North Shore Community College (NSCC) is one of 14 institutions selected nationally and the first in Massachusetts to participate in the Association of Community College Trustees and Education Strategy Group’s Non-Credit and Credit Alignment Lab. The two-year initiative will focus on developing new pathways between noncredit and credit programs.
The goal is to add a stepping stone to further education and training that leads students to higher-earning jobs and greater career sustainability. Because the current system is designed to discourage noncredit programs, they are left without pathways to additional learning resulting in “colleges failing to take advantage of a significant population of engaged learners ready to enroll in credit-bearing programs.”
On Sep. 7th of this year, NSCC opened its doors to 100 Lynn Public School Freshmen at the new Early College High School. The partnership between the NSCC and Lynn Public School will focus on encouraging more college and less high school-level material for students to graduate with more college experience.
Shannon Gardner, the administrator of the early college programs for LPS, said “the incoming freshman will be taking core content classes from high school teachers during 9th and 10th grade and will have the opportunity to take up to 12 credits of college electives each year. Both LPS and NSCC hope to expand the opportunity for students to take higher numbers of credits in the junior and senior years, with the goal of completing an Associate’s degree.”
According to William Heineman, NSCC President, Early College is the answer because it’s free by the time students graduate high school, they will have two years of college they won’t have to pay for.
According to Strada, Center for Education Consumer Insights, the labor market for non-degree programs (including trade school and vocational or Tech schools) lead to similar outcomes to associate degrees. Adults with associate degrees and non degree credentials reported earnings of $50,000 annually, in the year of 2020.
High School graduates have a median earning of $32,000 a year, substantially less than adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher education who have an annual income of $75,000 a year.
The graph also points out that those who obtained a bachelor’s degree or higher are equally satisfied with their jobs as those who completed a non-degree program.
As part of the NSCC Strategic Plan, the Early High School, Frederick Douglass Collegiate Academy will try to aim toward immigrants, to help with the shortage of skilled labor. “Our biggest challenge is reaching out to immigrants, getting them comfortable. How do we reach them? We know for a fact that once we have students in our halls they will stay. They love us,” said Linda Brantley, Executive director and external and Public Relations of the NSCC.
“The reality is the U.S. is not pumping out enough 18 year olds to fill classrooms,” said Heineman. In order to keep up with NSCC’s demands Heineman aims to reach adults who never finished school and immigrants that “we must serve better” to make up for the fewer 18-year old’s.
According to Heineman, Lynn is more racial and ethnically diverse with 33 percent of Hispanics being the largest group of students of color.
