March 19, 2024

Gateway students closing in on diplomas

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A special DMACC program intended to help high school students who are behind on credits is changing its focus as some students start to get close to earning diplomas.

DMACC’s Gateway to College program began accepting students referred by the Newton Community School District about a year ago, after a memorandum of understanding was reached between the district and DMACC. The program is meant to be a chance for students who have already utilized all of their Newton Schools options in an attempt to graduate, helping them earn a Newton High School diploma and to earn college credits at the same time.

However, after dozens of Newton students were referred to Gateway during the fall months, the enrollment has leveled off. There are about 22 students in Newton’s program now, meeting three days per week in a classroom on the first floor of the Newton DMACC building.

The program is coordinated at DMACC’s Southridge campus, and involves agreements with several school districts in the metro area. The dual-enrollment program allows students to remain in it until age 21, as long as they stay enrolled continuously, and allows students to pursue a regular high school diploma while earning DMACC credits at the same time.

Charlet Daft is the teacher who is responsible for much of the programming at Gateway’s Newton site. She said there are some students who have ended up in the Gateway program without the true follow-through and initiative needed to excel in college, but the program now appears to have students who are serious about getting diplomas and then finishing a college degree or trade program.

“The idea is not only to have college credits under your belt when you get your diploma, but also a sense that college isn’t as scary as you might have thought,” Daft said. “But you have to be willing to do some work.”

Newton has technically only had one student reach any type of completion point in the process, and it wasn’t from a student who entered Gateway in its usual way. Samantha Martin not only never attended a regular NCSD campus after moving to Iowa from Mississippi, she also was 16 (the low end of the age range for Gateway) when she earned both an NCSD diploma and a nursing assistant certification last summer.

Most students will have spent considerable time in the Newton school system. Daft said she meets with each student and at least one family member or guardian, and lets them know Gateway is not simply for students who don’t want to go to Newton’s Basics & Beyond High School.

“College is hard work, and so is Gateway,” she said.

Two students with different stories but hopefully similar positive outcomes are Lauren Miller, and Jeremy Seastrom. Miller came to Gateway after falling far behind in Newton high school graduation units due to health issues, and Seastrom said attention-deficit issues made learning difficult for him in several schools in eastern Iowa, as well as at Lynnville-Sully High School.

After one failed attempt at an English class, and learning about the Gateway program from Lynnville-Sully Superintendent and High School Principal Shane Ehresman, Seastrom was able to enroll at Gateway. He had already been taking a building trades class at DMACC’s Career Academy, and was able to continue that course.

Both students are closing in on earning their high school diplomas and are making plans for the years ahead.

“At first, the idea of going to college really scared me,” said Miller, who said anxiety is one of her diagnosed medical conditions. “I’m still a little scared of, like, giant lecture halls. But I feel better about things, overall, than I did when I got here last summer.”

Miller said she’s considering a career as either a phlebotomist or a veterinary tech, while Seastrom wants to pursue building trades. He’s already enrolled in a building trades program at DMACC, and plans to attend the Ankeny campus to complete his college certificate program.

Seastrom recently passed an English course at Gateway that will allow him to graduate with the Lynnville-Sully High School regular Class of 2016 in its May 21 ceremony. Miller is looking forward to hopefully earning her Newton High School diploma in the summer or fall months.

While math and science seem to come fairly naturally to Seastrom, history and English are a tougher challenge.

“It’s just hard for me to hear someone else talk about something, and somehow get it into my head just from hearing it,” Seastrom said.

He said he likes the Gateway program because it’s self-paced, and mainly utilizes textbooks and software. There aren’t a set of subject-specific teachers at the Newton site in person. It’s closer to an independent-study format.

“What I like is that you don’t have to wait for other students to catch up,” Seastrom said.

While Seastrom doesn’t quite relish the opportunity to take on college-level courses in subjects where he struggled in high school, he seems mentally prepared to conquer barriers that don’t necessarily appeal to him.

“If I have to take those kinds of classes, I will,” Seastrom said.

The Basics & Beyond enrollment dropped to about 44 early in the year, but was up to 75 as of the March 23 count.

Bill Peters, by virtue of being the principal of Newton High School, has more impact than most other Newton administrators in determining who can attend Gateway, but he does have some concrete criteria. Students can only enroll in the Gateway to College program is they are recommended to DMACC by their district, so Peters and other NCSD personnel must explore all other options in Newton before submitting a student’s name for Gateway.

Peters said he wants to clear the district will be flexible and open-minded when it comes to finding ways for students to get a diploma, certificate or otherwise become educated, if the student is willing to work hard. The district pays 90 percent of the DMACC tuition for any dual-enrollment student, but if a student has “aged out” of Newton High School eligibility by rule, DMACC must find another source of funding for that student.

Both Seastrom and Miller listed several examples of peers who ended up dropping or being dropped from the Gateway program due to low attendance.

“There were a lot who simply stopped showing up,” Miller said. “Attendance is a big part of this.”

Miller said the calm, comfortable environment of the Newton DMACC classroom is a huge advantage in doing online or book-based Gateway coursework.

“Some days, there will be 11 or 12 of us here at a time,” she said. “But most days, there are only about four or five of us here.”

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com