Learn and Earn Initiative Gets Top 50 Recognition
Posted on: Thursday, 17 April 2008, 12:00 CDT
By Katisha Hayes, High Point Enterprise, N.C.
Apr. 17--GUILFORD COUNTY -- The state has received recognition for an initiative aimed at increasing the number of high school graduates who are ready for college and work.
North Carolina's Learn and Earn Initiative has been named among the top 50 programs in the 2008 Innovations in American Government Awards competition sponsored by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School.
The awards program recognizes the best in government innovation. Gov. Mike Easley launched the Learn and Earn initiative in 2004 as a way to help students jump-start their college education.
One component of the initiative was the creation of special schools housed on college campuses that allow high schoolers to earn a diploma and an associate's degree or two years of college credit within four or five years. At least 40 of those schools exist across the state, including nine schools in Guilford County that offer students dual-enrollment opportunities.
Tony Lamair Burks II, director of magnet and choice schools for Guilford County Schools, said the Learn and Earn schools have been successful because they prepare students early on for college-level work. "(The schools) build on the successes of early-entrance-to-college initiatives by creating smaller learning communities and capitalizing on the power of the college or university site," he said. Burks said the alternative schools empower teens to grow and develop academically and socially as they prepare for college and the work force.
The initiative also provides two other programs that bridgethe gap between high school and college: Learn and Earn Online allows students to take college courses online at their high schools and EARN (Education Access Rewards North Carolina) grants help disadvantaged students pay for college.
khayes@hpe.com|888-3657
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Source: High Point Enterprise
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