cwu cornerstone program

DRAFT

CWU Cornerstone Program “Laying the foundation for success in college”

Program Report

Office of Continuing EducationKaci Presnell

May 4, 2023

Cornerstone Report Draft Last Updated: 5/4/2023 10:10 PM

Program OverviewCWU's Cornerstone Program is designed to offer highly capable students the opportunity to take rigorous college courses while in high school. The courses are taught by qualified high school instructors who have been approved by appropriate Central Washington University academic department and colleges as affiliate faculty. Courses must be university catalog courses at the 100- or 200-level and require the same prerequisites.

The program is accredited by the National Alliance for Concurrent Partnerships (NACEP) and adheres to their standards to ensure rigorous university oversight for consistency in educational experiences between students enrolled in this program and students enrolled in campus sections.

The following table shows program growth in terms of the number of participating schools, approved teachers, classes offered and students served from fall 2001 to spring 2009.

Cornerstone Program Growth 2001-2009

Program Year

Number of Schools

Participating

Number of Teachers

Approved as Affiliate Faculty

Number of Classes

Offered with Enrollment

Number of Individual Students Served

Total Enrollment

2001-2002 14 18 30 249 2812002-2003 18 30 52 505 5832003-2004 19 32 70 605 8112004-2005 23 39 84 819 11062005-2006 24 37 92 925 10332006-2007 31 55 108 1153 13082007-2008 29 60 138 1258 14822008-2009 34 61 135 1309 1525

The program has experienced growth in the number of programs approved to be offered by CWU academic departments which has led to growth in the number of teachers approved and students served. Also, word of the program has spread through word of mouth leading to the addition of schools, number of teachers approved to teach and students served. We expect this growth trend to continue as many schools are looking to provide pre-college and college experiences for their students that provide a quality experience and savings for the family.

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A comparison of former Cornerstone students and non-Cornerstone students enrolling as freshmen at Central Washington University is presented in the following table. The comparison looks at several important aspects including number of students entering CWU during fall quarters 2001 – 2009, High School GPA’s and Admission Indexes of the two groups and retention rates.

Comparison of Former Cornerstone and non-Cornerstone Students Enrolled Freshman at CWU

New Freshman Enrolled Retention Percent RetentionIncoming

CWU Freshman

COUNTS HS GPA AI: Admissions Index Still Enrolled 1099 % Still Enrolled 1099

Cornerstone Non-Cornerstone Cornerstone Non-

Cornerstone Cornerstone Non-Cornerstone Cornerstone Non-

Cornerstone Cornerstone Non-Cornerstone

Fall 2001 0 1214 N/A 3.12 N/A 45.23 0 706 N/A 58.15%Fall 2002 10 1292 3.73 3.15 73.00 46.86 6 808 60.00% 62.54%Fall 2003 17 1265 3.50 3.14 63.35 45.80 13 853 76.47% 67.43%Fall 2004 10 1352 3.68 3.16 71.30 45.44 7 1021 70.00% 75.52%Fall 2005 30 1400 3.53 3.23 57.70 43.15 20 838 66.67% 59.86%Fall 2006 35 1445 3.503 3.135 54.66 38.53 23 846 65.71% 58.55%Fall 2007 50 1423 3.499 3.169 54.76 39.73 30 915 60.00% 64.30%Fall 2008 52 1520 3.47 3.129 53.63 37.63 43 1171 82.69% 77.04%Fall 2009 70 1597 3.526 3.08 56.53 37.21

The number of former Cornerstone students who choose to admission at CWU is increasing as the program grows. For each year from 2002 until 2009 both the high school GPA and Admission Index was higher for the Cornerstone cohort than the non-Cornerstone cohort enrolling each fall term. Retention rates are somewhat mixed in part potentially due to the low number of Cornerstone students enrolled during the first several years of the program. From 2005 through 2009, retention rates for former Cornerstone students have consistently exceeded the retention rates for non-Cornerstone students.

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2006 - 2008 Comparisons of Student PerceptionsThis section provides selected results from student surveys administered in 2006 to 2008. Surveys are sent each December to students who had participated in the Cornerstone program and had graduated from high school six months earlier. Return rate has averaged 21% with the number of students surveyed increasing from 410 in 2006 to 556 in 2008.

Since 2006, the average number of credits earned per student has increased. This parallels the increase in number of teachers approved and number of classes offered. This increase has allowed students to earn more credits. For instance, as schools hired or identified additional instructors who qualified as affiliate CWU faculty, they added additional courses to their school offerings thus increasing the total credits available to students.

Female students have enrolled at levels consistently higher than males (almost 2 to 1). This ratio of females to males has remained relatively constant as the program has grown and is greater than the female/male breakout on campus.

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The following chart depicts overall enrollment by minority status students. While total minority enrollment has increased from 2006, the level is below that of overall CWU enrollment by over 5% based on a comparison to the CWU Institutional Research fall 2008 report “Race and Hispanic Ethnicity of State-funded Students by Level.”

Student Perceptions

The following charts compare responses from students who graduated in 2006, 2007 and 2008 on selected survey questions. The questions are aimed to get feedback on student perceptions of the Cornerstone program in terms of college preparation, improving skills and building confidence. Actual survey statements appear in quotes.

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Students consistently report that because of their experience in the Cornerstone program, they felt better prepared for college. For 2008, the percentage that agreed or strongly agreed to this statement increased from approximately 90% to over 98%.

For 2008 nearly 97% agreed or strongly agreed that their experience with Cornerstone classes helped them develop more realistic expectationof the academic challenges they experienced in college. This is up from 78% reported by the previous two cohorts.

The chart below compares results from 2006-2008 with respect to student perception of the program’s impact on writing skills. A rather large percentage reported that the question is not applicable or disagree that their writing skills were strengthened. This may be explained by the fact that some schools offer mathematics coures only rather than courses that require a greater emphasis on writing.

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In contrast to student response regarding writing skills, the vast majority of students agreed or strongly agreed that their analytical skills were strengthened through their Cornerstone experience.

While most students who enroll in Cornerstone are high performers that have developed good habits for success, many still agreed or strongly agreed that their Cornerstone experience strengthened their study habits. This may be due to the increased rigor of the course offerings versus a standard high school curriculum.

With most students perceiving that their participation in Cornerstone has helped strengthen skills and understanding of the challenges they will face in their college careers, Page | 7


The majority consistently indicated that they were confident they would succeed in college.

For 2008, an overwhelming number of students (98%) rate their overall experience with Cornerstone as excellent. This has improved dramatically from 64% in 2006.

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ConclusionEnrollment in the CWU Cornerstone program has risen each year indicating that state-wide demand for concurrent enrollment programs has not yet been met. The chart below illustrates the increase and depicts individual student enrollment and total enrollment for each year. During the initial school year of the CWU Cornerstone Program (2001-2002), 249 individual students were served. By the 2008-2009 school year it had increased over five fold, reaching 1309 individual students.

In addition to program expansion, the overall quality of perception appears to be improving. During the 2006 to 2008 time period impressive progress has been made in a number of important areas. An increased percentage of students believe the program better prepared them for college compared to a traditional high school curriculum in terms of skill attainment, understanding college expectations and increasing their confidence to succeed. The number of students who rate their overall experience with the program has increased to 98% as of 2008. An equal number would recommend the experience to other students. This would seem to indicate that the program faculty are perceived by students as doing doing an excellent job with the students and the program overall is serving the students well.

Despite the gains in enrollment and student perception of program value, and the number of minority students enrolling in the program, student diversity lags behind the student mix on campus by a full 5%. Creative ways to reach out to attract under-served populations should be explored.

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