Minnesota high schoolers have expanded access to college classes via this program, but must act this month

It’s a family affair getting Nolaan Kouamé to and from the University of Minnesota for a single French class, but he is just a high schooler, after all, and everyone figures it’s worth the effort.

He is racking up free college credits and feeling challenged, at last, studying a language he’s spoken since he was a youngster.

Best of all, Kouamé said, “it’s freeing,” this first taste of campus life. A tiny taste, to be sure, given he’s most often rushing out of Kolthoff Hall to a waiting car.

The St. Louis Park High School junior is participating in the decades-old program, Postsecondary Enrollment Options (PSEO). With an extended application deadline this school year, more kids across the state could be joining Kouamé and his fellow higher-ed aspirants on campuses in the spring.

State lawmakers approved a new Oct. 30 deadline for students to declare their interest in PSEO, opening opportunities to those who had let the previous May 30 deadline pass.

“We’ve heard from students who didn’t learn about PSEO until they were seniors, and thus were unable to participate,” said Zeke Jackson, executive director of the nonprofit People for PSEO. He points, too, to the possibility of kids who find themselves excelling at school in the fall semester suddenly feeling confident enough to tackle college-level courses early.

This summer, People for PSEO hit 17 community events — open street festivals and the like — distributing nearly 600 informational fliers not just about PSEO, but also other rigorous dual-credit course options, including Advanced Placement, College in the Schools and the International Baccalaureate program.

“PSEO is not the end-all, be-all,” Jackson said. “We just want students to avoid student debt — to save time and money on college.”

Elsewhere on the U campus, Mara Dukuly, a sophomore majoring in economics and statistics, said she’s able to take a lighter class load and work a part-time job after having saved more than $25,000 in tuition by taking classes at North Hennepin Community College while in high school.

“Besides obtaining college credits, the program has provided me with a network and various professional opportunities that wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t been part of the program,” Dukuly said via e-mail.

PSEO has bipartisan backing. Republicans who value school choice like seeing a greater variety of coursework in rural areas, and it is heavily used by homeschool students, Jackson said. Democrats see dual-credit courses as a way to close disparities in high school graduation and college attainment rates.

EdAllies, which works closely with underrepresented communities, cited the success of schools like St. Paul’s Open World Learning Community (OWL) as proof that deliberate efforts to expand access to rigorous classes can result in participation numbers that mirror a school’s demographics.

PSEO is the straggler, however, in the constellation of dual-credit options. Districtwide in St. Paul, 409 students took part in PSEO in the final quarter of 2023-24, compared with 788 in College in the Schools, 1,250 in Advanced Placement and 1,948 in International Baccalaureate.

Charlotte Landreau, the district’s assistant director of high schools, said that while students benefit from experiencing learning on a college campus via PSEO, “the other advanced coursework options take place at the student’s high school, making them easier to access.”

Altogether, there are at least 20,000 PSEO students in Minnesota, or about 7.3% of the state’s high schoolers, said Jackson, who added he still hears from students who say their districts are discouraging participation, making the new Oct. 30 deadline all the more important.

Kouamé, who hopes to play Division 1 soccer in college, leaves a high school calculus course early two or three days a week to make it to the U on time. His counselor signed off, and the teacher didn’t have an issue with it, as long as he kept pace with his coursework, his mother Cindie Kouamé said.

Fortunately, Nolaan has study hall when he returns to school — driven by his mom or his brother or his grandparents — and this year’s first test went well.

“I think I got the highest score in my class,” he said.