Full Speed Ahead
Written by Kelly Matlock
MAE 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 7 (September)
An accelerated degree is more than a quick fix—it can save time and money. In today’s economy, earning a diploma at a faster rate is becoming more and more appealing to prospective students.
The College Board College Completion Agenda 2010 Progress Report shows that the U.S. now ranks 12th among 36 developed nations in the number of 25- to 34-year-olds with college degrees. On average, only 39 percent of U.S. community college students end up earning a degree, and most take over three years to graduate.
This languid status has encouraged the Obama administration to focus on revival efforts by setting high goals—to have 60 percent of Americans holding a degree by 2020—and more practically, to invest in ways to meet these goals: namely $5 billion in funds for education through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
In the quest to graduate more students, the American Association of Community Colleges recently published Rebalancing the Mission, a policy brief that addresses “what it means for community colleges to embrace completion in the same way that they have historically embraced access.” The brief suggests that community colleges “may need to modify their traditional ways of fulfilling their individual missions.”
IN THE FAST LANE
Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College (SWVCTC) is embracing a new trimester format developed by its president, Joanne Jaeger Tomblin. Full-length semesters will now be offered in fall, spring and summer. If a student chooses to work through the summer, he or she can complete the four required semesters for an associate degree in a year and a half.
Not all degrees will offer courses in the summer semester, but the ones that will are the following degree categories: applied science, business accounting, business administration, health care, mine management, office administration and arts and science.
A major bonus is that the summer semester will now be covered by federal financial aid; prior summer course offerings were not. “This will help students tremendously,” said SWVCTC Dean for Career and Technical Programs Pamela Alderman.
To enable the new trimester format, semesters will be condensed into 14 weeks— down from 16 weeks. Classes will be extended by 10 minutes in order to make up for the two lost weeks, a change that will impact all students, regardless of whether they choose to work through the summer. Students will now earn an associate degree by completing 56 weeks of coursework, versus the previous 64.
“We at Southern are excited to embark on this new concept of instruction. Combined with alternate delivery modalities already in place—Fast Track, Weekend and Web—it is believed students at Southern will be able to begin their careers much sooner than their counterparts at other colleges and universities in West Virginia,” said Alderman.
Southern’s existing Fast Track program allows students to earn an associate’s degree in 14-16 months by completing one course at a time every two weeks.
TESTING THE WATERS
Schools are also focused on intensive, well-managed trial runs of new accelerated programs; offering a unique test-run opportunity to a small cohort of students, with hopes to duplicate results on a larger scale given successful outcomes.
Ivy Tech Community College, Indiana’s two-year college system with 23 campuses across the state, is launching its Accelerated Associate Degree Program (AADP) at its Fort Wayne and Indianapolis campuses this fall.
“The AADP is the brain child of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education (ICHE) and is designed to improve completion rates and reduce the cost of post-secondary education,” explained Dr. Paula Birt, the program director. Funded by the ICHE and also the Lumina Foundation, the program is offering students the opportunity to earn an associate degree in one intensive year. Additional funding comes from FAFSA, or the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which participating students are required to complete.
At Fort Wayne, 13 students are enrolled in the health care support program, and at Indianapolis, 24 students are enrolled in the general studies program. Having undergone a two-week orientation in August in order to adequately prepare students with the tools to succeed, students are now committed to stay in the program for the full year, and are required to be on campus Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Each eight-week term will focus on interdisciplinary methods and significant student-faculty interaction.
“For example, during the first eightweek term, students will be taking history, English composition, communications and intro to microcomputers. The faculty team can design an assessment that involves researching, writing and speaking about the history topic and electronic presentation of knowledge and application,” explained Birt. “The interdisciplinary approach to instructional design and assessment will make the learning process more efficient— very demanding but more meaningful for students.”
In addition to innovative interdisciplinary methods and staff support, there is generous financial assistance: tuition, fees, books, supplies and laptop computers are provided for each participating student. Another big perk is that those enrolled in the program will receive a weekly stipend so they won’t have to worry about the demands of working while they pursue their studies.
ENABLEMENT
Lower Columbia College in Longview, Wash., a two-year community college, is offering an accelerated transfer-minded option, Transfer Express, to a cohort of 25 students this fall. Students will have the opportunity to earn an associate in arts, direct transfer degree in one year; completing 90 credits in four quarters rather than six.
“Students have to be really motivated and put in a lot of work,” explained a program advisor of the four-quarter program. “They will take 20 credits in the fall and summer, and 25 credits in the spring and winter.” As of mid-August, not all of the 25 spots had been filled, perhaps due to the intimidating credit-load per quarter. Qualifying students will have taken the Compass test and placed high in English and math.
Lower Columbia has determined what block of classes the cohort is taking, and is offering extra advising, tutoring assistance and mandatory study programs to support the students. The program is full-time, five days a week, with four days devoted to class time and one day for field trips, workshops or group work. Although the majority of coursework is determined by the program, students can choose from a wide variety of extracurricular classes.
A big incentive to participate in the program is cost savings. At Lower Columbia, the cost per credit decreases as credit load per quarter increases. This savings could help pay for tuition at the next institution.
FASTER THAN FAST
In early 2000, an analysis of six-year graduation rates at The City University of New York (CUNY) revealed gloomy results that demanded action. Among the fall 2002 cohort of first-time, fulltime freshmen at all CUNY campuses, only 26 percent graduated six years later.
To address this problem, CUNY established the Accelerated Study in Associate Program (ASAP), with funding provided by the New York City Center for Economic Opportunity. In the fall of 2007, it enrolled a large test cohort: 1,132 students.
Results have been promising. As of June 2010, ASAP surpassed its original target graduation rate of 50 percent and awarded 566 students (53 percent) with an associate degree earned in three years. Two-year graduation rates for the cohort were 30.2 percent, versus 12.1 percent for a comparison group.
Offered at all six CUNY campuses, the ASAP program is a winning combination of academics and support. As detailed in the Early Outcomes Report, prepared by Program Director Donna Linderman, the key elements are “required full-time study, a consolidated course schedule, cohort group by majors, small class size, comprehensive advisement, academic and career development services delivered by full-time ASAP staff and a range of special programs.”
ASAP admitted 431 new students in fall 2009 and 350 new students in spring 2010. As of August, CUNY was on track to admit an additional 500 students for the fall 2010 semester.
Thanks to its successful outcomes— so far the ASAP graduation rate is more than three times the national three-year graduation rate of 16 percent for urban community colleges—ASAP has received additional outside funding.
In July 2009, ASAP won a two-year grant from the Jewish Foundation for the Education of Women totaling $190,000; in August 2009, $3.7 million was extended in the form of a three-year grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. These funds will enable program expansion and a five-year study by the social policy research organization, MDRC, which is supported in part by a $1.1 million grant from the Robin Hood Foundation.
OVERCOMING BARRIERS
Historically, two-year colleges do not receive funding that is comparable to fouryear institutions. To close the gap, the Obama administration is offering competitive grants that he believes will challenge community colleges “to pursue innovative, results-oriented strategies in exchange for federal funding.”
When federal funding doesn’t come through, private sector funding is essential, as it’s been in enabling CUNY’s ASAP program. Institutions looking to duplicate CUNY’s success and draw grant money will need to prove they too have a winning formula to help more students graduate. In order to form a program that works, research is vital.
The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) is helping institutes of higher learning create and manage effective learning strategies for adults and nontraditional students. Recent findings in Availability, Use and Value of Prior Learning Assessment within Community Colleges, funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education and published by CAEL this past July, show that use of prior learning assessments (PLAs), which awards college credit for applicable life experience, can motivate students to graduate, as well as speed time to completion.
With a broad sample of over 62,000 students at 48 institutions, the report offers understanding of the impact PLAs can have on a student. “It can be intimidating for an adult to go back to school,” acknowledged Pamela Tate, president and CEO of CAEL. “There’s validation that occurs when a student realizes they already have college-level experience, and they become motivated to finish.”
In assessing accelerated pathways for likelihood to succeed, Tate adds that, “The programs vary; some are designed to help students be more responsible, and [student success] comes down to a particular design.”
But will the design become a strong draw for military servicemember involvement? According to Dean Alderman at SWVCTC, servicemembers are already interested. A cohort group enrolled in one intensive year might indeed be appealing a military-trained student. Most likely the reserve and veteran populations will be targeted, as it would be nearly impossible for an active duty servicemember to commit to one uninterrupted year.
At Ivy Tech, program participants were hand-selected while in high school. The program is a partnership with Indiana state public schools, which Brit said were “extremely enthusiastic about the opportunity [it] affords their students.” Brit also acknowledged that “identification and selection process is time intensive for high school counselors.”
LEAVING WITH A DEGREE
With a competitive job market, many employers won’t bother considering an employee without a degree or an applicable certificate. This compounds the problem for degree-dropouts who have loans to pay back. How will they find jobs with reasonable salaries to pay back the loans?
The average annual cost for a fulltime, in-state student attending a community college is around $2,500, less than half the average annual cost at public four-year institutions and about one-tenth the cost of private institutions.
Due to increasing financial strain, lower-cost community colleges have been attracting more students. In 2009, around 12 million Americans, nearly 43 percent of all undergraduates, pursued an associate degree. This year, community colleges have reported higher-than-ever enrollments, and they will need funding in order to support new ways to increase degree completion as well as enrollment.
Time will tell whether intensive accelerated degree programs will be one of the best pathways for the U.S. in becoming a world leader, once again, in education. ♦