This story originally appeared in the Aug. 23, 2024 edition of the LINK Reader.
After graduating from high school, Agnes Vanderputten wasn’t sure about the next step in her journey.
Vanderputten attended Our Lady of Assumption Academy, a small parochial school outside Walton. She knew she wanted to attend college but wasn’t sure what she wanted to study, and she was concerned about the cost of tuition. Like most potential college students, she sought direction and affordability.
“I knew that college was something that I was interested in, but I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to go for, and I knew I didn’t really want to pay a lot for something that I wasn’t really sure about yet,” she told LINK nky.
That’s when Vanderputten discovered Gateway Community & Technical College at a local college fair – and specifically its Gateway2NKU program. The dual-admissions partnership between Gateway and Northern Kentucky University allows enrollees to complete an associate degree at Gateway, then transfer their earned credits to NKU to put toward a bachelor’s degree. Program participation is available to high school juniors and seniors in addition to college freshmen and sophomores.
Vanderputten found the option appealing because the program allowed her to pay Gateway’s rate for classes, saving her money. Upon earning her associate degree in business administration, she’s guaranteed admission to NKU, which puts her on track to earn a bachelor’s degree, all while saving money on tuition.
Gateway President Fernando Figueroa told LINK that the Gateway2NKU program is just one of the ways Gateway is seeking to make postsecondary education accessible. “As a strategy, community and technical colleges – we’re designed to be affordable, especially in terms of our tuition. We offer opportunities which make tuition a non-issue.”
Like Gateway, other institutions and stakeholders are reshaping the educational landscape in Northern Kentucky by offering nontraditional programs that are designed to make postsecondary education more affordable and accessible. These programs can provide a lifeline for the region’s most economically distressed students in the face of teacher shortages and college tuition cost increases.
In 2024, EducateNKY, a nonprofit organization focused on new approaches to regional education from prenatal care through 12th grade, published its Landscape Assessment Report, a document that analyzes the state of education in Northern Kentucky. The report found that key educational metrics for students’ educational progress, such as kindergarten readiness and Grade 8 combined reading and math proficiency, have decreased across the region over the past 20 years. The trend is most prevalent in the river city school districts of Covington, Newport, Ludlow, Dayton, Southgate and Bellevue.
Drilling deeper, the river city school districts’ postsecondary readiness rate is 66.3 out of 100, fourteen points lower than Northern Kentucky’s regional rate of 80.3 and nearly 13 points below the statewide rate of 79.1.
The report also found that Northern Kentucky students make nominal progress in elementary school before experiencing a significant slowing of progress in middle school. Then, approximately a quarter of the region’s young people drop out of high school.
To combat these trends, the report identified five strategic priorities: early learning, family partnership, mastery learning, out-of-school time and exposure, and secondary options.
One conclusion of the report is that Northern Kentucky institutions should invest more resources in increasing the number of secondary and nontraditional education options for students. Although Northern Kentucky does have options in terms of public school districts and private schools, the report concluded that the choices of schools and school programs in the region are fairly traditional.
High school is not the end
The report cites the Ignite Institute as an example of an existing secondary option. It is a public high school in Erlanger that specializes in science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics – often called STEAM – education.
With enrollment hovering just over 1,000 students, Ignite admits around 250 to 300 new students each year and currently boasts a waiting list of approximately 430 students. Nearly half of Ignite students are from Boone County Schools, half hail from Kenton County School District, with others attending from river city districts.
Despite its popularity, Ignite is the only school of its kind in Northern Kentucky. So far, no plans to bring another school like Ignite to Northern Kentucky have been announced.
Ignite and other institutions like Gateway are collaborating to offer more innovative curriculum options. Ignite students now have the opportunity to earn associate degrees through Gateway before graduating from high school, fast-tracking their path into the workforce.
“We developed such a great partnership with Ignite, and the goal of Ignite was to get people not through high school, but to get them to the next step,” Figueroa said.
During the program’s first year, the 2020-21 school year, eight seniors earned associate degrees along with their high school diplomas, according to Ignite’s website. Figueroa said that number has grown to over 90 students as of the last school year.
“They’re ready for whatever challenge comes next because of how the program prepares them,” Figueroa said.
The offering is possible through the Kentucky Community & Technical College System’s dual credit program, which allows students to earn credit for their high school requirements while earning college credits.
“It provides a direction post-high school that is going to be needed for viable long-term employment and career development of our citizens,” Figueroa said. “Being able to invest in that bridge to say that being in high school is not the end, being in high school is one of the steps forward.”
Two-tiered system
Another option for Northern Kentucky parents is nonresident enrollment, a program established by the passing of Kentucky House Bill 563 in 2021. The law requires all public school districts to adopt nonresident student policies and allows Support Education Excellence in Kentucky, or SEEK, funding to follow enrolled nonresident students without an agreement with the student’s resident district. The law allows districts to charge private tuition to nonresident students.
The report found that in 2022, 1,743 students enrolled as nonresident students across the three Northern Kentucky counties – only about 3.2% of the total kindergarten through 12th grade population. The report found that Beechwood and Fort Thomas Independent Schools charge approximately $3,800 for nonresident students, while the county districts charge closer to $2,000.
The law has negatively impacted the enrollments of some river city school districts. These districts charge little to no tuition, and other options exist close by. In 2022, around 9.3%, or one in 11 students, crossed district boundaries each day for school. Covington Independent School District had the largest net loss of students, according to the report, with 247 more students transferring out as opposed to coming in – a 7.2% loss in overall enrollment.
Other river city districts, like Bellevue, receive many nonresident students. 30.8% of Bellevue’s students are enrolled as nonresidents, with the largest share coming from Newport and Southgate, according to the report.
Despite the law enabling more freedom of movement for students, the report ultimately concluded that the law creates a two-tiered system among school districts. More privileged school districts in higher demand can charge tuition and admit students based on selective criteria, while poorer districts, like in the river cities, charge little to no tuition and broadly accept nonresident students. Additionally, affluent families are likelier to be able to afford the tuition payments for more in-demand districts.
More hands-on training
Education in the skilled trades is another viable option for students exploring secondary and nontraditional education routes.
In the coming years, Baby Boomers – the second-largest living generation in the U.S. behind millennials – will continue to age into retirement. In Northern Kentucky, their exit from the workforce may exacerbate existing labor shortages in fields such as plumbing and carpentry.
To bridge the gap, trade education institutions like the Enzweiler Building Institute are aggressively implementing new programs and strategies to recruit and train new talent. The institute provides education in construction trades to adults and high school students. The institute’s Introduction to the Skilled Trades program allows high school juniors and seniors to gain hands-on experience and build skills to prepare them for careers in the building industry. Both Boone and Kenton County Public Schools offer the program.
Brian Miller, executive vice president of the Building Industry Association of Northern Kentucky, the Enzweiler Building Institute’s governing organization, said the institute prefers to use hands-on learning. His rationale is to use these methods to engage students who might be turned off by traditional classroom methods of learning.
“There’s a whole group of people that learn by doing, and, in our high school programs, we are very heavily weighted towards a skills-based program rather than a book-based program,” Miller said.
One of the Enzweiler Building Institute’s target demographics is students in Northern Kentucky’s river city schools. The institute recently opened a second campus at the Latonia Commerce Center along Winston Avenue in Covington.
“It does stay extremely affordable, and we see it to be a big benefit that somebody can afford their education and [find jobs] upon graduation, especially in the licensed trades,” Miller said.
Miller said the Enzweiler Institute looks forward to investing more in high school students. One way they’re looking to do this is by working closely with the area’s public school systems to expand program offerings.
“We do have plans in the future to offer more specialized training for high school students,” Miller said. “It’s going to take a couple of changes within the education community in order to make that happen.”
As Northern Kentucky expands its secondary and nontraditional education offerings, regional stakeholders prioritize investment in a skilled and adaptable future workforce. Regardless, there is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Students like Vanderputten are examples of this.
“I really think nontraditional education paths are viable,” she said. “If higher education and college are something important to you, then you should definitely not be limited to going for financial reasons. Money shouldn’t be a problem keeping you from doing something you want to. I’m glad there are affordable options out there for people.”
