Get students to college sooner

Only about 42 percent of Hawaii’s working-age adults hold college degrees, but by 2018 it’s estimated that more than 65 percent of good-paying jobs here will require some college education. That alarming skills gap has educators throughout the state focused on ways to help more Hawaii youth rise to the challenge of higher learning. The need is especially acute among low-income children, including recent immigrants whose parents lack much schooling themselves.

So when a program emerges that achieves the goal of increasing Hawaii’s college-going rate, policymakers, lawmakers and other elected officials should take notice. An excellent model exists at Waipahu High School, which is Hawaii’s pioneer in a national initiative that should be replicated in more high schools here.

The Early College High School program was one of several successful college- and career-readiness programs at Waipahu High that caught the eye of U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan during his recent swing through our state, and his support was unequivocal. Some ideas or programs are praised for their promise or potential, but Early College High School is paying off right out of the gate. Some 300 Waipahu students have signed on, double last year’s enrollment, having met the academic requirements to enroll in free college classes taught by Leeward Community College and University of Hawaii-West Oahu instructors on the Waipahu High campus. The students earn dual credit and get on the higher-ed track early, building up momentum to earn a college degree ahead of schedule. In the next year or so, it’s likely that a Waipahu student will leave high school with both a diploma and an associate’s degree in hand.

Academic rigor, combined with the opportunity to save time and money, are powerful motivators for striving young people, a population not limited to Waipahu. It’s notable that nearly 70 percent of the school’s students are Filipino, an ethnicity traditionally underrepresented on college campuses throughout the country, and nearly 60 percent are from low-income families. Nationally, young people from middle-class and wealthy families are nearly five times more likely to finish college than those from low-income families. Poverty should not be a barrier to the lifelong benefits that a college degree brings. This program helps ensure that it isn’t.

Waipahu’s program began in the summer of 2012, with 30 students taking Psychology 100. Since then, students have excelled in demanding college courses in English, speech, sociology, calculus and astronomy. From 2011-13, the college-going rate for the school overall rose from 49 percent to 58 percent.

Even though the dual-credit program includes only about 12 percent of the school’s total population of 2,450 students, the lofty achievements and aspirations of the Early College cohort permeate the entire campus. There’s such demand for the dual-credit option that Waipahu may have to institute a lottery for future enrollment.

Surely similar demand exists at other public high schools with large numbers of low-income students; those located near the UH community colleges that are key partners should be prime targets for this program’s expansion. So far, Early College has been funded largely by grants; the Gates Foundation underwrote the effort nationally and the McInerny Foundation pitched in locally. Waipahu High’s fully enrolled program costs about $700,000 a year.

With its relentless focus on underrepresented students, the Early College High School approach is helping Hawaii meet its long-term educational goals. It will take more than private donors to sustain and expand this successful program. When the time comes, the state must step up.