Eastern University has long been devoted to the mission and vision of promoting diversity, improving communities, and increasing opportunities for members of societal groups who have not traditionally attended or succeeded in college. Eastern University’s President David Black envisioned the Eastern University Academy Charter School as an institution with the school-university partnership is at its core. Eastern University is the founder and primary educational partner of Eastern University Academy and has committed to helping the us succeed as an Early College High School.

BAEO is a national, nonprofit, membership organization founded in 2000 with the mission to actively support parental choice to empower families and increase quality educational options for Black children. BAEO exists to:

• Educate and inform the general public about parental choice initiatives on the local and national level.
• Educate black families about the numerous educational options available.
• Create, promote, and support efforts to empower black parents to exercise choice in determining how their children are educated.
• Educate and inform the general public about efforts to reduce or limit educational options available to parents.

Founded in 1945 as a program of doctoral fellowships to encourage the nation’s best and brightest to pursue careers as college teachers, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has supported more than 21,000 intellectual leaders in the arts and sciences, business, and public service.

Over the past two decades, the Foundation has joined its longstanding commitment to excellence in higher education with its determination to meet changing national needs at all levels of education—from promoting diversity to building linkages between colleges and universities and public K–12 schools that will improve the quality of education, stimulating teachers intellectually and professionally.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Early College High School Initiative focuses on young people for whom a smooth transition into postsecondary education is problematic. These include highly motivated students who lack the academic preparation needed to meet high school standards, students for whom the cost of college is prohibitive, students who are English language learners, and students whose family obligations keep them at home.