Early college high schools save time and money
San Jacinto College offers a jumpstart into higher education through early college high school programs that are available at all three San Jacinto College campuses. The early college high schools allow students to earn high school and college credits concurrently, ultimately graduating with an associate degree before earning their high school diploma.
The Central Campus is home to the Pasadena Early College High School (PECHS), the South Campus is home to Clear Horizons Early College High School (CHECHS), and the North Campus is home to Sheldon Early College High School (Sheldon ECHS), with plans to open the Galena Park Career and Technical Education Early College High School (CTE ECHS) next year. In total, 876 students attended early college high school at San Jacinto College this past academic year.
Some early college high school programs are located entirely on a college campus, such as Clear Horizons, while other early college high school programs operate as a “school within a school” model, where the first two years of the program are taught on the high school campus by college and high school faculty, and the third and fourth years are taught on the college campus. In this case, space is made available on the college campus for school district personnel to support the high school students.
“Both models provide for inclusion of early college high school students in college clubs, services, and service learning opportunities,” commented Pam Campbell, San Jacinto College assistant vice chancellor for educational partnerships. “In addition, early college high school students start their own clubs to replicate some characteristics of a traditional high school experience.”
Most early college high schools have a high school principal and a counselor dedicated to the school. Many also add another counselor and an assistant principal as the school grows. The Texas Education Agency design for an early college high school targets under-represented populations based on race/ethnicity, first-generation-in-college, at-risk, low socio-economic, and/or underachieving students. In addition, they target highly capable students who have not yet fulfilled their potential. High school teachers are assigned to the early college high schools exclusively and serve as mentors to the students.
Early college high school students have ties to their local high schools, but also have access to the high-tech facilities and libraries of the college. Campbell says that early college high schools uniformly have high attendance rates, very low discipline problems, and offer an enhanced learning environment.
As dual credit students at San Jacinto College, twins Saige and Shianne Willingham earned high school diplomas and general studies college associate degrees concurrently, which means they entered university as juniors at the age of 18. They admit that taking college courses while attending high school at Crosby High School was difficult and challenging, but also rewarding.
“Perhaps the hardest part was time management,” commented Saige. “We had to get up at 6 a.m., in order to make it on time for classes at the College, and then return later each day for classes at the high school. After a while, I had to give up soccer because there were just too many things to juggle. And I really like soccer, but in the end the hard work and sacrifices will pay off.”
– Rob Vanya