Sixty-two students from Clay, Lowndes, Noxubee and Oktibbeha counties have been selected to be part of a new regional high school’s inaugural class.
The Golden Triangle Early College High School is a partnership of the Mississippi Department of Education, East Mississippi Community College and Mississippi State University. The school will provide opportunities for students to earn college credit while earning a high school diploma at the same time, according to a MSU press release.
Every eighth grade student in the Golden Triangle and Noxubee County was eligible to apply. The target audience, though, included students who are first-generation college students and those likely to need additional academic and financial support to be successful in college.
Jill Savely, former principal at Columbus High School, has been named principal at the school.
“The early college high schools in North Carolina have higher graduation rates than traditional high schools and students show improved grades and test scores,” Savely said. “These schools give students the opportunity to demonstrate they can do college level work. I’m really looking forward to working with our first class this fall.”
Forty-eight percent of the accepted applicants are first-generation college-going students. Sixty-nine percent of students accepted are from homes with an annual household income of less than $39,000, according to MSU.
“Early college high schools give students who may otherwise not have had the chance to attend college an opportunity to earn college credit for transfer to a four-year school or toward a career goal,” said Jean Massey, associate superintendent at MDE.
Mississippi’s college attainment rate lags the national average, but there are a number of efforts underway to close this gap, according to Julie Jordan, director of the Research and Curriculum Unit at MSU.
“We believe the Golden Triangle Early College High School is going to be another tool to help more Mississippi students move successfully from high school to college and into the workforce,” Jordan said.
MDE has been working with North Carolina New Schools, which has 10 years of experience in implementing early college high schools. North Carolina has 70 early college high schools. Through a grant, the organization provides professional development and consultation to MDE at no cost.
Seats were allocated based on individual school enrollment. Applications were submitted from Columbus, Caledonia, New Hope, West Lowndes, Noxubee, Starkville/Oktibbeha and West Point.
The multi-part selection process for GTECHS started in February with a series of meetings with school officials, parents and students. That led to soliciting applications, interviews with applicants, and then a lottery to fill the 60 available slots in the cohort. Two students were added because they are qualified siblings of accepted students, but they were not chosen in the lottery. Evaluation of state test scores, grades, written application questions, and a student interview were used to determine if an applicant was qualified.
The invited group of students is comprised of 19 male students (30.6 percent), and 43 females (69.4 percent). Forty-two students are African American (67.7 percent), 19 (30.6 percent) are white, and one is mixed-race (1.6 percent).
Students received notification letters this week, and have two weeks to accept or decline. Any vacant seats after the two-week period will be filled from a waiting list of qualified applicants.
The Golden Triangle Early College High School will be located at EMCC’s Golden Triangle campus. Funding sources include the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, MDE allocations and additional grant funding.
For more information about GTECHS, visit http://www.eastms.edu/students/academics/echs.
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