Among the Foundation’s current programs is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded Early College Initiative. Eastern University received a two-year $300,000 grant through Woodrow Wilson to plan for and implement the Early College High School model at EUACS. This funding offset personnel, community relations, and curriculum development costs during the planning phase. In our first year of operation, the funding will offset the salaries and benefits of University staff working in the school (i.e. Dean of the Campolo College School for Social Change), partially fund the salary and benefits for an administrative assistant, fund the cost of hiring graduate students to teach in the school, and offset the cost of other professional services.

More than the funding, however, this partnership is important to the success of EUACS because it affords our charter school the opportunity to participate in a national network of Early College High Schools. Woodrow Wilson’s Early College Initiative supports bridge-building between institutions of higher education and secondary schools, so that more and better-prepared students from underrepresented and underserved populations graduate from college ready for high academic achievement.

The Woodrow Wilson approach relies on four emphases:

• Engaging universities in fulfilling their civic missions;
• Connecting and networking university faculty and high school teachers;
• Creating systems and structures to sustain Early College High Schools; and
• Identifying and shaping policies that support Early College High Schools.