Admission Policy

The Early College High School shall serve, or include plans to scale up to serve, students in grades 9 through 12, and shall target and enroll students who are at risk of dropping out of school as defined by the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) and who might not otherwise go to college.

Design Elements

All ECHSs must implement and meet the following requirements:

1. The ECHS recruitment and enrollment processes shall identify, recruit, and enroll the subpopulations of at-risk students (as defined by PEIMS), including, but not limited to, students who are of limited English proficiency, students with disabilities, or students who have failed a state administered assessment. Enrollment decisions shall not be based on state assessment scores, discipline history, teacher recommendation, parent or student essays, minimum grade point average (GPA), or other criteria that create barriers for student enrollment.
2. The ECHS shall identify, recruit, and enroll subpopulations (in addition to those who are at risk as defined by PEIMS) that are historically underrepresented in college courses (e.g., first generation college goers, students of low socioeconomic status, African American, Hispanic, Native American.)
3. The ECHS shall clearly document recruitment and enrollment policies and practices; refining and improving them annually based on data reviews.
4. Recruitment and enrollment processes (including marketing and recruitment plans, materials, and timelines) shall include input from key stakeholders (e.g., parents and community members; postsecondary partners); target student populations as described in 1 and 2 above; and include regular activities to educate students, counselors, principals, parents, and school board and community members.
5. For admissions, the ECHS shall use either a performance-blind, open-access lottery system that encourages and considers applications from all students (all students have an equal opportunity for acceptance, regardless of background or academic performance) or a weighted lottery that favors students who are at risk or who are part of the targeted subpopulations for the ECHS.

Required Activities & Products

Activities:

• All products shall be published on the ECHS’s website and be made available to TEA upon request.
• All products shall be maintained in accordance with the local records retention policy.

Products:

• Written admission policy and enrollment application
• Written recruitment plan including a timeline of recruitment and enrollment events, and recruitment materials for distribution at feeder schools and other appropriate locations in the community
• Brochures and marketing in Spanish, English, and/or other relevant language(s)\Written communication plan for targeting identified audiences, parents, community members, school board, higher education personnel, etc.

Access Outcomes-Based Measures

Admission Policy

Incoming 9^th grade candidates must first complete a simple standard application that contains:

• Current contact information for their parents and themselves
• Demographic data (such 8^th grade course load)
• Three short-answer student questions to be completed by the student
  • Desire to be considered for enrollment
  • Description of how they persevered through a challenging situation
  • Long-term goal they think they can accomplish at ECHS
• Two short-answer questions to be completed by the parent.

All candidates are ranked with the following criteria:

• Students that are listed as ‘At-Risk’ by the Federal government.
• Free and reduced lunch status.
• First generation college student in their family.
• Limited English Proficiency (LEP).
• Historically under-represented minorities accepted and enrolled in higher education.
• Consideration is also given in terms of the sub-populations %’s enrolled at the district level.
• Completion of the application.

Application and Acceptance Timeline:

• Recruitment efforts are made at the middle schools in October and November.
• Open House sessions are held in November and December.
• Applications are available during the first week of December.
• Application deadline is the day before the district goes on the winter holiday break.
• Late January, students receive their acceptance letters.
• By the start of February, students accept or reject offer.
• Students who have accepted then tour the campus and become college registered by the end of the first week of February.
• Late February students are inducted into ECHS at a formal ceremony.

Wait-listed protocol:

• Any student not accepted can request a ‘waitlist’ status.
• They are to write the principal or come to the campus to request the designation.
• The above criteria are applied for wait-list students.
• As student placements open up waitlist applicants are notified of their acceptance.