Challenge Early College Entrance

Administration
Justin G. Fuentes, Principal
Roy de la Garza, Dean of Students
Gastonia “Terri” Goodman, Dean of Students
Alma Webber, College Access Coordinator

The Challenge Early College (CEC) Mission

To graduate confident, ethically responsible, lifelong learners who are prepared to succeed in higher education and be productive citizens in our world.

Considering the Challenge School Structure?

“People can limit their wisdom by leaning on their own experiences.”

A high-quality education at Challenge Early College starts with relationships. One of the major strengths of this school is its size.  We personalize your child’s education by supporting the development of meaningful, sustained relationships among teachers and students in a small college bound setting. In study after study of successful small early college high schools, students compare their school to a family rather than a factory and link their academic achievement to their caring relationships with teachers. Like many successful small early college schools, CECHS has smaller classes for students and reduced pupil loads for teachers, so that the young people and the adults in the school are well known to each other.

CECHS students function in a college environment and will be guided by adult advocates to develop a sense of responsibility for their own learning through work and life tools acquired in Advisory, and Community Service projects. 

 

What is an Early College?

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

- Albert Einstein

An early college provides high school-age students a “seamless” pathway from high school to college.  Housed on the HCCS campus, with articulated sharing of space and staff, CECHS allows the high school student to gradually integrate into college course work through his or her traditional high school degree plan. This integration requires dual enrollment, with the student having to show mastery of the knowledge and skills necessary for success (THEA or another HCCS designated entrance test).  Upon successful completion of the HISD standards for graduation, the students may elect to leave CECHS for higher education, or they may chose to remain for an additional year.  During this additional year, the students will be enrolled primarily in college credit bearing courses, and with individualized support provided by CECHS.  Students who graduate from CECHS at the end of this additional year can have not only a Texas Scholar diploma, but also will have accumulated up to 61 college credits, transferable to the post-secondary institution of their choice. In both cases, CECHS will provide strong support to each student and the family in obtaining entrance to, and success in, higher education.

 

The Challenge Schedule

“Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be overcome.”

- Samuel Johnson

Our A, B, and C block schedule allows teachers to pace lessons according to student needs.  On A and B days students see four content teachers per day.  C schedule is an alternating A or B schedule and student self-selected interest class at the end of the day. Students are dismissed at 1:00 pm on Friday. When students need additional support and extra direction, Homework Lab is assigned after school.  Students may also elect to stay during this period to receive tutoring and a quiet place to work after school.

CECHS weekly schedule

Pre Advanced Placement / Advanced Placement Curriculum

CECHS offers an advanced academic and enriched college preparatory curriculum. It provides students with the solid skills and concepts necessary to prepare them for post-secondary education and/or work experience. Course work required exceeds the state's minimum graduation requirements. 

Some students, particularly freshmen may be double blocked in English and Algebra I classes. Students taking double block classes are given extra time and effort in double blocked classes to help fill in any academic deficits from previous schooling. We have found that students participating in double block classes perform better academically in their high school and college courses. Their Stanford and Compass scores and academic grades are used to determine which student’s will be assigned double blocked classes.
Challenge Early College Associate of Arts Articulation Plan

 “ . . . I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.  This is the inter-related structure of reality.”
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Course Outline for Challenge Early College Students

The matrix below indicates the number of targeted college hours for students, for each semester and school year.  It is possible for students to earn up to sixty-one college credit hours and may enable a student to finish an associate’s degree with this schedule.  The number of required hours will be decreased for students who earn Advanced Placement credits or who have completed advanced course work in middle school.  Furthermore, students who take additional courses during the summer can complete a moderate course load or accelerate the process.

Course Outline

The matrix identifies certain core courses to be taken in particular semesters.  These courses might be called the “core of the core,” either because everyone needs them and will have to take them or they are core courses that must be taken in a certain semester to match a high school requirement.  For example, all sophomores who can meet the placement standard will take speech in their spring semester.  All juniors will take their history sequence in their fall and spring terms.  Students will take English Composition I and II when they are in their fourth year. 

Students will be placed in other college courses based on their majors and interests.  Students majoring in math, science, or engineering, for example, will take lots of math and science.  Business majors will take micro- and macro-economics, finite math and business calculus, and two accounting courses.

Although most of the students and their parents are focused on academic transfer, many of the students are interested in workforce courses, especially Digital Communication and Computer Science.  Some of the workforce courses are also transfer courses.  BCIS and COSC are computer science transfer courses that academic students could take as either electives or as major requirements if they are computer science or business majors.  We are also working on cross-listing a digital arts course as fine arts so interested students could take it to satisfy a fine arts requirement. 

The Transfer HCC Courses

Houston Community College classes typically transfer readily to colleges and universities throughout the state of Texas and the United States.  HCC is fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), which is the regional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.  State law also facilitates transferability of credits within the state.  The three different types of courses follow:

 

  1. Academic courses   Academic course credits earned at Houston Community College are readily transferable.  State law requires other public colleges and universities to accept transfer of core curriculum courses earned at HCC and to accept them as core courses.  If a student completes the HCC core curriculum, all other public colleges and universities in the state are required by law to accept that student as core complete.  Although out-of-state schools and private institutions may pick and choose what courses they are willing to accept, most colleges and universities accept HCC credits because of the SACS accreditation. Students planning to transfer to private or out-of-state universities should consult those institutions about transferability before taking particular courses at HCC. Grades of “C” or higher are transferable.
  2. Workforce courses   The transferability of workforce courses depends on the course and the receiving institution.  Some workforce courses are included in the Academic Course Guide Manual (ACGM) and will transfer to colleges and universities throughout the state as academic courses.  That means that they can count toward a bachelor’s degree.  These courses include ACCT, BCIS, BUSI, COSC, ENGT, MUAP, and others.  Workforce courses that are included in the Workforce Education Course Manual (WECM) can transfer as workforce courses, generally to other community colleges, but generally will not count toward a bachelor’s degree.  Nonetheless, some private colleges and universities such as the University of Phoenix will accept workforce course credits and count them toward a bachelor’s degree. 
  3. Developmental courses   In general, developmental courses do not transfer because they do not represent college-level work.  Nonetheless, area community colleges will generally accept a student who has completed a developmental sequence at a neighboring community college as having completed remediation

Challenge Advisory Program
“To live effectively is to live with adequate information.  Thus, communication and control belong to the essence of man’s inner life, even as they belong to his life in society.”
 -  Herbert Wiener
Paul Cross, Challenge Advisory Coordinator

Challenge Early College High School provides student communication support and enables strong relationships to develop through the advisory program.

Advisory groups place 10 - 15 students together with a faculty advisor several times a week for ongoing academic and personal counseling and support. These small student-adult ratios are achieved by having nearly every staff member in the school take responsibility for an advisory group. In many cases, teachers advise students they also teach in class, thus increasing the amount of time they spend together during the week. Students stay with the same advisor for at least two years – thus building on existing relationships over extended periods of time. Eventually, the senior-level students will lead the advisory community.

The Challenge Advisory program is focused on developing the skills and behaviors embedded in the HISD Graduate Profile.  Using the HISD Graduate Profile as a guide, the Challenge Advisory curriculum was developed to support the acquisition of positive workforce affective behaviors.

 

Goals and Objectives of the HISD/ Challenge Graduate Profile

  1. Effective Communicator: (1) Develop intrapersonal and interpersonal skills with emphasis on group communication; (2) Consider delivery of a message and use different forms of communication; (3) Apply basic skills including reading, writing, and speaking to daily life situations; and (4) Develop ways to communicate articulately, effectively, and efficiently.
  2. Proficient Problem Solver: (1) Develop organizational skills; (2) Analyze a problem and break it into its component pieces; (3) Determine pros and cons of a problem’s many solutions; and (4) Interpret and deconstruct symbols in the world.
  3. Independent Worker and Thinker: (1) Set goals and create a plan of action to accomplish those goals; (2) Routinely evaluate the effectiveness of the action plan; (3) Prioritize goals and desires by weighing the importance of each; (4) Identify what s/he values; (5) Identify personal strengths and weaknesses through self-exploration; (6) Determine ways to focus oneself; (7) Self-assess his/her work; (8) Explore multiple frames of reference (e.g. testing pros/cons of a decision, forcing yourself into another point of view, examining the power of peer pressure); and (9) Monitor his/ her health, both mental and physical.
  4. Cooperative Team Member: (1) Develop leadership skills; (2) Know himself or herself and others; (3) Develop the skills to support positive group dynamics; (4) Demonstrate kind, cooperative, yet assertive behavior; (5) Strengthen cultural awareness; (6) Identify social proprieties; and (7) Understand power and cooperate with authority figures.
  5. Responsible Citizen: (1) Identify and link together global, national, and local issues; (2) Contribute through the democratic process; (3) Create a relationship to money and determine how his/her money will affect the global economy; (4) Consider his/her own welfare as s/he contributes to the greater society; (5) Make a positive impact on the world around him/her (after helping him/herself); (6) Cultivate sound judgment, and (7) Create a “rubric” to apply to his/her life and his/her self-exploration.

 

College Textbooks:

Students will be assessed a textbook usage fee for each college textbook, currently it is $25.00. For example, if a student has three (3) college classes in one semester the textbook usage fee will total $75.00 for the current semester. A payment plan is available, but all previous balances must be paid before books will be issued for the next semester. All HISD and college textbooks must be returned at the end of the semester or the end of the year. Students will be assessed the full price for any lost textbooks.

Distinguished Achievement Plan

A course of study consisting of 26 credits must be completed for all incoming freshmen for the 2007-2008 year or later and 24 credits for students entering before 2007-2008. All Challenge Early College students are to complete the Distinguished Achievement Plan course of study. Copies of the graduation plan are available upon request. Students will be advised by their counselor as admission requirements are different at each University.

Residency

All students must live within the Houston Independent School District boundaries with their parent(s) or legal guardian. Proof of residency requirements: recent electric or natural gas bill with name and address of parent or guardian; proof of custody if the parents are divorced or if the student is living with someone other than a parent; and a copy of parent or guardian’s driver’s license.

Application Process

  1. Complete all sections of the application: Postmarked by the date noted on the student application.
  2. Request a school-based professional to complete an Academic Reference Form (current English, Math, Science or Social Studies teachers).
  3. STUDENTS APPLYING MUST ATTEND ONE CAMPUS TOUR. Visit the Challenge campus during Challenge Discovery Days beginning November 7, through December 19, 2007. Tours take place on Wednesday’s at 9:00 am and 2:00 pm and Friday’s at 9:00 am.
  4. Those students who will be considered for acceptance will be scheduled for an entrance interview.The Challenge staff will contact you for an interview. An on-site writing sample and math evaluation will be completed on the day of the interview. evaluation will be completed on the day of the interview.
  5. Applications that are received after the due date will be processed and the applicants will be placed on a waiting list. The applicant will be contacted only if a space becomes available.

Students who qualify will be placed into a lottery for available spaces.  Qualifying siblings of current students will be given special consideration.  Applications are available at the school and here. Please call 713-664-9712