RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina plans next fall to open another high school on a college campus that allows students to earn college credit as they earn a high school diploma.
The News & Observer of Raleigh reports the latest early college high school will open on North Carolina State University’s campus and comes shortly after a study found the schools have higher attendance and lower suspension rates than traditional high schools.
The state introduced the schools in 2004 as an experiment to help lower-income students. The schools are at community colleges or universities, and students can get an associate’s degree or two years of credit toward a bachelor’s degree at the same time they complete work for their high school diplomas.
Early results of a study by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro compared ninth-graders at the new schools to their peers who applied but did not get selected in an admission lottery. The study found 97 percent of early college students took Algebra I by ninth grade, compared to 76 percent of the traditional high school students, said Julie Edmunds, project director for high school reform at the university’s education research institute.
“A lot of these kids want something different in their life, they really do,” Edmunds said. “The traditional school doesn’t give that to them. (Early college) helps them see their future.”
The new school at N.C. State will focus on science, technology, engineering and math. Fifty ninth-graders will be enrolled this fall, with plans to expand to 250 students.
Students will study how to solve major problems in the world like making solar energy affordable, preventing nuclear terror and keeping the Internet secure.
