CONCURRENT ENROLLMENT S.B. 745 (S-1)-747 (S-1):
SUMMARY OF SUBSTITUTE BILL
IN COMMITTEE
Senate Bill 745 (Substitute S-1)
Senate Bill 746 (Substitute S-1)
Senate Bill 747 (Substitute S-1)
Sponsor: Senator Darwin L. Booher (S.B. 745 & 746)
Senator Goeff Hansen (S.B. 747)
CONTENT
Senate Bill 745 (S-1) would add Part 20B (Concurrent Enrollment Courses) to the Revised School Code to do the following:
-- Authorize a school district or public school academy (PSA) to partner with a postsecondary institution or with an intermediate school district (ISD) and a postsecondary institution to offer high school pupils the opportunity to take college-level concurrent enrollment courses.
-- Prescribe criteria that a concurrent enrollment course would have to meet.
-- Require a participating postsecondary institution to grant college credit or award the appropriate course certificate or other credential to an individual who successfully completed a concurrent enrollment course.
-- Require a school district board or PSA board of directors to pay tuition to a postsecondary institution for a concurrent enrollment course.
-- Require the school district or PSA and the postsecondary institution and ISD participating in a concurrent enrollment program to develop a concurrent enrollment partnership agreement.
-- Require a participating postsecondary institution to report certain information regarding concurrent enrollment pupils to the Center for Educational Performance and Information.
Senate Bills 746 and 747 (S-1) would amend the Community College Act and create the "State University Concurrent Enrollment Act", respectively, to do the following:
-- Allow the governing board of a community college district or State university to authorize the institution to participate in a concurrent enrollment program with an eligible public high school.
-- Require a participating community college or university to give college credit or award the appropriate course certificate or other credential to an individual who successfully completed a concurrent enrollment course.
-- Require a participating community college or university to provide the assessments for the courses included in the program and other course materials.
-- Allow the governing board of a participating college or university to establish a reduced tuition rate for any community college or university course for which the institution gave college credit or awarded a certificate or other credential for successful completion of a concurrent enrollment course.
Senate Bills 746 (S-1) and 747 (S-1) are tie-barred to Senate Bill 745.
Senate Bill 745 (S-1)
Offering Concurrent Enrollment
The bill would authorize a school district or PSA that operates a high school to offer high school pupils the opportunity to take college-level concurrent enrollment courses. To provide this opportunity, the school district or PSA could partner with one or more postsecondary institutions or intermediate school districts (ISDs) and postsecondary institutions. ("Postsecondary institution" would mean a State public university, a community college, or an independent nonprofit degree-granting college or university that was located in Michigan and chose to comply with proposed Part 20B.)
If a school district or PSA partnered with a postsecondary institution to offer concurrent enrollment courses, each course would have to offer the pupil high school and college credit upon successful completion, as described below. Each course would have to be offered at the high school, the ISD, or an educational shared facility; be taught by a teacher who met standards established by the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnership or the Higher Learning Commission, as well as standards developed by a partner postsecondary institution; and be college-level and be delivered, assessed, and graded according to the high school's agreement with the postsecondary institution. Also, each course would have to be available before graduation to all pupils enrolled in the high school who had successfully completed the prerequisites for the course.
The bill provides that a school district or PSA that offered concurrent enrollment would be encouraged to offer the courses outlined in the Michigan Transfer Agreement developed by the Michigan Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (described below, under BACKGROUND). A school district or PSA also could offer other courses.
If an individual successfully completed a concurrent enrollment course, as determined according to the agreement between the parties, a postsecondary institution would have to grant college credit or award the appropriate course certificate or other course credential for the corresponding postsecondary course as provided under the Community College Act and the State University Concurrent Enrollment Act, as applicable.
The board of the school district or board of directors of the PSA would have to pay to the postsecondary institution the tuition for the course in an amount and on a timetable mutually agreed upon by the parties.
A postsecondary institution working with a school district, PSA, or ISD would have to provide all of the assessments used in each concurrent enrollment course offered by the school district or PSA.
Partnership Agreement
If a school district or PSA partnered with one or more postsecondary institutions or with an ISD and one or more postsecondary institutions to offer concurrent enrollment courses, for each of these partnerships the parties would have to develop a concurrent enrollment partnership agreement. The school district or PSA would have to have a separate agreement with each postsecondary institution in the partnership. At a minimum, each agreement would have to include all of the following:
-- The concurrent enrollment courses to be offered.
-- The time the courses would be offered.
-- The location where the courses were to be offered, with identification of whether each location was a school district location, an ISD location, or an educational shared facility.
-- Standards a teacher would have to meet to teach a concurrent enrollment course.
-- Specification of the course materials the postsecondary institution would provide.
-- Eligibility criteria for pupils who participated.
-- Specification of the syllabus, curriculum, and assessments that would be used.
-- Criteria for the successful completion of a concurrent enrollment course.
-- Amount of tuition to be charged for concurrent enrollment courses.
-- The timetable and manner for payment of tuition.
Reporting
To ensure that information on pupils who enrolled in a concurrent enrollment course was included in the statewide P-20 longitudinal database described in Section 94a of the State School Aid Act, the governing board of a postsecondary institution that was party to a concurrent enrollment partnership agreement would have to ensure that all of the following information was reported to the Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI) for inclusion in the database, in the form and manner prescribed by CEPI:
-- The number of pupils enrolled in one or more concurrent enrollment courses through that postsecondary institution.
-- The total number of enrollments in concurrent enrollment courses through that postsecondary institution.
-- For each of those pupils and enrollments, the school district or PSA in which the pupil was enrolled.
(Section 94a of the State School Aid Act requires CEPI to create, maintain, and enhance Michigan's P-20 statewide longitudinal data system and ensure that it meets requirements prescribed in the Act, such as the inclusion of data at the individual student level from preschool through postsecondary education and into the workforce.)
Senate Bills 746 (S-1) & 747 (S-1)
Senate Bills 746 (S-1) and 747 (S-1) would allow the board of trustees of a community college district or the board of a State university, respectively, to authorize the community college or university to participate in a concurrent enrollment program with the governing board of an eligible public high school. A community college or State university that participated in such a program would have to develop a concurrent enrollment partnership agreement with the governing board of the high school (as described in Senate Bill 745 (S-1)).
("Eligible public high school" would mean either of the following:
-- A public high school that is operated by a school district or PSA in Michigan, if the board of the school district or the board of directors of the PSA and the board of the community college district or board of the State university, as applicable, agreed that the public high school could provide concurrent enrollment courses for which the community college or university would have to provide college credit or award the appropriate course certificate or other course credential.
-- An ISD that provided one or more concurrent enrollment courses on behalf of one or more public high schools.)
A participating community college or university would have to give each student who successfully completed one or more concurrent enrollment courses, while he or she was a pupil at an eligible public high school, college credit or an award of the appropriate course certificate or other course credential for the courses at the community college or university that corresponded to those concurrent enrollment courses. For these purposes, a participating community college district or university would have to give the high school the assessments for the community college or university courses included in the program and other course materials as provided in the agreement.
If a community college or State university participated in a concurrent enrollment program, the applicable governing board could establish a reduced tuition rate for any course for which the community college or university gave college credit or awarded the appropriate course certificate or other credential for successful completion of a concurrent enrollment course.
With regard to a community college, Senate Bill 746 (S-1) states, "It is the intent of the legislature that a tuition rate established under this subsection will reflect the cost the community college incurs to administer and oversee the program." Senate Bill 747 (S-1) contains similar language with regard to tuition for State university concurrent enrollment courses.
Proposed MCL 308.1476-380.1478 (S.B. 745)
Proposed MCL 389.132 (S.B. 746)
BACKGROUND
According to the Michigan Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (MACRAO), the MACRAO Transfer Agreement is designed to facilitate the transfer from community colleges to baccalaureate colleges and universities. The agreement provides for the transferability of up to 30 semester credits from community colleges to meet general education requirements at participating four-year colleges and universities. The following courses satisfy the requirements of the Transfer Agreement:
-- English composition: six credit hours.
-- Science and math: eight credit hours with courses taken from at least two subject areas.
-- Social science: eight credit hours with courses taken from at least two subject areas.
-- Humanities: eight credit hours with courses taken from at least two subject areas.
At least one science course must include a laboratory.
Legislative Analyst: Julie Cassidy
FISCAL IMPACT
Senate Bill 745 (S-1) could have a positive fiscal impact on local schools that are being charged the full costs from the postsecondary institution while a concurrent course is being taught by a teacher who is paid for by the school, if the schools would be charged a reduced rate under the bill. If a school is currently being charged a reduced rate, it would see no positive fiscal impact from the bill. A local school also could experience a negative fiscal impact if it currently charges parents the tuition costs; under the bill, the school would be required to pay the full costs.
Under current law, schools and postsecondary institutions are free to enter into an agreement allowing a student to take college level courses at the high school and earn high school and/or college credit upon completion of the course. These courses can be taught by a faculty member of the postsecondary institution or by a qualified teacher at the high school. At this time, it is not known how many schools are being charged full tuition for concurrent courses that are being taught by teachers who are paid for by the local school.
Another negative impact on local schools could be the loss of best practices funding. One of the qualifiers for best practices is that the schools offer postsecondary enrollment options to students while in schools. If schools could no long afford to offer these programs because they would not be able to have parents pay for these courses, then they could risk losing their best practices money under current law.
There are no statewide data on the number of students participating and classes provided through concurrent enrollment. There are differences in how these programs are funded. For example, Lake Michigan College offers both dual enrollment and concurrent enrollment. For fall 2012 enrollments, 41% of the concurrent enrollments were funded by tuition charged to parents and 59% were funded by the school district. The amount of tuition paid by parents versus school districts on a statewide basis in unknown. If the bill were interpreted to require payment by the school district, it could result in a reduction of the number of concurrent enrollment opportunities offered to students.
Cory Savino
This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.