Nearly All Graduates of a Texas High School Earn College Credit

A new report by Jobs for the Future outlines how the Hidalgo Independent School District, which serves an economically depressed area along the Texas-Mexico border, was able to graduate more than 95 percent of its most recent high school graduating class with college credit. About two-thirds of its graduating seniors earned at least a full semester of college credit. The school district opened the Hidalgo Early College High School in 2005 with help from the University of Texas System and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Unlike many early college high schools that serve less than 400 students, the Hidalgo model serves all of the 900+ high-schoolers in the district. The high school has strong partnerships with South Texas College and Texas State Technical College, so that students can transfer onward to earn a postsecondary credential. John Fitzpatrick, executive director of the Texas High School Project, said of the project, “Hidalgo [Independent School District] shows that obstacles impeding high school and postsecondary success can be overcome. The success of early college high schools is being replicated in districts throughout Texas. We need to create more Hidalgos in our country, more districts where the lessons of early college are spread to all students.”