Last week, superintendents of more than half North Carolina's 115 districts and the presidents of most of the state's 58 community colleges met in the same

Lawrence Rouse, president of James Sprunt Community College, and Austin Obasohan, superintendent of Duplin County Schools

room to explore even more approaches that build on the state's success with early college high schools, where students can earn an associate degree or significant college credit along with their high school diploma. Most of those schools are located on community college campuses and primarily target minority and low-income students.

Opening the daylong conference at SAS Institute in Cary, community college leader Garrett Hinshaw said superintendents and college presidents share the same challenge of ensuring that every young person is ready for a changing economy.

"Increasingly, leadership by community college presidents and public school superintendents provides the competitive advantage for communities seeking to foster the workforce and the entrepreneurial spirit required to grow and maintain higher-paying jobs," said Hinshaw, president of Catawba Valley Community College and the N.C. Association of Community College Presidents.  The conference was sponsored jointly by the presidents' organization, the N.C. School Superintendents' Association and NC New Schools, a professional services agency that has spearheaded the early college movement across the state since the first schools were created in 2004.

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More than two dozen innovative high schools that are part of the NC New Schools network were honored in recent weeks based on their student outcomes.

Caldwell Early College High School was named a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education based on the strength of its achievement in closing achievement gaps between subgroups of students. It was the only high school in the state to win rec ognition as an Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing School. In all, five North Carolina schools were named Blue Ribbon Schools this year, including two high schools and three elementary schools.

Five other NC New Schools network schools achieved recognition as National Blue Ribbon Schools in the last two years: Greene Early College High School, Middle College at N.C. A&T State University, Rutherford Early College High School, Middle College at Bennett and Robeson Early College High School.

Schools in the NC New Schools network also made a strong showing among 42 schools recently honored by State Superintendent June Atkinson for achieving graduation rates of 100 percent in 2014. The 27 network schools accounted for nearly two thirds of the schools with perfect graduation rates. Two other innovative high schools formerly part of the NC New Schools network were also honored for exemplary graduation rates.