12 Years of the El Dorado Promise
When the gift of the El Dorado Promise was announced by Murphy Oil Corporation in January 2007, no one, not even then-President of Murphy Oil Claiborne Deming, understood the magnitude of the impact on El Dorado Public Schools.
Since that time, over 2,500 EHS graduates have received the Promise and have taken the scholarship to 140 schools in 31 different states.
The El Dorado Promise is a universal, place-based scholarship. The Promise guarantees that every student who graduates from El Dorado High School, who was enrolled since at least the ninth grade, can receive a college scholarship. There is no high school GPA requirement, income limit or competitive application process.
Students who attended EPS for their entire K-12 experience are eligible of the full scholarship, which covers tuition and mandatory fees at the accredited two- or four-year postsecondary institution of their choice, in or out of state, public or private, up to the cost of tuition and mandatory fees at the most expensive public university in Arkansas.
Students are able to add other sources of financial aid to their Promise award, up to the full cost of attendance at the four-year college or university of their choice. To renew the Promise Scholarship, students must earn 24 new college hours and maintain a cumulative college GPA of 2.0 each year. Students meeting the renewal requirements can use the Promise Scholarship to obtain a bachelor’s degree or for up to five consecutive years of college enrollment.
Studies done by the Office of Education Policy at the University of Arkansas in 2018 indicate the Promise has a significant impact on college enrollment and bachelor’s degree attainment by El Dorado students. There has been a 16.5 percent increase in college enrollment and a 10.7 percent overall increase in bachelor’s degree attainment. The study further showed an even higher (12.7 percent) increase in bachelor’s degree completion if the EHS graduates’ high school GPA was in the top 50 percent of their class.
Additional studies from the same office show EPS has created a “collegegoing culture” where students are offered up to 20 different Advanced Placement courses at EHS and pre-AP courses are offered beginning in the fifth grade. Over 900 AP exams were given to EHS students in the 2017-18 school year.
The district has been recognized by College Board, the governing body of AP, for the increase in AP enrollment and passing scores by underserved and minority populations. The studies did a comparison of standardized test scores of like matched students and school districts and found a 6-8 percent increase in test scores and the impact was greater the longer the student was enrolled in El Dorado Schools.
El Dorado teachers and administrators discuss college from the beginning of a student’s education — the discussion is “when” you go to college not “if” you go to college. And when every student in the classroom has the opportunity to go to college, teachers and administrators work to prepare every student!
Programs like Promise Backpack awards to all kindergarten students, Celebrate the Promise week, College T-shirt Wednesdays, Kitten Conferences and CATS conferences for planning junior high and high school schedules, free in-school ACT test for all juniors, AP Saturday Preps, Senior Parent FAFSA and Promise workshops, Pay it Forward and Academic Signing Day are events in the school year that reinforce the idea that college is the next step after high school for El Dorado students.
El Dorado Public Schools is proud to be the Promising Choice for students. For more information about the El Dorado Promise Scholarship, contact the El Dorado Promise office 870-8645128 or Sylvia.Thompson@esd-15.org.