Stretching Minds and Resources: 20 Years of Post Secondary Enrollment Options in Minnesota

To read a copy of this publication click: pseo2005

For more information about PSEO from the Minnesota Department of Education, click: pseoinfo

Please check back soon for an updated list of of institutions that offer PSEO!

PSEO in the media:

Newspapers reporting on the new Center for School Change report, "Stretching Minds and Resources: 20 Years of Post Secondary Enrollment Options in Minnesota"

Early college classes are underused, study says
More students could benefit by taking college courses in high school.

By Jake Weyer
Duluth News Tribune

David Wrobleski doesn't qualify for financial aid yet, and his parents aren't paying for the five-credit calculus course he's taking at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

But as a post-secondary student, the East High School senior, 17, won't spend a penny on tuition for the class and he'll get a taste of college before entering the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities next year.

"I thought I'd just push my way through the door and get started," he said.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota's Center for School Change would like to see more students like Wrobleski, according to a recent report. Center Director Joe Nathan and other staff members spent nine months creating the study, an analysis of the state's 20-year-old Post Secondary Enrollment Options program.

The program allows high school juniors and seniors to take college-level courses at Minnesota institutions for college and high school credit. The state and school districts pick up the bill for tuition and books.

PSEO is largely successful, according to the study, which involved more than 1,000 current and former PSEO students from institutions throughout the state, including UMD and the College of St. Scholastica. Lake Superior College also offers PSEO, but it was not included in the report.

Most students in the program were satisfied, researchers found. But the report also showed that parents and students do not receive enough information about PSEO. More young people should be encouraged to participate in it and other post-secondary options, the report stated.

"The bottom line is that post-secondary education is incredibly underutilized," Nathan said.

Since PSEO began in 1985, about 110,000 students statewide have used it. Last year, 7,471 students enrolled in the program, an increase from 3,523 students in PSEO's first year. Nathan would like to see more.

In the Duluth school district, records show, fewer than 80 students took courses at Lake Superior College, UMD or the College of St. Scholastica last year.

"It's not well-advertised or well-known," said Nancy Marek, Wrobleski's mother. "I'm pretty involved with his education, so that's how I know."

Rex Hein, director of curriculum, assessment and staff development for the Duluth district, said PSEO courses are in the registration book each year and parents are told of the options during orientation. But students are not urged to take the courses, Hein said, because they aren't for everyone.

"Some kids really aren't ready for that kind of independence," Hein said.

To participate in PSEO, students need to meet requirements set by the colleges and get the OK from their guidance councilors.

James Brandt, a guidance counselor at Denfeld High School, said most students who participate are overachievers who can handle added responsibility. But when taking on the stress of college life, students can become detached from what's happening in their high school.

"We want to make sure they understand that they have to be mature enough to stop in and see what's going on in school," Brandt said.

Counselors do not discourage students from taking PSEO, said East High School guidance counselor Mark Zawacki.

"We're very fair and open and help every student get what they need to pursue their dreams and goals," he said.

The Center for School Change study found that some students met with unhelpful counselors who did not support PSEO. Zawacki said the cost of sending students out of the district might be one reason.

For full-time PSEO students, the state pays tuition directly to the university attended. The school district, which receives a portion of its state money based on each student, receives substantially less from the state for full-time PSEO students, who do not count toward enrollment.

The district receives normal state money for part-time PSEO students, but is responsible for paying tuition, at no discount, for each credit taken.

Last year, the district paid about $200,000 for students who chose to take part in PSEO, Hein said.

Harry Cottrell, director of extended campus programs at Lake Superior College, said the institution does not recruit PSEO students largely because of the cost to K-12 schools.

"That wouldn't make for a good relationship," he said. "It would be counterproductive."

To improve the financial situation, the district started enhancing College in the Schools, course offerings within the district that can be taken for college credit. Other districts have done the same. Statewide College in the Schools participation has jumped from 1,200 during the 1991-92 school year to more than 14,000 in 2004-05.

The study found that PSEO was largely responsible for the increase and the program also has improved other aspects of K-12 education, such as the number of standardized tests taken each year.

The Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota Office of Higher Education need to take the lead in providing more information to families about PSEO and its benefits, the report said.

The information also needs to be made available to communities of all backgrounds and ethnicities.

The study found that last year, 67 percent of students using PSEO were females. Black students accounted for4 percent of last year's participants, Hispanics for 2 percent, American Indians for 1 percent and Asian students for7 percent.

Nathan said legislators, Minnesota Department of Education and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities officials and community activists on Tuesday will discuss how to address some of the report's findings.

He hopes more students will be able to see how useful PSEO and other options can be.

"It's not enough to graduate from high school," Nathan said. "Don't assume that by graduating from high school you're prepared for college, because you're not. Good jobs require at least a two-year degree."

Wrobleski, who's interested in engineering or pre-medicine, is glad to be getting a tough course out of the way, freeing up his future college schedule for more electives or studying abroad.

"They do have a program to go to Iceland," he said. "And I'm really interested in that." To read the full study, go to www.centerforschoolchange.org

JAKE WEYER can be reached weekdays at (218) 723-5342, (800) 456-8282 or by e-mail at jweyer@duluthnews.com

Girls more likely to earn early credit
Study urges Minnesota to get more high schoolers taking college-level courses

BY PAUL TOSTO
Pioneer Press

Minnesota's 20-year effort to get high school juniors and seniors into college-level courses has helped thousands of students earn degrees. But the state needs to get more teens to take the classes, especially boys and children of color, a new report shows.

More than 110,000 high school students have enrolled in the Post-Secondary Enrollment Options program. They are better prepared for college and earn college credit, thus saving money.

It's a tremendous opportunity. Yet high school students who take advantage of it remain disproportionately white, female and affluent, found a study by the University of Minnesota's Center for School Change. Of the 6,000 public high school juniors and seniors in the program last year, two-thirds were girls.

The report, to be released today, makes it clear that a Minnesota high school diploma alone no longer guarantees a student is ready for college. It recommends expanding the PSEO program. It also may accelerate Gov. Tim Pawlenty's plans to get more high school students taking tougher courses.

Pawlenty won $11.6 million from the Legislature earlier this year for his "Get Ready, Get Credit" initiative to expand college-level offerings in high school and to test thousands of eighth- and 10th-graders to gauge their college readiness.

"Students ought to recognize that just graduating (from high school) doesn't mean they're fully ready for college," said Joe Nathan, director of the Center for School Change.

Minnesota was the first state in the nation to let high school students apply to take college courses, earn credit and take the courses for free. Eligible students take classes at the U or at a two-or four-year college in Minnesota, earning credit toward both a high school diploma and a college degree. Many students can finish their first year of college free while still in high school.

The state pays for it by taking money for that student from the school district and giving it to the college. That's caused friction with some high schools. The report noted some students have experienced "resistance and hostility from high school leadership and faculty." Still, the large majority of schools support it, Nathan said.

PSEO and other college-level options have grown dramatically in the past 20 years. In 1986, 1,970 Minnesota high school students took Advanced Placement tests offered by the nonprofit College Board, hoping to qualify for college credit. Last year, 17,437 students took AP exams. International Baccalaureate, a similar program offering rigorous coursework and exams, is taking hold in a rising number of Twin Cities high schools.

The U report also noted the competition from PSEO has led many districts to create their own "college in the schools" arrangements with local colleges. Despite its successes, PSEO also offers a microcosm of the gaps between whites and students of color, between low-income and affluent students, and, increasingly, between girls and boys.

The gender shift already can be seen in college graduation data. Last year, for the first time, women in Minnesota's colleges and universities took home more degrees than men did in all categories. Women earned more than half the doctorates and two-thirds of the master's degrees, according to the Minnesota Higher Education Services Office.

Nationally, males made up 43 percent of higher education students in the country in 2002, the lowest share in more than 100 years, according to the newsletter Postsecondary Education Opportunity.

Latino, black and American Indian students also are underrepresented in the PSEO program.

"There's a lot of kids that just don't know about it," said Cassandra Sheppard, 20, a junior at Bethel University who took PSEO courses in high school and works in Bethel's admissions office. "I've talked to sixth-graders, fifth-graders, freshmen in high school" about PSEO and about getting into college. "If you can reach them at an early point, it does wonders."

Paul Tosto covers higher education and can be reached at ptosto@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2119. Online Go to www.centerforschoolchange.org to read the report and learn more about postsecondary enrollment options.

Report urges broader PSEO
Colleges need to advertise PSEO and admit more students, the report said.

By Cati Vanden Breul
Minnesota Daily

Twenty years ago Minnesota became the first state to allow high school students to take college courses and get credit for free.

A state law allows students who are accepted into the Post-Secondary Enrollment Options program to use state money that would have gone to their high school, to pay instead for tuition and books at a participating higher education institution.

But a report released Monday by the University's Center for School Change suggests colleges might not be giving enough information about the program or offering admission to as many students as they should.

The University limits the enrollment of new PSEO students to 450 for the fall semester and admits an additional 50 students in the spring, said Danielle Tisinger, director of the program at the Twin Cities campuses.

Typically, about 700 to 900 students apply in the fall and 100 to 200 in the spring, she said.

Because of the enrollment cap, some qualified students might be turned away, said Joe Nathan, co-author of the report.

Students who are not challenged in high school might not perform up to their ability academically and will miss out on the opportunity to participate in PSEO because of a low grade point average or class rank, he said.

"Some students don't have a strong GPA because they're bored stiff in high school, but they absolutely blossom when they come here," Nathan said.

Students who participate in the PSEO program are more likely to graduate college and tend to have higher GPAs than incoming first-year students, he said.

But budget constraints have deterred the University from expanding the program, Tisinger said.

"In an ideal world, there would be more opportunities available, but budgets are always tricky," she said.

The University wouldn't want its services for students to decline because of an expanded PSEO program, Tisinger said.

"We'd need to make sure we had appropriate staffing levels to work with the expanded number of students," she said.

"The University also has a duty to its enrolled students; we'd want to make sure that everybody had a good opportunity to get the classes they wanted."

But Nathan said expanding the program would help the University achieve two of its main goals.

"We think this is one way to both diversify the University of Minnesota, and also think it's a way to increase the graduation rates."

Good experience, but some students face obstacles
Students who participate in the PSEO program are overwhelmingly satisfied with the experience, according to the report.

Lindsay Anderson, a 2001 Carlson School of Management alumna, participated in the PSEO program through Southwest Minnesota State University during her junior and senior years of high school before transferring to the University once she graduated.

Anderson, who was the valedictorian of her high school class, said enrolling in college early gave her the opportunity to see what she was missing in high school.

"The professors were so inspiring and challenging; they provided the environment I was lacking in high school where I was bored, unchallenged and unmotivated," she said.

But even though she remained active in her high school's golf and speech teams, the school was not supportive of her decision to participate in the PSEO program, she said.

"They thought of the school losing money, because the state funds go over to the college as soon as I enrolled with them," Anderson said.

She said the school denied her acceptance into the National Honor Society because she wasn't going to high school full time and threatened to take away her valedictorian status even though she was first in her class.

"At that age, you just think that things are going to be fair. And if you're a good student and in all of these activities, why wouldn't you be let in?"

Anderson said dealing with hostile teachers and administrators made her a stronger person and taught her how to stand up for what she believed in.

"I just hope none of what I went through happens today. It just seemed so crazy that they would hold back a student who was just trying to succeed," she said.

But according to the report, at least 17 percent of PSEO participants still have trouble with unhelpful or unsupportive high school teachers when they choose to enroll in the program.

Nonwhites, men underrepresented
The report also found that men and nonwhites are underrepresented in PSEO programs around the state.

Sixty-seven percent of PSEO participants are women, even though they only make up 48 percent of the overall high school junior and senior class population in the state.

"That finding was really unexpected," Nathan said.

Although the University's PSEO Web site is one of the best in the state, he said, more information about the program needs to be provided to high school students and their families in order to increase participation.

The report's authors are meeting today with state education officials and community leaders to discuss the report's findings.

Legislators pore over PSEO study
The PSEO study looked at who is involved and what its benefits are

By Cati Vanden Breul
Minnesota Daily

Just a day after the University released a report pushing for expansion of the Post-Secondary Enrollment Options program, education officials from around the state met over box lunches to discuss the findings.

Dozens of officials, including state legislators, high school and college administrators and community leaders gathered at the Minnesota Office of Higher Education on Tuesday morning to share concerns and give suggestions on how to expand access to the PSEO program.

The program is funded by the state and allows high school juniors and seniors to enroll in college classes for free.

The report, conducted by the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, Center for School Change, found that minority students and men were underrepresented in PSEO programs across the state.

Joe Nathan, a co-author of the study, suggested two reasons some groups of students showed low participation in the program.

Some students are not getting enough information about PSEO from their high schools, he said, and others are being turned away because of low grade point averages or class rank.

"Many students who are not particularly strong in high school but are given the opportunity to take one or two courses at a college can be marvelous students at the postsecondary level," Nathan said.

Students who are unchallenged in high school often fail to excel academically and fall through the cracks when not allowed to explore their potential in a more rigorous environment, he said.

Claudia Fuentes, a teaching specialist in the University's Chicano studies department, said students' behaviors change when they're exposed to college.

"Some kids who were disengaged because they weren't being challenged went to PSEO and their whole attitude toward learning changed," Fuentes said.

The report recommends that colleges create more space for students who don't have the best academic record in high school but could succeed in college courses.

Carlos Mariani-Rosa, a state representative and executive director of the Minnesota Minority Education Partnership, said Minnesota needs to do a better job of getting nonwhite students through college.

"Sometimes there are inherent barriers that get in the way of people taking advantage of opportunities," Mariani-Rosa said.

Research shows students who get some experience with college at an early age are more likely to attend, he said, so getting more minority students in the PSEO program would boost their college participation.

The program also encourages low-income students to attend college because many times PSEO participants finish their first two years of college without incurring the cost.

But many high schools are not supportive of the program because they lose some of their own state funding when students enroll in college courses, and some schools are making it hard for students to join the program.

When a student participates in PSEO, the funding the state would have given to the high school goes to the college to pay for tuition and books.

Administrators from some school districts said a more viable option might be to create more "college in the schools" programs where college courses are taught in high schools.

Star Tribune Editorial
20 years of a good school-choice option
December 19, 2005

Lindsay was bored and barely challenged in high school, so she spent her junior
and senior years taking courses at then-Southwest State University. Steven was
active at his high school, but took a few classes at Winona State to get a jump-start
on college. Both are now successful professionals who participated in Minnesota's
postsecondary enrollment options program (PSEO); they are also fine examples
of why the 20-year-old program should continue and grow.

Back in 1985, Minnesota was the first state to give students the option of
blending late high school and early college years. Through PSEO, juniors and
seniors can take college classes for free and earn credits toward both high
school diplomas and college degrees. Over the years, it has become clear that
the approach was prescient; a recent study by the Center for School Change at
the University of Minnesota found that students saved time and money, learned
more and felt more academically prepared for college. That's good for the students,
and for the system; producing better prepared students translates into spending
less on college "catch up" work.

As the report notes, the program has also encouraged other college-level options
in high school. In 1986, 1,970 Minnesota high school students took Advanced
Placement tests; last year, 17,437 students took AP exams. Because of competition
from PSEO, more state high schools are offering International Baccalaureate
classes and "college in the schools" partnerships.

Expanding such opportunities for teens is consistent with Gov. Tim Pawlenty's
push to get more high school students taking tougher courses. Earlier this year,
the Legislature approved the governor's "Get Ready, Get Credit" initiative to
expand college-level offerings in high school and to test thousands of eighth-
and 10th-graders to assess college readiness.

While PSEO has been successful, the study found that some improvements are
in order. More information should be available about the program. In addition,
the vast majority of the participants are female, white and middle- to upper-income;
more effort should be employed to expand the participation of others.