When Grace Burris started taking community college classes funded by her public high school, she thought she was just getting a head start on her nursing degree. Now she’s on track to earn phlebotomy and Emergency Medical Technician certifications—and she will become the first student to graduate high school with an associate degree from Bunker Hill Community Unit School District in Southern Illinois.

Burris is one of 21 students in the Power of 15 program at Bunker Hill CUSD in Southern Illinois. The program was directly inspired by Good Reason Houston’s postsecondary research, which showed that high school students who complete five or more advanced courses are 22 percent more likely to earn a postsecondary credential.

Superintendent Todd Dugan said that finding was impossible to ignore. 

“That’s what Good Reason Houston’s report gave us,” Dugan explained. “Because who can argue with that? Who can say, ‘I don’t think it’s worth it to have high school kids leave our school 22 percent more likely to be successful?’ Why would you not pay it?”

Armed with this research, Dugan designed the Power of 15 program to fund five classes—equal to 15 credit hours—at Lewis & Clark Community College for each qualifying student. To launch the pilot last year, the district ran a cost-benefit analysis and reallocated $10,000 from underused software toward college tuition, determining that college credits would deliver far greater long-term impact for students.

The district also invested in practical supports to remove barriers: covering the 20-minute commute to Lewis & Clark with van transportation, offering to-go lunches through a federal waiver, and ensuring every student had access to the full campus experience, from libraries and labs to academic and mental health support services.

The results have been immediate and visible. Before the program, just five or six students pursued dual enrollment each year. Today, nearly a quarter of Bunker Hill’s 11th- and 12th-graders are earning college credit. For a rural high school of only 173 students, the shift has been transformative.

Lewis & Clark President Ken Trzaska said the concurrent enrollment option—where students take classes on campus with college professors—has been particularly powerful. About 60 percent of students who start this way finish their degrees at the college, compared to just 25 percent of those who stick to dual credit classes taught in high school. For students like Burris, that early college immersion creates a clear pathway to credentials that lead to economic opportunity.

“Retention and persistence are really important factors of our measure of success and if we’re seeing students who are not finishing what they started, we ask, ‘What sorts of interventions and opportunities are we creating for students to stay?’” Trzaska said.

Dugan said the district is committed to sustaining the program. Good Reason Houston CEO Cary Wright points to efforts like these as examples of how data-driven innovation can transform outcomes for students and expand economic mobility in communities across the country.