Bloom's Early College Program Helps Teens Get A Jump On Success

CHICAGO HEIGHTS, IL — Isaiah Bowman-Jones has one semester of college behind him and is one test away from becoming a barber. Isaiah also is 17 and graduated from high school earlier this month.

That's a tremendous amount of work to do at any age. But Isaiah takes in stride the 12-hour days and working weekends that supplanted the fun he was supposed to have during his senior year at Bloom High School.

"Once I got a routine, it became pretty easy," he said.

Isaiah, of Chicago Heights, is one of the 140 students across Bloom Township District 206 who earned a college degree, completed college courses, finished barber school or attained a CNA or EMT certificate — all while earning their high school diplomas.

They do it as part of the Early College Initiative, or ECI, a partnership between Dist. 206 and Prairie State College in Chicago Heights since 2009 that has grown over the past decade. ECI permits high school students to take college-level courses and earn credits for both a high school diploma and toward a college degree. So when these students leave District 206, they'll have credits to transfer to their next college. Or, if they hold an IT degree, CNA certificate, or barber license, they'll be able to move on to a career if they choose that path.

The IT program is the newest under that umbrella, and offers students a chance to earn an associate's degree starting in their junior year of high school. This year, in the first graduating class, 11 Dist. 206 earned their IT degrees, seven of them with national distinction, said Marie Hansel, Prairie State's vice president of academic affairs.

"When you look back at the IT students...they started as juniors," Hansel said. "What they've managed to achieve in two years is unbelievable."

Dual enrollment programs such as ECI have been trending across the country since the early 2000s— about one-third of high school students in the nation take post-secondary education classes for credit, research from the National Center for Education Statistics showed. Illinois is no exception. Last year, more than 22 percent of students in grades 10 to 12 took college or career- and technical-education courses. At Dist. 206, 37 percent of students at both Bloom and Bloom Trail participated in these programs.

"We're definitely committed to the program and to giving the kids the tools they need," said Elizabeth Santiago, Bloom's assistant principal of curriculum, instruction and assessment.

Research on the effectiveness of dual-enrollment programs is still early. However, an increasing number of studies demonstrate that there are benefits for students who participate in them beyond the obvious, or saving on tuition money and graduating college earlier. The programs also appear to help students stay in high school longer, as well as prepare them for college. They also offer the potential to increase access to college for low-income and minority students. In Illinois, success, as measured by degree attainment, is one of the highest in the nation. A 2017 report from Columbia University's Community College Research Center showed that 74 percent of students in Illinois who participated in dual-enrollment programs went on to earn a degree or certificate after high school.

"Programs like these are extremely important in reducing debt," Hansel said. "But they're also important in giving students intelligence about how college works."

Prairie State and other community colleges are a good place for high schoolers to start because they're small and build on relationships, she said. Teenagers have the aptitude to take classes — they're not given breaks simply because they are still in high school — but they are still young and need help. Prairie State offers safety nets like early intervention when instructors see students struggling. The whole point, she said, is for them to succeed.

In Illinois, the state's board of education permits students to take an unlimited number of college classes as long as they earn 20 high school credits to earn a diploma. To enroll, students must pass entrance exams and have qualifying SAT scores and GPAs. Making it all work isn't easy, and Dist. 206 often uses creative scheduling to help. That means students typically spend the morning at Prairie State and are bussed back to their high school campus for classes in the afternoon. Students in the barber program typically head back to college again at night to get more practice in. The district pays for all of it — Prairie State's $174-per-credit-hour tuition, books, transportation, and for CNAs, uniforms.

"It shows you their total dedication to students and student success that they are willing to spend that kind of money," Hansel said.

Bloom's Isaiah said he'd heard that one of the acceptance criteria colleges use is class rigor. So when teachers told him about the opportunity to enroll at Prairie State, he jumped at it.

He chose introductory philosophy, psychology and communications classes, and because he liked psych so much, he took the 102-level course. The courses were in addition to Bloom's classes, barber college and caddying.

"It’s not a difficult as people make it seem," Isaiah said. "College is a privilege and it's one of those things — you've got to take advantage of it."

People, however, were impressed, and the payoff for him was huge. Isaiah was awarded a Chick Evans scholarship, which gives him a full ride to the University of Illinois.

"One of the things the scholarship committee said was that they were impressed with how much I did and could manage my schedule," he said.

Hansel said Prairie State is adding a culinary certificate to its early college offerings in the fall, and they'll be using Bloom's kitchen on its Chicago Heights campus to teach the classes. After students graduate, they'll be able manage a catering company, run a professional kitchen or otherwise work in the food industry.

"It has been an excellent partnership," she said.