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Houston High expands concurrent enrollment and Redefining Ready participation
Summary
District presenters described an expanded college- and career-readiness program at Houston High School, moving some AP sections to concurrent courses and partnering with Riverland College and Minnesota Virtual Academy to increase guaranteed college credits and dual-enrollment access for students.
Houston High School staff told the board the district is expanding its participation in the Redefining Ready initiative and increasing concurrent (dual-credit) course offerings in partnership with Riverland College and Minnesota Virtual Academy. The presentation included a 2023-24 scorecard showing metrics for ACT participation and benchmark attainment, GPA distributions, dual-credit completion and participation in co-curricular activities.
The district's presenter said the program recognizes multiple demonstrations of readiness beyond test scores and that HHS's goal is to increase college- and career-readiness for all graduates. "This is pretty exciting stuff," the presenter said, describing efforts to move some AP sections, such as U.S. history, into concurrent formats so students could earn college credits directly through Riverland College.
Board members asked for clarification on several metrics, including whether reported benchmark percentages referred to testers or the full class; the presenter confirmed some percentages are of those who took tests (for example, ACT benchmark rates are shown as a share of test-takers). Board members also raised the possibility of funding ACT registration to boost participation. The presenter described the district's financial approach to concurrent enrollment: the district purchases seats in partner college courses, which can cost several thousand dollars per course but serve many students, and emphasized existing transfer pathways to Minnesota state universities.
The presenter outlined next steps: cleaning and validating data, integrating Redefining Ready measures into advisory and ninth-grade programming, expanding concurrent course availability (including English, statistics and algebra 2), and pursuing pathways that allow students to progress from high school through Riverland into a four-year state university. The board asked for the presentation materials as a PDF and indicated interest in additional parent outreach sessions so families understand how early participation and ninth-grade attendance affect college- and career-readiness measures.
The board received the presentation and materials and did not take a separate formal vote on the presentation itself. The district will circulate the PDF scorecard to board members for review and follow up with implementation details at future meetings.
