By Carol Chmelynski
01/06/04 -- "Early college high schools" -- institutions that allow students to earn both a high school diploma and two years of college credit simultaneously -- are a relatively new idea that has the potential to grow rapidly.
The concept offers many benefits: It makes college more affordable, provides more support to students in their first two years of college, and gives students a jump start on their careers by eliminating time-wasting activities in the last two years of high school. And it encourages more low-income, minority students to enter higher education.
Some of these programs are geared toward high-achieving students who are ready for college work while still in high school, while others target at-risk students or even dropouts.
Rigorous curriculum
One example of an early college program is the Bard High School Early College in New York City, founded two and a-half years ago by the board of education and Bard College with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Admission is based on a transcript review, a writing and math assessment, and an interview.
The school graduated its first class of 93 students last June. "These were slightly above-average students who wanted a faster and more rigorous education," says Principal Ray Peterson.
They received associate's degrees in addition to high school diplomas, and more than 90 percent moved on to four-year colleges throughout the United States, mostly as upperclassmen, he says.
About 27 of the 120 students who entered the Bard school in September 2001 did not complete the program.
Peterson says the early college program fulfills the general education requirements of most colleges and universities while teaching students critical thinking and writing skills and saving them up to two years of college tuition.
Students who graduate from the Bard High School Early College with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher are eligible to participate in a preferred transfer process to Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y., or to Simon's Rock College of Bard in Great Barrington, Mass.
Last year, the Gates Foundation announced that it would sponsor 70 new early college high schools nationally.
So many schools and states expressed interest that the foundation now plans to support about 150 schools around the country within the next five to seven years, says Nancy Hoffman, a vice president at Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit group in Boston that is administering the program for the Gates Foundation.
Less wasted time
According to Hoffman, 24 early college high schools have opened to date. They are located on or near college campuses, share facilities and instructors with the colleges, and provide examples of how to align high school standards with college-level skills and expectations.
"Their goals are to eliminate time wasted in high school and to provide students with appropriate adult guidance and support through their first two years of college," Hoffman says.
"We can no longer accept the fact that less than 20 percent of low-income students will go to college. We must help these students envision themselves as college graduates and provide them with the means to get there," says Tom Vander Ark, executive director of education for the Gates Foundation.
"Early college high schools engage and motivate students by giving them the personalized and rigorous courses they need to make a smooth transition to college or the work place," he says.
Just last month, the City University of New York (CUNY) announced it had received a $6.75 million grant from the Gates Foundation to collaborate with the New York City school system to create 10 more early college high schools.
They will join the three existing early college high schools affiliated with CUNY campuses. At one of the them, the Middle College/Early College at LaGuardia Community College, students are outperforming their counterparts in college course pass rates.
The others include the Science, Technology, and Research (STAR) High School, which opened this fall in collaboration with Brooklyn College, and the Manhattan/Hunter Science High School sponsored by Hunter College.
These two schools opened with 60 to100 ninth graders and neither school required an admissions test.
In Florida's Okaloosa County school district, students in grades 10-12 can earn a standard high school diploma and a two-year college degree or transferable college credits at the Collegiate High School, a charter school housed at Okaloosa-Walton Community College.
Students pay no tuition for the college courses. They receive the use of a laptop computer, all college and high school textbooks, transportation, and other services at no cost.
So far, 119 students have graduated from Collegiate High, and many have transferred to top colleges and universities nationwide, says Director Charla Cotton. Graduates have received scholarships for such institutions as Florida State University, Notre Dame, and California Poly-Tech.
Not for everyone
Collegiate High provides a small-school atmosphere with personal attention, free tutoring, and instruction by top college faculty who hold advanced degrees in their fields.
Collegiate High School isn't for everyone, says Cotton. It's for students who are serious about their studies; want a more academically challenging curriculum; are mature enough to thrive in a college environment; want to earn a college degree or college credits at no cost; want to concentrate on a specific field, such as computer science or fine arts; or want to enter a career right after graduation.
Students have access to all of the community college's facilities, programs, and organizations, such as the arts center, ROTC, Phi Theta Kappa college honor society, academic teams, and intramural sports. Collegiate High also offers traditional high school activities, such as clubs, a yearbook, a prom, and student trips.
Students who attend Collegiate High can earn an individualized Associate of Arts degree to meet the prerequisite requirements of more than 200 bachelor's degree programs.
Cotton says students who complete a high school diploma and an Associate of Arts degree are guaranteed admission and "a seamless transfer of college credits" to any college in the Florida university system and may also transfer credits to universities nationwide.
Students also have the option to earn a technically oriented Associate of Science degree in more than 30 areas, such as computer network engineering, computer drafting and design, and graphic arts.
At-risk students
In Oregon, the school districts of Portland, Beaverton, and Tigard Tualatin entered into contracts with Portland Community College (PCC) in 2000. The Lake Oswego school district joined the program in 2003.
The program, called Gateway to College, offers 16 to 20-year-olds who have left high school before graduating or who are at risk of dropping out a way to earn a high school diploma and credits toward an associate's degree.
To be eligible, students must live in one of those communities and must be able to read at the eighth-grade level, says Linda Huddle, PCC's director of alternative programs.
PCC received a $4.85 million grant from the Gates Foundation last March to replicate the program in eight community colleges across the United States.
According to Huddle, "it can take our students, many of whom work and have children of their own, up to three years to complete Gateway to College." So far, 51 students have graduated.
Most leave with a high school diploma and significant credits toward an associate degree, she says. Of the 35 students who graduated last spring, 80 percent continued their education at a four-year or two-year institution.
Individualized instruction
In Michigan, Washtenaw Technical Middle College, a charter school in Ann Arbor, Mich., serves students from more than 45 school districts spread over six counties, along with students from private and charter schools and students who have been homeschooled, says Associate Dean/Principal David Dugger.
The school opened in 1997 on the campus of Washtenaw Community College, its chartering agency. The school enrolls 320 students randomly selected via lottery after completing ninth grade.
To graduate, students must be able to transition from high school-level course work to full-time college-level work, complete a set of rigorous courses with a grade of C or better, and complete a technical certificate or associate's degree in a technical program.
The school's curriculum is aligned with the college's expectations of the required entry-level core academic skills of first-year college students in English, math, social studies, and science.
"The goal is to fully prepare students for the next level of education and not to move them on for the sake of moving them on," says Dugger. "By removing the time element from the typical 'time centric' K-12 model, we are able to individualize the educational program for each student, filling in the skill gaps for students who have them and accelerating the program for those who don't."
This approach has proven highly successful, resulting in significant improvements on state, national, and local achievement measures and high levels of student satisfaction, he says.
Fifty-five students graduated in 2003, and 51 of them completed a technical certificate or associate's degree, Dugger says. About half graduated magna cum laude or summa cum laude, and 10 are in Phi Beta Kappa.
"It's an amazing chance for us to do something different," Dugger says. "I am just constantly amazed by how the kids grow, what they get out of it."