Osmonson’s had experience teaching this sort of class. Last year, when she was teaching Excel program students, who struggle in a traditional classroom setting, she taught several similar organization and study skill lessons that she says she is modifying for the College Readiness course.

The classes revolves around making basic organizational structures and study habits while allowing the kids to develop skills on their own, personalizing their organization and making them comfortable with the ideas that Osmonson, Ellis officials and the U of MN’s College Readiness Consortium want to expose them to. While there isn’t a lot of homework (or practice, as Ellis officials now refer to it), much of the College Readiness class involves discussion and brainstorming, getting students to consider what they want to do after high school.

“It’s really fun to learn about what’s gonna happen during college,” Sanchez said. “Then you know what your career’s gonna be and what’s gonna happen during your career.”

Ellis officials designed the course with sixth-graders in mind so students would have a head start on the college process.

“We don’t want (students) to wait until 11th grade and start thinking about college and go, ‘Oh, maybe I shouldn’t have failed ninth-grade algebra,” Berglund said. “We want to guide them through.”

Osmonson agrees, as she’s noticed sixth grade is the time when many students from different school districts in the area transfer to Ellis for secondary education.

“We’re getting a lot of different students from a lot of different places,” Osmonson said.

Berglund applied to get Ellis in the Ramp-Up program last year, believing the school could use resources the U of MN could provide by participating in the program. On top of that, the program carried a grant worth $20,000 for schools that were accepted, money she said could’ve been used for staff development.

Yet Berglund didn’t apply for the grant while she was applying to the Ramp-Up program. According to her, she thought the school stood a better chance of getting in if Ellis officials weren’t asking for money.

Instead, Ellis will be receiving $20,000 this year and next from the Hormel Foundation. The Hormel Foundation will also be giving Austin High School $20,000 during the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 school years, which will be used to “implement and continue the Ramp-Up program curriculum,” according to AHS principal Bradley Bergstrom.

Students seem to enjoy the class. Kaleb Blaser feels the class has made him a better student.

“It’s fun and helpful,” he said.

Lesley Wollschlager enjoys learning about what college is like. Zach Thorpe, who said the class helps students prepare for colleges and picking a career, also likes the class.

“We learn that we have a lot more potential than we thought,” said Kaylee May. “This is one of the unique classes that aren’t like any others. “That students are enjoying learning about college and study habits is good news to Ellis officials, which like other school officials in the district have struggled to get students to make Adequate Yearly Progress on subjects tested under Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments, which are administered statewide every year.

This past year, seven out of the eight schools in the district failed to meet AYP benchmarks across the board. Because of that, those local failing schools also receiving Title One federal funding —Neveln Elementary, Southgate Elementary and Sumner Elementary— will have 30 percent of those funds withheld in 2011, as all of these schools have missed the mark for at least two years.

While Berglund is concerned with making AYP standards in all subjects across the board this upcoming year, she says the main goal behind participating in initiatives like the Ramp-Up program are more to get kids into post-secondary education after high school.

According to her, people with some sort of post-secondary education are making much more than people who stopped their education after getting their high school diploma. Moreover, students that are entering the school system need to be prepared for job possibilities that aren’t available right now.

“We’re preparing kids for jobs that we don’t even know exist yet,” Berglund said.