Cooperative and Concurrent Enrollment and College Retention

Oklahoma has a unique system of high schools, technology centers and community colleges that work together to enable students to receive education in technical areas. Given Oklahoma’s shortage of technical degree recipients, the Cooperative Alliance Program (CAP) was developed to encourage additional students to begin technical programs during high school (or as adults) at regional technology centers and then continue the programs at community colleges. The CAP program was expected to increase the number of technical graduates in the state. This study reviewed first-year data on the CAP program and found CAP students had earned more credit hours, were more likely to be retained in their degree programs and had higher GPA’s than students who did not participate in CAP.