| Running Start, a state-wide consortium between community colleges and high schools, allows students who are prepared to take the leap to college and attend tuition free in place of traditional high school courses, earning credits that apply on both the high school and college level. It’s is a dual-credit program available for high school juniors and seniors. While participating in the program, credits taken at the college count as both high school and college credit.
To qualify for the program, students must have at least a 2.5 GPA, and pass a series of placement exams at the college.
Students have an option for both the amount of time they spend on either campus, and how they want to combine high school and college courses. Full-time students take all their courses at the college, without attending the high school except for advising and extra curricular activities, while part-time students can chose to take one or two college courses while rounding out their course load with classes at the high school.
Those who participate full-time for both years usually earn their Associate’s Degree in conjunction with their high school Diploma.
“The beauty of the program is that it’s very flexible,” Susan Tollefson said, “It has an opportunity for all.”
Tollefson is the Director of Running Start at Olympic College (OC), serving also as one of the advisors at the college end. An advisor’s role is to help students transition successfully to the college environment. The advisors at OC meet with Running Start students once a quarter to discuss their academic plan. They also keep track of student’s grades, and identify when a student is struggling. Tollefson sends letters to students who need some extra counseling, in order to encourage them to seek an answer to their academic troubles, and to break their bad study habits.
Students also meet with their high school counselors once a quarter to make sure they are meeting the requirements for their high school diploma.
Washington has one of the biggest dual-credit programs in the country. Running Start was introduced as a pilot program in 1990. By 1992, the program was officially established as an educational opportunity for high school junior and seniors across Washington.
The 34 community colleges throughout the state are required to offer Running Start as part of the “Learning by Choice” law, established in 1990.
Central Washington, Eastern Washington, and Washington State Universities all offer Running Start to provide the program to areas where two year colleges are not present.
Over the last 15 years, the number of Running Start participants at OC grew from 83 in 1992 to 702 students last fall. The number of graduates coinciding with high school graduation has increased as well. Seventy-one students graduated from OC this past spring, compared to only one graduate at the end of the 92-93 school year.
The program at Olympic College is approximately the sixth largest in the state. Green River Community College ranks number one in terms of number of participants, followed by Bellevue Community College, Clark College, Highline Community College, and Whatcom Community College. OC provides the program for all the high schools in Kitsap County and North Mason County.
Because certain classes tend to have a large concentration of high school students- English and History especially — the OC advisors try to keep tally on who plans to register for each class, and encourage students to disperse so that a class does not become comprised of mainly high school students.
“I like to think they are like every other student,” Tollefson said. “They bring a lot of youth and spunk to campus.”
Generally, the dual-credit students tend to perform better academically. The average Running Start GPA in Fall 2006 was 3.14, compared to 2.66 for traditional students. 35 percent of the awarded grades that quarter were above a 3.9.
“They do very well on the whole,” Tollefson said.
Although Running Start students do generally perform better, there are those students who become overwhelmed with college and are not as successful.
“I don’t want to say that there is no one who doesn’t do so well, because there are. There are definitely those who struggle, and need to learn that you do need to go to class and do the work to be successful,” said Tollefson. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for those students who are motivated, self-disciplined, and ready to work.”
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