For the last decade, Ohio’s dual credit program, College Credit Plus (CCP), has been giving academically eligible students in grades 7–12 the opportunity to earn postsecondary credit by taking college courses for free.
According to the most recent annual report, more than 94,000 students participated in CCP during the 2024–25 school year. But the report also shows sizable enrollment gaps between White and minority students, as well as economically disadvantaged pupils and their more affluent peers. There have been some improvements, especially among low-income students. But for the most part, traditionally underserved kids are missing out on the program’s benefits.
In an effort to address this issue, state lawmakers established the Statewide Innovative Waiver Pathway in the 2023 state budget. This program allows institutions of higher education and industry partners to apply to the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) to create a CCP pathway with a waiver for student eligibility requirements, thereby making pathways available to students who don’t meet traditional college readiness standards. Upon completion, students earn an industry-recognized credential, certificate, or degree that’s aligned with an in-demand job field. Any public or nonpublic secondary school, as well as any public or nonpublic higher education institution, can use an approved waiver pathway.
Ohio’s first approved pathway focuses on the in-demand job fields of engineering technology and advanced manufacturing. It was granted to Columbus State Community College, Sinclair College, and Lorain County Community College (LCCC) for a timeframe of three academic years: 2025–26, 2026–27, and 2027–28. The associated waiver eliminates requirements for students to achieve a cumulative unweighted GPA of 3.0 or pass placement tests before they can take entry-level CCP courses. It applies only to students who are pursuing technician degrees or certificates in certain areas of engineering (electro-mechanical, electronic, mechanical, and manufacturing), manufacturing equipment, or semiconductor fundamentals. ODHE’s website identifies pathways toward five approved certificates, six approved associate degrees, and one approved baccalaureate degree.
It makes sense for the state’s inaugural waiver pathway to focus on these career fields. Ohio is home to the nation’s third-largest manufacturing workforce and a $117 billion industry. According to ODHE Chancellor Mike Duffey, the state’s fastest-growing jobs include engineering technician roles connected to advanced manufacturing. And a quick look at Ohio’s top jobs list indicates that several of the waiver-approved associate degrees lead to salaries that are pretty close to the statewide median of $71,000. An associate degree for electro-mechanical and mechatronics technologists and technicians, for instance, has a median salary of $67,000. A similar degree for mechanical engineering technologists and technicians has a median salary of $68,000.
It also makes sense for the inaugural pathways to be housed at Columbus State, Sinclair, and LCCC. They are among the largest schools currently providing these credentials. They have plenty of experience working with high schoolers, as they each enrolled more than 4,000 CCP students last year. (Columbus State and Sinclair both enrolled more than 10,000.) They also collectively cover a broad geographic swath of the state: LCCC is in northeast Ohio, Columbus State calls central Ohio home, and Sinclair can be found in the southwest. The participation of LCCC is particularly noteworthy, as it’s located in a more rural part of the state. If this initiative is successful, it could be a blueprint for how to ensure that more of Ohio’s rural students get better access to training for in-demand careers.
Clearly, there’s a lot of potential here. But it’s important to remember that the key feature of a Statewide Innovative Waiver Pathway is the waiver itself, which exempts students from GPA and testing requirements designed to signal their readiness for college-level coursework. Proponents of the program are quick to argue in favor of such exemptions. Lieutenant Governor Jim Tressel, for example, has said that expanding CCP this way will “give more of our home-grown talent an affordable pathway to high-demand careers.” David Harrison, President of Columbus State, noted that waiver pathways will “open the door for students from all backgrounds to great jobs and high-growth careers.”
Expanding access to affordable pathways that lead to in-demand careers is a worthy pursuit. But objective measures of college readiness exist for a reason. When students aren’t academically prepared for college-level rigor, they’re more likely to struggle in their courses. These struggles can increase the likelihood that students don’t earn a credential or degree.
The good news is that this particular policy was designed with two important guardrails that can help ensure students don’t fall through the cracks.
First, the higher education institutions offering CCP courses as part of a waiver must build wraparound student support services into their pathways. Guidance from the state notes that these services should be “tailored to the needs of students who do not meet traditional college readiness standards and/or are underrepresented in higher education.” Institutions must provide evidence of a plan to provide these services as a condition of approval. Whether or not they actually follow through on offering these services—and the quality of what they provide—is up in the air. But the expectation is there, and ODHE has a responsibility to hold institutions accountable for meeting it.
Speaking of ODHE, the second guardrail requires the department to annually collect data to evaluate the success of waiver pathways and track the progress of students who utilize them. It’s unclear how transparent the state will be with these data or how willing department officials will be to act on it by expanding (or eliminating) pathways based on outcomes. Given that the program is still in its first year of implementation, the lack of clarity is understandable. But going forward, being transparent about this data is absolutely crucial.
If waiver pathways prove to be an effective way to help students who don’t meet traditional college-ready benchmarks get to and through a postsecondary program that sets them up for a well-paying job in an in-demand career, the public should know that. Advocates should know what to champion. State lawmakers should know where to direct state investment. Families and students should be aware of their opportunities.
But if, in a few years’ time, innovative waiver pathways have failed to live up to their potential, Ohioans need to know that, too. State officials can’t, in good conscience, maintain established pathways if they have proof that most participants are failing to complete them and earn a credential. Industry partners shouldn’t recruit traditionally underserved students into career fields that are on the downswing or lead to dead-end jobs that don’t pay a good wage. And higher education institutions shouldn’t open their doors to high-need students in this context unless they’re committed to providing the support and services that these students need.
The Statewide Innovative Waiver Pathway is exactly the kind of policy that Ohio should be testing out as it strives to do better by its students. Thus far, it looks like it could be a big win for everyone involved. But only time will tell.
