Toledo Early College High School, a Toledo Public Schools high school operated in partnership with The University of Toledo, has been issued a Bronze Medal by U.S. News and World Report as part of its 2012 “Best High Schools” edition.

Toledo Early College High School allows students to earn college credit while in high school. Located on the UT Scott Park Campus of Energy and Innovation, early college students begin their studies with high school courses and college courses are added to their curriculum in their junior and senior years. Students can graduate high school with up to 60 college credits – the equivalent of two years of college.

U.S. News and World Report issued the Bronze Medal to schools that meet a number of academic achievement criteria as judged by the publication, including college readiness, math and reading. Toledo students scored 100 percent proficient in math and 98 percent proficient in reading.

“The University of Toledo is proud to partner with Toledo Public Schools to give these students the unique opportunity to be a high school student and a college student at the same time,” said Dr. William McMillen, UT provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “The successes of the students in the Toledo Early College High School truly should be celebrated for their ability to excel at both the high school and college levels simultaneously.”

The Toledo Early College High School opened for the 2005-06 academic year and graduated its first class of students in May, 2009. TPS will celebrate the 2012 graduates at 2 p.m. Tuesday, May 22 in Nitschke Auditorium on the UT Main Campus.

Early Colleges in Ohio got their start in 2003, when KnowledgeWorks, working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Ohio Department of Education and others, created the Ohio High School Transformation Initiative (OHSTI) and Early College High School Initiative reform models partly in response to the state’s poor graduation rate.

The program is designed to increase the number of first-generation, low-income, English language learners and students of color completing a four-year degree.

Toledo Early College High School is among nine early college high schools initiated by KnowledgeWorks that are now a part of EDWorks’ Fast Track high school approach, which is a subsidiary of KnowledgeWorks.

Two other Ohio early college high schools also were issued Bronze Medals – Dayton Early College Academy and Youngstown Early College.

The state’s Early College High Schools have consistently reported more than 33 percent of students graduate from high school with both a high school diploma and two years of college credit or an associate degree.

“The Ohio early colleges are still in their educational infancy, but the success of Youngstown, DECA and Toledo early college high schools is emblematic of what can occur, even over a short span of time, when dedicated professionals endeavor to create challenging academic programs,” said Thomas J. Lasley, II, executive director of the Ohio Early College Association. “Such programs are essential if our young people are going to be competitive for future jobs in a globalized market economy.”

To see the U.S. News and World Report ranking of Toledo Early College High School, visit utole.do/techs.

Media Coverage
13 ABC (May 22, 2012)