OPB: 'Eastern Promise' Offers New Ways to Earn College Credit in High School
June 22, 2015
Giving high school students the opportunity to earn college credits can be enormously valuable for students like Stanfield sophomore Kaitlyn Burns, because it reduces the cost of obtaining a college degree. It has taken a united effort between high schools and local colleges, known as Eastern Promise, for that to happen. It is one of a half-dozen ways Oregon schools offer college credit to high school students.
“The neat thing about it is you have teachers from around the region scoring a lot of the student work and creating the assessments, and collaborating also with higher ed. Kids really have to earn it — and not everyone does,” said Bryan Johnson, Stanfield’s principal.
81 percent of seniors with Eastern Promise credits go on to college — compared to the state average of 56 percent. And they save money, at $10 a credit. Multiply that credit cost by thousands of students over the last few years, and Eastern Promise estimates it has has saved families $1.7 million.
Listen to the full story below and see additional reporting by OPB on the Eastern Promise program.
