News Releases

July 15, 2004
Antioch University Seattle Selects Shelton High School As New Grant Recipient

 

Seattle — Antioch University Seattle has selected Shelton High School to receive an early college high school award. The school will work closely with the Skokomish and Squaxin Island Tribes, Olympic College and Antioch to create an early college high school.

Early college schools blend high school diploma and associates of arts degree requirements so that students may earn a diploma and A.A. degree concurrently. While Skokomish, Squaxin Island, and other Native students are the focus of this initiative in Mason County, other Shelton High School students also may access this program. In a survey of students at Shelton High, 331 reported having Native American ancestry. Both tribes will help create and implement the curriculum.

Shelton is the seventh grantee of Antioch’s statewide Early College High School for Native Youth Initiative, which seeks to better serve Native American students — students with the highest dropout rates and lowest college completion rates of any ethnic group in the country. Only about half of Native American students graduate from high school; of those, less than three percent will earn a bachelor's degree.

Shelton High School joins five other schools and one tribe in the initiative. The other grantees are:

  • La Conner High School in Skagit Valley
  • Medicine Wheel Academy in Spokane
  • Ferndale High School in Ferndale
  • Tulalip Heritage School in Marysville
  • Wellpinit High School on the Spokane Indian Reservation
  • Suquamish Tribe on the Port Madison Indian Reservation

Ferndale and Medicine Wheel Academy began their early college high school programs this year. During the next year, Antioch will identify one more site, for a total of eight schools to serve predominantly Native American students. All eight schools will be open by January 2006.
"Each school will feature a local, culturally relevant curriculum, integrate high school diploma and associate of arts degree requirements, promote family and community engagement, and provide academic advising. In addition, the schools will offer these services to students in their local communities, which should increase their chance of success," explains Linda Campbell, Ph.D., project director and core faculty member at Antioch University Seattle.

The schools are part of a multi-year, $60+ million initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Ford Foundation to create or redesign over 130 early college high schools for underserved and low-income young people and communities.

Antioch chooses its sites based on a written grant application and site visit. Each site demonstrated strengths that suggest future success at implementing early college programs, including:

  • small school size and personalized student support
  • academic programs that integrate local native culture
  • extensive family and community outreach
  • partnerships with tribal or community colleges

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation identified Antioch University Seattle in March 2002 to participate in the Early College High School Initiative. Antioch has successfully worked with tribal communities in the state, especially in its graduate and undergraduate education programs. In addition to offering reservation-based degree programs, Antioch University has a 150-year history of working to increase educational access for historically underserved populations.

Primary responsibility for designing and operating the 130 early college high schools across the nation rests with 10 partner organizations, coordinated by Jobs for the Future. In addition to Antioch University Seattle, they are: City University of New York, Foundation for California Community Colleges, KnowledgeWorks Foundation, Middle College National Consortium, National Council of La Raza, Portland Community College ’s Gateway to College, Utah Partnership Foundation, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and SECME, Inc. For more information about these partners and the Early College High School Initiative, visit www.earlycolleges.org.

About Antioch University Seattle
At Antioch University Seattle, adult learners find individualized, innovative programs with a commitment to academic excellence, community service and social justice. AUS is one of five campuses of Antioch University, founded in 1852 in Yellow Springs, Ohio.