History:
The University of Findlay has participated in the state-funded Post-Secondary Options (PSO) program since 1991. This program requires high school students to travel to college campuses to complete college courses. The University provides the instruction, books, and materials, as well as academic credit. However, the local district has their state foundation funding reduced for all of the time the PSO students are absent from their buildings.

Several school districts have approached the University regarding their frustration with the traditional Post-Secondary Options program as it now exist. The local districts now lose:

• Top quality students for a portion of numerous school days;
• State income based on a student's total time away from the high school campus;
• The ability to operate a uniform class schedule that meets the needs of all students throughout each school day, including some co-curricular and extracurricular activities; and
• The ability to ensure the safety of students traveling to and from class locations on a college campus during the school day.

Rationale:
In an effort to address some of the above issues, College of Education staff have met with superintendents, principals and teachers from local districts on several occasions. Through these discussions, we have developed an alternative approach to the current Post-Secondary Options program. This approach meets the challenges of providing seamless education while addressing educational issues faced by participating districts.

The University of Findlay's University-School Articulation (UF-USA)  Partnership was conceptualized as a school-university articulation agreement that initially served 10-15 Northwest Ohio secondary schools by offering selected co-taught English, Math, Biology, Chemistry, Political Science, History, and Spanish courses. We intend to expand the course offerings as the needs or interest of the partnership schools change, depending on the availability of cooperating University faculty.

The University provides a Summer Training Institute for the qualified teachers who are recommended and selected to participate in the program. The training is specialized to the specific content area they will be teaching and directed by a University faculty member from that content area. The Institute is offered during the third week of June and varies from 2 to 5 days, depending on the course and past participation of teachers in the program. Teachers will receive one to three graduate credits for participating in the institutes, teaching their courses, and coordinating them with their University mentors.

Each participating school district must contribute $1200 per teacher partnership fee ($600 renewal) to participate in the program. Each high school student will pay $250 per 3 credit-hour course or $300 for a 4 credit-hour course. The student fees will  be invoiced to the individual students, but the district may contribute all or portions of the student fees.

The UF-USA partnership:

• Prepares entry-level courses and services related to high school students, with emphasis on university classes taught on high school campuses;
• Offers educators professional opportunities through the sharing of collaborative teaching and learning strategies;
• Encourages creative expansion and assessment of curriculum and instruction; 
• Fosters teaching exchanges between high school and university faculty; and
• Provides high school students the opportunity to compete introductory college courses and obtain college credits for successful completion of the courses.