The Early College High School Initiative

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by Mark Szymanski <marks@pacificu.edu>


The Early College High School Initiative (1) might sound like another attempt to reform schools by reorganizing words and old ideas, but it’s not. The Early College High School Initiative is designed to create and support small independent high schools that combine the goals and standards of high school and the first two years of college. Specifically, the initiative targets students who are underrepresented in college:  students of color, English language learners, and students for whom the cost of college is prohibitive.

The initiative is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (2), the Carnegie Corporation of New York (3), the Ford Foundation (4), and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (5).  Historically, these foundations have provided support for innovative and thoughtful institutional change in systems where internal support for change and innovation has been scarce.

The Internet and other technologies have changed the workplace as well as our economic and social infrastructure. We live in an age in which knowing how to find and use knowledge has trumped being able to remember information. As a result, more corporations and leaders are supporting and funding school restructuring that prepares students for a future workplace that will look very different from the work place of today.

In addition to workplace change, the demographics of our schools has been rapidly changing. An increasing number of students of color populate our public schools. Traditionally, schools have not been able to adequately prepare these students for success in college.

“Only 18 percent of African Americans and 10 percent of Hispanics complete a four-year college degree by age 29, compared with 34 percent of whites. The numbers are even lower for Native-American students: only three in five will graduate from high school, and of those less than 3 percent will go on to earn a Bachelor’s degree. In contrast, upper-income students are seven times more likely than low income students to earn a Bachelor’s degree by age 24.” (1).

To respond to this rapid change, educators have been experimenting with ways to adjust and modify their pedagogy, curriculum, and high schools. Despite these best efforts at adjusting, high school student achievement has not improved significantly.  Educators refer to this as the achievement gap. This is especially evident in populations who have traditionally not had access to the classes or support to prepare them to transition into college. The Early College High School Initiative is designed to close this gap by supporting students and educators who might be successful if the structure of schools changed.

The Goal of the Early College High School Initiative is to open 170 schools by the year 2008. Currently 47 schools are operating. The Early College High School Initiative is focused on designing schools based on data gathered from a wide range of areas including: model high school and college combination schools, small schools, and, studies of time wasted in the senior year.

The schools are designed based on the following principles:

  • All students can achieve two years of  college credit at the same time as they are earning a high school  diploma (within four to five years of entering 9th grade).
  • Students start college work based on their performance.
  • All students prepare to complete a Bachelor’s degree.
  • Reaching out to middle schools and providing extensive support, ensures that all students are ready for college-level courses in high school. (1).

The partnerships between high schools and higher education are at the core of the initiative.  The initiative has thoughtfully partnered high schools with institutions of higher education that have traditionally served the populations targeted by the initiative.  Some of the partnerships include: public schools with tribal affiliations and community colleges, city public schools and community colleges, charter schools and historically black colleges, and magnet schools and private liberal arts colleges. The outcome of these relationships should facilitate more students successfully transitioning into college and successfully completing college.

Historically, high schools and colleges have been two distinctly different institutions. To bridge some of the gaps, high schools and colleges have focused on aligning their curriculum. As a result, high schools began offering Advanced Placement courses as an attempt to help students earn college credit before they enter college. But this represented and effort at aligning curriculum, not restructuring the institutions based on the changing workplace.

Furthermore, Advanced Placement classes are offered more often at high schools where the faculty hold more advanced degrees and the socioeconomic status of the student population is higher. Hence, students from demographic groups who have traditionally not attended college and dropped out of high school at higher rates do not receive any added benefit.  Recently, the number of Advanced Placement classes offered at these traditionally underserved schools has increased, but this increase has done little to increase the college readiness of students who have not considered preparing themselves for college at an earlier age.

Educators who are interested in proposing an initiative should visit the Early College High Schools web site.  The site supports initiatives in a number of ways. The most effective part of the site is the library (6).  The library includes a range of carefully chosen articles and publications designed to create a foundation for making the case for this kind of structural change.  It’s important to understand that making such a case for change is difficult. Student achievement in high school is effected by a number of social and individual factors-some of which are outside the control of the school. But, considering this, the Early College High School Initiative takes the important step of creating an educational environment that gives students the best opportunity to succeed.

Early College High Schools have the potential to improve

high school graduation rates and better prepare students for family-supporting careers by: changing the structure of the high school years; compressing the number of years to a college degree; and removing financial and other barriers to college (1).

References:

(1) http://www.earlycolleges.org

(2) www.gatesfoundation.org

(3) www.carnegie.org

(4) www.fordfound.org

(5) www.wkkf.org

(6) http://www.earlycolleges.org/