Tools for Transformation

Funded Proposals

Support for Running Start in Community Colleges

Center for the Study of Capable Youth

The Community College Liaison Program for Running Start will provide assistance in helping Running Start students (and their faculty) at the local community colleges, many of whom later attend the UW. Goals include:

1. To provide community college advisers with needed information and tools to enhance the awareness of Running Start students about the expectations of college-level instructors, and to promote a smoother transition between high school and college.

2. To help community college instructors understand the particular issues faced by younger, capable college students in order to adapt instructional approaches without compromising expectations.

3. To improve the interaction among Running Start students, instructors, and other students, by helping to develop more specific orientation/transition services for Running Start students.

PROGRESS REPORT
April, 1999

We undertook the Running Start survey in October, 1998, to examine the transition of high school students into a college environment via the Running Start program. The goals of the survey are: to find out whether Runing Start students encounter any difficulties in this transition; to see how those difficulties are currently being addressed by Running Start programs; and to develop ways in which the Early Entrance Program, drawing on its experience with young students in a college environment, can assist in making this transition more successful. Another goal is to use this information to determine whether or not a Running Start program might be successful at the University of Washington and, if so, what that program should look like.

In order to gain information about the experience of Running Start students, we decided to survey UW students who were formerly in Running Start. We undertook a second survey of current Running Start students in selected community colleges across the state. In order to correlate the satisfaction/experience of Running Start students with the program through which they attended Running Start, we are also surveying the community college advisors about their programs. Finding out what works (and what doesn't) is an essential part of developing a Running Start program model for the UW.

Tools for Transformation Funded Proposals

The Provost's Office
provost@u.washington.edu
Modified: June 30, 1999