NC education officials eyeing policy change to get more college classes to high school students

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction compiled the dual enrollment programs report at the request of state lawmakers.

DPI staff will draft a policy proposal later this summer seeking to improve access to college courses for students. The policy would outline expectations for partnerships between high schools and colleges for offering courses under the Career and College Promise Program. That could include suggestions for colleges and high schools to better communicate with one another on students’ needs or attempt to reduce students’ barriers to participating in the Career and College Promise Program.

Some districts and colleges work well together, offering students transportation to college, having professors come to campus or having staff who advise students on college opportunities, Shah-Coltrane said. “Others don’t have as great of communication.”

Some ways of delivering college courses to high school students result in equitable participation by gender, race and income. But some continue to have barriers that keep some students from participating, including textbook fees and a lack of transportation to a college campus.

Another barrier to participation — outside of program structure — is whether North Carolina high school course standards and college course standards align. Shah-Coltrane said English and science standards tend to align between high schools and college, allowing courses to count for both high school and college credit. That’s not the case with math and social studies standards, she said.

About 28% of North Carolina 12th graders — more than 30,000 students — participated in Career and College Promise during the 2019-20 school year, the latest for which data across all analyzed categories are available.

Most of them are enrolled in the types of college credit programs that have the most racial, gender or economic disparities.

The three programs are:

Most administration surveyed said their transfer or CTE programs lack the staffing or resources to advise students or successfully implement their programs.

“This program has grown so big, but without that supportive funding and staffing,” Shah-Coltrane said, supporting students “remains a challenge.”

Transportation to colleges, fees for textbooks and other realities associated with college remain barriers for high school students to participate, Shah-Coltrane said.

Board Member Wendell Hall said those things were concerns to him. Other board members expressed support for work to improve access to the college classes.

According to DPI officials, the state’s most equitable college program is the state’s Cooperative Innovative High School program. The state had 133 of those schools this past year, operating in 85 of the state’s 115 school systems. Administration at those schools largely felt they had the staffing and resources necessary to successfully administer their programs.

Those high schools show equitable participation numbers, Shah-Coltrane said.

About 60% of those taking college courses among the three programs are boys. Similarly, about 60% of the taking college courses are white, though fewer than 50% of North Carolina’s K-12 population is white.

The State Board of Education approved a $27,500 contract Thursday for another study on funding for students with disabilities.

The study, due Aug. 1, is required as a part of a state law passed last year. It will be conducted by the Research Triangle Institute.

Advocacy groups and schools have long complained the state underfunds students with disabilities, in part by placing a cap on funding. That cap is now 13%, while more than 13% of the students in many school systems have disabilities.

North Carolina has commissioned multiple studies already on school funding that included study of funding for children with disabilities, specifically. A 2010 report suggested the state fund those students based on the severity of their disability, and a 2016 study recommended funding those students based on their disability category. Some students may require far more expensive services than others.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services will no longer publish or update the StrongSchoolsNC Toolkit, State Board of Education Chairman Eric Davis said Thursday.

DHHS issued the toolkit for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic to guide schools’ operations, including recommendations for universal masking, quarantine and isolation and school closures. Schools largely followed the advice of the toolkit to prevent COVID-19’s spread, resulting in near-universal mask mandates for schools until this winter.

DHHS will continue to provide updates and advice to the state and schools, Davis said.