In an attempt to improve the rate of high school students going on to attend college, the Minnesota legislature has advanced legislation that would authorize the “direct admission” of qualified public high school seniors to participating Minnesota colleges and universities without their having to first formally apply.
The direct admissions program would be in effect for all Minnesota institutions - both public and private nonprofit - that opt into it. It’s an idea first proposed as “Direct Admissions Minnesota” by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz when he laid out his state budget plan earlier in the year.
The idea at that time was to pilot the initiative with 10 K-12 schools, with the hope that it would boost college access for Minnesota students, particularly students of color, by greatly streamlining the admissions process and paving a much easier path to starting a college education.
According to reporting by KSTP, a Minneapolis TV station, there are 5% fewer in-state applications and 20% fewer out-of-state applications to Minnesota colleges and universities so far this year. Whether that’s because of the lingering effects of the pandemic or growing worries that a college degree is not essential to landing a good job, the notion is that clearing away most of the hurdles in the college admissions process will encourage more students to at least start working toward a degree.
State Rep. Jim Davnie, representing Minneapolis as a member of the Democrat-Farmer-Labor party, said that, based on watching his daughter in college and his son who’s applying to colleges, he believed the higher education admissions system is flawed. "It's confusing. It's bureaucratic. It's unclear. And it's frustrating," according to Davnie. The bill would tell “that kid who was sitting there trying to figure out, maybe they're going to college, maybe they're not, 'Hey, you've already been accepted. You qualify for attending college A, B, C next year,'" he continued.
After being introduced by Governor Walz, the idea gained traction in both the Minnesota House and Senate, and it now is included in the omnibus higher education bill that was passed by the Minnesota House of Representatives earlier this month by a vote of 74-59. The Senate version of the omnibus bill passed 38-29.
It will now be up to a conference committee to work out the remaining major difference in the House and Senate versions, which is how much money will be appropriated to fund the project - the $1 million recommended by the Governor and supported by the House, or something less than that, as endorsed by the Senate.
Sec. 40 of the bill establishes the DIRECT ADMISSIONS PILOT PROGRAM and directs the commissioner of the Office of Higher Education to work with other stakeholders to “develop a pilot program... to automatically offer conditional admission to Minnesota public high school seniors based on a student's high school grade point average, high school and college transcript information, standardized tests, statewide assessments, and other measures as determined by stakeholders.”
It further calls for implementation of “a process for leveraging existing kindergarten through grade 12 and higher education student information systems to automate the admissions process for students. The pilot program will specifically evaluate the impact this process has on outcomes for students with lower levels of college knowledge, low-income students, and students from populations underserved in higher education. Initial pilot program participants must include high schools with a significant number of students of color, low-income students, or both.”
By February 1, 2022, the Office of Higher Education is directed to provide a report to the legislature on the activities and impact of the pilot along with recommendations for expanding it to all public high schools.
Dennis Olson, Minnesota’s higher education commissioner, told me he intends to invite the full array of higher educators institutions in the state to participate. The Minnesota State University System, which includes seven four-year campuses and 3o two-year community and technical colleges, has already signaled strong interest in the program. And the University of Minnesota, which has five campuses including the flagship, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, has expressed its potential participation as well.
Olson believes the new program could be a game-changer for many families, especially those with potential first-generation college students. "This is an opportunity to promote greater college knowledge, college-going awareness, really to send signals to every graduating senior in Minnesota that they are ready for college and higher education in Minnesota is ready for them as well," Olson said, according to KSTP.
Several other states offer some form of automated or guaranteed admissions to their public institutions for students meeting prescribed academic standards. Idaho’s Direct Admissions Initiative, begun in 2015, is most similar to the Minnesota plan.
Under Idaho’s provisions, students meeting the academic requirements are pre-accepted to the state’s eight public universities and colleges. Those who don’t meet the criteria are admitted to the six public institutions that offer certificate or associate degree programs. A study of its initial results found that the policy had a moderate, positive impact on college-going rates by high-school graduates.
Whether the Minnesota program has similar effects and whether it’s adopted by more states remains to be seen. The proposition behind it - “make it easy, and they will come” - is intuitively appealing, but the decision to attend college is growing more complex for many students so how big an effect the streamlined process might have is uncertain.
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April 27, 2021 at 05:00PM
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Minnesota Bill Authorizing Direct Admission To College Moves Forward - Forbes
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