na Stellar Report for STAR

Stellar Report for STAR

A new report entitled Ensuring College Success: Scaffolding Experiences for Students and Faculty in an Early College School examines the efforts to transform STAR Early College School at Erasmus into a model school. The school was created through a partnership of the Gateway Institute, Brooklyn College, and the New York City Department of Education and is one of 160 Early College Schools operating nationally. If the first five years are any indicator, STAR is a resounding success. According to the report, the school currently has 489 students in grades 6–7 and 9–12 and will complete a transition to a grades 6–12 school in 2008. More than 80 percent are black, 62 percent are low-income, and more than one fourth arrive with reading and math skills below grade level on New York State assessments. As authors Anne Newton of Jobs for the Future and Kristen Vogt from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation state: “Many would have struggled to finish high school in other settings and never considered themselves college bound. But STAR students consistently outperform district averages and schools with similar populations on the challenging New York State Regents exams. Some 70 percent of its current seniors have earned college credit. Virtually all of its 2007 graduates went to college, many with scholarships.” The report credits this success in large part to the early planning fostered by Gateway and Brooklyn College and the careful monitoring of the partners’ contributions to the school.