INNOVATOR: NC's early colleges show strength in graduation numbers

More than 500 students are graduating this spring from North Carolina's first 13 early college high schools as the first big wave of gradutes of the schools, launched in 2005 as an innovative way to make high school more effective for more students.

What began as something of an educational experiment is proving a success by setting high expectations for students while providing them with the support they need to achieve them. Unofficial data indicates that for the 13 schools combined, nine of every 10 students who began as 9th graders are graduating, with almost half also earning associate's degrees or two years of transferrable college credit.

"I think these students begin to sense the potential within them, and there are people here who care and will not give up on them," said Larry Allred, principal of Davidson Early College High School, where 37 of 38 students have been accepted to college, with 34 of them earning an associate's degree or two years of college credit. "Kids have a sense of hope, so they go the extra mile."

For high schools everywhere, no outcome is more important than their success in graduating students and ensuring they graduate well prepared. North Carolina's innovative high schools were created to keep that promise to students. The initial results from the first 13 of 70 early colleges in the state are encouraging, based on unofficial results. Among them:

Of 555 students who started as 9th graders, excluding transfers, 509 are graduating this year; 12 graduated last year; and another 12 are expected to graduate this summer.
47 percent of the 509 spring graduates earned an associate's degree or two years of transferrable college credit
71 percent of the graduates were accepted to college
Just 5 percent of the 555 initial 9th graders dropped out

Earl Sturdivant, who graduated earlier this month from Anson Early College High School with an associate's degree from Anson Community College, said strong support from teachers and principal Deborah Davis made the difference for him. Even though he would have done OK in a traditional high school, he said, "I wouldn't have been as focused. I wouldn't have been as prepared for college as I am now."

The youngest of four siblings, Earl is the first in his family to attend college. This fall, he'll attend N.C. State University to study construction engineering.

He's one of 16 students from the school's first cohort of 22 "super seniors" - or fifth year students - to be accepted into four-year colleges and universities. Seven of them earned associate's degrees. The initial class lost only two students as dropouts.

Davis, the principal, traces the achievement of Anson's students to the culture that the school has established.

"The difference is the belief that every child can be successful and the mindset that kids have," Davis said. "Students sense that teachers genuinely care."

Allred said strong relationships between students and teachers built on trust and high expectations are the essential foundation for student success. But he said that's also been matched at Davidson Early College by readily available support for students, from before- and after-school tutoring to extra instruction, to extensive use of data to tailor instruction to the needs of individual students.

He also cited efforts by teachers to learn from one another from a "rounds" approach to professional development, promoted by the North Carolina New Schools Project, that encourages teachers to collaborate among themselves by observing and critiquing each other's classroom instruction.

"Teachers have seen from each other strategies that they can take back into their own classrooms," Allred said. "They've gone from fear of the unknown to taking risks." And it's the teachers, he said, that are making the difference for students. The school's results, he said, "are a tribute to the faculty."

Graduating senior Sheena Cooper, 17, chose to take her chances on the untried new school instead of the established, traditional high school. She'll start at UNC-Chapel Hill this fall with enough credits to qualify as a junior, having earned both an associate of arts and an associate of science degree.

"The small size really made a difference," said Sheena, "but it's the relationships that are the most important. At my school everyone knows everyone. All the teachers know everything about us. The relationships you make are like none other."

The same kind of culture of strong relationships matched by high expectations also helped students succeed at the Early/Middle College at Guilford Technical Community College, where all 49 graduates this year will enroll in some kind of higher education after high school. All of the graduates were honor students in the community college, said early college principal Loretta Rowland-Kitley, meaning they had a grade-point-average of 3.5 or better.

Thirteen of the graduates earned an associate's degree, with another six who will do so by the end of the summer.

"They would never have had this opportunity if they weren't in this school," she said. "It's like a scholarship. They see it as a scholarship, and their parents do too."