Five years ago, Buncombe County Early College became a trailblazer in education in North Carolina, opening an innovative high school on the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College campus.
The idea was to give students, mostly from low-income homes, the opportunity of graduating from the five-year program with both a high school and a 66-credit associate’s college degree, fully honored by any school in the University of North Carolina system.
The school was made possible with a multimillion grant in 2004 by the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation.
The first group of 60 students who entered the program during the 2005-06 school year set out on an uncharted frontier.
Carolina Journal began following the progress of the fledgling school in 2007. At the time, Principal Meg Turner was candid about their initial struggles.
During her first interview, Turner said the journey had already proved unsettling for 11 of the 60 students who had already left the program.
In a recent follow-up interview, Turner said those numbers continued to dwindle each consecutive year. Currently, 25 students remain and are planning to graduate in 2010. Of those, less than half will graduate with both a high school and associate’s degree as originally planned.
“Our program has not come without its challenges,” she said. “I refer to our first graduating class at Buncombe County Early College as our ‘pioneers.’ It’s been difficult for them because they were the ones who helped us figure out what we needed to figure out. We needed to find the right support systems and the right sequence of curriculum.”
Fifth-year student Megan Yoshida, 18, said she has experienced difficulties being a part of the inaugural class. A couple of years ago she was fully expecting to graduate with two diplomas. Now she’s hoping to finish her work and leave with a high school degree.
“It’s been hard,” she said. “It didn’t work out as planned. My class was the learning curve. There were times when I got frustrated, tired and fed-up. I wanted to quit, but I’ve had helpful and supportive teachers and I’ve always known the school’s been good for me, so I stuck it out. Right now I’m just focusing on getting my classes done and getting out of here. I am disappointed I’m not getting my associate’s degree.”
Yoshida said she was often jealous of the underclassmen because they have benefited from the trials and errors her class endured.
“They started off on a different path and are doing this program a better way,” she said. “They are planning ahead more for the younger classes and have a better idea of how to handle the situation.”
Fourth-year student Kiara Jones, 17, said she has learned a lot from the example given by the perseverance of the upperclassmen.
“I know it’s okay to struggle,” she said. “I’ve learned there are challenges and you have to expect them and work with them. It’s important to not give up, but to work it out, step it up more and work better.”
Third-year student Al McCarthy, 16, said the program has provided both the rigor and relevance she’s needed to meet her ultimate goal of becoming a law student. In fact, McCarthy said she’s hoping to graduate a year early with both degrees.
“The school has a comprehensive articulation agreement that is quite reasonable,” she said. “They have been flexible and allowed me to accelerate my learning experience, which is the right thing for me. And, it’s free college. I’m not going to get any better than this.”
Buncombe County Early College has performed extremely well for a school that is one of the first of its kind in the state, said Michael Webb, both associate vice president of Jobs for the Future and director of the national Early College High School Initiative in Boston.
He said the high attrition rate in the first graduating class is typical for early college programs across the country.
“It’s not exceptional that this happened,” Webb said. “It’s very difficult to be the first at something like this. Early college requires a different culture, not only for the students, but for the faculty as well. They have to rethink the mission of the school. The pioneering class is always bumpy. It takes time to develop the culture of the school.”
Webb said it’s important to look at the second and third year classes to find out how the school is doing.
Turner said students in the lower years are beginning to understand the depth of curriculum, expectations, and the personal responsibility needed to be successful at the school. They’re committed to the high-quality work and creative thinking needed to achieve in the program.
She said only a handful of students have left the school from the second class and there’s only one dropout from the third class.
“Every group gets progressively stronger,” Turner said. “It is reflective of the fact that we have gotten our foundational supports in place. Our procedures and curriculum seems steady now and the groups that have followed our first class are more stable and steady. They are focused, mature and goal-oriented. We are having much more success.”
Despite the school’s initial growing pains, challenges, and adjustments, Dr. Scott Ralls, president of the North Carolina Community College System said Buncombe County Early College has been a forerunner of educational reform throughout the state.
Because of this trailblazing spirit, he said there are now 69 early college programs, with more than 10,000 students, operating on community college and university campuses throughout the state.
“Certainly there have been adjustments along the way, but they have influenced the educational experience,” he said. “Each class has been a learning time, but the amount of work they have achieved in a short period of time is significant and it is spilling over in positive ways.” CJ