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RUNNING START
The Running Start program allows students to take college courses at community and technical colleges which can be applied toward high school graduation and potential college degrees.
How do I qualify for Running Start?
In order to participate in the Running Start program, you must:
Be of junior or senior standing, credit-wise. You must have successfully completed your sophomore year with 12 credits or more.
Be prepared to take college-level courses and do college-level work. College-level courses can be highly demanding, requiring up to two hours of homework for every hour of instruction.
Pass a college entrance examination (Accuplacer), earn a level 3 or 4 on the SBA exams or transcript evaluation to qualify to enroll in any college classes, and be accepted for admission to the Running Start program. Placement into English 101 is strongly recommended, data shows students are more successful when they place into English 101.
Furnish your own transportation to and from the community college.
Purchase your own books for any classes you take, and pay any fees and/or fines for classes and books. College tuition will be paid by the State of Washington. You must take the college courses for credit (no auditing). Tuition on credits below 100 level will NOT be covered by Running Start.
College credits: A community college 5-credit course will equal 1.0 Lake Stevens High School credit. In summer 2011, the state legislature made changes to the Running Start program, limiting the maximum combined funding for a student taking courses at both the high school and the college. In addition, the maximum number of credits Running Start will pay for an academic student was reduced to 15 credits. There is now a formula used by the college and the high school to determine a student's eligibility for Tuition-free credits. A student can have eligibility anywhere from three (3) credits Tuition-free to 15 credits Tuition-free. Each high school formula is slightly different. In order to determine quarterly eligibility, the student will need to complete the Running Start Enrollment Verification Form (available from your HS counselor).
High school graduation requirements: Your Lake Stevens High School counselor will determine which community college classes will meet Lake Stevens High School graduation requirements (see the Running Start equivalency chart for more information). You must fulfill all of the graduation requirements of Lake Stevens High School in order to graduate with a Lake Stevens diploma. If you are a Running Start student, this means that you will need to take enough equivalent credits at community college to match the minimum credits required by LSHS for graduation. In all cases, you should check with your LSHS counselor to ensure that you are making continual progress toward graduation. You will be required to meet all State testing requirements.
Running Start program option:
The Ocean Research College Academy (ORCA) is an early college high school academy, one of the first in Washington State. ORCA is the only early college in the nation that uses the local marine environment as the unifying theme to integrate the core academic disciplines.
COLLEGE IN THE HIGH SCHOOL CREDIT OPTION
*State Change to Dual Credit Classes*
The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), at the direction of the Washington State Legislature, has made several changes with regard to how to record both Advanced Placement (AP) and College in the High School (CiHS) courses. Currently, students who complete these types of classes will have both the high school course title as well as the college course title on their transcript. This is true even if the student chooses not to pay for the college credit, and even if they choose not to pay for and take the AP test. According to the latest OSPI guidelines for writing transcripts, the intent of this change is to establish that the student in question attempted rigorous coursework.Page updated
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