Finding the right route after high school

When she was 16, Carley Colvin rebuilt a 1986 Corvette Indy Pace Car with her mom, and the project ignited a passion in her.

Now 18, the Andover High School graduate plans to pursue a career as an auto mechanic. And she's gotten a jump start on her automotive technician classmates at Anoka Technical College, thanks to a college readiness program she took advantage of in high school.

A new college preparatory program being developed at 11 Twin Cities junior and senior high schools this year is designed to reach students like Colvin and help them find their niche in a wide range of fields.

The Ramp-Up to Readiness program's mission is to increase the number and diversity of Minnesota high school students who go on to post-secondary education.

"This will be very innovative," said Kent Pekel, executive director of the College Readiness Consortium at the University of Minnesota, which launched the developmental phase of Ramp-Up to Readiness this fall in several metro-area school districts.

"There are a lot of programs in schools that attempt to provide targeted support to a specific group of kids," Pekel said. "But those programs lack a school-wide framework that has every kid in the school completing a clear set of milestones toward college."

The Ramp-Up research and design team, made up of U faculty, will take the best strategies identified in the schools participating at the design stage and build a program to pilot in some or all of those 11 initial design-stage schools next year.

By the 2010-11 school year, they hope to have Ramp-Up to Readiness ready for launch in schools across the state.

Colvin benefitted from a similar program called STEP -- a career and technical education program connected to Anoka-Hennepin Technical College that helps juniors and seniors from several north-metro schools explore "hands-on" careers. "STEP is an absolutely fantastic program," Pekel said. "The primary goal of Ramp-Up to Readiness and STEP is the same," though Ramp-Up expands its approach to work with students on all forms of post-secondary education.

That goal is to make college readiness the central mission of secondary schools.

Each design-stage school received up to a $100,000 one-time grant this year to hire a licensed counselor to experiment with the Ramp-Up curriculum, which includes projects where students discover their best learning styles, lessons where they talk about their passions, and activities that inform them of their financial options to make college possible.

When the program is piloted next year, Ramp-Up will become part of each school's curriculum to benefit all students, including those already on a path toward college.

Too often, when students get to college, Pekel said, they don't have the knowledge, skills and habits to succeed, and they end up dropping out after the first year. Ramp-Up will challenge those students with high-level thinking skills to prepare them for the rigors of college.

Another goal of Ramp-Up to Readiness is to increase the diversity of students who pursue post-secondary education. The developmental program is targeting a variety of students in grades 7-12, including first-generation college students and students who speak English as a second language.

"They're the kids who, if we don't do something different, are going to be least likely to go on to succeed in higher education," said Theresa Battle, program director for Ramp-Up to Readiness.

Chaska as bellwether

The program is already at work in Chaska, coinciding with a district effort to redesign its secondary program around the mission of preparing every student for a post-secondary education. Ramp-Up is helping the district meet that goal by personalizing plans for each student, making sure they look ahead to their four-year high school plan and choose classes that will help them after high school, said Kathy Fontes, assistant principal at Chaska High School.

In a recent English as a Learned Language class (ELL) at Pioneer Ridge Freshman Center, every student said he or she came into the Ramp-Up program thinking that college was out of reach, mainly because of financial obstacles. After learning about scholarships and student loans, those students said they all plan to go to college or some post-secondary training program.

"We want kids to understand that whatever education they choose it's acceptable, whether it be cosmetology school, a mechanics program or a master's degree," said Chaska's new post-secondary counselor, Wendy Schreiner. "We advocate to go as high as they can. However, if they choose a certificate program at a tech school, that's great, too."

For Chaska ninth-grader Cristian Orozco, the Ramp-Up program marked the first time he ever considered continuing his education after high school. After learning through his Ramp-Up classes that he's a "hands-on learner," Cristian wants to be a mechanic. He would be the first person in his family to go to college.

Leaders in the manufacturing industry are especially enthusiastic about the potential for Ramp-Up to Readiness program.

"We're in the absolute race of our lives right now for skilled talent," said Erick Ajax, the owner of Fridley-based E.J. Ajax and Sons manufacturing company, which makes freezer hinges and other parts for other manufacturers.

"Companies like mine have jobs going unfilled because we don't have the skilled labor to fill them."

For every engineer hired with a four-year degree, Ajax said he needs 20 to 30 skilled technicians who have more than a high school diploma.

'Sea change'

Attitudes are changing toward career-oriented programs as an alternative to traditional college. "More people are understanding that career and technical college is challenging and rigorous," Battle said.

Every once in a while, however, Pekel said people tell him that it's wrong to prepare all students for college. They use the "We need gas station attendants" argument, Pekel said.

"I can remember five years ago, very thoughtful, earnest and committed teachers saying it's not only a waste of time to prepare all students for college, but it's actually harmful," he said.

"We are in the midst of a sea change in this work and that attitude has dramatically changed," Pekel said.

"Besides, I don't remember the last gas station I went to where an attendant pumped my gas."

Aimée Blanchette • 612-673-1715

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