KENANSVILLE — The Duplin County Board of Education unanimously approved the establishment of the Early College High School on the campus of James Sprunt Community College last week, making the initiative official.

Duplin’s Early College will be the 72nd early college in North Carolina and was approved earlier in April by the North Carolina State Board of Education.

According to educators, the Early College will offer Duplin County students a smaller educational setting where they will have the opportunity to complete a high school diploma and a two-year associate of arts or science degree in five years. Those students will have earned sufficient college credits to enter a four-year college liberal arts program as a junior. The opportunity, educators say, provides great benefits for Duplin County parents and students, and provides the high schools and two- year associate degree from the community college at no costs to the students. North Carolina leads the nation in developing the Early College concept and has approximately 50 percent of the 140 Early College programs available in the United States.

As reported in an earlier article, the Early College High School Initiative began with what has been termed a radical concept: Challenge, not remediation, will make a difference for those young people who are least likely to attend college and for whom society often has low aspirations for academic achievement. The benefits of the Early College High School program include but are not limited too the following:

1. Providing students the rigor of college-level work in high school but also providing the support for their success;

2. The underachiever will be inspired to rise above mediocre expectations, and gain confidence in their ability to do college level work and gain a college degree following experiencing college level course work in high school;

3. Assisting families and students save money and time by integrating high-school and college-level work;

4. Providing guidance and support to young people via coaching and close monitoring from adults to insure their success through the first two years of college;

5. Attracting students from low-income families and those whose parents did not attend college, and minorities that are often under-represented in college;

Plans are under way for the program to be in place this fall for the new school year.

To contact Billy Todd, call 910-592-8137 ext. 117 or e-mail sigeneral@myclintonnc.com.