HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS GAIN OPPORTUNITY TO EARN DIPLOMA AND COLLEGE DEGREE

PHILADELPHIA, April 26, 2006 - Starting this fall, Community College of Philadelphia will become one of a handful of sites nationally to host a program that allows high school dropouts to work toward a diploma and an associate's college degree or certificate simultaneously.

Through the Gateway to College program, high school dropouts, ages 16 to 20, will be able to take courses at the College beginning in September. Community College of Philadelphia is the largest urban center in the country to host such a program.

According to a report by the American Youth Policy Forum, 75 percent of state prison inmates and 59 percent of federal inmates are high-school dropouts.

An estimated 5,550 students dropped out of Philadelphia's public schools during the 2004-2005 school year, according to a March 2006 article by the Philadelphia Daily News about statistics released by the School District of Philadelphia. The city's dropout rate is the highest in Pennsylvania - about three times higher than the state average, according to the Daily News.

Portland Community College developed the Gateway to College model in Oregon and is providing $350,000 over three years for the planning and startup of the Gateway to College program in Philadelphia. The rest of the money and in-kind services will come from Community College of Philadelphia and its partner the Philadelphia School District.

Community College of Philadelphia expects to enroll 360 students over the first three years of the program. Students will receive individual support from dedicated academic coordinators who will act as advisors, mentors and coaches. The coordinators will help the students on issues ranging from time management and study habits to course selection and career planning.

The students complete their first semester in small learning communities of 20 students. These small group classes include reading, writing, math and a college survival and success course that helps them learn how to take effective notes, study for tests and juggle school, work and family life. Students also participate in a two-hour academic lab each week.

Students must have at least an eighth grade reading level. After successfully completing the small group classes during the first semester, the students take classes with the general Community College of Philadelphia student population.

Portland Community College will replicate Gateway to College at 17 colleges nationwide by 2007. Nine sites have been chosen so far. Portland Community College is a partner in the Early College High School Initiative, which will launch 170 Early College High Schools by 2008. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation chose Gateway to College as an exemplary educational model to help vulnerable youths, whom teachers, administrators and parents have often written off as failures.

In order to promote the Gateway to College model, the Foundation and its funding partners granted Portland Community College $10.25 million over seven years to replicate the program. This grant is part of a $120+ million initiative to expand options for high school students being left behind in the traditional system. Funding for the Early College High School Initiative comes from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation along with Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.