Cross-posted from Politics K-12.
The U.S. Department of Education Monday named the 44 colleges chosen to participate in an experiment to provide low-income high school students with Pell Grant money to take college courses.
The program will allow more than 10,000 high school students to tap into $19 million of the $67 billion in federal money typically reserved for such students to take college courses. Department officials hope that by providing low-income students with money to participate in dual-enrollment programs, the program will help curtail skyrocketing college costs and start working earlier toward the completion of an associate or bachelor’s degree.
A growing body of research shows that low-income high school students who participate in dual-enrollment programs are more likely to boost their high school GPA, less likely to drop out of high school, and more likely to earn either an associate or bachelor’s degree. But even as dual-enrollment opportunities have expanded in recent years (more than 1.4 million students participated in the 2010-11 school year), low-income students have been reluctant to participate because of the tuition and transportation costs.
“Dual-enrollment programs are game-changers for all students, but especially for those who are low-income,” Ted Mitchell, the U.S. undersecretary for higher education said during a conference call Monday.
In order to participate in the program, which was first announced in October, colleges will have to provide high school students with advisers to help them fill out FASFA forms and make sure they’re taking college courses that put them on track to earning either an associate or bachelor’s degree.
Only public school high school students can currently participate.
More than 80 percent of the colleges, from more than 23 states, are community colleges. The participants are:
- Adams State University (Alamosa, Colorado)
- Asnuntuck Community College (Enfield, Connecticut)
- Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, New York)
- Benedict College (Columbia, South Carolina)
- Bristol Community College (Fall River, Massachusetts)
- Carl Sandburg College (Galesburg, Illinois)
- Cayuga Community College (Auburn, New York)
- Central Virginia Community College (Lynchburg, Virginia)
- College of Southern Maryland (La Plata, Maryland)
- Community College of Beaver County (Monaca, Pennsylvania)
- Cowley County Community College (Arkansas City, Kansas)
- Gateway Community College (New Haven, Connecticut)
- George C. Wallace Community College (Hanceville, Alabama)
- Germanna Community College (Fredericksburg, Virginia)
- Glenville State College (Glenville, West Virginia)
- Guilford Technical Community College (Jamestown, North Carolina)
- Hagerstown Community College (Hagerstown, Maryland)
- Holyoke Community College (Holyoke, Massachusetts)
- Illinois Central College (East Peoria, Illinois)
- Jackson State University (Jackson, Mississippi)
- Leeward Community College (Oahu, Hawaii)
- Louisiana State University (Eunice, Louisiana)
- Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College (Perkinstown, Mississippi)
- Naugatuck Valley Community College (Waterbury, Connecticut)
- Niagara County Community College (Sanborn, New York)
- North Country Community College (Saranac Lake, New York)
- Northeast State Community College (Blountville, Tennessee)
- Northeastern Technical College (Cheraw, South Carolina)
- Norwalk Community College (Norwalk, Connecticut)
- Owensboro Community and Technical College (Owensboro, Kentucky)
- Quinebaug Valley Community College (Danielson, Connecticut)
- Ranger College (Ranger, Texas)
- Ranken Technical College (St. Louis, Missouri)
- Southern New Hampshire University (Manchester, New Hampshire)
- Southwest Tennessee Community College (Memphis, Tennessee)
- Southwestern Illinois College (Belleville, Illinois)
- Sullivan County Community College (Loch Sheldrake, New York)
- SUNY Adirondack (Queensbury, New York)
- SUNY Rockland Community College (Suffern, New York)
- Three Rivers Community College (Norwich, Connecticut)
- University of Arkansas Community College (Hope, Arkansas)
- University of Nevada (Reno, Nevada)
- Urban College of Boston (Boston, Massachusetts)
- William R. Moore College of Technology (Memphis, Tennessee)