Generation SUNY is happy to share with you one of the many exciting initiatives that the Office of the Education Pipeline is working on statewide. The Smart Scholars Early College High School (ECHS) Program brings together a powerful public/private partnership between SUNY, EDWorks, and the New York Department of Education. Through the program, higher education collaborates with public school districts or public charter schools to create Early College High School programs. These programs provide students who are traditionally underrepresented in post-secondary education with the opportunity, preparation, and support to accelerate the completion of their high school studies and graduate college and career-ready.
New York’s Smart Scholars have a head start toward a college degree and a successful career. While they are in the program, students receive additional academic support from the high school/college partnerships to make sure they are at grade level and ready to participate in rigorous high school and collegiate courses. As participants of the program, our ECHS students earn an average of 20 and up to 60 transferable college credits, and earn a Regents diploma. The result is increased high school graduation and college completion rates, reduced college tuition costs for families, and reduced time to complete a college degree.
SUNY’s Office of the Education Pipeline serves as an intermediary of the Smart Scholars program, providing the 23 participating schools, school districts, and college/university partners with technical assistance. SUNY, in partnership with EDWorks of Cincinnati, Ohio, facilitates the development of the Smart Scholars program statewide.
The SUNY/EdWorks partnership brings together an extraordinary array of resources and experiences. The SUNY/EDWorks field manager, Andrea Mulkey, has over a decade of program management expertise in the nonprofit and public settings as well as building the Ohio Early College High School network since the beginning of the national early college high school movement. Ms. Mulkey operates out of Albany and travels throughout the state constantly, holding meetings with Smart Scholar administrators, participating in curriculum and other committee meetings, maintaining frequent communication by phone and e-mail with the Smart Scholar ECHS partners, and organizing professional development sessions for teachers and college faculty and sharing best practices from New York, Ohio and other nationally recognized college access, readiness, and success programs.
As our partners continue to work together to continue to expand opportunity across the state, here is a small look at current involvement and what you can keep an eye out for this year:
- Take a look at a video testimonial the Smart Scholars at Farmingdale State College put together:[iframe src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/55881896″ width=”500″ height=”281″ frameborder=”0″ webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen]
- Make sure you keep up with Generation SUNY during Early College High School week Monday, March 25 to Saturday, March 30 when we will be profiling partnerships and exciting Early College high School events!
- News from around the state as the 23 partners continue to forge a path of excellence and innovation with the Smart Scholars program.
- The launch of SUNY’s Smart Scholar website!
