National organization spotlights two of VGCC’s early college high schools

A new report from a national education and workforce development organization shines a spotlight on five of North Carolina’s early college high schools, including two that are operated as partnerships between Vance-Granville Community College and local school systems.

 

The publication, “ Accelerating College Readiness: Lessons from North Carolina’s Innovator Early Colleges ” by Cecilia Le and Jill Frankfort, was released by Massachusetts-based Jobs for the Future during the third annual National Early College High School Week (March 20-26, 2011). JFF manages the nationwide Early College High School Initiative, which includes 230 schools that serve more than 50,000 students each year. The report features five schools recently designated as “innovators” by the North Carolina New Schools Project: Anson County Early College High School, Buncombe County Early College High School, Davidson County Early College School, and two that opened on VGCC campuses in 2008, Vance County Early College High School and Warren Early College High School , which the authors say “offer emerging examples of practices that accelerate the academic progress of all students.” As a state, North Carolina leads the nation with 71 early colleges, each located on the campus of a partnering higher education institution, according to the report. “With the support of the North Carolina New Schools Project, a public-private organization that develops innovative high schools, North Carolina now has the most early colleges of any state and substantial data about what works,” the report said.

 

VCECHS, located on VGCC’s main campus in Vance County, and WECHS, based at the Warren County Campus in Warrenton, are set to graduate their first classes with both high school diplomas and college degrees in 2013. Both are lauded in the report for helping each student succeed through the use of data and a creative “whatever-it-takes” attitude on the part of teachers and administrators. The report’s authors said that lessons from these schools can be applied to “any high school seeking to put more students on the path to college.” VCECHS principal Michael Bullard and former WECHS principal Danylu Hundley (who retired in 2010) are both quoted in the report.

 

“We are proud to know that two of our four outstanding early college high schools are going to serve as models of best practices for high schools throughout the United States,” said Lyndon Hall, VGCC’s director of joint high school programs. “The Vance County and Warren County school systems have been terrific partners and pioneers, paving the way for VGCC to add early college high schools in partnership with Granville County and Franklin County schools, so that we now have four unique schools under our umbrella.”

 

For more information and to download the report, visit www.jff.org .