Students who enroll in the program will be able to earn both a high school diploma and two years of college toward a bachelor’s degree during the four years of their high school career. They will attend classes for two years at Dalton High School, followed by two years on the Dalton State campus. Upon graduation, they should have earned both a high school diploma and an associate’s degree.

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.

Janice George, Ruby Porter, and Phillip Brown.

This week, Janice George, Director of Early Colleges for the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, Dr. Ruby Porter, Dalton Early College Coordinator, and Phillip Brown, Principal of Dalton High School, met with other members of the Dalton Early College committee to discuss the details of the new program, which is slated to begin in the fall of 2006.

“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.

“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.

“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.”