AMHERST – The University of Massachusetts Amherst announced last week that it will start offering three college courses to upperclassmen in Holyoke high schools for a significantly reduced price.
Fifty students in their junior and senior years will have the opportunity to take a course in writing, political science or psychology for three or four college credits under the new dual enrollment program – and for a hugely reduced fee.
Rather than the standard cost of about $1,400, the students will only be charged $20 for each class, plus the cost of books and other materials. UMass will foot the bill for the rest to support what Provost Katherine Newman called the university’s “civic engagement.”
“We do a lot of things that we think are important as a contribution,” she said. As a public university funded by taxpayers, she noted, “We need to return the value to as many people as we can.”
Newman said that the increased focus and specialization students will experience taking a college course “raises their expectations from themselves,” and will “sharpen their skills.”
The program’s announcement came just over a year after Massachusetts state officials appointed a state receiver, Dr. Stephen Zrike Jr., to help guide the struggling district.
Before the state stepped in, Holyoke public schools had the second-highest dropout rates in the state, and were consistently underperforming on standardized tests.
Proficiency and competency rates in math, science, and English were all less than half the state average in 2010. The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted in April 2015 to have the state step in and remedy the district’s woes.
Zrike has since developed and released a “turnaround plan,” one that he promised will help to better prepare Holyoke high school students for college, in addition to making students with language needs and disabilities a priority.
“With this plan, we will raise the bar by improving the instruction and services we offer, and provide students with the skills and tools they need to be successful in school now, and later in college and their careers,” Zrike wrote in the plan’s introduction.
The UMass dual enrollment program is one of many steps Holyoke is taking in order to improve the district’s standing. Only students with a 3.2 grade point average or higher will be eligible for the classes, and they must apply through their guidance counselor.
In a press release issued June 14, Zrike said he is “thrilled by the ability to partner with UMass to promote early college opportunities for our students.”
The program, he continued, is “a critical aspect of our secondary redesign efforts intended to better prepare our students for the transition to college or a career.”
Isaac Burke can be reached at iburke@umass.edu.