The Early College Program

The early college movement began in 2002, supported in large part by the small high school reform program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Since that time, nearly 250 early college high schools have been created throughout the country.

In addition, several more schools were re-designed from the previous "middle college" model in which students attend both high school and college courses on a college campus. Middle Colleges have been in existence for the last thirty years and have consistently shown great success in providing access to college for thousands of students from a wide diversity of backgrounds.

The first early college in the Denver area was Southwest Early College under a charter from Denver Public Schools. It's design and results greatly influenced the design of Early College of Arvada. SEC founder Christopher Gerboth wrote and gained approval for the ECA charter from the Colorado Charter School Institute in 2007 and is currently the director of student success.

Documented Success of Early College Programs

The Middle College National Consortium reported the following data for its member schools in 2006-2007:

• 13 operating schools (9 redesigns, 4 new) representing 3,866 students
• 7 states represented NY, CA, MI, TN, SC, CO, KY
• 63% of all students were enrolled in one or more college courses
• Total number of cumulative college course enrollments was 24,523
• Total number of cumulative earned credits was 49,787
• College course pass rate equalled 92%
• Average cumulative college GPA equalled 2.78

Source: http://www.mcnc.us/earlycollege_overview.htm

ECHS Achievement Data

NWEA Measures of Academic Progress (MAP): This computer-based test measures student knowledge and skills against defined Colorado standards. It is given in the fall and spring of each school year. For our initial testing session, students at ECHS averaged higher scores on NWEA MAP than other district charter schools and Colorado as a whole. You can view these results by following these links: [ MS Word Format | PDF Format ]

Students Success Management (SSM): ECA conducts a schoolwide survey of course grades, behavior, attendance, and advisory participation every 4-1/2 weeks. Students are classified as GREEN (meeting all expectations), YELLOW (meeting expecations but struggling in 1-2 areas), or RED (significantly struggling). Data for the first three periods during the Fall 2008 semester are available by following this link: [ PDF Format ]

College Partner: University of Colorado at Denver

ECHS is partnering with the University of Colorado at Denver (UCD) to provide college courses to its students. UCD courses are taught at the ECHS facility and at the main UCD campus in downtown Denver.