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The truth about how to create sustainable conditions for powerful teaching and learning is bred in the bones of schools rather than the brains of researchers or policy-makers. Motivated by this belief, new and restructuring schools that aim to incorporate the CES Common Principles forge connections with other Coalition schools. They rely on each other for support, mutual learning, and perspective.

Announcements about students from Greer Middle College Charter High School.  Scholarship winners, pageant winners, blood drive, and participation in the MCNC Student Conference in California.

This excerpt from an interview with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, PLP founder, captures critical points for PD online. "Will and I agreed that we would only work with teams of school-based educators because the research made it clear that it was collaborative teams within in a school, working together, that really brought about sustainable improvement. That would give us what we needed to anchor the virtual experience in a local context. We also wanted participants to experience a global community of practice-to be able to have conversations with people very different than themselves, with fresh perspectives. Our thinking was that if we put teams of educators who had different ideologies, different geography, different purposes and challenges, all together in the same space, then they could each bring what they did well to the table and people could learn from that. Ultimately that would mean public, private, Catholic, and other kinds of schools; educators teaching well-to-do, middle-class, and poor kids; educators in different states and nations, at different grade levels, and in different content areas and roles. What ultimately grew out of our brainstorming was a three-pronged model of professional development that emphasizes (1) local learning communities at the school/district level; (2) an online community of practice that's both global and deep; and (3) a third prong that is more personal-the idea of a personal learning network that each educator develops as a mega-resource for ideas and information about their particular interests and areas of practice. (These three prongs are described in depth in a new book, The Connected Educator, where PLP community leader Lani Ritter Hall and I tell the story of the evolution of our model and the very solid research base behind it.)

By Jane Stancill in the Education section of the North Carolina NewsObserver.com, December 31 2010. "North Carolina has become the nation's incubator of early college high schools, with one-third of the total in the United States," 71 schools with 15,000 students. In 2011, NC State University will launch a new early college high school. This article provides background on the ECHS.

Five South Carolina public schools are among the 300 schools nationwide named 2010 No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon winners today by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.  Official award ceremonies take place in November in Washington, DC.

GTCHS was one of five   South Carolina school is winner the Palmetto's Finest Award for the 2009 school year!

*Publications

Early College High School Initiative "partner organizations...have started or redesigned more than 230 schools in 28 states and the District of Columbia." Their Publications tab offers resources on creating an early college high school, as well as policy issues.

From the overview, "The Texas High School Project (THSP) is a unique public-private alliance dedicated to significantly improving the postsecondary readiness of low-income students with a focus on students in low-performing schools." Early college high schools are one of their focus areas.

Another MCNC school wins the U.S. Blue Ribbon Award

Instructional Rounds, based on the work of Dr. Richard Elmore, is a process designed to examine what is happening with teaching/learning in classrooms and schools by working with groups of educators (networks) within a school, school district, or area.

Title: Companies are Erecting In-House Social Networks, June 26, 2011, This article intrigued me from the get-go because: 1) it speaks to the desire for people to be connected socially in their work; 2) it provides forums (opportunities) for the distantly-connected worker(s)/network member(s) to 'trickle-up' by sharing innovative practice/ideas; 3) it resembles Facebook for its ease of participation and entry level; 4) it creates a social network, which is the beginning of conversation, which is the beginning of collaboration, no? :-) We know that high school students LOVE the SLI because it gives them the opportunity to meet and greet and sometimes talk about meaningful social justice issues. But the hook is social, then learning. We have been talking about trying Facebook this year to ease the way in for up to 200 kids, but many school districts do not allow students to access Facebook from school computers. Maybe we need to explore Yammer or Chatter or look to see if there is a comparable open source app?

The Meadows Foundation supports charitable needs in Texas, with approximately 13% of their money going towards education. One of their flagship projects is called Charitable Schools and encourages student-led community service in high schools and middle schools. There is no specific mention of early college on their website.

MCNC's school Greer appealed against the South Carolina's Department of Education and won the right to be amongst 14 out of 179 high schools statewide to met the No Child Left Behind standards.

Overview of the federal government's Blue Ribbon Schools program, this site includes the application and an outline of the application process, as well as information about last year's winning schools.

Sounds like EC and then some...the story of Perry County in Alabama and how they are succeeding at producing high school graduates at a much higher rate than everyone else in this demographic group PLUS they place 75% of their students in college. Reference is made also to students needing but one semester to get a nursing degree when they graduate from high school. They start the concentrated learning in kindergarten.

Study of select Woodrow Wilson Foundation and Middle College National Consortium Early Colleges and how high school and college partners strive to align secondary and post-secondary standards with college readiness.

U.S. News and World Report 2010 Bronze Best High School Winner for the third year in a row!

"Lead Your School provides school leaders with the tools, training and support to rapidly correct areas of concern and leverage areas of strength."

NCNSP works with school districts and educators to develop more than 100 innovative high schools in every region of the state. NCNSP partners with colleges and universities, state and local government, and supporters in business and philanthropy. The organization provides a full range of services and supports to enhance the knowledge and skills of educators in new schools.