{"id":12734,"date":"2020-05-19T01:00:45","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T05:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/?post_type=cw_post&p=12734"},"modified":"2020-09-24T10:11:44","modified_gmt":"2020-09-24T14:11:44","slug":"earning-diplomas-and-degrees-together-a-competency-based-dual-enrollment-school","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/earning-diplomas-and-degrees-together-a-competency-based-dual-enrollment-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Earning Diplomas and Degrees Together \u2013 A Competency-Based Dual Enrollment School"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GroupThis is the second post in a series about the Da Vinci Schools<\/a>. The first post is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Students at Da Vinci ConnectX in Los Angeles can graduate from high school with a college degree. [Update: DV ConnectX is now called DV Connect] <\/em>Two differences from most dual enrollment programs are that students can begin taking college courses in 9th<\/sup> grade, and they can earn an accredited bachelor\u2019s degree while still enrolled in high school\u2014although typically at age 19-21. Most dual enrollment programs offer college courses starting in the upper high school grades and offer an associate\u2019s degree but not a bachelor\u2019s degree.<\/p>\n

A major impetus for this program was the tremendous number of youth nationally who are starting college but not earning a degree due to a variety of personal and financial obstacles. Only 28% of students who enter a two-year degree program finish within three years, and only 60% who enter a four-year degree program finish within six years. These problems disproportionately affect low-income students and students of color, and they take place in a system where college tuition increases have far outpaced increases in household income and publicly funded financial aid has decreased.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

The DV ConnectX program makes it possible for students to save two to four years of college tuition, eliminating a tremendous obstacle to earning a degree. Many of the students are the first in their family to attend college, and completing college courses while they\u2019re still in high school also helps them experience and believe that they can succeed in college-level work.<\/p>\n

DV ConnectX began as two separate programs\u2014DV Extension (DVX) and DV Connect\u2014that merged in 2020. DV Extension was founded in 2015 and enables students age 18-21 to complete a two-year associate’s degree, a four-year bachelor\u2019s degree, or college credits that can be transferred to a four-year university. Cohorts of high school graduates, mostly from the Da Vinci high schools, engage in a combination of online coursework and face-to-face instruction through UCLA Extension, El Camino College, and\/or the College for America program at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). Students also complete paid and unpaid internships and project consults<\/a> with local businesses, hospitals, and non-profits. School staff provide tutoring, advising, and \u201cadulting\u201d classes such as financial planning. Twenty-nine students in the program have earned associate\u2019s degrees, and 12 students are enrolled in the bachelor\u2019s program.<\/p>\n

DV Connect began as the K-8 homeschool support program featured in the first blog post<\/a> in this series. In August 2019, DV Connect began a pilot program in grades 9 and 10, with students completing their high school requirements while also engaging in the DV Extension college coursework and real-world learning experiences just described. Based on the pilot program\u2019s success, Da Vinci successfully proposed an amendment to their charter this spring that combined DV Connect and DV Extension into DV ConnectX, a kindergarten through college model. They plan to enroll 50 students this fall with a projected growth to 500 students by 2026-27.<\/p>\n

Each cohort has 12-16 hours of direct contact per week with staff\u2014a combination of high school teachers and local community college professors\u2014supplemented by remote coursework and a substantial amount of independent work time. Students are able to progress at their own pace, and they benefit from a wide range of academic and social-emotional supports.<\/p>\n

\"Students
Da Vinci ConnectX Students Doing Work-Based Learning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Streamlining the System<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our educational system typically assumes that that high school takes four years, an associate\u2019s degree takes two years, and a bachelor\u2019s degree takes four years. How can students at DV ConnectX shave one, two, or even three years off of that time frame?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe mapped all of the SNHU degree requirements onto the state high school graduation requirements, and then we\u2019ve taken out the \u2018empty calories\u2019 of the high school experience to the extent that the state will allow us,\u201d explained Marc Pioch, Program Leader of DV Extension. He clarified that the \u201cempty calories\u201d are the \u201cfiller work\u201d that occupies some of the typical curriculum or school day. He said Da Vinci has developed a rigorous, streamlined process that enables students to work on high school requirements efficiently, thereby creating time and mental space for them to work hard on college completion.<\/p>\n

Specifically, earning an associate\u2019s degree from SNHU requires meeting three competencies in each of 20 goal areas, which correspond to 20 courses. Da Vinci crosswalked those competencies with the high school standards, \u201cbecause there are a lot of pieces that are identical\u2014not even similar, but identical,\u201d Pioch explained. \u201cSo why teach one during your Sophomore year of high school, and then wait four more years to get it again in college? \u2026 And it\u2019s not just the empty calories, it\u2019s also the physical structure. Why do we need to be in a classroom setting from 8am to 3pm to achieve X amount of work? If a student is able to achieve full competency faster than [the traditional seat-time requirements], that changes the whole game plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked what he would say to concerns that are sometimes expressed in education and popular media about the depth of accelerated, blended learning programs. \u201cThat\u2019s the old way of thinking,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the reality of our world anymore. It doesn\u2019t have<\/u> to be the reality of our world anymore. And I think that\u2019s the struggle\u2014that it\u2019s so new and so different for people, for all of us who have gone through the traditional system. We say, \u2018Well, the traditional way is what works<\/u>. That\u2019s what got us<\/u> to where we<\/u> are.\u2019 But there\u2019s another way. And I think people are honestly afraid of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking this argument a bit further seemed like an opportunity for an experienced educator with Pioch\u2019s devotion and Da Vinci\u2019s strong track record to provide valuable perspectives to the competency-based education community and beyond. So I asked how it\u2019s \u201cthe old way\u201d to express concern that students might be moving too quickly through courses without sufficient rigor. He said, \u201cI taught in a traditional model for 19 years, and I knew very well that I could teach some of those standards well in a week, but I didn\u2019t have the freedom to do that, because I had to keep the students physically in their desks for a specified amount of time. And so being able to come here to Da Vinci and seeing competency-based learning, and really allowing students to control their own learning\u2014that\u2019s the beautiful part about it, that we don\u2019t limit and restrain students from being able to excel.\u201d He added that students can learn a lot if they\u2019re motivated, interested, and allowed to move ahead at their own speed with strong teacher supports.<\/p>\n

Da Vinci Schools CEO Matt Wunder added that concerns about depth can also \u201cwork both ways,\u201d because in the traditional system \u201cyou can have a lecturer and a textbook, and students can memorize answers for a test and forget the material quickly.\u201d He added that it\u2019s not difficult to convince people that some of the time isn\u2019t used well in the traditional high school model, and that it\u2019s valuable for people to see that students can demonstrate the level of competency associated with an accredited associate\u2019s or bachelor\u2019s degree without having to spend six or eight years in high school and college.<\/p>\n

Da Vinci ConnectX is clearly based on the idea that program quality\u2014not program speed\u2014is the essential question. Continuing to understand the relationship between these two dimensions in different school models is essential to competency-based education, where varied pacing is one of the key elements and building models that increase equity are fundamental.<\/p>\n

Learn More<\/strong><\/p>\n