Expert: ECC out in front of college readiness initiatives

A nationally renowned higher education expert says Elgin Community College's Alliance for College Readiness is out in front of the pack on a newly hot topic.

"There are very few programs like that around," said David Conley, University of Oregon professor and director of the Eugene, Ore.-based Education Policy Improvement Center.

"You can find bridge programs with a high school and a college. And dual enrollment programs," he said, "But those aren't partnerships like ECC's."

With President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's recent re-christening of No Child Left Behind as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act - and the subsequent call to graduate more students prepared for college - Conley said readiness programs have "taken off like a rocket."

"It's really the last year or two, with the change in administration," Conley said. "You had a real change in priority from education. Moving from a focus on basic skill acquisition and things that can be tested to this broader realization that one can continue to learn beyond high school."

It could take other local organizations years to catch up to ECC's program, Conley believes.

The Alliance for College Readiness was formed in 2006 by a group of Elgin-area educators seeking to redefine exactly what "college-ready" means.

The program has grown to include the 12 high schools in Elgin Area School District U-46, Central Community Unit District 301, Community Unit District 300 and St. Charles District 303. The college's Plan, Learn and Navigate Success program selects students who are college-bound but in need of support and encouragement, and get them participating as early as freshman year.

According to college officials, gains from the program include increasing the number of students testing at a college level in writing by 9 percentage points, to 65.7 percent. Scores in math grew by 3.9 percent, Assistant Dean and Alliance Director Julie Schaid said.

The Alliance's three-week summer bridge program aims to help college-bound high school graduates fill academic gaps in order to test out of remedial courses before they start college in the fall. In the last two years, 70 percent of participants who retook placement tests qualified for college-level classes. More than 80 percent of summer program participants earned a "C" or better in the next level of course work during fall semester - a higher success rate than the typical ECC student.

Locally, neighboring community colleges are beginning to ramp up their own programs. Since Harper College President Kenneth Ender began his tenure in July, the Palatine school has begun planning new college readiness initiatives, including a curriculum alignment project with local high schools, Vice President for Strategic Planning Sheila Quirk-Bailey said.

"Things have taken a big jump forward this year," she said.

Waubonsee Community College in Sugar Grove has for three years featured the Dunham Early College Academy, a two-year college readiness program for at-risk high school juniors and seniors from East and West Aurora high schools.

Waubonsee this year made college readiness one of three "improvement projects," spokesman Jeff Noblitt said.

"This year, (we're) trying to create linkages between high school and college and build on the number of the partnerships the college has," he said.

The College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn has recently developed and distributed brochures to local high school students that focus on how to be college-ready in mathematics and English, said Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs Glenda Gallisath. This will build upon the more than 250 dual-credit courses in 18 subjects the college offers to high school students, and its career- and college-exploration programs.

At ECC, administrators and teachers gathered last week to discuss moving forward as feeder districts are dealing with drastic budget cuts.

Community Unit District 300, for example, will be unable to provide transportation to students who take dual credit classes at ECC next year. In Elgin's U-46's five high schools, students' course loads next year will be capped at six classes apiece, not seven.

"The cuts are affecting everyone," ECC's Schaid said. "If we're going to keep this work going, we're going to try to pursue some grants."

In the long run, Conley said, ECC's efforts likely will save taxpayer dollars.

"If I say college readiness means you need to write more, I don't think that means it's going to cost more," he said. "Having more students take more challenging math courses - we're not talking about adding new classes, but changing the ones students take.

"Plus, if you start to work more closely with your community college, you can find efficiencies," Conley added. "What if the number of students failing classes decreases? Fewer get bored (and) drop out? That all costs less money in the long run."