Features

Early College Academic Features

In addition to the six design principles, middle and early college high schools have the following academic features to ensure that all students can and do earn 60 transferable college credits or an associates degree.

  • Students have the expectation to complete a combined academic plan that results in a high school diploma and an associates degree in five or fewer years of starting high school. This opportunity is highlighted in all literature, in student talk, in teacher classrooms, and in the ways that the school culture is visible to outsiders.
  • Dual enrollment in college courses is a requirement for high school graduation and everyone knows this. This results in a heightened academic push by all teachers and students.
  • Students are provided an academic and affective support system that starts in high school and is extended through community college completion for all youngsters.
  • There is communication between the high school and college that keeps students and student experiences at the center of all decisions.
  • Mott Middle College offers enhancement and expansion of peer group relationships for high school students who increasingly have more and more college students as peers (e.g. peer learning communities that have no age barriers).
  • Mott Middle College provides an enlargement of the adult community, including college staff that is responsible for the high school students.
  • A Mott Middle College graduate has a better chance to go on to full college completion (four years) because students have started and completed academically challenging and rigorous work in earlier stages of development than most high school students. They have also developed work habits and habits of mind that recognize them as more valued members of their community than their peers.