Modern States Education Alliance is a non-profit that makes college-level courses and college credit free to any learner anywhere, including high school students interested in advanced coursework. It offers thirty-two online courses free of charge at www.modernstates.org, including all the necessary textbooks and readings. Each is designed to help participants learn the content tested on the corresponding College Level Examination Program (CLEP) exams and earn a passing score, which would be recognized for credit at almost 3,000 college and universities around the country. I spoke with Jefferson Pestronk to learn more about the organization, how its offerings differ from Advanced Placement and dual enrollment, and more.
Why is advanced coursework, like what you offer, important to offer our students? And how do you address opportunity gaps—students from marginalized backgrounds participating much less in advance coursework than their more advantaged peers?
Access to advanced coursework is critically important. Learners who take college-level courses and earn college credits before reaching college save time and money on their path to a degree, and are more likely to actually earn a degree.
Beyond that simple value proposition, there is extensive research documenting the benefits of advanced coursework. Learners who take advanced courses in high school are more engaged while in high school; are likelier to graduate, go to college, and earn a degree; and gain confidence from taking advanced courses. Adult learners who enter college with credit end up taking more courses while enrolled, meaning that higher education institutions also benefit from learner access to advanced coursework.
But there are also well-documented gaps in access to advanced courses, even for students who could succeed in them. This is doubly true for students after they leave high school; while many schools and districts have programs like Advanced Placement or dual enrollment that help students take college-level courses for free, there are many fewer such programs for college-age and adult learners.
We believe that all learners should have the opportunity to excel, and that with currently-existing approaches and technology, it’s possible to live up to that goal. We partner with high schools, two- and four-year colleges, and community organizations to provide targeted support and resources to underrepresented students. We have active programs and partnerships in place throughout the U.S., including in New York City, Tennessee, and Ohio; through universities like Purdue University and Norfolk State University; and with nonprofits including TheDream.US.
By breaking down accessibility and funding barriers, we are helping create a more equitable educational landscape where every individual has the chance to thrive in advanced coursework. This is especially important as college costs continue to rise and as college seems out of reach for too many Americans. One of the reasons our founder and CEO, Steve Klinsky, created Modern States seven years ago was to push back on these trends and keep college within reach of anyone who wanted to attend. We believe our program is a game-changer for school districts, colleges, and individual learners across the country, and we are proud to play a role in opening the door to higher education for all students.
How is Modern States different from other approaches, like Advanced Placement or dual enrollment?
Most importantly, Modern States is available to any learner anywhere, when they want to engage. Unlike programs like AP or dual enrollment that traditionally require learners to engage through their schools, and that are limited to certain learners, Modern States provides a direct on-ramp to college and reduces educational costs for all. This is particularly valuable for learners who have left high school, or who aren’t enrolled in traditional high schools like homeschooled students, and don’t have access to Advanced Placement or dual enrollment or other early college options that high school students often access for free.
Our approach also is very flexible, allowing learners to study at their own pace and on their own schedule. This flexibility is particularly beneficial for adults with varying life circumstances who might not be able to commit to being on campus or logging into a class at a certain time.
What effect has being free had on uptake both at the family and school level?
We often hear from learners that Modern States put college within their reach, even after they had thought it had passed them by. We don’t confer degrees ourselves, so learners who use our courses still need to attend college to earn their degree, but by using Modern States they end up enrolling in college having already made very substantial progress towards a degree. Depending where they ultimately enroll, they can save thousands of dollars and many hours of course time.
We’re also increasingly hearing from school administrators and teachers that are using our courses in creative ways. At a minimum, they save schools a lot of money and help ensure they can offer advanced coursework to any student who is interested. But as anyone who has worked with schools and educators knows, they are enormously creative. For example, we’ve heard from a number of schools that they align Modern States content with classes they’re already offering. And some students in their classes will do both the high school work and the Modern States college work, so that, by the end of a term, they have basically bootstrapped a dual enrollment course and earned both high school and college credit with no additional costs, teachers, classrooms, and so on.
What is next for Modern States?
We are focused on a few big priorities. First, we’re working on building out partnerships that can help us expand the number of learners we serve and improve the quality of support that learners receive. This means newly working with leaders in states like Ohio, where there is widespread CLEP acceptance along with some local funding and support. It also means working to deepen existing partnerships, like the ones we have with universities such as Purdue and Norfolk State University, both of which use Modern States to streamline admissions.
We’re also excited to explore how to integrate emerging technologies like generative AI into our model. We have a particularly interesting use case because so many of our learners are engaging on their own or in contexts where they can’t get direct academic support. AI-powered tools like integrated tutors can help explain instruction differently, plug gaps in prior knowledge, and improve assessment at scale. They’re not perfect solutions, but they’re getting better, and they can offer really valuable complements to other support.
Last, as we grow, it becomes increasingly important for us to find partners and supporters who can help us keep the program free to learners. Several states, like Ohio, Michigan, and West Virginia, and some institutions like the U.S. military, make CLEP exams free or low cost for learners because they have recognized how powerful they can be. We’re looking to work with more public institutions—in addition to private funders—who want to do similar things.
