001Greetings members of the board of education. I'm Dr. Sarah Chaya Clarity, the director of secondary for teaching, learning, and equity. Here to provide our bianual report on early college credit programming and start college now. This is an overview of our situation report to explain what the early college credit program is. Uh otherwise known as ECCP. The ECCP permits any high school student in a public or private high school in the state of Wisconsin to enroll in an institution within the University of Wisconsin system. While many students um enroll in the University of Wisconsin Madison because of the proximity here to S Prairie, pupils would be able to enroll in any tribally controlled college or a private or nonprofit institution of higher education that's located in Wisconsin if they would like uh to take one or
002more courses for which the student can earn high school credit, they can earn college or post-secary credit or they can opt to take credit in both ways. So students are allowed to earn up to 18 college credits through the early college credit program um as long as they meet the stipulations outlined in the state statutes and our policy. The processes are that a student who is intending to enroll in the upcoming summer or fall semesters have to submit their intent by March 1st. And if students would be doing that for the spring semester, they would need to submit it by October 1st. Then the board um reviews these and provides written notification to the students of the approvals in this case for summer or fall by May 15th. In the spring, it's November 15th. And
003so it is our students high school counselors and college career life readiness coordinators as well as the administrative associate to the director of secondary for teaching learning and equity who process all of these applications. And then we are build as a school district for tuition and I'll show you the chart that outlines how that gets paid for here momentarily um as soon as a student registers and begin begins the course. So then the Start College Now program or SCN sometimes as it's referred to in an acronym is the similar program but it's run through our technical colleges here in Wisconsin. And so um while early college credit programming is by state statute allowed to students in 9th through 12th grade start college now is restricted to students who are juniors and seniors. So in their
00411th or 12th grade year and again have to meet certain requirements and are able to take the technical college credits. Most take Madison College. um for high school and then technical college credit if they would like. And so those processes are the same in terms of the timeline, the way the applications are processed, uh the way the payment is processed. Um and then there are some incidental costs that the family would be responsible for. So things like um tools, supplies, consumables, anything that is going to become the property of the student, those would be paid for by the pupil or the family. and um any other costs associated with coursework like a parking permit or so on would also be the responsibility of the family. If the student receives a failing grade for the course
005or withdraws from the course, then the student or the family does need to reimburse the school district for the amount paid on the pupil's behalf. So here's a chart that shows how the funding works for early college credit in Start College. Now, so with the early college credit program, it is dependent upon if the student is just taking the course for high school credit or if they're taking it only for post-secary credit. Then you can see um the responsibility by the school district, the state and the students family. Start college now is 100% covered by the school district. Um, interestingly, we have been seeing a greater participation in start college now and early college credit programming. Um, that is due to, I believe, uh, increased advertising and marketing of these opportunities. Uh, our college and
006career life readiness coordinators, our school leaders, our school counselors have been doing a tremendous job year-over-year and sharing what's possible with students. And so, we are seeing increased enrollments. Uh most C most of these courses are three to four credit courses and we have also seen that there has been a price increase at the per credit level at both Madison College and WMadison. And you can see outlined here how much per credit is increasing. But due to both increased student interest and increased per credit costs, you can see that the the amount that we are spending per year is rapidly increasing. And so over the past five years, uh, we've really gone from, you know, just under the the $30,000 mark to upwards now of almost $75,000. So pretty significant increase. Um, for good reason.
007And so when we look at enrollment, we want to make sure that we have access to students from Sumpre East, Sumpre West, and Prairie Phoenix Academy. We're keeping an eye on um who's enrolling to see if the enrollments match our high school enrollments in terms of um numbers and demographics. And so there is uh information that we share with you all as the board that outlines um not only what courses students are interested in, but also the demographic information for the students who are enrolling. And then um we also have a one-page overview that we communicate with families uh and anyone in our community to help better understand what these processes are and how they work. I want to extend gratitude to our school counselors, college career and life readiness coordinators and the administrative associate
008for the director of secondary as well as our high school registar for their tremendous efforts in assisting students to select those classes, enroll in classes and then process all of the paperwork that comes on the back end and helping our students um earn their credit in these classes. So kudos to our students who are pursuing academic challenges and opportunities at in college in the high school years. It's an incredible feat and we know that it's going to serve you well in the future in whatever your college career or life plans um unfold for you in the future. So, thank you for your time. I look forward to answering questions for you all at the upcoming board meeting on April 28th. [Music]