Two types of innovative high schools are growing rapidly across North Carolina: Learn and Earn early college high schools and redesigned high schools. Both types expect students to complete a college prep course of study. Both types use teaching that stresses inquiry and critical thinking. Both types are small by design -- no more than 400 students to allow for a different kind of teaching and learning.

Learn and Earn Early College High Schools
Students in Learn and Earn early college high schools graduate with both a high school diploma and two years of transferable college credit or an associate's degree. In most cases, early college students stay in high school five years to complete those college courses. Located on the campuses of two- and four-year colleges and universities, Learn and Earn early college high schools are intended to attract students who often are under-represented in college: minorities, students from low-income families and those whose parents never attended college.

Governor Mike Easley launched the Learn and Earn initiative in 2004 as a way to help encourage more students to complete high school and to gain the kind of advanced skills increasingly demanded in the workplace of the 21st century. Early college high schools support students through what effectively become their first two years of college " the most vulnerable period for students from low-income families. The early colleges also lift the financial barrier students and families often face when considering college. Students get two years of college credit without paying tuition.

North Carolina is now a national leader in developing early colleges. Since 2005, the number of early college high schools in North Carolina has more than tripled from 13 to 42. Nationally, about 130 early college high schools are open in 24 states. Through a grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation and funding from the General Assembly, students in seven early college high schools work with one-to-one access to laptop computers. The pilot is the leading edge of North Carolina's effort to bring the power of technology to bear in improving teaching and learning.

Rutherford County Early College High School was featured in a video about early college high schools nationally.

Redesigned High Schools
The problem with high schools isn't the students. It isn't the teachers. It's the way high schools are organized and run and the kind of teaching the conventional model promotes.

In a redesigned innovative high school, the conditions are changed by design to permit more effective teaching and learning. To create a redesigned high school, educators transform part of a traditional high school into a small, academically nimble school that can serve students better. In some cases, an entire traditional high school is converted into a number of smaller, redesigned high schools.

Teachers in a redesigned school adopt a theme or common way of teaching. Often, the themes connect to the knowledge-based economy into which students will graduate -- biotechnology, information technology, health sciences, engineering or international studies, for example. Their goal is not to prepare graduates for a specific career, but instead to create an organizing hook that allows students to prepare for college and any career they may choose.

In many cases, schools receive the support of national or state partners to implement their chosen themes. For example, nine North Carolina schools have adopted the technology-enhanced school model developed by the California-based New Tech Foundation.

Scottland County has transformed its one high school into several innovative high schools.