The Woodrow Wilson Early College High School Initiative
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Reports & Other Publications
Developing College Readiness in an Early College Model High School (62 pp)
Lessons from University High School of Science and Engineering (UHSSE) and the University of Hartford Partnership
by Suzanne D'Annolfo, Donn Weinholtz, Elizabeth Colli, Aaron Brown, and Martin Folan for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
The University High School of Science and Engineering and the University of Hartford, located in Hartford CT, offer wisdom and advice about what it takes to prepare underserved and underrepresented students for college in a new publication, Developing College Readiness in an Early College Model High School. This Woodrow Wilson early college school, launched in 2004, has earned citywide, statewide and national recognition for student achievement and teaching excellence. Accolades from Hartford Public Schools—as a Shining Star School; Magnet Schools of America—as a School of Excellence; MIT and Yale faculty—as Teachers of Excellence; Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (CONNCAN)—as a Top Ten Connecticut School, and seventh in closing the achievement gap for African American students—all recognize how the school is making a difference in the lives of Hartford area students. Developing College Readiness in an Early College Model High School describes the work of University High School and the University of Hartford around the seven principles of college and career readiness presented in David Conley's 2010 book, College and Career Ready: Helping All Students Succeed Beyond High School.
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College Readiness: The View from Early College High Schools (23 pp)
by Roberta S. Matthews for the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
College Readiness: The View from Early College High Schools focuses on the work teachers do in early college high school classrooms to get their students ready to not only go to college but to do well once they get there. Author Roberta S. Matthews reveals how college and high school faculty come together in English, mathematics, history, and science to identify—and then fill in—the gaps between what teachers are required to teach according to state standards and what students need to know and be able to do in the first year of college. Dr. Matthews also sheds light on how early colleges tackle some of the most important challenges that cannot be addressed by content standards and assessments—the study skills, self-monitoring, and understanding of collegiate expectations that are rarely taught explicitly but are paramount to postsecondary success.
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The Power of Partnership: How Early College Creates Rich Contexts for Engaging Faculties (28 pp)
by Roberta S. Matthews and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
Of the rich school-university partnerships that have become the hallmark of Woodrow Wilson Early Colleges, the Science, Technology, and Research (STAR) High School at Brooklyn College offers one of the best models. Created in 2003, STAR was one of the first Early College High Schools funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It graduated its first class in 2007 with an extraordinary 95% graduation rate. Much of the secret to STAR’s success lies in the model of collaboration described in this report by Roberta Matthews, under whose leadership as Provost of Brooklyn College STAR was created. Her analysis of the experience of creating and supporting these partnerships offers a valuable template for other institutions.
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Ensuring College Success: Scaffolding Experiences for Students and Faculty in an Early College School (26 pp)
by Anne Newton, Jobs for the Future and Kristen Vogt, Associate Director of Woodrow Wilson Early College Initiative
The partnership between Brooklyn College and Science, Technology and Research (STAR) Early College School demonstrates how students benefit when colleges and high schools work together. STAR and its partners carefully designed a Transition Plan which gradually introduces students to college-going experiences and the demands of college coursework, while providing a wide variety of supports tailored to individual needs. Each component of the plan was created through college and high school faculty collaboration, fostered by formal and informal organizational structures of the partnership. Ensuring College Success is a joint publication of Jobs for the Future and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.
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