State funds Prepare RI initiative and program doubles enrollment in first year

GOV. GINA M. RAIMONDO speaks with a group of Central High School students who participated in the Prepare RI initiative, which helped high school students take college courses for credit. / COURTESY OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
GOV. GINA M. RAIMONDO speaks with a group of Central High School students who participated in the Prepare RI initiative, which helped high school students take college courses for credit. / COURTESY OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

PROVIDENCE – Launched last year, Gov. Gina M. Raimondo’s Prepare RI initiative, which sees high school students earn college credits, witnessed its enrollment more than double in the 2015-2016 academic year after the state expanded funding for the program., according to a release from the governor’s office on Tuesday.

The R.I. General Assembly approved $1.3 million, covering the entire operating cost for the duration of the 2015-16 academic year and has renewed the funding for the current school year.

A R.I. Department of Education report found the total number of Rhode Island high school students participating in the program during the last academic year was 3,807 and represented 5,885 course enrollments. Twenty-nine percent of the participants were classified as low-income students.

Raimondo said the initiative has been beneficial for the state’s high school students because they can receive a “leg up” before they graduate from high school.

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Of the total group less than half earned a grade of A- or better and 80 percent received a B- or better.

The schools with the top enrollment percentages were the Academy for Career Exploration (Providence charter), the R.I. Nurses Institute Middle College Charter School, the Metropolitan Career and Technical Center (The Met), Smithfield Senior High School and Scituate High School.

There are two methods for enrollment. Students can take courses on a college campus alongside college students, dual enrollment, or take courses taught at their high school by a high school teacher who has been approved to instruct the for-credit course, known as concurrent enrollment.

Between Rhode Island’s three state postsecondary schools – Community College of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College and University of Rhode Island – 395 courses were offered, one-third of which were offered as dual enrollment.

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