Education Foundation Supports Innovative High School with $40,000

The Clear Creek Education Foundation passionately supports innovative programs in Clear Creek ISD. Later this month the foundation will provide funds to teachers with great ideas to improve classroom learning. One of the most innovative ideas in CCISD is the Clear Horizons Early College High School. This year CCISD superintendent Dr. Greg Smith asked the foundation to support this innovative school with $20,000 to offset tuition costs. The foundation was able to double that with a $40,000 contribution which was made on the CHECHS campus to Dr. Smith and the school’s principal Dr. Jennifer Morrow.

Clear Horizons Early College High School was established in 2007 on the campus of San Jacinto College South on Beamer Road and has earned a TEA Exemplary rating four consecutive years. Students graduate each year with an Associate’s Degree from San Jacinto College three weeks before walking across the stage and receiving a high school diploma from CCISD. Prior to 2007, the program operated under the name Project Excel with a focus on advanced students. Beginning in 2007, the program shifted to the early college high school concept.

Early college high school is a bold approach based on the principle that academic rigor, combined with the opportunity to save time and money, is a powerful motivator for students to work hard and meet serious intellectual challenges. Since 2002, the partner organizations of the Early College High School Initiative have started or redesigned more than 200 schools in 24 states and the District of Columbia. There are more than 40 early college high schools in Texas. The schools are designed so that low-income youth, first-generation college goers, English language learners, students of color, and other young people who are traditionally underrepresented in higher education can simultaneously earn a high school diploma and an Associate’s degree or up to two years of credit toward a Bachelor’s degree—tuition free. The majority of the students at Clear Horizons claim a minority group membership. Eighty-seven percent of the students meet one of the four target population criterion defined for Early College High Schools (ECHS) by the Texas Education Agency (TEA): 1) students are first generation college goers, 2) students are from minority groups traditionally underrepresented on college campuses, 3) students are economically disadvantaged, and/or 4) students meet one of the thirteen Texas at-risk indicators.

Clear Horizons Early College High School is a CCISD open enrollment charter school serving approximately 400 students, 100 per grade level. As defined by TEA, an ECHS may only service about 100 students per grade level. An ECHS is small by design.