Early College High School (ECHS) Initiative

Institution:

El Paso Community College

Academic Level:

Associate

Issue Area:

Academic Program

Issue Area:

Transfer

Year:

2011

Designation:

Examples of Excelencia

Designation:

Honoree

Key Personnel:

Tena, Lydia

Address:

El Paso Community College

Address 2:

P.O. Box 20500

City:

El Paso

State:

Zip:

79998

Website:

Early College High School (ECHS) Initiative

The Early College High School (ECHS) Initiative at El Paso Community College (EPCC) provides students in this region the opportunity to complete an associate degree while attending high school. The initiative was created in 2006 in partnership with Socorro Independent School District (ISD). There are now five ISD's in a joint effort to support ECHS students while maintaining academic rigor and creating a college environment by focusing on "college first" and "high school" second.

Goal/Mission:

The premise of an ECHS is to provide an accelerated environment for motivatedstudents who, along with their family, have made the commitment to pursue this higher goal. These are students who may not have otherwise had the opportunity to pursue a college education.

Outcome:

To date, 1,522 students are attending the EPCC Early College High Schools. By the time all five ECHS's have student cohorts in all four years of high school, there will be over 2,000 students attending all five ECHS's. The student population is comprised of over 80% Latino students in both EPCC and the five ECHS's who are directly benefited by this initiative. The graduation rate for ECHS students at EPCC looks very promising. In the first groups of ECHS students, about 110 have completed their associate degree during their junior or year and have begun taking courses towards their bachelor degree at University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) while in high school. For example, the Mission ECHS had 44 juniors graduate with associate degrees. At MECHS, 42 seniors graduated one semester early with their associate degree. The Northwest ECHS will be graduating 24 juniors and the TransMountain MECHS will also have early associate degree graduates who will be attending UTEP while in their senior year of high school.