Acceleration Study

1. Acceleration Study ACC Workshop October 15, 2003

2. Report Requirements (HB 1739) • Availability (access) • Advising • Grading Practices • General Education Applicability • Class Size Reduction • Funding • Credit-By-Examination Options

3. State Activities to Enhance Acceleration • Statewide Course Numbering System • ACC Credit-By-Exam Guidelines • Interinstitutional Articulation Agreements • ACC Dual Enrollment Course List • Florida Partnership

4. Student Eligibility Criteria • GPA requirements • Test score requirements (CPT, ACT/SAT, PSAT, FCAT) • Teacher/Counselor recommendations • Other • Course prerequisites • Grades in previous subject area courses • Course/credit hour limitations

5. Student Eligibility Summary • With the exception of dual enrollment, eligibility for participation in an acceleration mechanism is entirely determined locally. However, the majority of school districts require a teacher or counselor recommendation. • A minimum GPA is required for most dual enrollment courses, but < 50% of other acceleration types have minimum GPA requirements. • While there exits a statutory testing requirement for participation in dual enrollment, the policy is not clear and appears to need clarification.

6. Student Participation (01-02)Community College Dual Enrollment • All 28 colleges offer dual enrollment • 32,960 students enrolled in 98,045 courses • 226,215 credit hours earned (80% pass rate) • 80% public school, 18% private school, 2% home school • # of courses per student per year • Range = 1-20 Mean = 3.1 Median = 2 Mode = 2 • 75% of students took less than 4 courses per year

7. Community College Dual Enrollment FTE enrollment for dual enrollment has increased by 110% over the past decade. The number of students participating in dual enrollment has increased by 56%.

8. Community College Dual Enrollment • Home education participation in dual enrollment has increased by 38% over the last 4 years. • Many home education students complete their AA through dual enrollment

9. Community College Dual Enrollment • High school students enrolled in 1,901 different dual enrollment courses

10. Community College Dual Enrollment

11. Community College Dual Enrollment • FTE enrollment has increased by 110% over the past decade. • 80% of dual enrollment students earn postsecondary credit. • Dual enrollment students have successful experiences in subsequent courses taken at a state university.

12. Career & Technical Center Dual Enrollment • 8,231 students took dual enrollment courses in 125 different career & technical programs • Over 51% of enrollments were in 6 programs

13. Percent Minority Enrollment by Acceleration Type • Minority enrollments accounted for a greater % of the total enrollments at technical centers than they did the enrollments in other acceleration mechanisms

14. State University Dual Enrollment • 1,975students statewide • 5,684enrollments in 630different courses • (50% of enrollments in 30courses)

15. Student Participation (01-02)Advanced Placement • 55 school districts offer AP courses • 56,272 public school students took at least one AP course • 50,860 public school students took at least one AP exam (85-90%) • 88,930 exams taken • 53.8% of those who took AP exams earned postsecondary credit (3 or above)

16. Advanced Placement

17. Advanced Placement • AP students enrolled in 34 different courses in 19 subject areas

18. Advanced Placement

19. Advanced Placement

20. Advanced Placement • Florida led all states in the percentage increase in the number of AP exams taken (22%) • Florida had the 2nd greatest increase in the number of AP exam takers • Florida had the 3rd greatest increase in the U.S. in the number of 3-5 grades received.

21. International Baccalaureate • 30 school districts offer IB programs • 9,709 students took at least on IB course • 4,769 students (49%) took at least one IB exam • 15,583 exams taken (23% exams administered in the nation) • 86% of those who took exams earned postsecondary credit (4 or above)

22. International Baccalaureate

23. International Baccalaureate • Course offerings range from 2 in a district to 42 at a single high school

24. International Baccalaureate • 2nd in the nation in the number of schools participating in IB • 1st in the nation in the number of students taking IB exams • 1st in the nation in the number of exams taken • 1st in the nation in the number of IB diplomas awarded

25. Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) Within AICE, there are over 40 subjects from 3 curriculum areas: • Mathematics and Sciences • Languages • Arts and Humanities Most subjects may be studied at: • Advanced (A) Level – examinations generally require 2 years of study in a subject • Advanced Subsidiary (AS) Level - examinations cover the first year of the 2-year A-Level syllabi.

26. College Level Examination Program (CLEP) • CLEP credit currently does not apply toward high school graduation - Students earn only college credit • 7,635 CLEP exams taken by non-Bright Futures students - 76% pass rate • 2,504 CLEP exams taken by Bright Futures students (BF Testing Program) - 27.4% pass rate

27. Research Findings:Student Success • Students who earn accelerated credit achieve higher SUS GPAs than students who do not earn accelerated credit. • Almost no students required remediation (7 of 7800); Few repeated courses (376 of 7800) • Retention rates are higher for students who earn accelerated credit • Highest rate for students with a mixture of acceleration types (84.5%) • SAT scores correlated with student success in different acceleration types

28. Student Participation & SuccessSummary • Dual enrollment, AP, IB, and AICE have all seen increases in student participation. Minority student participation in acceleration mechanisms lags behind that of non-minority student participation. • Students who have earned accelerated credit prior to enrolling in college achieve a higher SUS GPA than students who did not earn accelerated credit. Postsecondary retention rates for students with accelerated credit are higher than for those without credit. Standardized test scores may help to determine the acceleration mechanism through which a student may be most successful.

29. Student Advising: FACTS.org Academic Reference Resources • Counseling for Future Education Handbook • Common Prerequisite Manual • Statewide Articulation Manual (AS/BA-BS) • ICUF Articulation Agreement • Dual Enrollment Course List (credit amounts)

30. Student Advising: FACTS.org High School Planning • Academic Evaluation provides students with direct access to transcript information • Students can access actual coursework & grades to compare to requirements for Bright Futures and SUS admissions • A comprehensive planner will be added in Spring 2004 (click/drag courses from drop down box)

31. Student Advising: FACTS.org Postsecondary Planning • Institutional Degree Audit • Degree Shopping • Remote Degree Shopping • Degree Planning • 2+2 Transfer Evaluation (coming soon) • Automated transient admissions applications (coming in 2004)

32. Students with Disabilities • Participation in acceleration mechanisms for students with disabilities is minimal (all <1% except C&T center dual enrollment = 7.5%) • Reasonable accommodations must be made by districts or colleges • Funding for accommodations provided by districts or colleges • Costs are negotiated between colleges and districts

33. Advising Summary • Florida students, parents, and guidance counselors have a tremendous amount of information available to them on-line at FACTS.org. In addition, Florida has built an impressive infrastructure when it comes to allowing students to articulate from one system to another. While this array of services is available, it may still be difficult to determine the best option for each individual student.

34. Grading Practices Purposes of GPA Calculation • State Graduation Requirements State Policy • Talented 20 Local Policy • Valedictorian/Salutatorian Local Policy • Bright Futures Initial Eligibility State Policy • State University Admissions Local Policy Why weight accelerated courses?

35. GPA Weighting Policies • State HS Graduation – 24 credit/18 credit • different policies apply to different options • School Districts (Val/Sal, Talented 20) • varies across districts • must comply with 1007.271(16), F.S. • SUS Admissions – recommendation to change • 0.5 for Honors & DE • 1.0 for AP, IB & AICE • Bright Futures - 0.5 for all

36. Grading Practices Summary • There are at least four different calculations used in determining the GPA of a high school graduate from a particular school/district • state GPA, district GPA (Talented 20, Valedictorian/Salutatorian), Bright Futures, SUS admissions. • Each district and state university uses its own formula for calculating the district GPA. Much of the variance is the result of course weighting practices.

37. General Education Community College Dual Enrollment • 1,901 courses • 120 courses accounted for 70% of enrollments • 50% of enrollment was in just 25 courses • All but one met a postsecondary gen. ed requirement • 60% of top 25 courses met gen. ed requirements at 23 of 39 public institutions • 56% also met a common prerequisite requirement

38. General Education State University Dual Enrollment • 630 courses • 47.3% met a general education requirement for at least one public institution • 6.5% met a gen. ed requirement for at least half • 50% of enrollment was in 30 courses • 66.7% of top 30 courses met gen. ed requirement for at least one institution • 46.7% met gen. ed requirements for at least half • 43.3% met a common prerequisite requirement

39. Accelerated Credits Counted Toward SUS Graduation (2002 Grads) • Dual enrollment (41,075) and AP credits (38,447) accounted for 86% of all accelerated credits earned • Overall, 85% of accelerated credits were used to meet graduation requirements • Nursing Mobility Exams = 100% • Departmental Exams = 98% • IB = 87.5% • Dual enrollment = 87.4% • AP = 82.6% • CLEP = 62.9%

40. General Education/SUS Graduation Summary • AP, IB, AICE, and CLEP all have credit-by-exam equivalents that allow the student to, in most cases, earn general education credit. The equivalencies were determined with the intent of providing the student with credit in courses that would shorten the time to degree. • The courses available to students through dual enrollment cover a wide variety of subjects that may or may not count toward general education. • A high percentage of accelerated courses are used to meet SUS graduation requirements

41. Class Size Reduction • Dual enrollment courses on community college campuses • 56.5% taught at community colleges • Colleges having trouble meeting enrollment demands • Florida Virtual School • 10 different AP courses offered, 573 enrollments • 44% of AP students took exams (55.6% pass rate) • Online students withdraw from courses at a higher rate than traditional students (particularly minorities) • Florida Distance Learning Consortium • Several community colleges already offer dual enrollment courses via distance learning (relatively small compared to overall dual enrollment population)

42. Class Size Reduction Summary • Passage of the constitutional amendment has drawn attention to the use of acceleration mechanisms as a possible means to contribute solutions to the class size issue. While there are issues related to community college enrollment capacity, there may be options through the use of distance learning.

43. Funding • School districts receive full FTE funding for AP, IB, AICE, and Dual Enrollment courses in the FEFP • Dual Enrollment courses taught on community college campuses may result in less FTE funding for the district because the seat time calculation is less than for high school courses • Dual Enrollment courses taken beyond the 300 minute instructional day do not receive FEFP funding • Community colleges count dual enrollment students as part of FTE, but they do not receive funding based solely on FTE • Community college and state universities do not receive any tuition and fees for dual enrollment students • State universities receive FTE funding for dual enrollment students • Districts receive double FTE funding for career & technical center dual enrollment

44. Funding Incentive Funding • School districts receive incentive funds for AP, IB & AICE students who earn passing scores on the exams (.24 FTE per exam, .30 FTE per diploma) • Incentive funding includes a $50 bonus for teachers for each passed exam ($500 extra if teaching in a D or F school) • Incentive funds totaled $40.6 million in 2001-02 • No incentive funding provided for dual enrollment

45. Funding Issues to consider • Cost of text books – instructional materials • Transportation issues • Recent proposals to change the way acceleration mechanisms (particularly dual enrollment) are funded

46. Funding Summary Although school districts receive some type of funding for all acceleration mechanisms, some inequities still exist. Dual enrollment students who earn postsecondary credit do not generate incentive funds as do AP, IB & AICE students. In addition, other dual enrollment funding issues include seat time vs. credit conversion, cost of text books, and transportation. Dual enrollment costs and funding also continue to be issues for community colleges.