Dear Commons Community,

Early college programs – programs that combined high school with one or two years of college – are gaining in popularity.  They are one of several strategies that are aimed at trying to improve the graduation rates of high school students which in many areas of the country including New York City hovers around 60 percent.   While there are hundreds of these programs nationally, City University of New York operates about a dozen of them.  The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has funded a number of these programs and is gearing up to invest even more over the next half-dozen years.  The Obama Administration as part of its emphasis on community college and workforce development also appears to be looking to support more of these programs nationally.

For more information:

a 30-page report completed by Jobs for the Future is available at: http://www.jff.org/publications/education/innovators-college-readiness/921

a NY Times article on these programs is available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/education/08school.html?th&emc=th

Tony