As students at early college high schools across the state show promising results -- lower dropout rates, higher test scores, fewer suspensions -- districts are considering ways to expand these strategies to reach even more students.
Efforts at district-wide development include districts in which more than one high school partners with North Carolina New Schools to scale lessons learned from an innovative setting into a traditional setting as well as districts in which similar scaling includes elementary and middle school grade levels. Through a $16.5 million program with funding from private donors and a federal Investing in Innovation (i3) grant, NC New Schools is partnering with the State Board of Education, the NC Department of Public Instruction, the NC Community College System and 10 rural school districts to apply lessons learned from the state's growing number of early college high schools, which focus on ensuring that all students graduate ready for college and careers.
NC iRIS (North Carolina investing in Rural Innovative Schools) addresses the unique challenges of high-need students in rural areas by radically changing expectations for college readiness, teaching and learning, personalization, professionalism, leadership, and school design with a program that is affordable and scalable for participating districts. The program will bring NC New Schoolsâ?? proven Design Principles and research-based early college high school strategies into 18 traditional high schools serving high-need students. The five-year grant will impact more than 20,000 students by 2016. Partner school districts currently include the following counties: Alleghany, Beaufort, Hertford, Jones, Madison, Surry, Wilkes, Warren and Yancey.
NC New Schools is also helping Duplin County adopt an early-college approach to all its schools, so that students beginning in elementary grades see post-secondary education as an essential step after high school. These schools will now begin following the same strategies aimed at ensuring that all students graduate well prepared for college and career. With post-graduation readiness as the goal, the schools will start a process of transformation with four prongs of support from NC New Schools: coaching for teachers and principals, professional development for teachers, leadership development for principals, and ongoing assistance from NC New Schools staff.
