Thinking In Advance

Leah Harris

Before taking senior pictures or dancing at the prom, Amanda Johnson is already cracking college books. The sophomore is among 20 of Atlanta's Carver High School students taking classes at Georgia State University as part of the Georgia Board of Regents' new Early College High School Initiative.

The students, who began studying either introductory English or psychology at the start of the spring semester, are among 97 students in this accelerated program at Carver that aims to give students an early start to their college education. The students are able to graduate with a high school diploma and 60 college credits simultaneously.

The early college model is designed to increase the number of underrepresented students in post-secondary education, such as minority, English-as-a-second-language and low-income students. Twenty students were selected to try out the program because they were "academically above the curve," according to Kim White, the College of Education liaison at Carver. The remaining 77 students will join them at Georgia State in the fall.

"Most of these students haven't had a lot of opportunity," said Gwen Benson, associate dean of the College of Education. "The mutual benefit is that hopefully many of the students will also enroll at Georgia State University. Since this is a legacy class — this is the first early college high school class in Georgia, it will also be an example for the rest of the state to follow."