| Early College Alliance | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Ypsilanti, MI, United States | |
| Information | |
| Type | Early College Program |
| Established | 2007 |
| Grades | 10-12 |
| Mascot | Eagles |
| Website | http://extended.emich.edu/eca/index.aspx |
The Early College Alliance is an early college program based at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan that allows its students to earn sixty free credits of EMU classes[1] It began in 2007, becoming the ninth early college program in Michigan. It takes high school students who show interest from many surrounding school districts each year, giving them a chance to enter through a raffle. After beginning college classes at EMU, they can stay until they're twenty years of age or have completed their sixty credits.
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When the program began in 2007, there were five school districts taking part in the program: Milan Area School District, Lincoln Consolidated Schools, Whitmore Lake Public Schools, Ypsilanti Public Schools and Chelsea School District. Being added to the program in 2011 are two more school districts: Ann Arbor Public Schools and Willow Run Community Schools. Some of these schools have more available slots than others due to district size [2]
What ECA wants to be is a high school transformation program with personalized education. Their mission is to serve "as a scalable and sustainable model of collaboration among the public high schools and higher education institutions within Washtenaw County.[3]
Throughout the duration of a student’s classes in the program, they will be assigned an advisor. This advisor will help to track their performance and give them support, as well as creating a specific educational development plan for each student based on which classes they have already completed in High School. The program worked with the state of Michigan in order to create a list of required classes for each and every student. High school classes can fulfill some of these requirements, college classes can fulfill others. This allows for a lot of variation from student to student. Most students will complete the program in two to four years.
The program’s goal is to enroll 150 new students per year, with 400-500 overall students at a time in the program. Incoming students begin by taking four core high school classes: English, Math, Biology and History or Government. The students are evaluated on their academic commitment, development and emotional readiness coupled with basic skills, dubbed “Soft Skills” by the program.[4] Depending on these factors and how well they do in their classes, students are moved on into EMU classes or, in some extreme cases, removed from the program. ECA has very high standards in terms of their students' performance. If students don't pass their Eastern classes with a C or higher, it is treated as a failure and, if the class is required, the student will have to retake it.[5]