Legislature(2011 - 2012)CAPITOL 106
02/13/2012 08:00 AM House EDUCATION
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Superintendent Presentation: Wrangell Public Schools | |
| Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education - Alaska Performance Scholarship Outcomes Report | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
February 13, 2012
8:03 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Alan Dick, Chair
Representative Paul Seaton
Representative Peggy Wilson
Representative Sharon Cissna
Representative Scott Kawasaki
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Lance Pruitt, Vice Chair
Representative Eric Feige
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SUPERINTENDENT PRESENTATION: WRANGELL PUBLIC SCHOOLS
- HEARD
ALASKA COMMISSION ON POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION - ALASKA
PERFORMANCE SCHOLARSHIP OUTCOMES REPORT
- HEARD
BOARD OF EDUCATION & EARLY DEVELOPMENT - CONTINUATION OF ANNUAL
REPORT
- SCHEDULED BUT NOT HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
RINDA HOWELL, Member
Wrangell School Board
Wrangell, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Introduced the Wrangell High School
students who would provide a presentation regarding the Wrangell
Public Schools.
LORENZO SILVA, Student
Wrangell High School
Wrangell, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided a presentation regarding the
Wrangell Public Schools.
JOEL COLE, Student
Wrangell High School
Wrangell, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided a presentation regarding the
Wrangell Public Schools.
BLAINE WILSON, Student
Wrangell High School
Wrangell, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided a presentation regarding the
Wrangell Public Schools.
DR. RICH RHODES, EdD, Superintendent
Wrangell Public School District
City & Borough of Wrangell
Wrangell, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: During Wrangell Public School District
presentation, answered questions.
DIANE BARRANS, Executive Director
Alaska Postsecondary Education Commission (APCE)
Department of Education and Early Development (EED)
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided testimony, during the presentation
of the Alaska Performance Scholarship (APS) Outcomes Report.
BRIAN RAE, Assistant Director
Research and Analysis
Alaska Postsecondary Education Commission (APCE)
Department of Education and Early Development (EED)
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided testimony, during the presentation
of the Alaska Performance Scholarship (APS) Outcomes Report.
ACTION NARRATIVE
8:03:05 AM
CHAIR ALAN DICK called the House Education Standing Committee
meeting to order at 8:03 a.m. Representatives Seaton, Wilson,
Kawasaki, and Dick were present at the call to order.
Representative Cissna arrived as the meeting was in progress.
^Superintendent Presentation: Wrangell Public Schools
Superintendent Presentation: Wrangell Public Schools
8:03:59 AM
CHAIR DICK announced that the first order of business would be a
presentation by the superintendent of the Wrangell Public School
District.
8:04:21 AM
RINDA HOWELL, Member, Wrangell School Board, introduced the
Wrangell High School students who would provide a presentation
regarding the Wrangell Public Schools.
8:05:22 AM
LORENZO SILVA, Student, Wrangell High School, thanked the
legislature for the funding it provided to update the Evergreen
Elementary School playground, which was very outdated and
dangerous. This playground, he pointed out, is used by the
entire community. This upgrade to the playground coincided with
the Blue Ribbon award, he noted.
8:05:55 AM
JOEL COLE, Student, Wrangell High School, thanked the
legislature for the funding it provided for the Wrangell High
School One-to-One Laptop Program. Having laptops for all the
high school students provides them the opportunity to become
more familiar with technology.
MR. SILVA also related appreciation for the funding of the smart
boards, which have enhanced elementary and high school students'
learning and allowed familiarity with advanced technology.
8:06:36 AM
BLAINE WILSON, Student, Wrangell High School, thanked the
legislature for funding the career and technical education
programs in Wrangell. The programs provide the opportunity for
students to work with both metal and wood. In fact, students
even learn how to build boats.
8:07:14 AM
MR. SILVA then directed attention to the slide that listed the
concurrent enrollment/college courses offered at the Wrangell
High School. These college credits are very helpful to
students, particularly since the credits would be more costly in
college.
8:07:59 AM
MR. COLE highlighted the test scores in the Wrangell Public
School District. For reading in 3rd grade, 6th grade, and 9th
grade, 90 percent or more of the students are proficient or
advanced. For writing, 90 percent of 3rd graders and 6th
graders are proficient or advanced, while 80 percent of 9th
graders were proficient or advanced. For math, 90 percent or
more of 3rd graders are proficient or advanced, while 85 percent
of 6th graders and 76 percent of 9th graders are proficient or
advanced. He attributed the 76 percent in math proficiency to
the fact that 9th graders have only taken through Algebra I and
informed the committee that the math proficiency improves as
10th-12th graders take more advanced math classes.
8:08:47 AM
MR. WILSON then highlighted that the graduation rate at Wrangell
High School was 93 percent for the 2010-2011 school year. In
the five years prior to the 2010-2011 school year, the
graduation rate at Wrangell High School has fluctuated between
91 percent and 93 percent.
8:10:05 AM
CHAIR DICK, acknowledging that the Wrangell Public School
District is doing quite well, asked for any advice that might be
passed on to other school districts.
8:10:16 AM
DR. RICH RHODES, EdD, Superintendent, Wrangell Public School
District, City & Borough of Wrangell, began by emphasizing that
the Wrangell Public School District is a great school system
with a great staff and past administration. He noted that this
is his first year as the superintendent. He said that Wrangell
is a wonderful community and school board that are responsive to
supporting the school children. The Wrangell Public School
District, he opined, works hard to maximize the state's
resources. However, at this point the district isn't sure it
can continue shop and art programs as well as some core classes
that only have five students, such as Calculus or Trigonometry.
Mr. Rhodes said, "You can either pay more people less or less
people more." The district, he related, is working to find
other ways in which to raise revenue, such as an education
foundation.
8:12:26 AM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked if the Wrangell Public School system
is project based, traditional classes with projects such as
welding, or traditional classes that are integrated into the
project classes.
DR. RHODES answered that the Wrangell Public School District
doesn't utilize a thematic approach rather it utilizes a lot of
place-based education opportunities. For instance, large groups
of students are sent up the Stikine River as the district is
involved in the Float Learning Opportunity for Academic Triumph
(FLOAT) school systems grant with other schools. The district
utilizes a FLOAT school where students work on the thematic
approaches to math and science. He related that the district is
utilizing more and more of those types of approaches. The
Wrangell Public School District is just completing its strategic
plan, which specifies that "place-based education, technology,
and curriculum all need to be intertwined." Therefore, it's the
district's job to ensure all three of those components are
together for students.
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON inquired as to whether the concurrent
college courses are offered as distance education classes or by
high school teachers.
8:14:02 AM
DR. RHODES responded that Wrangell is involved with the Alaska
Learning Network (AKLN) project through which teachers in
Wrangell are providing courses throughout the state. He
recalled that last year one high school student graduated with
55 college credits. The district, he related, would like to do
more Alaska-type on-line courses rather than the classes through
Lower 48 sources. Although the AKLN program is struggling to
find the resources to continue the program, a Wrangell teacher
will be involved with the program next year teaching German.
Mr. Rhodes told the committee that the Wrangell Public School
Board's strategic plan considers languages important, and
therefore are being reviewed in terms of how to provide more
foreign languages. Wrangell, he related, also believes that its
students are better educated and prepared for college by having
the opportunity to take music and fine arts courses. The
aforementioned, he said, returns to place-based education, the
thematic approach, core curriculum, and experiences in life.
8:15:50 AM
CHAIR DICK asked how many teachers are employed in the Wrangell
Public School District.
DR. RHODES answered that the district consists of about 28
teachers. In further response to Chair Dick, Mr. Rhodes stated
that the turnover rate is very low, as the school is able to
offer a competitive wage in a great community.
8:17:14 AM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked if the Khan Academy or traditional
lecture-based approach is used, particularly in the advanced
classes.
DR. RHODES deferred to the students for an answer.
MR. COLE explained that for the woodworking and welding classes,
students receive credits for participation. For the mathematics
and English courses, the teacher lectures on the subject and
students then take a test through the University of Alaska for
college credits.
MR. SILVA added that the emergency medical technician (EMT) and
emergency trauma technician (ETT) classes are both offered via
the local fire department. Those enrolled in the EMT and ETT
classes have the ability to join the fire department as a junior
firefighter.
8:18:46 AM
REPRESENTATIVE P. WILSON, noting that the Wrangell students have
been able to talk with other students in the state, asked how
they felt about their [education] experiences in comparison to
those of other students in the state.
MR. WILSON related his understanding that with the shop classes
the Wrangell High School has more opportunities with larger
projects than most other schools in the state. In further
response to Representative P. Wilson, Mr. Wilson explained that
prior to taking a boat building class students must take a
marine fabrication class. Usually, it takes about a year and
multiple shop classes for a student to construct a boat.
MR. SILVA added that the boat is built by a team of students,
who are overseen by the instructor. The team of students
consists of freshmen and sophomores who help to build the boat
of a junior or senior student who is in charge of the process.
He characterized it as a great learning system.
8:20:38 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KAWASAKI inquired as to the students' interest in
college and how to pay for it, particularly in terms of the
Alaska Performance Scholarship. He noted that of the 26
graduates of Wrangell High School in 2011, 7 met the criteria
for the Alaska Performance Scholarship yet none of them took
advantage of it.
MR. SILVA reported that he and Mr. Cole plan to attend at least
two years of their postsecondary education in-state. Since Mr.
Silva, Mr. Cole, and Mr. Wilson are in the top tier of the
Alaska Performance Scholarship, he noted that they would obtain
the most funding from the scholarship. Mr. Silva related his
plans to take advantage of the Alaska Performance Scholarship.
8:22:51 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KAWASAKI recalled information that 16 percent of
[Alaska] students said [that due to the Alaska Performance
Scholarship] they worked harder to raise their grade point
averages (GPA). He asked if that was the case for Mr. Silva or
other students.
MR. SILVA stated that the Wrangell High School offers many
opportunities for the credits that would qualify students for
the highest tier of the Alaska Performance Scholarship, as well
as encouragement to take the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT)
multiple times throughout the junior and senior years.
Therefore, he opined that students from Wrangell High School are
prepared for the scholarship.
MR. COLE added the he did work to increase his GPA in order to
strive for the higher limit of the scholarship.
^Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education - Alaska
Performance Scholarship Outcomes Report
Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education - Alaska
Performance Scholarship Outcomes Report
8:24:38 AM
CHAIR DICK announced that the final order of business would be a
presentation of the 2012 Alaska Performance Scholarship Outcomes
Report.
8:25:11 AM
DIANE BARRANS, Executive Director, Alaska Postsecondary
Education Commission (APCE), Department of Education and Early
Development (EED), paraphrased from the following written
remarks [original punctuation provided]:
Two years ago I appeared before you and discussed, as
one positive outcome of the proposed statewide
scholarship, the capacity to bring you information
that would put a bright light on Alaska's current
situation in terms of student performance. In April
of last year the task force you established to examine
higher education and career education readiness issues
in Alaska included in its recommendations for
Strengthening Schools that [Department of Education
and Early Development] DEED, [Department of] Labor [&
Workforce Development (DLWD)], [University of Alaska]
UA and ACPE should produce a proof of concept for a
statewide longitudinal data system in FY12.
I am very pleased to join Commissioner Hanley here
this morning in introducing this report to you. The
2012 APS [Alaska Performance Scholarship] Outcomes
Report represents both the bright light we
collectively agreed was essential and the requested
proof of concept demonstrating the power and clarity
of focus that can arise from education data sharing.
With respect to the content of this first report, as
you will learn from Brian, this is essentially a
current situation analysis. The timing of the
scholarship's implementation was such that students
had little or no opportunity to alter their
education's trajectory to ensure they could be
eligible for the APS. Within this context, I found
the data to include both encouraging and sobering
results. Regardless, the data is now available to the
public and I can assure you will inform the work of
the Commission going forward. It is this type of
information that will allow us, as Alaska's higher
education assistance agency to deploy our resources
strategically.
I want to commend Brian Rae's work on this project as
well as his data management and research colleagues at
DEED, Labor and UA.
8:27:57 AM
BRIAN RAE, Assistant Director, Research and Analysis, Alaska
Postsecondary Education Commission (APCE), Department of
Education and Early Development (EED), paraphrased from the
following written remarks [original punctuation provided]:
This report represents the efforts of several
agencies, and in particular the staff in their
respective research sections. This would include, at
the department of EED, its Office of Assessment,
Accountability and Student Information; UA - Statewide
Institutional Research and Analysis department DOL&WD
- Research and Analysis Section.
The report contents reflect the input of the [Senate
Bill] 221 Outcomes Subcommittee recommendations.
Given the short duration of the data that we have to
work with - only one semester of postsecondary
experience for APS eligible students - this report
contains only a subset of the performance measures
that will become available in future years.
The report presents the data in what we hope are the
broad areas of interest to its readers
Where do APS students come from?
Who's eligible, and who's using it?
Where are they attending?
How much was awarded, and for what types of
enrollment?
Is the APS affecting educational attainment?
Does the APS affect workforce success?
In this report, for these last two items - educational
attainment and workforce success - we can only provide
you with baseline information. In future years, the
outcomes of APS students can be compared to this
baseline to determine how the scholarship is affecting
them.
Finally, we present results of a survey conducted near
the end of the fall semester of APS eligible students.
One observation on the report - in order to share the
data collected by the various agencies while still
providing time for the work required to compile and
analyze the information, this report reflects Alaska
high school graduation data as of October 4, 2011, and
APS recipients' data as of November 11th.
As of February 1st, there were [206] students who had
received APS funds.
Moving on to the report, the first topic area we
addressed was where APS eligible students RESIDE.
In Exhibit 1, we summarize the APS eligibility and
recipient information based on their school district.
In terms of magnitudes, there are few surprises - with
nearly 40% of the state's high school graduates, the
Anchorage SD [School District] also has by far the
largest number of eligible graduates and the largest
number of recipients, with Fairbanks a fairly distant
second. At the other extreme, twelve of the state's
districts had fewer than 10 graduates.
MR. RAE, clarifying Exhibit 1, informed the committee that ACPE
must abide by the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act
(FERPA), which forbid the disclosure of information that might
provide personally identifiable information or tendencies about
students. Therefore, the asterisk in the Exhibit 1 table
doesn't necessarily mean there were a zero number of students.
For example, although there is an asterisk for Wrangell APS
recipients, there were students from the Wrangell Public School
District who were awarded and did take advantage of the APS.
The asterisk signifies that the number was small enough that it
couldn't be reported without potentially releasing personally
identifiable information. Mr. Rae resumed paraphrasing from the
following written remarks [original punctuation provided]:
Statewide, 29% of last year's graduates were eligible
for the APS, but there are differences across the
districts.
Ketchikan, Copper River, Sitka, Denali, and Kodiak
Island districts each had eligibility rates above 35%,
while Petersburg, Unalaska, Skagway and Haines had
eligibility rates above 40%.
Exhibit 2 presents the data from the first exhibit by
regions of the state. A map of the regions is in
Appendix E, on page 32 of the report.
8:32:08 AM
I find this chart to be one of the more interesting
ones in the report. Because there are such large
differences in the numbers of graduates coming from
the various districts, it's easier to make cross
region comparisons using percentages. In exhibit 2,
we see that the Southcentral region had the highest
percentage of graduates who were academically eligible
to receive an APS award - 31.7%, and the Far North
region had the lowest - 11.4%.
Still, school district results within these regions
differed. For example Nome in the Far North region
had an eligibility rate 5 percentage points above the
statewide average.
However, when we consider the percentage of those
students who were eligible who then went on to
actually use the scholarship, the Far North and
Interior regions are the clear leaders. Nearly one-
half of the eligible students in these two areas take
advantage of the APS.
The second topic area in the report was the
CHARACTERISTICS of APS eligible and recipient
students.
8:33:11 AM
As shown in Exhibit 3, female graduates are slightly
more likely to be eligible to receive the APS than are
male graduates. However, any gender differences
disappear when we consider the likelihood that an
eligible student would make use of the scholarship -
just over 1/3 of both sexes, when eligible, went on to
use the scholarship.
However, when we reviewed the graduates' eligibility
data by their ethnicity, we saw wider differences in
the eligibility rates. On average, 28.8% of all
graduates were APS eligible, but nearly 38% of
Caucasian graduates were eligible, compared to 8.3% of
Alaska Native and American Indian graduates.
Still, similar to the analysis of APS usage by gender,
once a student becomes APS eligible, the usage rates
are very similar across the various ethnic groups,
with about one in three eligible students taking
advantage of the scholarship.
8:34:18 AM
Skipping to Exhibit 6, where we analyze the attendance
patterns of high school graduates.
This exhibit uses data obtained from the National
Student Clearinghouse, a repository of data on
students attending postsecondary institutions
throughout the United States. Of the 8,064 public
school graduates in 2011, 30% attended in-state and
17% attended an out-of-state postsecondary
institution. However, there's a notable difference in
the attendance rates for the APS eligible population
versus the ineligible population. 83% of APS eligible
students pursued postsecondary education somewhere,
while only 33% of the ineligible population did so.
There were also notable differences in the attendance
patterns of the APS eligible population based on their
award level. While there's a larger economic
incentive for the higher award level students to stay
in state - since the top award amount is twice that of
the lowest award amount -- APS eligible students at
the top award level are more likely to attend an out-
of-state institution, while those at the second and
third award levels are more likely to attend in-state.
For those interested, the National Student
Clearinghouse identifies the states in which these
students were attending. Maybe not surprisingly,
Washington and Oregon were the two states attracting
the largest number of Alaska graduates. A complete
list of attendance by states is in Appendix B, on page
25 of the report.
8:36:33 AM
MR. RAE continued:
Continuing to the next topic area, where APS
recipients are PURSUING THEIR POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION,
we skip to Exhibit 9.
Overwhelmingly, it was at one of the University of AK
system schools.
This table was created with recipients' data as of
November 11th. Since then, numbers for the UA system
schools have increased slightly, to 505, 339, and 46
for UAA, UAF and UAS.
8:37:05 AM
Since this is only the first year the scholarships
have been awarded, we don't have any historical data
to compare these results to. However, I think there
were some expectations that there would be more
postsecondary institutions represented in Exhibit 9.
Although it's not broken out in the table, there were
only 22 of these students who were using the APS to
pursue a certificate, while the majority were pursuing
a bachelor's degree.
8:37:35 AM
REPRESENTATIVE P. WILSON asked whether due to the APS the
university experienced an increase in students over last year.
MR. RAE recalled that the enrollment numbers of the University
of Alaska were very similar to those of previous years. Since
enrollment fluctuates from year-to-year, he couldn't parse out
how much might have been a normal upward or downward trend.
8:38:09 AM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON, referring to Exhibit 9, related his
understanding that only 22 [of the 870 students who received a
scholarship immediately after graduating] pursued a certificate.
He inquired as to whether anyone was using the APS for other
certificated programs or apprenticeship programs beyond the
Alaska Vocational Technical Center (AVTEC).
8:38:49 AM
MS. BARRANS said that of the five institutions listed under the
category "Other Institutions," she wasn't sure if they included
a vocational institution.
MR. RAE specified that the five awards in the "Other
Institutions" category do not include vocational schools,
although some of the students are attending vocational
certificate programs within the University of Alaska. The AVTEC
focuses on that population as well. Mr. Rae said that he
doesn't have the data to delve into the reasoning behind that,
but there is speculation as to why there may be a smaller
number. With regard to apprenticeship programs specifically,
oftentimes they are the unmet need.
8:39:45 AM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON clarified that he was asking whether there
were other programs beyond the five in the "Other Institutions"
category that would have qualified to receive APS students, but
did not have an APS recipient who chose to attend. He further
asked whether that's well advertised in the program.
MR. BARRANS referred to pages 27-28 of the 2012 Alaska
Performance Scholarship Outcomes Report, which lists the
approved programs. There are quite a robust number of programs
that a student could choose to attend and use their APS to do
so. As Mr. Rae indicated, if it's a program through whatever
structural means the costs are met, the student couldn't use
their scholarship. However, if there is no tuition but tools
are required to be purchased, the APS could be used to purchase
those tools. The APS could also be used to pay for the
student's room and board while attending the program. With
regard to advertising, Ms. Barrans told the committee that in
promoting APS it's made very clear that colleges as well as
approved career training programs are available to students.
Although she said she wasn't sure whether the institutions are
actively marketing their programs to these students [who are
eligible for APS] as a target population, she suspected that
marketing probably isn't happening.
8:41:36 AM
MR. RAE returned to his presentation and paraphrased from the
following written remarks [original punctuation provided]:
This leads us to the next topic area of HOW MUCH in
APS funds were awarded, and for what TYPES OF
ENROLLMENT?
Exhibit 10 graphically displays what I just mentioned
- the APS recipients were predominantly enrolling in
bachelor's degree programs. Also, as displayed in
Exhibit 11, they were overwhelmingly enrolled on a
full-time basis.
When we reviewed the data in Exhibit 6 we saw that the
students eligible for the highest level award were the
ones least likely to attend in-state and thus be
eligible to receive the award. This tendency affected
the amount of APS expenditures by award levels.
In exhibit 12, while the greatest amount of APS awards
still went to the level 1 recipients, the differences
would have been more dramatic if a higher percentage
of level 1 recipients had chosen to pursue their
studies in Alaska.
Going back to our regions as defined in Appendix E,
Exhibit 13 shows the total funds awarded to students
by their region, and the average award amounts for
each region. For comparison purposes, the statewide
average award was $3,402.
8:43:18 AM
Also, note that this graph does include the payments
made to the 35 non-public school APS recipients.
The next two topic areas, how does the APS affect
EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT and how it affects WORKFORCE
SUCCESS, are areas that are much harder to judge at
this time.
Workforce data for the class of AY11 is nonexistent,
since APS recipients have not had an opportunity to
pursue their postsecondary education in order to
attain more gainful employment.
As for the APS' affect on educational attainment, we
have only one semester of postsecondary education data
available to analyze, and that data's still
preliminary and subject to change.
Exhibit 14 does capture some of the earliest available
information - the information on students' needs for
preparatory classes once they enter postsecondary
education. Using information from the University of
Alaska, a total of 3,631 AY11 Alaska graduates
attended UA in the fall semester immediately following
their graduation. Of these, 880 were APS eligible.
An analysis of the course taking patterns of the APS
eligible population compared to the non-APS eligible
population showed some interesting differences. For
example, ineligible students were more than twice as
likely to take a preparatory class than were APS
eligible students, at 64.8% versus 27.4%.
In terms of average preparatory hours taken,
ineligible students took 2.9 hours compared to 1 hour
for the APS eligible students. In addition, eligible
students took more total hours as a group, 2.3 hours
more than ineligible students. These numbers
represent only the hours attempted in the fall
semester, and are subject to change. Still, if both
groups of students completed their semesters as
planned, the average APS eligible student would earn
12.6 credit hours applicable to a degree at the end of
their fall semester, while the average ineligible
student would have earned only 8.4.
In the future, additional measures of the
scholarship's affects on educational attainment will
become available. Examples include the one and two
year retention rates for students pursuing a degree,
and degree completion rates.
Exhibit 17 and 18 use UA data for the entering classes
for AY05 through AY07. It is not specifically APS
data but data that we anticipate changing for the
better because of the APS, and it provides a benchmark
for future analysis.
8:46:20 AM
In exhibit 17, we see that for those students
attending UA within one year of their high school
graduation, approximately 3 out of 10 students do not
show up for their second year, and roughly 4 out of 10
do not continue into their third year. This does not
mean that these students dropped out - many may have
attended UA to earn credit hours and transferred to
another school. However, if the APS provides an
incentive for students to stay and study in Alaska, we
can expect these percentages to go up in future years.
Exhibit 18 tracks these same populations of students
through AY11, analyzing the percentage of students
completing their programs and the average years to
completion. Degree completion rates are generally
calculated using 150% of the normal time to degree,
meaning allowing a student 6 years to complete a 4
year degree. As seen in the table, the difference in
completion rates between the entering class of AY05 is
significantly higher than the class of AY07, at 31.6%
compared to 14%. While calculating comparable
information for APS recipients will take several
years, it's expected that these rates will rise if the
APS has its intended effects.
8:46:50 AM
MR. RAE continued:
Finally, ACPE conducted a SURVEY of APS eligible
students who completed a [Free Application for Federal
Student Aid] FAFSA and had included an email address
in their FAFSA filing. This included slightly over
1,800 of the 2,322 APS eligible students, and
responses were received from 357 APS eligible
students.
Response rates ran from a high of 23% for award Level
1-eligible students, down to 16% for award Level 3-
eligible students.
Nearly 90% of respondents were pursuing a degree, and
5% were not pursuing postsecondary education. Of
those pursuing postsecondary education, just over one-
quarter were attending school outside of Alaska and
were therefore not eligible to receive the award in
AY12.
Two-thirds of the survey respondents, 237 students,
said that the APS affected their decision to attend
school. Nearly two-thirds of these students said the
APS affected their decision to pursue their education
in Alaska, and over 20% said that it made them
consider doing so, even though they eventually went to
an out-of-state school. Over one-quarter of the
respondents said it was extremely important in
influencing their decision on whether or not to pursue
postsecondary education.
8:48:16 AM
In conclusion:
With the first-ever APS recipients just finishing the
first semester of their postsecondary studies, it is
impossible to determine the long-term effects of the
scholarship, and it is too early to tell if the
eligibility and enrollment patterns seen in this first
year were caused by the APS, or if they will continue
into the future.
In future years, as more data becomes available,
additional assessments of APS' effectiveness will be
possible, and a better determination can be made as to
whether the program is meeting its intended goals.
I appreciate your interest in the APS Outcomes Report,
and would be happy to try to answer any questions you
might have about it.
8:49:11 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KAWASAKI, referring to Exhibit 1, asked if there
is any way to disaggregate the data more than is already
presented.
MR. RAE responded that the data can be aggregated, which was
done by placing the school districts at a regional level in
order to report more specifically at the region and bypass the
minimum cell size requirements. He mentioned that a number of
school districts could be rolled into an undisclosed number.
Therefore, data could be provided on the aggregate population.
REPRESENTATIVE KAWASAKI, referring to Exhibit 4, remarked that
the 8.3 percent of Alaska Native/American Indian percentage of
eligible graduates seems statistically significant. He inquired
as to whether there are any theories for that low percentage.
MR. RAE explained that because this is a 100 percent sample of
the population of students eligible to receive the APS,
statistical significance doesn't have to "play into it." He
acknowledged that it's a different number of eligible students
as a percentage of their ethnic group, and suggested that one
would have to look at other factors beyond that to determine why
those students weren't eligible to receive the APS. Still, he
agreed that it's a noticeable difference in eligibility per
ethnic groups.
8:51:30 AM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON recalled that when the APS was created,
there was concern that smaller schools might face disadvantages
such as in course offerings. Therefore, the aggregated data in
terms of the size of schools would be helpful to the committee.
With regard to the email analysis, he asked whether responses
were received by those who qualified for a level 1, 2, or 3
scholarship. He expressed curiosity because much of the data is
the data he would expect from those students who are the best
students in their school. He then expressed interest in the
reports of the level three recipient responses. He said he
would expect more level three respondents to attend college than
would have in the past.
MR. RAE explained that different groups of email surveys were
sent, although students weren't identified. From those surveys,
there was a higher response rate for the level 1 eligible
students than for the level 3 eligible students. However, the
underlying reason for that differing response rate is unknown.
The report does separate the three populations by their
eligibility status.
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked whether there was a significant
difference in the level 1 or 3 students, regarding whether the
APS changed their behavior or made them more likely to attend
postsecondary education.
MR. RAE pointed out that the comments from the students have
been included in the appendix of the report, but the comments
were not analyzed based on their eligibility levels.
8:55:52 AM
REPRESENTATIVE SEATON asked whether the requirement that all
institutions receiving APS funds must provide an advisory
advocate program has been tracked.
MS. BARRANS answered that is not a component in the existing
program, but could become a component in the future if HB 104
becomes law. She informed the committee that UAA provides
aggressive support for students. In fact, for the last two
years UAA has used MAP-Works, which is a predictive analytical
tool that targets danger signs that would alert them that a
student is struggling socially, academically, or financially and
allows the deployment of the appropriate resources to the
student. This aggressive strategy is being used by UAA to
increase their completion rates. She related her understanding
that UAA is experiencing very positive results.
8:58:01 AM
REPRESENTATIVE P. WILSON, referring to Exhibit 1, inquired as to
the minimum number.
MR. RAE said the minimum number was five.
8:58:33 AM
MR. BARRANS, returning to the question regarding the ethnicity
analyses, clarified that there is no knowledge of the underlying
situation of those students who didn't qualify for the APS.
However, the true measure of the effectiveness of the program
will be the change in those rates over time. This report allows
the populations to be scrutinized and discover whether it's an
achievement primary to the student, their family, and their
community. If it is primary to the students, their families,
and their communities, then [there could be review regarding]
increasing the opportunities for them to achieve the APS.
9:00:04 AM
CHAIR DICK emphasized that the results are really encouraging,
particularly from something that has been implemented so
recently. Chair Dick informed the committee that due to
scheduling conflicts the continuation of the discussion with
Esther Cox, Chair, State Board of Education, won't occur today.
Therefore, he encouraged members to provide their questions in
writing for Ms. Cox's response in writing. Chair Dick referred
to the handout entitled "HD6 IPADS4LITERACY" and encouraged the
committee members to familiarize themselves with the data
provided.
9:02:50 AM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Education Standing Committee meeting was adjourned at 9:02 a.m.
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