The Bridge Partnership

The Bridge Partnership is a national program of selected high schools and community colleges that work together to enhance the learning path from 10th grade through entry and success in college.  As members of the Partnership, high schools and community colleges are dedicated to advancing college preparedness.

As a project of the League for Innovation in the Community College, Virginia community colleges and local high schools work together to increase the number of students who aspire to go on to college, to accelerate their preparation and smooth the transition to college entry and success.

GOALS

• To increase the number of high school students, especially minorities, who aspire to a college education.
• To increase the percentage of students who complete high school prepared to begin standard college credit courses.
• To decrease the level of deficiency of students who complete high school underprepared to begin standard college credit courses.
• To increase the number of prepared students who take Advanced Placement courses or earn college credits while in high school.
• To assure that underprepared community college students are prepared to succeed in standard college credit courses as a result of outcome based developmental education courses.
• To facilitate the alignment of the high school and community college curriculums.
• To improve the effectiveness of community college developmental education.

  OBJECTIVES

• To provide for the award of a nationally endorsed Certificate of College Competencies to high school students and community college students who begin underprepared when they demonstrate mastery of the core academic competencies that are required for enrollment in standard college credit courses.
• To establish a procedures for community colleges to work closely with feeder high schools to offer their college placement examination to high school students as early as the second half of the sophomore year.
• To inform high school students and their parents or guardians of the difference between high school graduation requirements and requirements to enroll in college credit courses.
• To provide high schools and their students feedback from the college placement examinations that is useful in planning the remainder of students’ high school program - both to improve competencies in areas of underpreparation and to provide advanced opportunities for the well prepared.
• To ensure that community colleges require mandatory entry testing and mandatory placement.
• To assure that community colleges establish outcome standards for developmental courses that are correlated with successful performance in standard college course.