Harlingen Collegiate High School

Last updated

UTRGV Harlingen Collegiate High
Location
Harlingen Collegiate High School
2901 Medical Drive Harlingen, TX 78550

Harlingen
,
Texas
78550

United States
Coordinates 26°10′08″N97°39′51″W / 26.16876220703125°N 97.66423034667969°W / 26.16876220703125; -97.66423034667969
Information
Former nameEarly College High School
Type Public high school
Established2007
School district Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District
PrincipalDr. Pamela Flores
Faculty23.41 (on an FTE basis) [1]
Grades9-12
Enrollment339 (2022-23) [1]
Student to teacher ratio14.48 [1]
Color(s)  
Teal blue and burning orange
Athletics conference UIL Class 3A
MascotOwl
Website Official website

UTRGV Harlingen Collegiate High (HCH) is a public high school in Harlingen, Texas. It is a specialized dual enrollment school (part of the ECHS initiative by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) which offers students the ability to earn up to two years of college credit at no cost at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), focusing in four general areas: education, engineering, computer science, and college academic core curriculum requirements. [2] [3] [4] Each class is capped at 100 students each (for a max total student population of 400), which encourages a small learning community to support educational success. [5] It is an open-enrollment campus available to all who live in the Rio Grande Valley, with a special focus in recruiting at-risk students and historically underrepresented minorities. [6] The application process for rising freshmen places special consideration on the student's personal goals, college preparedness, academic success, and demographic background. In 2018, 92% of students were Hispanic, 57% were female, and 61% were economically disadvantaged. [7] [8]

Contents

Harlingen HCH offers a challenging academic program in grades 9th and 10th geared toward college readiness and project based learning, with full college transition and immersion for respective 11th and 12th grade levels. HCH does not offer school team sports (football, cheerleading, marching band, soccer, etc.); however, it does offer physical education (PE) classes. Students interested in joining high school team sports are allowed to join teams at Harlingen High School or Harlingen High School South. [9]

In February 2019, UTRGV, the city of Harlingen, and Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District (HCISD) signed a memorandum announcing the building of a new Early College High School campus. [3] [10] [11] [12] It will replace the original campus located at Pecan Street across from Texas State Technical College Harlingen (TSTC) and the Valley International Airport. The new $14M state-of-the-art campus was built on Medical Drive near the UTRGV Regional Academic Health Center and Valley Baptist Medical Center, just off South 77 Sunshine Strip. [13] The new 35,000-40,000 sqft. building was opened on October 12, 2021. [14]

Academic rankings

For the 2021-2022 school year, the school was given an "A" by the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Harlingen Early College High School received five Distinction Designations: Academic Achievement in ELA/Reading, Science, Social Studies, Top 25% Comparative Academic Growth, and Postsecondary Readiness. 98% of students passed all subjects on the STAAR tests. [15]

US News 'Best High School 2019 rankings gave Harlingen ECHS an overall score of 89.31/100, ranking it as the #1 high school in Harlingen, #173 in Texas, and #1,843 in the US. [16]

In 2015, Newsweek's America's Top High Schools ranking placed ECHS at #84 on the "Beating the Odds" list. [17] [18] Newsweek only selects up to 500 US high schools based on their efforts in preparing their students for college while also overcoming the obstacles posed by students at an economic disadvantage. Harlingen ECHS received high marks for all three categories: college readiness (87.3%), graduation rate (100%), and college bound (96.7%). [19]

GreatSchools.org rated ECHS a 9 out of 10, and gave the school the 2019 College Success Award based on its success in preparing students for college. [8]

History

Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District (HCISD) established Early College High School in the fall of 2007, creating the third public high school (and the first specialized high school) in the city. [20] It initially had a partnership with Texas State Technical College Harlingen (TSTC), which offered high school students the opportunity to complete an associate degree or Certificate program at no cost. The ECHS students who successfully graduated from TSTC usually received an Associate of Science in Biology, a Certificate of Completion in the Academic Core Curriculum, or a Certificate of Completion in the Certified Nurse Assistant Program. [21] The original ECHS campus was located on Pecan Street, across from the TSTC Harlingen campus and next to the TSTC on-campus dorms. Students would take high school classes at the ECHS campus and walk across the street to take college classes at TSTC Harlingen.

The owl mascot was adopted in 2007. It follows the HCISD tradition of high school bird mascots, and the owl was chosen to represent ECHS's academic focus and mission. The mascot's illustration is an altered and recolored (retired) 1997 primary logo from Rice University. [5] [22] [23] The primary color black was chosen to represent the traditional color of graduation gowns, and the secondary color khaki was inspired by the faculty's tendency to wear khaki colored slacks when representing ECHS at official HCISD functions. While khaki is one of the official colors, yellow and gold are often substituted in its place for ECHS event decorations, printed banners and brochures, letterman jackets, and diplomas. This color scheme was changed to orange and navy in 2021 as ECHS transitioned and rebranded to Harlingen Collegiate High School.

The first time ECHS had a full school of four classes (freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors) was in the academic school year of 2010–11, as the school did not accept student transfers planning to graduate in 2008, 2009, or 2010. The original four classes of ECHS students are the Classes of 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. The first class to graduate from Harlingen Early College High School was the Class of 2011, and were therefore officially named the "Legacy Class" by the school district. [24] [25]

The Harlingen ECHS National Honor Society chapter was established in the fall of 2009. Juniors and Seniors are invited to join the organization if they meet the minimum required GPA for entrance.

The first pep rally took place during the 2011–12 academic school year. Its focus was to get students excited for an upcoming robotics competition that the Harlingen ECHS Robotics club was participating in. The competition took place at TSTC Harlingen, where the ECHS Robotics team received 2nd place. [26] The first owl mascot costume was purchased later in 2014.

Beginning in the fall of 2017 (and on ECHS's ten-year anniversary), Early College High School ended its partnership with TSTC and entered into a new agreement with the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). [2] [27] HCISD provides transportation to UTRGV college classes. Students in the Class of 2019 were the first to graduate under the UTRGV program.

In April 2019, the ECHS Robotics team became the first high school in HCISD to advance to the FIRST Robotics World Championship competition hosted at Houston, Texas. [28] [29] Harlingen ECHS students were given the chance to compete with high school engineering and robotics teams from around the world after winning the Alamo West Regional Championship.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harlingen, Texas</span> City in Texas, United States

Harlingen is a city in Cameron County in the central region of the Rio Grande Valley of the southern part of the U.S. state of Texas, about 30 miles (48 km) from the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The city covers more than 40 square miles (104 km2) and is the second-largest city in Cameron County, as well as the fourth-largest in the Rio Grande Valley. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 71,892.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Texas System</span> Public university system in Texas

The University of Texas System is a public university system in the U.S. state of Texas. It includes nine universities and five independent health institutions. The UT System is headquartered in Downtown Austin. It is the largest university system in Texas with 250,000+ enrolled students, 21,000+ employed faculty, 83,000+ health care professionals, researchers and support staff. The UT System's $42.7 billion endowment is the largest of any public university system in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southland Conference</span> American collegiate athletic conference

The Southland Conference, abbreviated as SLC, is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it participates in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The Southland sponsors 18 sports, 10 for women and eight for men, and is governed by a presidential Board of Directors and an Advisory Council of athletic and academic administrators. Chris Grant became the Southland's seventh commissioner on April 5, 2022. From 1996 to 2002, for football only, the Southland Conference was known as the Southland Football League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dallas College North Lake</span> Community college in Irving, Texas, US

Dallas College North Lake Campus is a public community college in Irving, Texas. It is part of Dallas College. It opened in 1977 and enrolls about 5,000 credit students and an additional 3,000 continuing education students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Texas–Pan American</span> Public University in Edinburg, Texas

The University of Texas–Pan American (UTPA) was a public university in Edinburg, Texas. Founded in 1927, it was a component institution of the University of Texas System. The university served the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas with baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral degrees. The Carnegie Foundation classified UTPA as a "doctoral research university". From the institution's founding until it was merged into the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), it grew from 200 students to over 20,000, making UTPA the 10th-largest university in Texas. The majority of these students were natives of the Rio Grande Valley. UTPA also operated an Upper Level Studies Center in Rio Grande City, Starr County, Texas. On August 15, 2014, Dr. Havidan Rodriguez was appointed interim President of UTPA, the institution's final leader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas State Technical College</span> Public community college near Waco

Texas State Technical College (TSTC) is a public community college with its main campus near Waco, Texas. TSTC is the State of Texas's only public multicampus technical college, offering associate degrees and certificates in technical skills and trades on 10 campuses throughout the state. TSTC's headquarters are located north of Waco and are co-located with the Waco campus, the oldest TSTC location and flagship location. TSTC also operates campuses in Harlingen, Marshall, Red Oak, Abilene, Breckenridge, Brownwood, Sweetwater, Williamson County, and Fort Bend County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyndon B. Johnson High School (Austin, Texas)</span> Public school in Austin, Texas, United States

Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) Early College High School is a public high school in northeast Austin, Texas. At the time of its opening in 1974, LBJ was only the second high school in the U.S. to be named for the 36th President. In 1985, LBJ became the host of a new academic magnet program, the Science Academy of Austin (SA), which drew students from all over the city. A second high school magnet program, the Liberal Arts Academy of Austin (LAA), was opened at Albert Sidney Johnston High School in 1987; the two programs were merged in 2002, forming the Liberal Arts and Science Academy (LASA) magnet within LBJ. In 2007, the Austin Independent School District split LASA and LBJ into separate high schools with their own principals, faculty, and staff in order for LBJ to be eligible for a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to implement the "First Things First" educational enrichment program. After the split, LBJ and LASA were housed on the same campus, though largely on different floors. The two schools continued to share athletic teams through the end of the 2019-20 school year, but shared certain extracurricular activities and electives through the end of the 2020-21 school year. In 2011, via a partnership with the Austin Community College, LBJ established a new program through which students could earn up to 60 college credits while still in high school, earning it the "Early College High School" (ECHS) designation it bears today. In 2021, LASA relocated to the former Eastside Memorial Early College High School campus.

Austin Independent School District (AISD) is a school district based in the city of Austin, Texas, United States. Established in 1881, the district serves most of the City of Austin, the neighboring municipalities of Sunset Valley and San Leanna, and unincorporated areas in Travis County. The district operates 116 schools including 78 elementary schools, 19 middle schools, and 17 high schools. As of 2013, AISD covers 54.1% of the City of Austin by area and serves 73.5% of its residents.

South Texas Independent School District (STISD) is a magnet school district headquartered in Mercedes, Texas (USA). STISD operates magnet schools that draw students from three counties: Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy. STISD covers an area of 3,643 square miles (9,440 km2), overlapping 28 other school districts.

Effingham County High School is one of two public high schools located in Effingham County, Georgia, northwest of Savannah. The school was created in 1956 and serves approximately 2000 students in grades 9-12 in the Effingham County School District. The school mascot is the Rebel, and the school colors are red, navy, and white.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cypress Woods High School</span> Public school in Texas, United States

Cypress Woods High School, commonly known as Cy Woods, is a secondary school located in Cypress, which is an unincorporated area of Harris County, Texas, United States, near Houston.

Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District is a school district headquartered in Harlingen, Texas, United States. It was founded August 5, 1950 via the merger of the Harlingen Independent School District and the Stuart Place Independent School District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pasadena Memorial High School</span> School in Pasadena, Texas, United States

Pasadena Memorial High School (PMHS) is a secondary school located in Pasadena, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northside Health Careers High School</span> Health careers magnet school in San Antonio

Northside Health Careers High School (HCHS) is a magnet school in San Antonio's Northside Independent School District for students who are interested in pursuing a career in the health professions. HCHS attracts students from school districts all across Bexar County and some from as far as Hondo, Texas.

The Early College High School Initiative in the United States allows students to receive a high school diploma and an associate degree, or up to two years of college credit, by taking a mixture of high school and college classes. This differs from dual enrollment, where students are enrolled in a traditional high school and take college classes, whereas early college students take high school classes in preparation for full college workloads. At early colleges, students also have fewer high school classes because some of their college classes replace their high school classes. Early colleges differ from closely related middle colleges. ECHS students spend their school day at college, and go to their home school occasionally for events such as football games, homecoming, and prom.

Harlingen High School is a public high school located in Harlingen, Texas, United States. It is part of the Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District and was the first of five HCISD high schools established. HHS was the sole high school from its establishment in 1913 to 1993 when the school split and Harlingen High School South was formed. In 2015, the school was rated "Improvement Required" by the Texas Education Agency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Connally High School (Waco, Texas)</span> Public high school in Waco, Texas, United States

Connally High School is a public high school located in Waco, Texas, United States and classified as a 4A school by the UIL. It is part of the Connally Independent School District located in northern McLennan County. In 2015, the school was rated "Met Standard" by the Texas Education Agency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Texas Rio Grande Valley</span> Public university in Texas, US

The University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) is a public research university with multiple campuses throughout the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas. It is the southernmost member of the University of Texas System. The University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley was created by the Texas Legislature in 2013 after the consolidation of the University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College and the University of Texas–Pan American.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Texas at Brownsville</span> Defunct university in Brownsville, Texas, U.S.

The University of Texas at Brownsville was an educational institution located in Brownsville, Texas. The university was on the land once occupied by Fort Brown. It was a member of the University of Texas System. The institution was formed from a 1991 partnership between the two-year Texas Southmost College and University of Texas-Pan American at Brownsville. The partnership ended in 2011 as UTB became a standalone University of Texas institution, and Texas Southmost College returned to being an independent community college. UTB itself offered baccalaureate and graduate degrees in liberal arts, sciences, education, business, and professional programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brighter Horizons Academy</span> Private school in Garland, Texas, United States

Brighter Horizons Academy (BHA) is an Islamic pre-K-12 college preparatory school located in Garland, Texas. Founded in 1989, BHA was accredited in 2006. It is one of the first Islamic schools to offer a dual-credit program in conjunction with the Dallas County Community College District, which allows students to graduate high school with an associate's degree.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "HARLINGEN COLLEGIATE H S". National Center for Education Statistics . Retrieved April 11, 2024.
  2. 1 2 "HCISD » HCISD and UTRGV sign Dual Credit MOU" . Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  3. 1 2 Staff Reports (March 1, 2019). "UTRGV early college high school to open in Harlingen". The Monitor. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  4. ↑ "Early College High School". echs.hcisd.org. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  5. 1 2 "About – About – Early College High School". echs.hcisd.org. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  6. ↑ "Target Population – ECHS Blueprint Designation – Early College High School". echs.hcisd.org. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  7. ↑ "2017-18 School Report Card EARLY COLLEGE H S (031903005)". Texas Education Agency. 2019. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  8. 1 2 "Explore Early College High School in Harlingen, TX". GreatSchools.org. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  9. ↑ "HCISD » Student of the Week: "Legacy student" shines bright in the classroom and on the field" . Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  10. ↑ Alex Herbst (February 28, 2019). "Harlingen CISD, UTRGV partner for new early college academy". 4 Valley Central. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  11. ↑ Amanda Alaniz (February 28, 2019). "UTRGV, Harlingen CISD and City of Harlingen collaborate to construct new building". The Newsroom. University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Harlingen CISD, UTRGV enter historic partnership". The Brownsville Herald. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  13. ↑ "New Educational Campus in Harlingen Closer to Reality after Signing Ceremony". www.myharlingen.us. March 10, 2020. Retrieved March 11, 2020.
  14. ↑ "Collegiate high school opens in Harlingen - The Rider Newspaper". November 29, 2021. Retrieved November 8, 2022.
  15. ↑ "TEA". Texas Education Agency . Retrieved April 11, 2024.
  16. ↑ "Harlingen Early College High School". 2019 Best High School Rankings. US News. 2019. Archived from the original on May 19, 2019. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  17. ↑ "HCISD » ECHS ranked among top high schools in the nation" . Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  18. ↑ "Beating the Odds 2015". Newsweek. August 19, 2015. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  19. ↑ Dominguez, Adriana (May 11, 2015). "Top in Beating the Odds". rgvisionmagazine.com. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  20. ↑ Valley Morning Star (April 30, 2011). "Students get college degrees before high school diploma". The Brownsville Herald. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  21. ↑ "HCISD » 59 ECHS seniors receive degrees from TSTC" . Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  22. ↑ "Rice Brand". Public Affairs. August 2, 2018. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  23. ↑ "Rice Owls Logos - NCAA Division I (n-r) (NCAA n-r) - Chris Creamer's Sports Logos Page - SportsLogos.Net". www.sportslogos.net. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  24. ↑ "HCISD » ECHS legacy student to fulfill journey that began with an opportunity" . Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  25. ↑ "EARLY COLLEGE GRADS BASK IN SPOTLIGHT". My Harlingen News. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  26. ↑ "ENGINEERING/ROBOTICS". Early College High School. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  27. ↑ Whitehead, Travis (March 24, 2018). "Celebrating a decade of Early College High School". Valley Morning Star. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  28. ↑ "ECHS Robotics teams Advance to World Championship – Sider Stories – Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District". www.hcisd.org. Retrieved May 19, 2019.
  29. ↑ Early College High School [@HCISDECHS] (April 13, 2019). "Let us celebrate their accomplishments!" (Tweet). Retrieved May 19, 2019– via Twitter.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.