The First Step program, a collaboration between Sandhills Community College (SCC) and the Moore County school system that will allow public school students to earn college credit, won’t be fully implemented until fall 2006. But college and school system officials are already optimistic that it will be a success.
The First Step program is by no means the first that allows high school students to earn college credit before they finish the 12th grade. Advanced Placement courses and International Baccalaureate program courses already provide a number of students with the opportunity to receive college credit while in high school.
But when First Step is fully implemented, just about any junior or senior in the Moore County school system, whether he or she wants to attend a four-year college or pursue a vocational, two-year degree, will have the chance to take college courses.
“One of the things we think is unique about this is the focus on all the kids,” said Larry Upchurch, deputy superintendent with the Moore County school system. “This will actually impact all kids, whether they’re in the tech prep pathway or the college/university pathway. No matter which track they’re in, this program has the potential to impact them. About 90 percent of the students at any particular grade level could qualify for this program.”
Upchurch used a student pursuing an automobile technician career track as an example.
“It won’t be just those auto tech classes,” he said. “That student will also be able to take other classes related to the college program. They’ll be able to take those classes while they’re in high school.”
Theoretically, students pursuing two-year degrees could complete them in three semesters rather than four, provided they’ve registered for and completed the appropriate courses in advance.
“That’s part of the value in terms of the entire process,” said John Turner, vice president for instructional and student services at SCC. “It gives students a head start in terms of getting on the job.
“The benefits of that are numerous. If you’re starting work a year early, that’s a year’s worth of earnings you might not have had. The tax base in the community benefits, assuming they stay here in the county.”
Turner said the program could positively influence decision-making at the college level.
“These courses could ultimately lead to a four-year degree or job skills training,” Turner said. “This is going to provide people with advanced training so they can go right into their jobs. It will give us at the college an opportunity to have a better handle on the students that come to us, what their needs are and what new programs we might need to offer.”
The concept of molding the high school and college curriculums together is not a new one.
“It gives us an opportunity to partner with the high schools and to extend our original K-14 agreement,” Turner said. “Originally, and this was even before I got here over five years ago, the college and the school district had in mind a grand plan that every student that comes up through the school district could come to Sandhills Community College, have a seamless transition and get two years of education at no cost.”
Upchurch agreed.
“The First Step program is just the beginning of the process of getting to what Dr. Turner is talking about,” he said.
The Moore County Board of Education and the SCC Board of Trustees initially approved the program in October 2003.
Since then, officials have been gearing up and getting ready for full implementation. In the spring of 2004, some pilot testing was performed with 10th-grade students. Last fall, admissions procedures were finalized and course offerings were expanded. Right now, officials are working on scheduling issues, selecting instructors. Communication and marketing issues are also being addressed.
Turner said preliminary steps have gone smoothly, partly because the college has already been offering courses to high school students for years. Students 16 years or older are already permitted to take college courses under North Carolina’s Huskins Program.
“In some ways we’re not reinventing the wheel or starting at ground zero,” Turner said.
The preliminary courses and exercises will allow officials to work out any kinks.
“We want to offer enough courses now so that when it’s going full bore, to let us know if we’ve got problems with staffing or making courses available,” Turner said. “It may be that we see that students really want a particular course or program and we’ll have to make adjustments. That’s what this coming year (the 2005-2006 school year) is for.”
‘A Broader Curriculum’
All three public high schools in Moore County will offer the program.
“The reality is, we could have as many as 1,500 kids being served at any given time by this program,” Upchurch said.
The instructors for the college-level courses will be SCC professors.
“We will be assigning full-time faculty and part-time faculty to teach these courses,” Turner said. “Part of the planning and logistics of this has to do with the ratio of full-time to part-time. We’ll probably have more adjunct professors teaching these courses than full-time. Those are some of the things that need to be decided.”
Overcrowding is already an issue at many Moore County schools, so First Step officials might need to investigate bringing high school students to SCC.
“We might have to transport students here,” Turner said. “We might have to shuffle some class times around. Those are all things we’ll be looking at over the next year.”
Upchurch said the First Step program wouldn’t increase the number of students in the Moore County schools, but it could create a need for more teaching space.
“The good thing about it, as much as it seems to be a problem, is that it gives us some opportunities to enrich what we’re offering to students because it allows us to offer a broader curriculum,” Upchurch said. “By offering the college courses, we’re expanding our teaching force at no cost to us.”
SCC will foot the bill for the cost of instruction and instructional supplies. The school district will pay for textbooks, just as it would for any other textbook.
‘New Expectations’
Students who choose to take First Step courses will count them as electives on their high school transcripts. Upchurch and Turner said the courses are not intended to supplant other elective choices like the arts.
“If a parent does not believe in this or has some reason to suspect that their child would be better off by following a different path, then they can elect for their kid to not be involved,” Upchurch said.
Turner added: “Our expectation is that First Step will not supplant anything. We’re not going to offer classes at the expense of music or art. We’re not going to suddenly lose those things. That’s not our expectation at all.”
Students are obvious beneficiaries of the First Step program because they have the chance to take college courses at no charge. Turner said there are potential benefits for families and the community, too.
“If parents know their children are going to attend college, they can get a jump on college-level credits, which could save them money,” Turner said, emphasizing that the courses offered will be transferable throughout the entire North Carolina college system. “It could give students a head start on the old question, ‘What do I want to be when I grow up?’ Those things will all be moving forward now.”
Upchurch said the First Step program could be groundbreaking as society recognizes the need for every student to continue his or her education past the 12th grade.
“Data shows that society is requiring that our students are going to need to have skill levels far beyond the skills that we needed to have to go to work,” Upchurch said. “It’s going to be part of the new expectations for what we provide for high school kids.”
Turner said students who participate in the program and still decide against college would benefit by having college-level courses on their high school transcript.
“They’ll still have those credits, and that’s going to look a lot better to an employer,” he said. “The high school diplomas will be enhanced by these courses.”
Working Out Logistics
Students who complete First Step courses will also have a taste of college-level work.
“They’ll know they can do the work,” Upchurch said. “It could also help students graduate from college on time. They might not have to take 19 hours every semester to keep up. One of our hopes is that we’ll have fewer students that move to the next level and experience failure.”
Turner said efforts would be made to ensure that everybody involved, from students to faculty members, would understand that there is a difference between a high school history course and a college-level history course, even though both could be taken at the high school.
“If we don’t do that, then there’s still going to be that culture shock when someone moves on,” he said. “So far, I think we’ve done that pretty well with our other Huskins courses.”
Both Turner and Upchurch said there’s a lot of work to be done regarding which classes would be offered and how many sections.
“There are so many logistical things we’re working on,” Turner said. “We’ll be working on these things for the first couple of years until it all smooths out.”
Upchurch concurred.
“The good thing is that once we get it implemented and gain a better understanding of students’ needs then, we’ll be able to preplan which courses we need to have available,” he said.
Turner said he believes the First Step program is the first of its kind in the state, if not the country.
“As far as we know, this is the first of this particular kind that provides access to this many students,” he said. “None of the other programs serve this many.”
