High school students can earn college credit
SMMUSD HDQTRS For high school students dreaming of the day they can move far away and attend college, at least one of those dreams is like, so, 2006.
In what is being lauded as a historic agreement, officials at both Santa Monica College and Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District announced a partnership agreement on Monday that would make college-level courses more accessible to students still attending high school.
The collaboration between the public schools and college district would formalize what has already been taking place for years — students from Malibu High School and Santa Monica High School taking college courses for credit at Santa Monica College. During a joint press conference on Monday, a beaming SMC President Dr. Chui L. Tsang and an equally enthusiastic SMMUSD Superintendent Dianne Talarico inked the Memorandum of Understanding, which generally outlines the services to be offered and terms of agreement.
“The MOU is the first step of many collaborative projects we want to work on in the future,” Tsang said.
More than 500 Malibu and Santa Monica high school students receive college course credit through concurrent enrollment — courses taken at SMC — or dual enrollment — college-level courses taken at the high school campus, said Maral Hyeler, project manager for dual enrollment at Santa Monica College.
The agreement would launch two key programs, beginning in the 2008-09 school year — the Early College High School Program and the Transfer Academy, also known as the Middle College.
“The time was right. The stars were aligned for us to create some incredible opportunities for our students to access higher learning,” Talarico said Monday.
A minimum of 100 ninth grade students entering the high schools, starting in the 2008-09 school year, would begin the college process four years early, taking several college-level courses over the years and eventually graduating with both a high school diploma and associate’s degree.
The program has been adopted in several school districts across the country with varying results, Talarico said.
“The goal is to increase access for all students served in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District,” she said.
A concurrent enrollment program, the High School Transfer Academy would allow 11th and 12th graders to participate in the college curriculum, taking classes in the morning at the high school and then finishing off the day at Santa Monica College. The program would allow students to earn college credit that they could transfer later to the college of their choice, theoretically allowing students to finish their first year of college before graduating from high school.
The agreement also calls for school and college officials to collaborate in determining ways to improve articulation in English and math. Research has found that some students are not adequately prepared to take on college level math and English, said Jeff Shimizu, vice president for academic affairs at SMC. Both parties will look at what needs to change on both ends to better prepare these students for the difficult courses that lie ahead.
“It’s a long time coming,” — Leon-Vazquez said. THE TIME WAS RIGHT, THE STARS WERE ALIGNED FOR US TO CREATE SOME INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITIES FOR OUR STUDENTS TO ACCESS HIGHER LEARNING.” Superintendent Dianne Talarico, Santa Monica
The first part of the agreement will take effect this summer when the college will implement “late-start” classes for high school students in the district. Santa Monica College’s spring semester concludes two weeks before the school year ends for Santa Monica High School students. The “late-start” classes will begin at a time that would accommodate these high school students.
The agreement is not expected to have significant financial impact on either the school or college districts. School officials plan to seek grant funding.
The partnership is expected to benefit those students who don’t believe they are on the path to attend college, or students whose parents “don’t know how to navigate the system,” Talarico said.
A SMC student in the 1970s, Board of Education member Maria Leon-Vazquez said she was pleased to see her alma mater providing the opportunities to historically disadvantaged students, opportunities that were not made available when she was a student.
The next step in the process will be to work with the SMC faculty association and the SMMUSD’s teachers’ association to work out any potential kinks in the agreement.
The memorandum was first introduced to the Board of Education during a meeting last Thursday, at which time Harry Keiley, the president of the Santa Monica-Malibu Classroom Teachers’ Association, mentioned that the MOU is subject to a bargaining agreement.
The teachers union is “not opposed to good ideas,” but since the MOU could impact the terms of conditions of the teachers contracts, it would be subject to a collective bargaining agreement, Keiley said.
“If it’s good for kids, the teachers are going to support it,” Keiley said.
The teachers union was scheduled to meet and discuss the MOU on Monday night.
Talarico seemed taken aback by Keiley’s comments, saying she was insulted when he mentioned the bargaining agreement and would attend the teachers union meeting to reduce any anxiety about the impending MOU.
Keiley responded that he agrees with the MOU in principle and that the bargaining letter was not meant to be perceived as a threat. Any potential changes in the terms of the agreement would legally require a revisit, he added.
School Board members Jose Escarce and Kelly McMahon Pye both suggested waiting until the next school board meeting on June 7 to vote on the MOU, mentioning how patient the teachers union was when the board kept delaying a vote on the 5-percent salary raise a few months ago.
Talarico has worked on agreements in the past and mentioned how long it takes to implement the programs from working out the details in the MOU to finding funding to support the programs.
The school board unanimously voted to approve the agreement on May 17.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 22, 2007. Read the original PDF.