Gates Foundation funds more early college high schools.School districts in more than 25 states will get a chance to boost their high school graduation rates and give low-income students a head-start on a college education through $29.6 million in new grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Melinda French Gates (born Melinda Ann French on August 15, 1964) is a former unit manager for several Microsoft products: Publisher, Microsoft Bob, Encarta, and Expedia. In 1994, she married Bill Gates, founder, chairman, and former chief software architect of Microsoft. Foundation. The foundation announced in December that it was giving more than $22 million to seven organizations to support creating 42 new early college high schools. In addition, Jobs for the Future, a Boston-based nonprofit that leads implementation of the ECHS ECHS Early College High School ECHS Ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (India) ECHS East Coweta High School (Sharpsburg, Georgia) ECHS Extended Cylinder Head Sector network, will get $7 million to expand technical assistance, track the progress of students enrolled in the schools, and share best practices. Early college high schools give traditionally underserved students a rigorous college-level curriculum and the opportunity to earn two years of college credit or an associate's degree 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. , encouraging students to stay in high school as well as saving time and money for a student's future college education. As of last fall, 50 such high schools were open and educating more than 8,000 students in 19 states. By fall 2008, more than 170 schools will exist throughout the country, ultimately serving more than 65,000 students, according to the Gates Foundation. Since 2001, the ECHS network has received more than $124 million from the Gates Foundation and other foundations and corporations. Whether the investment is paying off is still unknown because most of the schools already open are less than two years old, says Toro Toro may refer to:
"However, given the high expectations, coherent curriculum, college partnerships and strong supports, we're confident that nearly all of these schools will be better options than currently exist for target low-income students," Vander Ark says. "It's time to re-engineer our secondary schools. Millions of our teenage youth are being left behind every day, unprepared to study further or secure good jobs in our sink-or-swim economy," adds Jobs for the Future CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. Marlene Seltzer. All early college high schools are public schools. Although most are located on a community college campus, they operate in partnership with the local school district. Even without outside funding, any school district can create an ECHS, says Cece Cunningham, director of the Middle College National Consortium. She recommends allowing a year to make arrangements with a local college, select students, designate faculty, and design the curriculum. Instead of a separate high school building on the college campus, high school classrooms should be integrated with college classrooms by academic disciplines. "The more students can blend in, you won't have all the behavioral issues that you normally do as kids start high school," Cunningham says. Organizations Leading the College Education Grant * Antioch University Seattle * KnowledgeWorks Foundation * Middle College National Consortium * National Council of La Raza The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) is the largest Hispanic advocacy organization in the United States. The NCLR was founded in 1968 as a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing discrimination and poverty and to improving the lives and economic opportunities of * Portland (Ore.) Community College's Gateway to College * Rochester (N.Y.) Area Community Foundation and Rochester City School District The Rochester City School District is a public school district in New York State that serves approximately 33,000 students in the city of Rochester in Monroe County, with over 6,000 employees and an operating budget of $484 million (~$14,854 per student). * University System of Georgia The University System of Georgia (USG) is the organizational body that includes all public institutions of higher learning in Georgia. The System is governed by the Georgia Board of Regents. and Georgia Department of Education The Georgia Department of Education is an American agency that governs public education in the state of Georgia. They manage funding and testing for local educational agencies accountable for student achievement. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion