Last year, when Jayla Arensberg was a sophomore at Burnsville High School near St. Paul, Minnesota, a teacher showed her a flyer that said a program at the school could save her $25,000 on college.
“I said, 'I really need that,'” the student recalls.
She was interested in college, but worried that the cost would prevent her from pursuing higher education. “College is incredibly expensive,” she says.
So she applied and was accepted into the high school’s “Associate of Arts Degree Pathway,” which essentially turns the junior and senior year of high school into a two-year college curriculum. This entire year, Arensberg walked the halls of the same high school building and ate in the same cafeteria as before, but now most of his classes earned him college credit, and if he stays the course, he'll earn an associate's degree at Al At the same time he receives his high school diploma.
Her plan after graduation is to apply to the main campus of the University of Minnesota to major in psychology, entering the middle of her bachelor's degree and thus eliminating two years of paying for college.
The high school is one of a growing number across the country that offer the so-called “postsecondary enrollment option,” where students can take college courses during the high school day and earn college credits. In fact, the number of high school students taking at least one college course has increased to 34 percent, up from just 10 percent in 2010, according to data of the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Associations.
But Burnsville's program is unusual in offering a full two-year program within its building, rather than just isolated courses or transportation to nearby colleges for part of a day.
“They're really grouped together like they probably would feel in a freshman dorm,” Rebecca Akerson, who coordinates the associate arts access program at the school, says of the program's students, who take most of their courses together. “They have gotten to know each other well. “When you think about college, that’s what you’re thinking about.”
It's a clear example of how the line between high school and college is blurring for more and more students. While these programs can help students get into college who might not have been able to before, they also raise questions about the purpose of high school, what social opportunities they might be missing, and whether the trend is pushing students away. make decisions about their future careers. at too young an age.
But college isn't the only option students can explore at this high school. The associate degree program is part of one of four career paths that students can choose from, targeting careers in specialties such as culinary arts, manufacturing and automotive technology.
In fact, officials have gone to great lengths to highlight the variety of options, to try to attract a greater diversity of students to whatever interests them. For example, the school's “fabrication lab,” which once might have been called a lumber shop: It's located next to a high-traffic commons area, and the glass walls allow anyone passing by to see what the students are making.
“This was designed very specifically because engineering and manufacturing has traditionally been a very white male-dominated career field,” says Kathy Funston, director of strategic partnerships and pathways for the Burnsville school district. “We really wanted our students of color and our women to be able to look through these glass walls and say, 'That's great. I like that. Nobody gets dirty in there. I think I want to try it,'” Funston adds. “So, it's a way to help underrepresented populations see career areas and fields that they wouldn't have been exposed to either in their sphere of influence at home or in other classes. “If you go to a lot of other schools, these types of classes have been held in a remote part of the school.”
Teachers at the school say they work to communicate these career path programs early and often. That means career path options are a big part of the journey when high school students look at the school, and posters displaying the four major career paths, each with its signature color, adorn hallways throughout the building.
How is the program going? And how do students feel about these options at a time of growing skepticism about higher education?
This is the fifth episode of a podcast series we call Doubting College, where we explore: What happened to public belief in college? And how does that influence the decisions young people make about what to do after high school?
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Cloudy, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you listen to podcasts, or use the player on this page.
