Dalton State College and the Dalton Public Schools have received a grant of $400,000 to start an “early college high school” that will enable students to earn both a high school diploma and two years of college toward a bachelor’s degree during their high school career.

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the Early College High School Initiative grant will provide initial funding for the school, which will be called Dalton Early College.

“We are delighted to join the national Early College High School Initiative, and we look forward to welcoming the first students into the program in the fall of 2006,” says Jodi Johnson, Vice President for Enrollment and Student Services for Dalton State.

“It is an honor to be among the schools nationwide that have received this grant,” she continues. “We expect that hundreds of students will benefit annually from this program after it is fully launched.”

By 2008, the Early College High School Initiative will have created more than 170 of these pioneering small high schools across the country.

Students who are candidates for this program must be first-generation college students and those for whom a smooth transition into postsecondary education may be problematic, Johnson says. Many of these students are currently underserved or under-prepared for the rigor, depth and intensity of college-level work.

Students who are accepted into the program will spend their ninth and tenth grade years at Dalton High School where they will take their core courses as a cohort group and their electives with other high school students.

Their eleventh and twelfth grade years will be spent on the Dalton State College campus. Students will be in cohort groups for their first 21 hours of college credit, after which they will take classes in their chosen major.

“Underserved adolescents preparing for college should be spending their time in a rich, demanding academic environment, not in the maze of college applications, financial aid forms, and worries about whether college will accept them,” says Nancy Hoffman, Vice President of Jobs for the Future and Director of the Early College High School Initiative.

“Early college high schools take the higher education access agenda a big step further: we are creating places where kids can study hard, move to college-level courses as soon as they are ready, and gain a high school diploma and two years of college credit without having to leave their home institution,” Hoffman says.

An important component of this program, organizers say, is one-on-one time with faculty members, which each student will receive weekly. Also, peer involvement, which includes college mentors working individually with Dalton Early College students, will provide these young people with extra support in the form of guidance and coaching. The Summer Academy, a five-week enrichment camp held each summer, will be another opportunity that some Dalton Early College students can benefit from, says Johnson.

“We are concerned not just about the student inside the classroom, but also what goes on outside the classroom that affects their success,” Johnson says, noting that a student’s family must sign a contract pledging support of the child’s participation in the program.

A coordinator for Dalton Early College will be hired to oversee the program and will be based at Dalton High School.

“This initiative will continue the solid history of collaboration between Dalton State College and the Dalton Public Schools,” Johnson says. “We look forward to a great partnership.”