Baltimore universities hope dual enrollment courses grow pipeline to careers

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Maryland’s public university system has put more effort into developing dual enrollment classes with Baltimore City Public Schools as it tries to become more involved in improving education outcomes in the city.

The University System of Maryland’s B-Power initiative wants to widen the pipeline between city school students and future opportunities, whether they might be at college, apprenticeships, jobs or other post-secondary options.

“The goal of it is to improve or decrease the dropout rate, i.e., improve the retention rate, of K-12 students,” Robert Caret, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, said. “If you do that, then you improve the graduation rate as a result and then improve the postsecondary pathways.”

B-Power began two years ago when Caret said he wanted to better leverage the system’s public universities in the city to help with some of its issues, particularly using the University of Baltimore and Coppin State University.

The University of Baltimore used the added system resources, all told about $400,000 so far, to scale up its existing college readiness and dual enrollment programming to more city schools.

The dual enrollment programs run two semesters and are strictly writing and math classes. The first semester focuses on college readiness. It teaches “soft skills,” such as time management and turning assignments in on time.

The second semester brings in the actual dual enrollment element of the class, where students can earn college credit for passing the class.

Across the city, about 85 percent of students move on from the college readiness course to the credit course. About 80 percent of those students graduate.

As of now, the program is in 17 city schools and one private high school in the city, with hopes to expand citywide. About 350 students are expected to participate in dual enrollment programs this year, up from 228 last year.

Unlike most dual enrollment programs, rather than bringing students go to the college campus for their classes, the professors go to them. The university had tried bringing students to campus.

“It just did not work,” John Brenner, program manager for early college initiatives at the University of Baltimore, said. “They couldn’t get here or they had sports and clubs and all sorts of things that they do after school. Plus I don’t think they had consistent transportation.”

For B-Power, Brenner likes to hire professors who know they will be teaching both high school students and college students. They normally have a master’s degree in a math or a writing field and have a background of working with young people.

“That background takes the place of a little bit of training because then we can just teach processes and pedagogy,” he said. “The less college professory types generally do better.”

The programs came at an opportune time for city schools as well. Recent legislation required schools to emphasize making students college and career ready.

That created a receptive partner for the University of Baltimore. But what the schools have also found is that these dual enrollment programs create a greater attachment to college for the high school students. It lets them see college as a tangible possibility.

“I think one of the things that we are realizing now is that in order for students to see college as a real option that they can pursue and succeed in, especially when they are first-generation college students … that giving them the opportunity to experience college-level work earlier … really gives them a sense of what they are working towards,” Rachel Pfeifer, executive director of college and career readiness for Baltimore City Public Schools, said.

There is a cost to the program. Students have to pay for their college credits. The school system helps pay for that and the program has found philanthropic partners to help cover some of the costs as well.

As the program has expanded, it can no longer be just the University of Baltimore, Brenner said. Coppin and Baltimore City Community College have also started to take on the dual enrollment program as it looks to capture all of the city’s high schools.

That can be good for the students, too. The University of Baltimore tends to have higher admissions standards than some of the other schools, Pfeifer said. Bringing in the other schools can broaden participation in the program.

While the University System of Maryland has sponsored the program, it wants to see the students find success, whether they go to a system school or not.

“I met with Morgan (State University) and I said to (President) David (Wilson), ‘Listen, if a hundred percent of the kids I’m working on these pipeline programs go to Morgan, I’m perfectly happy with that,’” Caret said. “I’d love to see some of them go to UB and Coppin. That’s why I started doing this. But … I want this city to become more and more vibrant, and the only way for this city to become more and more vibrant is to have a much stronger educational base to it.”