Middle College High School (MCHS), a public secondary school committed to meeting the academic needs of marginalized populations of youth opened its doors on the LaGuardia Community College campus in New York City in 1974. As a form of accelerated learning, MCHS was created to provide a seamless transition between secondary and post-secondary education by providing a continuum that uses innovative curriculum and teaching methods. These principles paired with high school and college partnership, have the potential to produce an enriching educational opportunities for students who had been consistently pushed in the margins previously.
Within the decade of successfully operating the first school, the Ford Foundation provided seed money in order to replicate the academic success and cost savings experienced at the LaGuardia campus. Using the first as a model, more than twenty Middle College High Schools were created college campuses throughout the country that would afford additional students the opportunity to earn as much of the first two years of college credit while enrolled in high school.
With the financial support of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the DeWitt Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund in 1993 an informal group of Middle Colleges across the country came together to form the Middle College National Consortium (MCNC). MCNC was immediately defined as a professional development organization for secondary and post-secondary public-sector educators. MCNC has grown over the years to provide technical assistance and support to new and established schools in order to provide educational reform method that is reciprocally cost effective for students, families and colleges, as well as, state and federal government.
References
Middle College National Consortium Proud to Share in the Celebration of Successful Early College HS Initiative. 2010. Retrieved from http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/underservedstudents/prweb3957334.htm
