OPB
June 18th, 2015
The state has spent nearly $2 million to replicate Eastern Promise. It’s a collaboration between eastern Oregon K-12 schools and higher education to get more students to college or into career training.
The idea is to bring together universities, colleges and K-12 schools to do three things: “To increase access for students to college credits, and to help create college-going cultures, and to align curriculum between high schools and colleges,” said Hilda Rosselli with the Oregon Education Investment Board.
Eastern Promise offers college credits in rural high schools, for things like native Spanish-speaking ability or college-level coursework. There’s a program in the lower grades to encourage grade schoolers to start thinking early about what it would be like to go to college.
Now there are also partnerships in the Portland area, Eugene, southern and central Oregon, but the Salem-based Willamette Promise is moving the fastest. Just a year in, 80 teachers are running 18 courses. But it’s not totally smooth. Chemeketa Community College is leaving Willamette Promise as the grant runs out this month.