Dougherty County School System committee approves phase-out of Albany Early College

ALBANY — The Dougherty County Instructional Accountability Committee voted 3-0 Friday to approve a proposal from Associate Superintendent for Academic Services Ufot Inyang to begin gradually phasing out Albany Early College (AEC). Inyang said the phase out would occur over a period not to exceed two years.

“Albany Early College was originally conceived to fill the same role as our Move On When Ready (MOWR) Program which encourages dual (high school and college) enrollment,” Inyang said. “The question is do we need to continue AEC as currently constructed? Over the years MOWR has gained more prominence and AEC has become a watered down concept.”

Members of the Instructional Accountability Committee are Robert Youngblood, Melissa Strother and Dean Phinazee.

Inyang added that as part of its original mission, AEC provides dual enrollment opportunities to would-be first generation college students in grades 11-12. With the MOWR Program access to to those opportunities have been expanded at all eligible students in grades 9-12.

“Due in part to dual enrollment opportunities being more readily available at their zones schools, AEC enrollment has been on a steady decline the last four years,” Inyang said.

He pointed out the target enrollment for each grade has been 60 student enrollments per grade level for the 2015-16 school year. However, the program is short of that mark with 11 students in the 9th grade, 36 in the 10th, 29 in the 11th and 38 in the 12th for 114 students total.

Of the 67 AEC 11th and 12th graders, not all have qualified for dual enrollment. According to AEC guidelines, students in grades 11-12 who do no not qualify for dual enrollment are to be transferred out of the program.

By contrast, the four DCSS high schools already have more than 250 students dually enrolled in post-secondary institutions at Albany State University, Darton State College, and Albany Technical College.

Phasing out AEC, when complete, would also save the DCSS $700,000 a year.

“Seven hundred thousand dollars for around 100 students is a lot of money,” DCSS Superintendent Butch Mosely said. “And that’s all local dollars coming out of the general fund. But this isn’t a monetary issue, it’s an issue of redundancy within the system.”

According to the University System of Georgia web site, AEC is one of 10 early colleges scattered throughout the state.

Committee approval of the proposal will place the matter before the full school board for a decision at its next meeting on Monday.