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Controlling College Costs – in High School
As the US moves increasingly toward competing on brainpower, not brawnpower, the value of post-secondary education is higher than ever: learn more, earn more.
But with college costs escalating and financial aid decreasing, it’s also tougher than ever to afford college. One solution: do part of your college work while still in high school. The “early college high school” movement at UNC, pioneered by NC Central University, is turning into a win-win-win – for students, for universities, and for taxpayers.
Early college high schools offer high school students to simultaneously work toward a high school diploma and either an associate’s degree or credit toward a four year diploma.
At the 6 UNC system campuses offering early college (Fayetteville State, NCA&T, NC State, NC Central, UNC Greensboro and UNC Wilmington), high school students go to school on campus, and, when they are ready, take actual college classes.
The results, according to UNCG’s SERVE Center, an education research institute, are striking: lower suspension rates, higher attendance and high school graduation rates (90% of early college students in the 2010 study graduated, compared to 74% of all high school students).
On average, it takes early college students 5 years to receive a high school diploma and two years of credit for college.
What impresses Jon Young, provost of Fayetteville State University, is that for the students at Cross Creek High School on the FSU campus, being in a college environment dramatically improves outcomes for students with low college-going rates: first generation and minority students. Records of the 159 Cross Creek graduates show that 123, or 77%, have gone on to college, and are attending 14 out of UNC’s 16 four-year campuses.
“These are students with some of the lowest traditional college-going rates,” said Young. “The early results are very encouraging.”
The figures are similarly impressive at Isaac Bear Early College at UNCW, J.D. Clement Early College at NCCU, and the Early/Middle College at NCA&T State (NCSU and UNCG’s early colleges opened in the fall of 2011). At all four schools, zero students dropped out during the 2010-2011 school year; the 2011 graduation rate was over 90% at all of them.
For the students, it’s a deal that’s hard to pass up – they get up to two years of college credit paid for – and the support structure built in makes a challenging academic environment easier to manage. James Blackwell, a graduate of the first early college high school class at NC Central University, told the Raleigh News and Observer, “It’s kind of a rigorous program. It’s more rigorous than competitive because the students supported one another. It’s very, very nurturing.”
Blackwell and his sister are the first in their family to graduate from college.
The UNC schools participating in early college intend to keep adding to those numbers, building the brawn of the state for the future.
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