Oakland Early College

Oakland Early College (OEC) is a five-year Early College High School serving students throughout Oakland County, Michigan. It represents a partnership between the West Bloomfield School District and Oakland Community College's (OCC) Orchard Ridge campus.

OEC students attend high school on OCC's campus and engage in a college-preparatory curriculum taught by teachers from West Bloomfield School District.

OEC students participate in an integrated sequence of high school and college courses during grades 9-13. They graduate with their high school diplomas, educational and professional experiences in a small school environment, and up to 60 transferable college credits towards their undergraduate degree and/or an Associate Degree from Oakland Community College with no out-of-pocket cost to students and their families.

Eligibility

Oakland Early College is open to students throughout Oakland County, Michigan. Oakland Early College is a public Early College High School. There is no out-of-pocket cost for attending to students or their families.

College Success Rates

A core component of the Oakland Early College experience is integrated dual enrollment in college coursework at Oakland Community College. During the 2009-2010 academic year, OEC students enrolled in approximately 650 college courses, earning approximately 1850 credits. For the most recently completed term, Summer I 2010, students passed over 98% of their college coursework, and carried an average course GPA in college of about 3.3 GPA. The transferability rate for college coursework--meaning grades of C- or higher--was approximately 97%. During the previous full, 15-week semester, Winter 2010, students passed approximately 94% of their college courses--again, a substantially higher pass rate than traditional college students--with a transfer rate of about 85%. In doing so, they carried about a B average in their college coursework.

College success rates have remained fairly consistent throughout the school’s history, but have trended upwards since its inception.

OEC students are well represented within the college’s Phi Theta Kappa Alpha Omicron Xi Chapter Honor Society. A large percentage of the chapter’s executive board, including its president, are OEC students.

Graduation Requirements

Oakland Early College’s graduation requirements extend well beyond the State of Michigan’s Merit Curriculum requirements. Proficiency in at least one world language, participation in a capstone project, completion of a career portfolio, proficiency to levels 1 or 2 on the Michigan Merit Exam, and a minimum of 30 college credits (most students will achieve or approach 60 college credits and/or their Associate Degree) are required for graduation from Oakland Early College.

Pace of Study

Oakland Early College students have full access to the over 160 degree pathways at Oakland Community College. In general, students at OEC graduate with both their high school diploma and their Associate Degree, and/or two years of transferable college credit.

Students at Oakland Early College matriculate from grade 9 through grade 13, with entry available through 12th grade. For most students, grades 9 and 10 are college preparatory in the truest sense of the phrase: our goal is to help students transition into college coursework as soon as makes sense for that student. By the end of grade 10, most of our students have taken at least one college class.

By grade 11, each student is enrolled in a blend of college and high school courses. Which college courses, and how many, are determined by the individual student, who is counseled in their program by our high school counselors and by OCC’s college counselors. Some 11th grade students have 5 or 6 high school classes, as well as one introductory-level college course; others, meanwhile, have just 1 or 2 high school courses, while maintaining a full-time college course load. Our goal is to highly individualize each student’s course of study in a way that makes sense for that student.

By grade 12, OEC students take the majority of their courses at the college level. By grade 13, students are full-time college students taking just one high school seminar or support class.

Test Scores

Standardized test scores are of different importance in measuring OEC students’ academic success. For instance, because most of our students will apply to four year universities as transfer students from Oakland Community College, ACT scores are rarely used for admission. However, knowing that all tests tell us something about student achievement, OEC pays special attention to yearly trends in academic performance.

This past year, OEC’s average ACT score jumped a full point over last year’s cohort. More significantly, our students’ ACT scores reflected, on average, a 2.92 point jump over their predicted ACT score from the PLAN test, administered a year prior.

Michigan Merit Exam (MME) results showed a similarly dramatic increase. OEC students’ science scores jumped 18.9%; math, by 26.8%; social studies, by 2.9%; reading, by 11.9%; and writing, by 6.3%.

Administration

The Head of School at Oakland Early College is Gary Weisserman. The Superintendent of West Bloomfield School District is JoAnn Andrees, and the President of the School Board is Nelson Hersh. The President of Oakland Community College's Orchard Ridge campus is Jacqueline Shadko.

Mascot

The OEC Mascot is the OEC Cougar.

External links

OEC home page