Charter Schools Booming
Deseret Morning News [Salt Lake City, UT], 2005-12-13
Around 15,000 students will be enrolled in more than 50 charter schools in Utah next year.

Adding Achievement
[Raleigh, NC] News & Observer, 2005-12-05
It was disappointing to read such a superficial look at schools that seek to require all students to master academically challenging coursework as your Nov. 30 article ‘Mixing skill levels getting mixed reviews.’ Academic rigor for all students, not just for some, is an important step to ensure that all students have meaningful options beyond high school and that North Carolina continues to be economically competitive. [Letter to the editor from Tony Habit, executive director, N.C. New Schools Project]

Hot-Button Topic May Be a Burning School Issue
[San Antonio, TX] Express-News, 2005-12-03
When Texas lawmakers declared this week that they’d take up the politically charged question of public school consolidation, they reopened a debate that’s always about far more than administrator salaries and district lines. . . . ‘We are not supportive of creating more large factory-model high schools based on a 100-year-old outdated design,’ said John Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Texas High School Project.

Toledo: Program Tackles Poverty Issues
[Toledo, OH] Blade, 2005-12-01
A local organization’s efforts to bring issues of poverty to young people through art has taken root in one of the city’s newest high schools.

A Straight Shot to College
[Gilroy, CA] Dispatch, 2005-12-01
Students who don’t fit the traditional high school mold may soon have an alternative. Gilroy Unified School District and Gavilan College officials will spend the next few months deciding if a nationwide program called the Early College High School Initiative would work in Gilroy.

Desire to Help Family Motivates Young Cancer Survivor
New York Times, 2005-11-21
Aileen Wu lifted her long sleeve over her left shoulder, revealing a three-inch scar that looked like a train track. Though she doesn’t mind showing the mark, Aileen, 16, says she will not wear tank tops in the summer because someone will inevitably ask what happened. . . . Aileen is a member of the National Honor Society at Middle College High School in Queens and participates in the Excel program, which allows her to work toward a degree at La Guardia Community College.

Stanford, Cal Go to School: Universities Run Public Campuses to Prepare Needy Kids for College
San Francisco Chronicle, 2005-10-30
Students in Staci Kavanagh’s ninth-grade art class needed a kind of remedial help that surprised her. ‘I had to teach them to use a ruler,’ said Kavanagh, who works at Stanford University’s East Palo Alto High. ‘They have been through eight years of school. You would think someone would show them an inch mark. . . .’ Cal opened California College Preparatory Academy in Oakland this year, with help from the nonprofit charter school organization Aspire Public Schools.

Siletz School to Become Early College
Newport [OR] News Times, 2005-10-19
Three years ago, Siletz residents were on the verge of losing their community school and facing what many of them considered as limited options for their children’s education. If all goes well, Siletz Valley School—rescued from the brink of closure in 2003 through a community effort led by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians—will become what’s known as an ‘early college high school’ for the 2006-2007 school year.

The New Philanthropists
Education Next, 2005-10-01
Last February, in a speech in Washington, D.C. that drew 45 of the nation’s governors as well as a hefty sample of the nation’s education policy elite, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates issued a jeremiad on the state of the American high school, arguing that this venerable institution is obsolete and a threat to the nation’s economic and political well-being.

To Finish High School, Teens Start College
Christian Science Monitor, 2005-09-13
When James Fletcher first walked into a college classroom last year, he was understandably nervous. After all, he was just a high school sophomore.

Early College High School Program Meets with Success
Indian Country Today, 2005-09-06
The Early College High School program that Antioch University administers with Gates Foundation funds has come a long way since its inception in 2002.

Lamberton Project to Help Urban Students Receive College Credit, Transfer Here
The Waltonian, 2005-08-31
A new partnership between Eastern University and Lamberton Public School in Philadelphia will allow urban students to earn up to two years of college credit while still in high school.

High Schoolers Get College Start at RCC
The Robesonian [Lumberton, NC], 2005-08-31
Fourteen-year-old William Carter is getting a jump on investigating crime scenes. The freshman decided to part ways with his friends at Lumberton High School and enroll in the new Early College at Robeson Community College.

Young Students Are New Focus for Big Donors
New York Times, 2005-08-21
In the world of education philanthropy, colleges and universities have traditionally received about twice as much grant money as elementary and secondary schools. But in the last few years there has been a quiet revolution in education giving, as a new generation of wealthy entrepreneurs, concerned about high dropout rates and low achievement levels, has begun pouring so much money into projects for kindergarten through 12th grade that such grants now outpace foundation giving to higher education.

Growing Minds: High Schools Offer College Credits to Challenge Underperformers
Boston Globe, 2005-08-14
Nearly everyone can remember students who took college or Advanced Placement courses in high school. They were usually high achievers, privileged, ahead of the pack, and focused on the future. . . . In an innovative twist, a promising new breed of high school is using a similar approach with students on the other end of the spectrum.

High School Could Be . . . Better. But How?
Christian Science Monitor, 2005-07-26
The American high school is one of the country’s most iconic institutions. It’s also proven to be one of the most difficult to change.

Early College Offers Amazing Opportunity
Canton (OH) Repository, 2005-06-01
Imagine finishing four years of high school with a diploma and an associate’s degree from Stark State College of Technology.

College-Based High Schools Fill Growing Need
Education Week, 2005-05-25
A year ago, Paul McNabb was on the verge of flunking high school. He felt lost in the crowd of 1,300 students on the urban campus he was attending here.

Public-Private Effort Helps Texas High Schools
Education Week, 2005-05-18
A new phase is getting under way in an ambitious project to help Texas students succeed in high school and graduate ready for college and the workforce.

Reform Efforts Focus on School Structure, Quality of Instruction
Rocky Mountain (CO) News, 2005-05-17
School districts, community groups, foundations and think tanks across the country are working to improve high schools and address concerns about low graduation rates.

High Schoolers in College, Too
Washington (DC) Times, 2005-05-16
The District’s Bell Multicultural High School believes in educating a student for life by providing the resources to make education meaningful throughout life.

Students to Pitch Portable Hydrogen Project to EPA
Deseret (UT) Morning News, 2005-04-22
When it is Bethanny Lane’s turn to describe the hydrogen fuel cell, she stands straight and confident before the assembled group and does not fidget or pull at her long blond hair. .. . Lane is one of a dozen students from a charter high school—the Academy for Math, Engineering and Science, in the Granite District—who helped develop this hydrogen fuel cell.

Companies Back ECHS Program With $100K
Selma (AL) Times-Journal, 2005-02-27

A Model for High Schools
Washington Post, 2005-02-24
The Gateway to College program, now in its fifth year, is one of eight ‘early college high school’ programs supported in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and four other charities.

ECHS Readies for Dedication Ceremony
Selma (AL) Times-Journal, 2005-02-23

New Program Gets Selma Students a Chance at College Degree
Selma (AL) Times-Journal, 2005-02-19

Gates Funds Prod City on Big Schools
New York Times, 2005-02-15
Concerned about the state of New York City’s large high schools, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has given nearly $100 million to create dozens of small schools in New York, is now urging city officials to come up with a comprehensive plan to help the big ones.

Parents Call TPS About Partnership with University of Toledo
Toledo Blade, 2005-01-13
When Cynthia Kendrick read yesterday morning that her eighth-grade daughter could graduate from high school with two tuition-free years of college under her belt, the West Toledo mother ran for the phone.

College Program Begins
Selma Times-Journal, 2005-01-10
The 100 Selma High ninth-graders inside Wallace Community College Selma’s Earl Goodwin Theater on Friday afternoon were so quiet that the only sounds coming from the room was the occasional crinkling of paper. . . . These ninth-graders are the select few to be chosen for the Selma City School System’s new Early College High School program.


Click here to return to the archive.