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Early College High School News
Issue No. 4, November 2007
Early College High School News
Issue No. 4, November 2007
IN THIS ISSUE:
1) CREATING AND SUSTAINING EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOLS:
2) THE POLICY PAGE
- Making Progress in New York State
- The Promise of Dual Enrollment: Assessing Ohio’s Early College Access Policy
- CNE Policy Analyst Appointed to California’s American Indian Education Oversight Committee
- Laurel Dukehart Keynote Speaker at Washington State’s 2007 Dual Enrollment Conference
3) THE EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL FRONTLINES
- New and Improved Web Sites from the Early College High School Partners
- To a Higher Degree: Real-life Stories of Progress in Four Early College High Schools
- The Senior Experience
- High School to College Summer Bridge
4) RESOURCES FROM THE FIELD
- The Benefits of Dual Enrollment
- Rethinking High School
- Toward a More Comprehensive Conception of College Readiness
- Graduation Matters
5) ECHS IN THE NEWS: RECENT HIGHLIGHTS
1) CREATING AND SUSTAINING EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOLS:
With 160 early college high schools now up and running, and promising results emerging, the Early College High School Initiative attracted a great deal of attention during Double the Numbers: Diplomas, Degrees, and Credentials for Underrepresented Youth, JFF’s national conference held in October in Washington, DC. The conference presented promising strategies for doubling the numbers of low-income and underrepresented youth who receive college degrees and included a number of sessions that highlighted early college high schools:
- In the keynote address, Vicki Phillips, the new director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s education initiatives, noted the foundation’s unwavering commitment “to ensuring that young people graduate from high school prepared for success in college, career, and life.”
- Special guest North Carolina Governor Mike Easley told how his state has strongly promoted the early college high school model, known locally as “Learn and Earn,” as a part of NC’s approach to economic and educational development. By next fall, the state will have 70 early college high schools. The governor also announced a new initiative, Learn and Earn Online, which allows students to take college courses online at their high schools. For more information, go to: http://www.learnandearn.nc.gov.
- “Early College High Schools: What Are the Early Data Telling Us?” led by Marge Mott from KnowledgeWorks Foundation, discussed emerging outcomes from early colleges—some of which have graduated their first classes of students—and what the data suggest about the efficacy of early college approaches. The panel included Linda Campbell of the Center for Native Education, Cecelia Cunningham of the Middle College National Consortium, and Fred Frelow of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.
- “Leading Inter-Institutional Change: Four Champions of K-16 Look Back at their Efforts to Increase Access and Opportunity for Underserved Youth” included Roberta Matthews, the former provost of Brooklyn College, a key partner in the development of STAR Early College High School, and currently an advisor to JFF for the Making Opportunity Affordable Initiative. She was joined by a former school commissioner, a superintendent, and a commissioner of higher education in an informal conversation about barriers and opportunities for integrating high school and postsecondary education.
- In “New School Development: Barriers and Opportunities,”Ana Tilton from the Texas High School Project, Ref Rodriguez of JFF and Partnerships to Uplift Communities, and Janice Brown of the North Carolina New Schools Project spoke about their work starting and supporting early college high schools and the lessons they have learned about building and sustaining support for bold new school development.
- In “Early College High School 101,” Dawn Cooper of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, Alma Garcia of the Communities Foundation of Texas, Cecelia Cunningham of the Middle College National Consortium, and Linda Campbell of the Center for Native Education provided an overview of the principles that guide early college high school designs, with examples from their networks.
Transcripts of the DTN07 plenary sessions and other materials from the conference are available at http://www.doublethenumbers.org.
In an Education Week Commentary, JFF’s Nancy Hoffman and Joel Vargas draw on the policy and programmatic research they undertook for Minding the Gap, which they edited along with Andrea Venezia of WestEd and Marc S. Miller of JFF. The book gathers the insights of thought leaders and practitioners around the need to restructure the transition between high school and postsecondary systems and to build structures for a sustainable, seamless system that ensures greater equity.
To read the Commentary, go to: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/10/10/07hoffman.h27.html
To read an EdWeek online chat with Nancy Hoffman and Joel Vargas, go to:
http://www.edweek.org/chat/transcript_10_11_2007.html?qs=joel+vargas
For information on Minding the Gap, go to:
http://www.hepg.org/hep/Book/70
2) THE POLICY PAGE
The New York State Board of Regents recently announced a Smart Scholars program to benefit 12,000 students at risk of dropping out of high school. The program would provide funding for students to take college courses and receive high school credit. The New York Early College High School Policy Network hopes to be involved in the design of this program.
This proposal marks the growing presence of, and collaboration among, Early College High School Initiative partners in New York State. Earlier this year, JFF’s Michael Collins and Nancy Hoffman, at the request of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and on behalf of the New York ECHS Policy Network, presented information to the Regents and the State Department of Education on the benefits of early college and dual enrollment. The New York Policy Network has also stressed the need for policy and funding supports to develop and sustain a robust continuum of college-in-high school credit options for the young people across the state.
Another development in New York this October was the annual convention of the New York State School Boards Association, where Fred Frelow from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, Cecelia Cunningham of the Middle College National Consortium, and several early college students presented a session: "Increasing Students' College Readiness.” School board members, administrative leaders, and other educational leaders from throughout state learned how two national organizations have established early college high schools that prepare underserved students for college.
For more information about the convention, go to:
http://74.43.253.72/convention07.html
A recent KnowledgeWorks Foundation report showing that Ohio’s Post Secondary Enrollment Options policy is used by less than 5 percent of students has sparked interest in the policy just as it is set to expand. The report is the first analysis of the 18-year-old PSEO policy, which allows students to take classes for both high school and college credit and redirects state funds to pay for those classes. While the report identifies potential problems in how the policy is used, the researchers found that high school students who take college courses through PSEO are more likely to attend college and earn degrees faster than the general population of high school graduates. The report calls for additional data to be compiled to determine the policy’s effectiveness.
In October, Mike Tulee, of the Center for Native Education, was appointed to the California State Department of Education’s new American Indian Education Oversight Committee. Tulee has worked locally and nationally in Indian education for nearly 20 years, serving as Director of Indian Education for Seattle Public Schools, an administrator with the federal Office of Indian Education, and a classroom teacher and school leader. The Oversight Committee advises the state superintendent of public instruction on all issues regarding American Indian education.
Laurel Dukehart, director of the Gateway to College National Network for Portland Community College, was the keynote speaker at Washington State’s conference Dual Enrollment: Building Bridges to College Readiness. Gateway to College provides a meaningful second chance for academic success to young people who leave high school without a diploma. Portland Community College is supporting twenty Gateway to College programs at community colleges around the country.
3) THE EARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL FRONTLINES
Two early college partner organizations have revamped their Web sites, offering a rich array of resources and tools for schools and communities that are starting early college high schools or are interested in learning more about the initiative.
Center for Native Education Web site
Check out these new features:
- Outcomes for Native students attending CNE-supported early college high schools, compared with national outcome measures for native youth
- Profiles of students and staff in early colleges for Native youth
- Announcements of the newest CNE site in New Mexico
- The latest CNE electronic newsletter, which includes updates from each school
Check out these new features:
- Highlights and facts from middle college-early college high schools
- A video resource on the Write Team approach, developed at Middle College at Contra Costa, that trains students to become writing coaches for their peers
- The latest MCNC newsletter, with features about the evolving design of Challenge Early College High School in Houston and the launch of Pierre A. Capadau Early College High School in the midst of rebuilding efforts in New Orleans.
This brief from the “Promising Practices” series of the Woodrow Wilson Early College Initiative features Manhattan Hunter Science High School at Hunter College, where the senior year of high school and first year of college are blended to smooth the transition between institutions. The Senior Experience describes the key features of Manhattan Hunter’s approach to the senior year, with preliminary data on student outcomes. The report includes input from students and faculty about their experiences with this blended design.
The Foundation for California Community Colleges released a new case study co-authored by two early college English instructors at the Alameda Science and Technology Institute and the College of the Alameda. The case study presents the key components of the ASTI summer bridge program, which supports high school students’ transition to the college campus for the junior year.
4) RESOURCES FROM THE FIELD
The Postsecondary Achievement of Participants in Dual Enrollment: An Analysis of Student Outcomes in Two States, a new study from the Community College Research Center, finds that dual enrollment programs in Florida and New York have had positive outcomes on measures such as high school graduation, college enrollment rates, college grade point averages, and progress toward college completion. The authors found that a broad spectrum of students from different backgrounds benefit from enrolling in college courses while in high school. For additional information about the study, go to: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/10/17/dualenroll.
This report from WestEd features five schools, all supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, that use inventive approaches to increase graduation rates and college readiness. Two of the featured schools are early colleges: the Lionel Wilson Preparatory Academy in Oakland, California, and the Gateway to College program at Portland Community College in Oregon. The report highlights factors that impede secondary success, and it looks at how these programs work to eliminate those barriers for their diverse student populations.
In a paper commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, David Conley defines college readiness, with specific examples of indicators, including “habits of mind,” that have been consistently identified by instructors of entry-level college courses as being more important or as important as content taught in high school.
Daria Hall of the Education Trust looks at lessons from individual states to point to problems with reporting and addressing low graduation rates. She argues that accurate data and meaningful accountability should be the bases of comprehensive systems that support schools and districts. To address persistently low graduation rates, states must: identify potential dropouts; build capacity for support and intervention through state and local education agencies as well as through external partners; and develop a proactive agenda for creating new schools where failure has endured for years.
Listed here are recent highlights from among the many articles and broadcasts about early college high schools appearing in the media in recent months. For a more extensive list, see www.earlycolleges.org/news.html.
Local H.S. Dropouts Get New Start
RNews, [Rochester, NY] November 19, 2007
“Monroe Community College is helping to put hundreds of local high school dropouts on the fast track to earning a college degree.”
Four High Schools to Be High Profile
Raleigh (NC) News & Observer, November 10, 2007
“The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is granting $2.5 million to develop four North Carolina high schools into models of student achievement.”
Making the Grade: Yurok Indian Geneva Wiki Is Helping Other Young Native Americans “Develop Their Best Selves” Smithsonian Magazine, October 2007
“GenevaWiki is fighting the flu. ‘You’re seeing me at only about 75 percent of my normal energy,’ says the director of the Klamath River Early College of the Redwoods, in Klamath, California. It’s a formidable 75 percent.”
NAYA Early College Academy Fulfills Dreams
Indian Country Today, October 17, 2007
“The Portland Native American Youth and Family Center celebrated the opening of its Early College Academy in September.”
Early (Encouraging) Data on Early Colleges
Inside Higher Ed, October 5, 2007
“The ‘early college’ concept—an outgrowth of the ‘middle college’ concept—is based on the idea that proximity matters....Research presented in Washington Thursday suggests that the early college approach may be achieving substantial gains for students who participate.”
High School Offers Diplomas—and College Degrees
News 10, [Sacramento, CA] August, 31, 2007
“The number of students graduating from high school having completed the necessary classes to attend a state university has been called abysmal.”
Carolina Diaries: College Kid
WWAY, [Wilmington, NC] August 27, 2007
“Alyssa Cruz is 15 years old. As you’d expect, she’s a student. What you might not expect is where she goes to school.”
To view the video, click here.
Early College Rises Again in Elyria
The [Elyria, OH] Chronicle-Telegram, August 6, 2007
“What would high school be without wedgies, prom and a steady diet of square pizza? Some would call it college.”
Jobs for the Future, which coordinates the Early College High School Initiative, prepares ECHS News to link you to useful resources as you plan, launch, and operate early college high schools. To add your name to the distribution list, please send a note to Eliot Yaffa, eyaffa@jff.org.
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