By Daniele Hagen
It’s early on a Thursday morning when Rebecca Mashatt, Nuview Bridge Early College High School’s principal, meets me in the school’s courtyard. She energetically greets students by name in English, Spanish, and even Japanese. Several students walk past, silently raising a hand for a high five, while others stop and chat for a minute before heading to the first class of the day.
“I can tell you a story about every single one of these kids,” she says. Before she has a chance to elaborate, however, the bell rings, and she walks me to the Leadership classroom where I’ll be spending the morning.
Roll is taken, and the 20 students in the class get to work without prompting. I take a seat at a vacant desk with a group of three seniors. They’re talking about finals and graduation, typical senior stuff. Or so I thought. Recalling the anticipation of my own high school graduation, I ask if they’re excited about commencement. “Which one?” they ask me in unison.
In an effort to boost graduation rates for historically underrepresented student populations, the Foundation for California Community Colleges is facilitating partnerships between secondary schools and community colleges to create opportunities for students to earn both a high school diploma and college credit simultaneously—and at no extra cost. Adrian Sperry, Johnathon Blahut, and Joaquin Ugalde Jr. are proof positive that the ECHS model is working.
All three of them, as well as others in their graduating class, are earning their high school diplomas and associate’s degrees simultaneously. Additionally, Sperry, Blahut, and Ugalde will begin their university careers with not just one, but two associate’s degrees on their transcripts. When they registered for classes at their chosen universities this fall (not surprisingly, all three were accepted at nearly every college to which they applied), they already had junior standing.
Adrian Sperry carries her short, wavy hair, purple fingernails, and mouthful of braces with the ease and poise of someone far beyond her 17 years. Though she twists the beads on her necklace while we chat, she is focused and attentive. The second of three girls, Sperry came to Nuview as a freshman, and started taking the bus to Riverside Community College’s Moreno Valley campus to augment her high school courses right away. An avid reader, Sperry found the classes tough, but nothing she couldn’t handle. Her political science and biology classes were the toughest, but, she says, “I loved it!”
Mashatt, who came to Nuview as principal in 2005 when the school was converted to an ECHS, explains why Nuview students are, despite the extra academic demand, so enthusiastic about their experiences, saying, “The students who attend Nuview have chosen to, so they have a vested interest in the program. Because enrollment is capped at 400, the student- to-faculty ratio (18:1) is so much lower than at a comprehensive high school, and this allows faculty and staff to focus on building supportive relationships with each and every student. Because the students know they are cared about, discipline issues are almost nonexistent.”
Sperry, now attending California State University, Sacramento, to pursue a degree in kinesiology, graduated from Nuview and Riverside Community College (RCC) in the same month. She said that part of what made Nuview so special was that she and her classmates helped each other and, because they were all facing the same academic challenges, understood each other. This kind of kinship is something her younger sister doesn’t have. With a very telling look, she says, “She attends ‘regular’ high school, and you can tell.”
Johnathon Blahut is perched on a desk when I ask him to tell me about his Nuview experience. He tried traditional high school, but quickly became disillusioned that he was just “one of about a million” other students. He longed for something different and found it at Nuview. Blahut explains that the “freedom and responsibility” are what made the ECHS model work for him, saying, “If you choose to work hard and stay focused, you can graduate from high school with a college degree. I made a choice to do my absolute best, and now I’m reaping the rewards.”
When I ask Blahut what his community college classmates thought of having a high school kid in their classes, he smiles and says, “They told me I’m lucky, and that they wish they had the opportunities I have.” Blahut agrees, but he also knows he wouldn’t have been able to go it alone, saying, “We took an ‘intro to college’ class where counselors basically explained the college process. That was so helpful.” Mashatt credits the contact her students have with counselors for part of the success of the ECHS model, saying, “Each student meets with a counselor to update their Individual Learning Plan four times a year … they have conversations about academic achievement, college plans, and career goals. At a traditional school, this may happen once a year.”
At the University of California, Riverside, this fall, Blahut declared a major in plant biology and is living at home to save money even though he’s received numerous scholarships. When I ask if he has a part-time job, he earnestly replies, “School is my job.”
Like Blahut, Joaquin Ugalde Jr. didn’t start high school at Nuview. He attended a traditional school for two years and transferred as a junior. He started taking college classes right away—an experience he said has had a major impact on the next two years of his life. “It was my first semester at RCC and I was in my English 1B class waiting for the professor to return our first essay. To my delight, I aced the essay. My professor even wrote in the margin that mine was one of the best essays she had read. Her comment made me realize that I was a college student—one with lots of potential for success.”
This fall, Ugalde is a student at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is studying architecture. Growing up in an apartment, he always dreamed of designing houses, and now his dream is becoming a reality. Ugalde is thankful that his parents nurtured his creative spirit and doesn’t take lightly the fact that he will be the first in his family to attend a four-year university. Although he was a little scared to leave home, he was well prepared. “I know that my time at Nuview and RCC helped me make a smooth transition to Berkeley,” he says.
While the ECHS model has obviously proven successful for Sperry, Blahut, and Ugalde, Mashatt cautions that it’s not for everyone. “Students who participate in the ECHS program must be independent learners and be advocates for themselves.” She’s also quick to point out that watching students gain confidence and succeed is the best part of her job as principal.
Early college high schools like Nuview are made possible thanks to grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in partnership with the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and are allowing students once considered “at risk” to chart new paths toward success.