal.
But it's not for everyone, and we take a great deal of time
in selecting the right person to perform, and we've done a good
job with that. Our principals are excellent in looking for
candidates. We do pay well.
Ms. Hirono. Do you pay better than----
Mr. Svitkovich. The general salary schedule of the Genesee
Intermediate School District--and we employ teachers--is not
the highest in this county, but it's certainly not at the
midpoint.
Ms. Hirono. And are the teachers union members?
Mr. Svitkovich. They are union members, they're members of
the Michigan Education Association. We've developed over the
years something very different with our union. We have our own
win-win negotiations process. I have 1,200 employees in my
school district working on various tasks. The vast majority of
them are union members. In the last year I don't think I've had
a grievance come to my level. We have a very positive working
relationship with our unions and we're able to do the kinds of
things that make the school extremely successful.
Ms. Hirono. Anybody else want to add anything further?
Because of the recruiting, the training, retention of highly-
qualified teachers or effective teachers, as I like to use that
term, is a huge challenge throughout our school system, and for
a school like this I would think that you would need some very
special kinds of teachers who are not only qualified but
committed. I'd like to see that in every classroom.
Mr. Lotfi. I would like to just congratulate and
acknowledge the teachers and the principal of the Genesee Early
College on our campus because certainly teaching in the Genesee
Early College is different. My own spouse, by the way, is a
high school teacher in a local school district, so I'm a little
bit familiar with it.
It takes a little bit of extra effort on the part of the
teachers because of the schedules, so for example, by the time
the students get to the sophomore level or junior level their
daily schedule is vastly different than that of the regular
classroom students that are entered in blocks because they walk
out to go and take a college class and they come back. So the
teachers have to be creative in a way that they could schedule
a chemistry lab or physics lab or biology lab and arrange it so
they are within the university's schedule as well. So there are
some complexities and nuances, and these are fantastic
schoolteachers that we have on our campus and the principal,
and they have really made this a very, very successful
experience.
Mr. Webb. I have something to add to that. The professional
development is a really important aspect of any successful
early college. Most early colleges are successful and have
common planning time, and just like there's a relationship
among the students, it's very personable and very close, the
same thing has to happen with the teachers because they're
starting with a population of students who may not have been
successful before they came there, so they enter oftentimes
with issues, some learning issues, personal issues. And so in
order to make sure that these students are successful teachers
have to collaborate and talk with each other.
It's not like traditional education, like the schools I've
taught in where you go into the classroom, close the door, you
open up the door when the bell rings, you close it again, and
you do that all day. Teachers work with each other, they
collaborate, there's common planning time. And that
professional development and that common working together, that
collaborative work is a very important hallmark for
professional development in early colleges and really
contributes to success of that school's experience.
Ms. Hirono. Thank you.
Chairman Kildee. Thank you very much, Ms. Hirono. The chair
at its discretion is going to try one more round of questions.
This has been very, very helpful. We really have people who
know this issue very well, so I'm going to try one more round
of questions.
Let me address the question to Dr. Shaink. In your
testimony you reference Mott Middle College affective skills
initiative. What does that initiative entail?
Mr. Shaink. I would really like to call upon the principal
who really is engrained in that, but part of the effective
skills is really working with the high school instructors,
working with the college instructors to make sure that there's
an easy transition for a student to be able to know how to take
the college course. It could be the facts of understanding of
time management, it could be understanding of the explanation
of you're going to walk into a class and you're going to have
to use Blackboard, which is a software package, it could be how
to hold a discussion in a college course.
It's really designed to make sure that there's an
integration between the high school curricula and the college
curricula so that the student is not surprised. And again,
that's where the faculty on both parts, both on the high school
and the college, work together and work with that student and
keep track and in touch with that student to make sure that
they're not getting lost and that they are being successful in
that transition. And I think that's where the power of the
site, when we talk about where it's located on the college
campus, that it's easy for their students to have communication
both ways, so that's really part of that.
Chairman Kildee. You know, it reminds me when my first
child was born I really kept telling my wife of this affective
education part we have to make sure that David has a good
feeling about himself, and I must have overdone it because one
day I called from Lansing, the State capital, and I said how is
David doing today? And she said he has a very good feeling
about himself today. But I try to do that as to a teacher too.
Mr. Shaink. And it's more than just academically prepared,
they also have to be prepared to go in a college environment,
and that's what both the high school and the college faculty
help those students to do.
Chairman Kildee. Has Mott College tracked its graduates
over the course of the 19 years that you've been in existence,
do you have a sense of long-term success in the program?
Mr. Shaink. Yes. In fact, materials, that data that we have
given you, there are different charts, and one of the charts--
there are several charts--they show the different aspects of
cores, meaning the classes for the past 16 years. And you can
see that each year they gain more in number of credits that
they're taking, number of courses they're taking.
We're also--they're also tracking the grade point average
and so that these data sets can be interpreted and improved
upon, and so we're very mindful of that and Mott Middle College
is, so if you--I would direct your attention to the charts that
we have and I would be willing to explain or help to explain
any of those charts. But yes, we keep track of them and they
show the progress and it's been successful each and every year.
Chairman Kildee. The gentleman from New Jersey.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much.
Mr. Brooks, how have you been accepted by your buddies, you
know, you're out with some of the guys down the street, you
know, in your neighborhood that don't have a nice suit on like
you, you know, pull their trousers up a little bit. What's
going on?
Mr. Brooks. They still think of me the same because I can
still clown around and do things, but what it is, I get my work
done first and I know when it's time. Like I'll take acting and
drama classes, therefore I have classes where I can be myself
and I can have fun. And there's a time to learn and there's a
time to play, so they understand and we have the understanding
that I'm going to try to be successful and I'm going to try to
make you successful just as well as I want you to be also.
Mr. Payne. A great act of ecclesiastics, there's a time for
all things, right, my spiritual advising.
Let me ask, let's see, our health professional. Do you
believe--I think it's Mr. Skorcz--that the kind of--the
interest that you've taken--since healthcare, you mentioned you
could go to Washington, you could help us, but aside from that
do you think that this kind of a program that you're doing here
should be replicated and isn't it since healthcare--once we put
this new plan together with the public option to make sure that
we have more people covered there will be a big need?
Mr. Skorcz. Yes, absolutely, it could be replicated and
indeed there's some legislation called Sectors that was
promoting this Sector workforce nationally. Not only is the
issue of health reform potentially having incredible impact on
manpower, those manpower or person power needs exist right now.
And indeed healthcare in Michigan is the really--the only
growth area for jobs, so it's a very significant issue.
I think the success of supporting the academic institutions
in their training as healthcare professionals is really related
to this role that I think is fairly unique in this community is
putting the employers in a key driving mode to define the kinds
(inaudible) because I think sometimes historically educational
institutions would gear up to train individuals that training
would take place and then the field would change. So this whole
aspect of having healthcare people with real expertise finding
what the needs are to assist the educational institutions and
work for its development is beneficial.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much.
Dr. Webb, on your student information system for Jobs for
the Future have you gotten data yet and have you been able to
evaluate how students in the early college programs be tracked
and what's the success rate? How are you doing?
Mr. Webb. Yes, we have. Now that we have graduates--and
remember, this is a young program--we've been able to look at
some of the post early college graduation experiences of kids
and what we've seen from the limited data that are coming out
so far from this is that they enroll faster in college after
they graduate in the nation as a whole.
We have this long-term study called the National Education
Longitudinal Study, NELS, that's tracking a group of kids from
the 8th grade into adulthood, and it's a representative sample,
so we can compare different things that are happening around
the country to what's happening with those kids. When we make a
comparison we see that the kids in early college enroll faster
and they enroll more often in a four-year institution.
Enrolling in a four-year institution right after college is a
greater predictor that you're going to get a B.A. degree than
if you enroll in a two-years college, so that's what we're
seeing so far, and particularly among low-income kids, that the
rate for--and in the written testimony remarks there are some
statistics about this, but low-income kids don't enroll as fast
in college after graduation, if they enroll at all, because
they have to work basically. But early college kids who are
from low-income families enroll in much greater numbers than
the national sample of kids do, and they enroll in four-year
institutions, so we're seeing great success.
The early college graduation rate for the cohort which
graduated in 2008 was 92 percent using the federal definition.
And I'll leave it at that, 92 percent.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much. My time's expired.
Chairman Kildee. Mr. Hinojosa.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you. My friend and colleague,
Congresswoman from the state of Hawaii, Mazie Hirono, asked the
question about cost, and I want to follow up a little bit on
that. How does the cost--and I'll ask this question of Dr.
Svitkovich. I'd like to ask how does the cost per pupil compare
for students in the Genesee County's two college--early college
programs compare to students in the traditional setting?
Mr. Svitkovich. I can tell you it's the same amount of
money that we receive, first of all, but it's not the same
amount of money that's spent.
Mr. Hinojosa. Would you speak a little louder?
Mr. Svitkovich. It's the same amount of money we receive
from the State, but it is not the same amount of money that's
spent.
Mr. Hinojosa. Yeah, but you said it was more expensive?
Mr. Svitkovich. Yes, I did. The reason I said that is we
have to supplement the existing cost with resources from
other--from other sources. Right now we're able to get by with
a grant from the Gates Foundation, we're able to get by with
some grants from the Mott Foundation, we're able to get by with
using career tech dollars, and we're able to supplement the
foundation allowance to make all that money kind of seem to
work together to make it go.
Now, understand this, we have no building costs, we have no
telephone costs, we have no technology costs and we have no
security costs for the most part.
Mr. Hinojosa. The good news is that when Chairman Kildee's
bill passes on No Child Left Behind there will be some money
but not for all the public schools, but there is hope. So let
me go to the next question.
This question is for Dr. Lotfi. How are the teachers
selected for the college-level courses of Genesee Early College
and tell me if they're accredited and certified to be able to
teach advanced placement courses and international
baccalaureate courses? Speak closer to the mic. I can't hear
you.
Mr. Lotfi. The (inaudible) of instructional faculty for the
students when they are in dual-enrolled college-level courses
is exactly the same as that of the rest of the university, so
in fact when the students are taking college-level courses
there is no distinction between the instructional faculty. So
high school teachers when they're taking their high school
classes, as Dr. Svitkovich mentioned, is pretty much the same
as any other public high school in Michigan.
Mr. Hinojosa. I understand the answer. Let me just say
this, that if I want to go teach some undergraduate courses at
the University of Texas I'm going to show that I have a
master's degree in the academic course that I'm going to be
teaching even for the community colleges. So how can these
teachers who you tell me don't have that additional
preparation, how can they be teaching courses that we want
colleges to accept?
Mr. Lotfi. I beg your pardon, I must have misspoken. When
they are taking--let's say they are taking a biology course
that's a college-credit biology course that is offered by our
own faculty and our practice at the university level is that
all of our faculty are qualified, so they either have a Ph.D.
or their last degree to be a faculty at the University of
Michigan, so that faculty has expertise in biology. If they're
taking a chemistry course, that faculty has a Ph.D. in
chemistry. I hope that answers.
Mr. Svitkovich. In essence there are two faculties, my
faculty, the high school faculty, and Dr. Lotfi's faculty, the
college faculty.
Mr. Hinojosa. Okay. That answers that question. And then
the next question if there's time--and I'm almost out of time--
would go to Mr. Brooks.
Have you told your mother that she's a very smart woman?
Mr. Brooks. Yes, I have.
Mr. Hinojosa. I come from a family of 11 children and I'm
the first one--I'm the eighth down the ladder, and I'm the
first one to graduate from college, from the university, and it
was my mother who had involved herself with all the children,
all my brothers and sisters, so that we all graduated from high
school and half of us from college.
And did she insist that there be reading to you when you
were a baby, one-year-old, two, three, four until you were say
kindergarten? Tell me a little bit about--where did the
literacy, early reading and writing that you acquired, how did
that happen?
Mr. Brooks. It was because of my mother because not only
did she read to me and things, but she also looked for me to
get better education, like every school that I went to she
looked at the ACT scores of the whole school or it's different
situations that she looked at to see how can my children get a
better education. So when she heard about Mott Middle College
and the college and high school at the same time she thought,
well, since me and my younger sister are doing very well in
school why don't we try this opportunity to see where it takes
us. So she made a great decision.
Mr. Hinojosa. I suspected that that was the case, that's
why I said she's a very smart woman. Will you go back to your
mom and you tell her that I send her my praises and that
Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, was on the steps of the
Capitol just Tuesday and talked about this bill that we passed
yesterday. And there's $8 billion over a ten-year period for
early education for reading, early reading and writing, from
cradle to kindergarten, and that's going to be over a ten-year
period. And so what that tells us is that from the President
Obama to the secretary to the Congress we're all going to be
singing the same song, and that is that early reading plus
writing equals success in school and in college. So you just
tell her that she was just ahead of most people, okay?
Mr. Brooks. Yes, sir.
Mr. Hinojosa. With that I yield back.
Chairman Kildee. Thank you very much. Ms. Hirono.
Ms. Hirono. Thank you.
Dr. Shaink, I'm looking at your design principles, and in
particular the democratic school governors. Can you describe a
little bit more what constitutes a purposefully designed
structure so that everyone's voices can be heard in the
decision-making process including the designing of curricula,
and I'd like to know how do the parents get engaged in this
whole process?
Mr. Shaink. Yes, and I will always yield to Dr. Svitkovich
to add to this too, but that is one of the principles of the
design. And what it is structure for everyone's voice to be
heard in respect in the decision-making process with regard to
hiring personnel, managing budgets, determining curricula,
developing student activities and other policies that affect
the daily life of students and faculty. And one of the things
with the Mott Middle College High School is that the faculty,
staff, administration involve parents all the way, not just at
the beginning, but throughout the period of time that the
student is involved. It's very, very critical.
And, in fact, one of the things that we learn from parents
and both ways that the faculty can also work with the parent to
help that individual work with their particular--their child,
their son or daughter. So yes, that's part of----
Ms. Hirono. Well, I was interested in the structure. Do you
have a PTSA or do you meet every other week, how is this
accomplished?
Mr. Shaink. I need to talk--we'll let Dr. Svitkovich talk
about that.
Mr. Svitkovich. One of the things that happens--remember I
said earlier that our whole district with our unions have a
win-win philosophy, that's pretty much what this is based on
within the school level. From a student's standpoint there's
something called a FOCUS group which meets on a regular basis
with groups of kids and each faculty member, same message,
small group, getting this contact between the faculty and
students on a regular daily basis. That expands to parents so
that there's always a contact or a lifeline for the parents
directly through that process.
There isn't so much a PTA in the traditional sense of it
all. It's more of the personal contact and relationship system
that works and that blossoms out. If you think of it as petals
of a rose that fall out, and that's how the communication
system links.
Ms. Hirono. And I take it the small size of every grade
level makes a huge difference?
Mr. Svitkovich. Well, there are 400 students there in
grades 9 through--well, really 9 through 13, so in some cases
that is a small school. In others it would be considered a
fairly good size, but I would consider it small. And that does
help, but it's also a large geographic area that's an inhibitor
for us. We take students from this whole county plus outside of
the county, so there are two things. But we're able to use the
technology, we're able to establish the communication links and
we're able to assure that we have a counseling staff that leads
a lot of the work, to have that happen. There's the interview
process when they become involved in it. There's the intensive
communication between student and faculty.
Ms. Hirono. Do you have a high level of parental
involvement, because we know that one of the indicators of
successful schools is where the parental engagement is high, so
what----
Mr. Svitkovich. In a lot of our challenge situations I
don't know if I could say it's a high level of them coming to
school, but it is a high level when there's a need. It's not
high level in terms of a structure, but it's high level in
terms of need.
Ms. Hirono. Thank you.
Chairman Kildee. Thank you very much, Ms. Hirono, and thank
you, Witnesses. This has been a remarkably good hearing. I've
learned a lot about my home town. I've lived here all my life,
80 years last Wednesday. I love this town.
I'm glad that my colleagues on the Education and Labor
Committee were able to see Flint. We drove them down Saginaw
Street to let them see how Flint is changing. What they've seen
is what a great educational system we have here and how you
integrate between higher ed and from the kindergarten up or
preschool how it's integrated.
We have some problems in education in certain areas, but we
also have so many rich assets and I'm glad that I could share
with you those assets, with my colleagues. So I thank you for
that. I thank you for what you're doing. You are the most
important profession. You have real obligations and you assume
those obligations. I think you know being called to education
and/or health is like a vocation, it's a calling, and it
attracts a certain type of people who really are concerned
about other people.
I've got to make one personal provision and do something
that I ordinarily don't do. This gentleman right here could
have flown home today to the accolades of his district because
yesterday from his subcommittee emerged and was passed on the
floor of the House one of the greatest higher education bills
since the GI Bill of Rights was passed, and thank you for
coming here rather than going home, I appreciate that very
much.
Mr. Hinojosa. If I may answer that, Mr. Chairman, I had
accepted the invitation to come two weeks ago when you extended
it, and yes, I was hoping that I could go back home and talk to
our community and share with them what's the contents of this
bill, which as he said, it's a big, big thing because it's
bigger than the GI Bill of 1944, and it's far more complete. It
starts with educating children from the cradle and goes all the
way up through higher education, graduate school, professional
schools and so forth.
So I came because I believe that the work that you're doing
in having these field hearings will enrich the databank of
information that we have to work with to improve No Child Left
Behind, and this hearing today is going to be one of the
hearings and the data of the hearings that will be used. And I
can assure you, Mr. Chairman, that I've learned a great deal
just as you made your closing remarks, and we will be there to
give you the support necessary to include it in the Chairman's
Mark when you take it to the Committee of the Whole. And thank
you for inviting me. It's been a pleasure.
Chairman Kildee. Thank you very much. I have certain
secretarial matters I have to take care of. As previously
ordered, members will have 14 calendar days to submit
additional materials for the hearing record and you may submit
materials also yourself, Dr. Shaink. You had some information
you were going to share with us.
[Additional submissions of Mr. Shaink follow:]
MINORITY GROWTH OVERTIME FOR MOTT MIDDLE COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
American
Year Indian/ Black Hispanic Hawaiian/ White Total % Minority
Alaskan Pacific Population
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1998/1999................... 2 58 6 1 171 238 28%
1999/2000................... 4 50 8 0 197 259 24%
2000/2001................... 6 55 11 0 189 261 28%
2001/2002................... 7 64 13 0 154 238 35%
2002/2003................... 6 82 9 1 170 268 37%
2003/2004................... 3 91 15 1 169 279 39%
2004/2005................... 3 103 15 1 202 324 38%
2005/2006................... 4 115 17 1 220 357 38%
2006/2007................... 6 154 21 1 207 389 47%
2007/2008................... 9 171 20 0 184 384 52%
2008/2009................... 6 207 18 0 162 393 59%
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Chairman Kildee. Any member who wishes to submit follow-up
questions in writing to the witnesses and coordinate with the
majority staff within the records of time, then without
objection this hearing is adjourned.
[Additional submission of Mr. Kildee follows:]
Prepared Statement of Dr. Julianne T. Princinsky, President,
Baker College
Background
Baker College of Flint is a private, not-for-profit, 501C3, post-
secondary, career-oriented college. Since 1911 the mission and purposes
are to ``* * * provide quality education and training which enable
graduates to be successful throughout challenging and rewarding
careers.'' Baker College of Flint is one campus (nearly 7,000 students)
within the Baker College System (44,000 students). The campus has been
a forerunner with regard to dual enrollment and early college
initiatives with many school districts over the past 15 years and has
early college initiatives in place in Genesee County and in Michigan's
Thumb. Likewise, sister campus, Baker College of Owosso, has long-
standing programs in Shiawassee County, and other Baker College
campuses state-wide have similar arrangements.
Early on many of Baker College's dual enrollment efforts involved
an agreement with one K-12 school district at a time. These individual
collaborations enable qualifying students to participate in several
ways: 1) by taking college classes at the high school and earning
advanced placement credit at Baker College; 2) by taking a class at the
high school that the K-12 district used in lieu of a high school class,
thus allowing students to gain both high school and Baker College
credit; and 3) by taking Baker College classes at the College that the
high school accepted as high school credit as well. It is important to
note that as Baker is a part of MACROA, earned Baker College credits
are accepted in like programs at other Michigan Colleges and
Universities. Students are able to take Baker credits to other
colleges, if they desire to do so, and if they meet the program
requirements of the receiving institution, or they simply enter Baker
College academically, economically, and often socially, well ahead of
their high school counterparts, who have not taken dual enrollment
options.
More recently, as K-12 Districts' interest in providing enhanced
value to high school students has grown, accompanied by declines in the
Michigan's K-12 funding, Baker College of Flint has helped to develop
unique public-private partnerships that include a number of public
school districts. Currently, in Genesee County Baker College of Flint
has in place two, more comprehensive, early college initiatives, that
are well established (one for four years and one for three years) and a
third initiative in the Thumb of Michigan.
Principles core to Baker College early college successes
Each Baker College of Flint early college initiative embodies the
following foundational principles:
1. Private and public partners, intentionally working together with
the will to succeed, can build, implement and sustain very effective,
early college models.
2. The framework, design, and infrastructure of any early college
model should be based on leveraging the strengths of each partner
involved.
3. The curriculum should at least meet, if not exceed, Michigan's
rigorous standards, as well as offer a variety of unique student
experiences that extend well beyond the classroom, and preferably,
include a relevant, career component/thread in each year of studies.
4. Faculty and staff should be passionate, not only about their
subject matter, but also motivated to actively nurture and facilitate a
multi-faceted learning experience that encourages students, their
parents, employers, and the community to be fully active in the
educational process.
5. Community resources should be researched, sought and used in
ways that promote mutually beneficial partnerships/collaborations that
become integral to the students' learning experiences.
6. Students should be held to high standards; participation in an
early college is a privilege and students are accountable for their
learning/achievements/behavior.
7. Educational partners should share equally in terms of the
executive leadership and decision making, ensuring ``ownership'' of the
initiative by all involved.
8. Each institution and their faculty/staff bring unique resources
and talents that enable a variety of responses to the who, what, where,
when, why, how and how much questions; in general, partners should
commit to seeking common ground, and innovatively finding ways to
enhance value as they help ``jump start'' students' collegiate level
studies.
9. No challenge is too great; all are simply opportunities to
create ``best practices.''
10. Normative and summative evaluation is a must; on-going
assessment is key.
Public/private early college partnerships work!
With these principles in mind, Baker College of Flint and its K-12
Public School partners have developed several comprehensive early
college partnerships. Two of these successful models currently in place
in Genesee County are described below:
1. The Three District Consortium Early College Partnership:
(Partners: Linden Community School District, Lake
Fenton Community Schools, and Fenton Area Public
Schools, and Baker College of Flint)
From 80 to 100 students, primarily Juniors and Seniors, annually,
attend classes at Baker College of Flint. These students may earn up to
32 credits per year towards an Associate Degree in Health Sciences,
Computer Programming, or Automotive Services Technology and in some
cases, they also earn individual certifications, while they are still
in high school. The balance of their course work is done at their home
high school.
In addition to program and curricula support, Baker College of
Flint provides access to state of the art laboratories. For the
Automotive Program, a fully equipped Automotive Services Technology Lab
is part of the partners' agreement. As that curriculum at the high
school and college level is mandated by NATEF certification standards,
for this program only, the instructor is a certified employee of the
Three District Consortium. That instructor still works closely with the
certified College faculty, particularly in the lab areas. All other
dual credit offerings (in all models) are taught by college faculty who
possess Masters degrees or beyond and/or the credentials required for
the particular program.
A unique feature to this program is that the three high schools,
through their ``Three District Consortium,'' ensure that the high
school students are bused to the College and then taken back to their
home school where they are also able to participate in all high school
activities.
Under separate cover materials were provided to the sub-committee
that further detail the variety of curricula offered as well as the
credit hours possible for participating, dual-enrollment students.
2. The Carman Park-Baker Career Academy: (Partners: Bendle
Public Schools, Carman Ainsworth Community Schools
and Baker College of Flint)
This early college initiative is even more comprehensive. The
partners created a high school under the consortium agreement that
already existed between Bendle Public Schools and Carman Ainsworth
Community Schools, which addressed alternative education options. The
high school is located on the Baker College of Flint Campus in
collaboration with Bendle Public Schools and Carman Ainsworth Community
Schools. It is possible because of an agreement by the College to lease
part of an elementary school that was sitting empty. Currently, Baker
College of Flint students and The Career Academy students take classes
in the same building and all have access to the same computer labs,
etc. Carman Ainsworth was thus able to re-purpose a vacant building and
the College gained much needed space--while at the same time--all
partners were able to fully implement a dual enrollment, early college
initiative, right on the College's campus.
The Carman Park-Baker Career Academy offers a curriculum that meets
the state standards for rigor, relevance, and relationships--but also
helps students gain college credits and hone their career skills at the
same time. Students participate in work experiences in each year of
their studies. Students typically begin college courses in their Junior
and Senior years.
The curriculum reflects an accelerated approach for combining
academic excellence with career preparation. The Principal, Diana
Balbaugh, and the high school faculty and staff ensure that high school
requirements are met. They work closely with the College
administration, faculty and staff to ensure that college requirements
are met as well for those student engaged in college level programs/
courses. An oversight committee meets with the Executive Committee
periodically throughout the year to evaluate/assess how things are
going and to recommend changes as necessary.
The Baker Career Academy has been and continues to be one of the
Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce's (GRCC) Teen Quest training
sites. This enables Career Academy students (and other districts'
students) to gain summer employment after demonstrating proficiency in
career ready skills. Via a grant, Baker College of Flint has helped to
support the Summer Youth Employment Initiative for Genesee County for
the past several years, while at the same time enabling this
opportunity to be built into The Academy's programs.
Currently, in its third year, The Career Academy serves 9th through
12th grade students. Beginning with 40 plus students the first year, 24
students earned 102 college credits while in high school; four seniors
graduated, who also went on to college (three at Baker) in order to
complete their Associate Degrees. Last year, 2008-2009, there were 60
plus students; 11 graduates (attending Baker and other colleges); and
25 students earned 240 credits towards their collegiate-level programs.
In addition, all of these students experienced a broad array of career-
related, beyond the classroom, hands-on, and often service-learning,
opportunities. Enrollment is around 80 for 2009-2010 and is projected
to grow to a maximum of 300.
In both of these early college ventures, the K-12 districts,
through their respective consortium's fiscal agents, pay some
combination of: 1) a discounted tuition per student; 2) program fees,
where applicable for certain programs; 3) part-time staff
reimbursement; and/or 4) provide in-kind services. In the case of The
Career Academy, through the agreement with Carman Ainsworth Community
Schools, the College provides the full-time Campus Safety and
Maintenance personnel with the K-12 Consortium covering a portion of
that cost based on the total rooms in use. In return, the College
provides access to all services, equipment, facilities, library, health
and fitness center, tutoring services, and student activities at no
additional cost.
These two initiatives have been publicized in the Flint Journal,
television and radio media, and discussed at the Schools Boards for
each of the public institutions involved, at the Greater Flint
Educational Consortium (GFEC), and in Superintendents' meetings. Beyond
the unique student-centered focus, one of the best aspects of both of
these partnerships is that each institution involved did their part
with no additional funding sources. Each institution worked from their
strengths and found common ground to move beyond what they already had
in place. Innovation is evident throughout. The benefits for students,
parents and community--and employers are outstanding.
There are, of course, many opportunities to further promote and
support these ``early college'' initiatives in multiple ways--through
curriculum, staffing, outside support for employers, materials, and
infrastructure. But so far, much has been accomplished through the
vision, passion and hard work of the participating institutions'
faculty, staff, leadership and students--and also--for The Baker Career
Academy, the involved employers.
These two examples enumerated above certainly add to Genesee
County's early college success stories and are as deserving of
potential funding support as any other. In some ways, perhaps they are
more deserving, because they represent what can be done well in terms
of public-private partnerships, where the participants have the will to
make it work--even without additional funding!
While not in Genesee County, Baker College of Flint has another
early college initiative in place in Computer Sciences with the Huron
Area Technology Center in Bad Axe, and has had it for the past four
years. The first two years focused on Automotive Services Technology
Program and the past two years on Computer Science Programs. Students
come from many of the surrounding districts.
To gain additional recognition and support for these types of
initiatives, it is important for legislators to examine the variety of
models that have an early college foundation. The three mentioned
above, and described in the materials provided under separate cover,
prove that unique settings require customized solutions, but they can
all work. As long as the partners involved have a real propensity to
leverage resources and to provide a ``jump start'' for our high school
population, there is room for ``tweaking'' any model, thereby making it
a great fit for the students, families, communities, and colleges
involved.
The need for additional funding support is evident
There are many, very practical ways that legislators can ensure on-
going early college successes. The College stands ready to discuss
these with any interested legislators/designees. Here, however, are
five that would provide immediate benefit to both existing and new
models:
1. Fund and promote public-private partnerships that demonstrate
collaboration.
2. Fund capacity building--including dollars for infrastructure
needs as well as staffing and curriculum needs--difficult for the
partners to do at such discounted revenue streams.
3. Offer ``pilot'' grant opportunities to encourage schools and
staff to develop and/or implement ``best practice'' models or portions
of models that would enhance the value of the existing model.
4. Fund career-oriented activities--including wage stipends to
employers who agree to employ high school student interns--at least
part-time.
5. Fund activities to support those early college initiatives that
recruit diverse student populations and/or the more ``at risk''
student--supported by actual data.
Baker College of Flint philosophically and practically supports
early college initiatives. The College is committed to doing all that
is possible to further such ventures. The benefits are huge and cross
all levels of the educational system even as they impact many levels in
the community! In times of scarce resources, as never before, educators
should be compelled to use them more effectively. Beyond the direct
benefits of accelerating education there are economic and social
benefits that promote a stronger, more literate population with
increased collaboration and commitment among and between all
constituent parties.
As a member of the GFEC, Baker College of Flint was and is pleased
to provide support to the grant requests for the early college
initiative at UM-Flint. Further, the College has always supported the
Mott Middle College (MMC) efforts as well. In fact, Baker College of
Flint enjoys the fact that many of the MMC graduates then attend Baker
College. And the College has been and continues to be a service
provider to the Greater Flint Health Coalition dual enrollment efforts.
Baker College of Flint will provide any additional history,
brochures, enrollment statistics, etc., that the sub-committee needs to
further support the Baker College of Flint initiatives referenced
above.
In addition, Ms. Peggy Yates, Superintendent of Fenton Area Public
Schools, which serves as the fiscal agent for the Three District
Consortium Early College Initiative, and Superintendents, John Angle
and William Haley, of Bendle Public Schools, fiscal agent for The
Career Academy, and Carman Ainsworth Community Schools, respectively,
who serve with me on the Carman Park-Baker Career Academy Executive
Committee, will also provide additional information.
We welcome the opportunity to ensure that our legislators, our
County, and our citizens are fully aware of all of the successful early
college--fast track to college type--ventures in place, in progress,
and in the planning stages.
On behalf of Baker College of Flint, thank you for this opportunity
to share just a bit of our experience in this area. We hope that it
will enable more fruitful discourse and support more effective planning
for the future.
______
[Whereupon, at 3:19 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]