ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Allentown School District is working to revitalize its Early College program after some school board members expressed dismay over a lack of support for the program and funding issues that emerged at a recent school board meeting.
The district partnered with Lehigh Carbon Community College in 2019 to give high school juniors and seniors from Building 21, Dieruff High School and William Allen High School an opportunity to earn an associate of arts degree while also earning their high school diploma. Other area school districts also teamed up with LCCC for early college, such as East Penn, Northwestern Lehigh and Parkland.
- Allentown School District Early College program started in 2019 with 60 students
- School board members complained earlier this month about a drop in program participants
- Administration officials are working to rebuild the current cohort from 25 to 60 after school board member complaints
The graduation ceremony for the 27 current graduates of the program will take place on June 7 at the LCCC campus in Schnecksville.
The first cohort had 60 students, according to an ASD tweet from September 3, 2020, a reprint of a school district press release from that date and school board members. The press release was unavailable on the district’s website. The second group had 60 high school students enrolled in early college and allowed 40 middle school students to take a history class from LCCC. The current cohort has 25 students funded by a grant from former state Sen. Pat Browne.
School board member Phoebe Harris said she cried during the May 11 meeting when she said she learned that the district and the community college dropped the ball on supporting students into and through the program.
“Those children should have been given the supports, the tutoring programs, the counseling, all those things,” she said. “And it wasn’t done.”
An ASD spokeswoman said the administration is trying to find the funding to boost the number in the current cohort from 25 to 60.
Harris said she was also disappointed that the graduation ceremony for the ASD students was not happening in Allentown.
"The students that are graduating, they're having something at Schnecksville. We're not having our own ceremony," Harris said. "The first year, we had it up PPL [Center]. The second year, we had it at Americus [Hotel]. Now we as a school district are not having a program, an awards program for our students in Allentown."
"Those children should have been given the supports, the tutoring programs, the counseling, all those things. And it wasn’t done."ASD Board Director Phoebe Harris
Allentown’s Early College program has been funded in different ways over the years — by the Century Fund Trust, LCCC stimulus funds and donors. It’s currently being paid for by the district, said Jill Yapsuga, director of marketing and digital media for LCCC. The cost is $4,270 per student for the associate degree program.
The district introduced three programs in 2018: Early College, a workforce skills program and driver’s education, partly in response to a curriculum audit that year that found low test scores, low graduation rates and high dropout rates.
“As a district, we are committed to centering our work on personalized learning and instruction for Allentown School District students,” former Allentown Schools Superintendent Thomas Parker said in a February 2019 news release. “In response to the recent curriculum audit, which identified areas of needed growth or focus, we are introducing three new programs that will offer additional opportunities for our students and prepare them to graduate college and career ready.”
From that first class of 60, 35 Allentown Early College students graduated in 2021. Forty-five students are scheduled to graduate in 2024.
Director Lisa Conover said during the May 11 meeting she was expecting an increase in Early College participants beyond the first cohorts the program started with in 2019-2020. She said the 2018 curriculum audit showed students weren’t being prepared for college or careers beyond high school. Recently, some district graduates have visited her and said they have felt unprepared or overwhelmed by the rigors of college.
“I had three students return to my house this week, saying ‘Mrs. Conover, I want to become a Realtor' because they feel like they’re ready to drop out of school,” she said. “That’s not them, it’s on us.”
Conover did not respond to an interview request for this story.
Allentown Schools Superintendent Carol Birks said the district has resources to support Early College and wants to build upon that. She said she would like to see Early College partnerships with additional higher education institutions in the Lehigh Valley.
The district is also covering the cost for 25 students to attend a Moravian University summer college readiness program for Black and Latino young men.
