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Send Them to College. [|http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy045.nclive.org/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=125&sid=787bcfb1-da10-437b-82da-828574a2ddd8%40sessionmgr115&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=45479734] 1.The Early College High School Initiative was started by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is coordinated by Jobs for the Future, and is sponsored by 19 other foundations as well. 2.The project opened its first three schools in 2002, hoping to expand to 170 by 2008. 3. Now, seven years in, it has 201 schools serving 42,000 students, who enroll in college courses tuition-free. 4. This year, the schools graduated about 2,500 students, the most ever. 5. The supporting foundations hope to add 300 more high schools by 2020 to the early-college program. 6. Nancy Hoffman, who directs Jobs for the Future's part of the early college initiative, says officials decided to change the original goal, of helping all students earn associate degrees, to what they consider a more practical goal: earning up to two years of college credit. 7. Over all, studies show that early-college students outperform other students in their school districts on math, English, and reading exams required by their states. 8. Attendance rates are over 90%, and grade-to-grade promotion rates also exceed 90%. 9. Schools in the initiative form partnerships with local colleges, 72% of which are two-year colleges. 10. More than half of the schools are located on college campuses; others are nearby. 11. By setting college-level expectations for students at young ages, the initiative prepares them for being on a campus — a cultural and academic shift that turns many new high school graduates away from higher education. 12. But blending college and high school expectations has proved difficult.On college campuses, students themselves are responsible for their education, while in high school, that responsibility falls more squarely on the teacher. 13. San Diego's School of Media, Visual and Performing Arts, for one, tries to make the transition more seamless by having teachers accompany students to their courses at San Diego City College. 14. A growing number of early-college schools, Hoffman says, are even pushing the model into middle school grades. 15. The Queens School of Inquiry, which partners with the City University of New York's Queens College, is one of about 30 such schools. 16. Students there can start earning college credits in 9th grade, but 6th graders, too, start out with "stunning" amounts of homework, says Mary Beth Schaefer, the college's liaison to the school. 17. Considerable support is often needed, because admissions standards at early-college high schools are nontraditional. Some use lotteries; others require lengthy applications. 18. But in almost all cases, the students most likely to get in are those who are struggling academically, need special-education plans, or are learning English as a second language. 19. From the beginning, students are told that they will need hard work, long hours, and summer classes to reach their goals. 20. To earn associate degrees while in high school, early-college students have longer school days and take courses during the summer. 21. Assigning rigorous course work to students who normally wouldn't consider college produced skepticism at first. 22. Critics said it would overwhelm students already behind. 23. A few years into the initiative, Raymond F. Bacchetti, an education scholar who was consulting for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, interviewed dozens of college faculty members and administrators and found that most expressed concern over the acceleration of the learning process and the students' maturity. 24. Melinda Mechur Karp, a senior research associate at the Institute on Education and the Economy/Community College Research Center at Columbia University's. Teachers College, says that while dual-enrollment programs have historically been meant for advanced students, recent data show that the counterintuitive method of placing lower-achieving youths in similar programs is paying off. 25. With about 86% of low-income students now saying they want to get bachelor's degrees or higher, the problem is not motivation but preparation, she says. 26. But as early-college high schools grow more popular, sustaining them remains a problem. 27. Supporting foundations cover the expensive start-up costs, but continuing operations are backed by the school districts — and can cost 5% to 12% more than educating students at regular public high schools does. 28. Covering college tuition for students is an additional cost. In some cases, colleges agree to foot the bill for tuition; in others, it's up to the high schools.
 * Paper written in 2009!!!**