Printer Friendly
The Free Library
19,573,962 articles and books
Member login
User name  
Password 
 
Join us Forgot password?

ALTERNATIVE HIGH SCHOOL IN THE WORKS STUDENTS COULD EARN COLLEGE DEGREE WITHOUT TUITION COSTS.


Byline: Sue Doyle Staff Writer

VALENCIA - A new type of school designed to graduate students in four to five years with high school diplomas A high school diploma is a diploma awarded for the completion of high school. In the United States and Canada, it is considered the minimum education required for government jobs and higher education. An equivalent is the GED.  and associate's degrees as·so·ci·ate's degree
n.
An academic degree conferred by a two-year college after the prescribed course of study has been successfully completed.
 has been proposed for Santa Clarita Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, .

About 70 early college high schools exist nationwide and start with a ninth-grade class that can take calculus calculus, branch of mathematics that studies continuously changing quantities. The calculus is characterized by the use of infinite processes, involving passage to a limit—the notion of tending toward, or approaching, an ultimate value. , physics and other college courses at school while earning high school and college credits at the same time.

The intent is to increase graduation rates and bring college to students who otherwise might not have had a shot at earning diplomas past high school. But the schools are not exclusive to under-served teens.

College of the Canyons College of the Canyons is one of the fastest-growing community colleges in the state. According to the National Junior College Research Association, College of the Canyons consistently ranks in the top 50 community colleges in the nation.  last month received a $10,000 grant for preliminary planning of the school with the William S. Hart Union High School District. Ideally the two districts would work together on curriculum for the early college high school.

``This is a planning year, and we'll see what comes,'' said Dianne Van Hook, College of the Canyons president. ``I think it would be good for students.''

District officials will learn this spring if plans for the new school are approved when they meet with the Foundation for California Community Colleges, which provided the planning grant and approves funding for early college high schools.

If approved by the nonprofit, the next decision lies with the Hart district, which will determine whether they can take on an additional high school. There are about 20 early college high schools in California This is a list of high schools in the state of California. Alameda County
  • Oakland Unified School District
  • Castlemont Community of Small Schools (previously Castlemont Senior High School), Oakland
.

The idea for early college high school comes from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, philanthropic institution founded in 1994 by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, to improve the lives of the poor throughout the world, primarily through grants for projects relating to global health care, , which has allocated more than $30 million toward them. Other well-known foundations also contribute.

The schools were designed to remove obstacles that prevent some students from attending college. Because it's part of public high school, students don't pay college tuition The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject.
Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page.
College tuition
 for class and often don't have to leave their schools to take them.

Early college high schools are different from the crop of middle colleges, such as Academy of the Canyons, that began appearing on community college campuses across the country in the '70s. Students at those schools take a mix of high school and college courses; however, they're only available to juniors and seniors.

In addition, about 60 percent of early college high schools have themes. Some focus on math, science or liberal arts liberal arts, term originally used to designate the arts or studies suited to freemen. It was applied in the Middle Ages to seven branches of learning, the trivium of grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and the quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. . Others target a particular student population.

Nova Academy in Santa Ana Santa Ana, city, El Salvador
Santa Ana (sän'tä ä`nä), city (1993 pop. 129,873), W El Salvador. It is the second largest city in the country and the commercial and processing center for a sugarcane, coffee, and cattle region.
, for example, was planned for foster youth who typically find themselves on their own at 18. The charter school opened in 2005 and has 16 students who take classes at Santa Ana Community College. They plan on growing to about 100.

``To see them in class with their heads held high - it's awesome,'' said Donald Verleur, chief executive officer of Olive Crest, a nonprofit organization Nonprofit Organization

An association that is given tax-free status. Donations to a non-profit organization are often tax deductible as well.

Notes:
Examples of non-profit organizations are charities, hospitals and schools.
 that assists foster youth and oversees Nova Academy.

Verleur said there are universities that provide full scholarships for foster youth, but first teens need the grades to get them, an impossibility for many who have lived tumultuous childhoods where food and shelter, not education, were priorities.

Officials from local colleges and universities told Verleur that these students could still qualify for scholarships if they do well in their community college courses.

Verleur hopes Nova Academy will bridge the education gap for foster youth and launch them into more secure lives.

More than 1,500 students from South Los Angeles South Los Angeles is the official name for a large geographic and cultural area lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California. The area was formerly called South Central Los Angeles, and is still sometimes called South Central.  put their names in a lottery last year for the chance to attend an early college high school that sits on the corner of Main Street and Martin Luther King Drive.

Wallis Annenburg Charter High School, a charter in Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. , first opened its doors in 2003, and serves about 205 freshman, sophomores and juniors. Next year, it'll grow to include a senior class but overall anticipates no more 400 students when it hits capacity.

About 70 percent of the student body qualifies for free or reduced lunch at the school that's still developing its college curriculum and so far offers calculus, biology and English composition.

Schools aren't expected to have entire curriculums together when doors first open and are considered part of the development process, but progress has to be shown, said Jeff Thompson, director of the early college high school initiative for the Foundation for California Community Colleges.

Principal Manuel Arellano said the small school brings an education to an area where students likely wouldn't have access to it.

``It's an opportunity that's unimaginable in your regular mainstream comprehensive high school that has a student population in the thousands,'' he said.

Sue Doyle, (661) 257-5254

sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com
COPYRIGHT 2006 Daily News
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2006, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

 Reader Opinion

Title:

Comment:



 

Article Details
Printer friendly Cite/link Email Feedback
Publication:Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
Date:Feb 26, 2006
Words:764
Previous Article:HELICOPTER CRASH KILLS STUDENT; ONE SURVIVES.
Next Article:NOHO HIGH BACK ON TOP STUDENTS RECLAIM SCIENCE BOWL TITLE.
Topics:



Related Articles
Should College Be Free?
Getting the Jump on College.
Getting the Jump on College.
PIERCE PROGRAM TO OFFER CSU DEGREE IN BUSINESS.
Combined/accelerated degree programs--to attract motivated students, get an 'edge,' and help families fight soaring costs.
LURE OF DUAL CREDITS FIRES UP TEENS.
Majoring in debt.
CHANGING JOBS, YOUR LIFE, ONE CLASS AT A TIME.
No diploma? No problem.
The new 'A's' of higher education: accessibility, affordability, and accountability are what matter most these days.

Terms of use | Copyright © 2012 Farlex, Inc. | Feedback | For webmasters | Submit articles