Community college takes advantage of Bill Gates’ Early College
High School Initiative
Were you one of those lay-low students in high school who just
wanted to learn without the burden of peer pressure,
extracurricular expectations or the ballyhoo of sports?
Community college takes advantage of Bill Gates’ Early College High School Initiative
Were you one of those lay-low students in high school who just wanted to learn without the burden of peer pressure, extracurricular expectations or the ballyhoo of sports?
The wealthiest man in America – who probably was labeled a “nerd” during high school – did, too. For that reason, Microsoft king Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, created the Early High School Initiative (EHSI), and Gavilan Community College has plans to become part of the project in 2007. College officials expect to get $400,000 from the Foundation for California Community Colleges, the implementers of the initiative, in order to kick-start the program next year.
The program would allow Gilroy High School students – students who are disadvantaged or who would otherwise be academically successful if it weren’t for all the extra trappings and pitfalls of the regular high school experience – to obtain not just their high school diploma but also an AA degree from the two-year college in a mere five years. San Benito High School students could be eligible if they are granted an inter-district transfer.
Jeff Thompson, Director of the Early High School Initiative at the Foundation for California Community Colleges, said there’s never been a greater need for these kinds of partnerships between community colleges and high schools. Thompson’s organization is setting up the partnerships in 15 colleges throughout the state, including Gavilan. He reminds people that one-third of all high school students never graduate, according to the latest national statistics.
“It’s not associated with just one demographic group in our country,” Thompson said. “In California, the most compelling concern is for the future state economy and workforce. We know that with non-grads, 60 percent will be unemployed the majority of their lives.”
The educational system’s failure to reach more students at risk of dropping out is grabbing more headlines by the day. Earlier this week, the issue was explored in a two-day special on the Oprah Winfrey Show, called “American Schools in Crisis,” in which Bill and Melinda Gates were featured. Time Magazine devoted this week’s issue to the problem as well, with a cover story entitled “Dropout Nation.”
Thompson went on to explain that the California Public Policy Institute has done a study indicating there is going to be a significant gap between what the future work force will demand and skills that graduates will need to tackle such jobs. And the Latino population will be the largest bloc in the work force.
“The participating colleges are an alternative to the traditional high school design,” Thompson said. “We believe current enrollment in college, as a high school student, can provide motivation for excelling. It’s ideal for students who were like you and I,” he told a reporter, “who weren’t into the rah-rah stuff in high school, who wanted to just get an education and move on.”
The Early High School Initiative, or EHSI, targets low-income, first-generation college goers, Hispanics and African-Americans – students who historically have below average high school graduation rates. Instead of attending Gilroy High School, students could attend a specially made program on the Gavilan campus and begin college courses based on their performance as early as ninth grade. The program emphasizes a personalized learning environment with an effective student support network, such as counseling, to maximize students’ chance of success. In addition, after five years students would be eligible to transfer to a four-year college or university, toting a two-year college degree.
“The whole middle college high school idea has exploded,” Thompson said. “What we are trying to do is develop a higher success rate to ultimately change these numbers we’re seeing.”
The new EHSI was discussed at Gavilan’s Board of Trustees meeting Tuesday night, on campus, and hopes are high. But because of the sweeping changes the college is undergoing for the next decade, Gavilan President Steve Kinsella reported the staff has decided to wait until the fall of 2007 to implement the program.
“We’ve talked with the grant foundation, and we’re very eager and enthusiastic in proceeding with this,” Kinsella told trustees and the attending audience. “They’re willing to delay this for a year to make sure it gets off to a good start.”
Gavilan is on the verge of a massive eight-year renovation on the main campus, supplied by $64 million in Measure E funds, which will replace all campus infrastructure and many buildings built in the ’70s. While new facilities are erected, temporary structures will allow services to carry on during the upheaval, and officials are bracing themselves for the ambitious balancing act.
In addition, two new campuses are in the planning process – one to serve San Benito and another for South Valley, in the new city planned for the Coyote Valley area in Morgan Hill. The build-out won’t be completed until possibly 2020.
The college is also planning to build student and staff housing on a nine-hole golf course the college owns, adjacent to the campus. When the golf course lease ends in five years, officials hope to build dorms for students, apartments for staff and low-cost housing for seniors on the property. In the fall of 2006, the college will switch from 18-week semesters to 16-week semesters.
“So we want to give ourselves a year to adjust to the changes and to think it through and make sure it works,” college spokesperson Jan Bernstein-Chargin said. “Once it gets going, It will generate its own funding streams through average daily attendance.”
The Early High School Initiative at Gavilan would only be open to Gilroy high school students. San Benito High School is forming its own version of an Early High School Initiative, and Bernstein-Chargin said San Benito High School administrators are in preliminary discussions with Gavilan officials to see how the college can support it.
For more information about the Early College High School Initiative, visit http://www.foundationccc.org/echs/fccc/echs/echs_home.html. Or go to www.standup.org.
