• Category 1

    Selected in 2021

  • Grades: 9 - 12
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 23
    Student Enrollment: 316
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 34%
    White/Caucasian: 39%
    Hispanic: 17%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.3%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 1%
    Other: 7%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:20
    % Reduced Lunch: 28.2%
    % ELL Learners: 16.1%
    Founded: 2006
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Demetrius Williams
  • CONTACT:
    2050 Highway 501 Bldg 400
    Conway, SC 29528
    843-349-3131
    DWilliams001@horrycountyschools.net
HCS Early College High School
Conway, SC
The strength of the school and the core of its success is the relationships teachers build with students."
1. Tell us about your school’s success.
The strength of the school and the core of its success is the relationships teachers build with students. Teachers get to know students through Bridge Week, our summer transition program for 9th graders, and Advisory. Both programs aid in the success of students because they are able to develop relationships with teachers as well as their peers. Our service-learning and community service projects organized and implemented through Advisory further help students to make connections to the school, teachers, their peers, and the community. It is through these programs and activities that students are able to collaborate, communicate, and demonstrate their critical thinking skills. National Blue Ribbon, Palmetto Gold, US News and World Report’s Best High School in 2020 and 62% of the Class of 2021 earning Associates of Arts degrees before their high school diplomas are all successes that can be attributed to the relationships teachers have built with students.
2. Talk about the greatest contributing factor(s) that promoted positive change in your school.
Student engagement is essential to learning and the more self-motivated students are to learn prepares them to reach their potential. This is encouraged through the meaningful relationships teachers build with students. When students enter the school, they are assigned an Advisor who serves as a mentor, supporter, counselor, and teacher. Through Advisory, students get to know and collaborate with a core group of students in their grade-level for three years. They work on community service projects, organize and provide activities for the entire school, and learn to take ownership of their individual academic success. Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), our college readiness program, is another major contributing factor to positive change. AVID provides our students with the strategies to strengthen their skills in writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization, and reading. The skills gained in AVID help support student success in high school and college courses.
3. How has ESEA funding supported the school's success?
Funds from ESEA are used to support instruction and learning. We purchased school supplies for every student, hands-on cooperative learning supplies to support in class instructional activities, 3D printers, TI 84 calculators for every student to check out and use, online programs, green screens, microphones, recorders and headphones for making quality recordings and podcasts, and the Budget Challenge program to increase financial literacy for our seniors. In addition to technology and supplies, funds are used to support tutoring services. Students are able to receive individual and small group remediation in math during the school day from an interventionist. To provide support with homework, students attended after school and online tutoring. Due to transportation issues for many of our students, online tutoring was offered every day including weekends.
4. What professional development activities were used to improve teaching and learning?
Teachers receive ongoing professional learning experiences through attendance at conferences such as the National Youth at Risk and AVID Summer Institute. In addition to attendance at conferences, teachers participate in Kagan Structures, data analysis, and curriculum development workshops provided by the district. Information learned through conferences and workshops are shared with other staff members through peer-led professional development. Each department in our school is responsible for leading professional development and teachers are able to collaborate and share how they will use the strategies and information learned in sessions in their classrooms.
5. Talk about the cultural shift leading up to your school's success.
The cultural shift leading up to our school’s success happens during the summer before the start of 9th grade with our students' commitment to participate in Bridge Week. A summer transition program for 9th grade, Bridge Week is designed to remove the trepidation that our students feel because they are leaving behind their friends and attending school with students from across the county. It is during Bridge Week, that teachers begin to form relationships with students, students are able to form relationships with their peers, and they enter an environment of high expectations for their success. At the end of Bridge Week, teachers know the name of every student and students have a beginning foundational knowledge of expectations for AVID, Advisory, classes, service learning, and dual enrollment courses.
6. How has community involvement strengthened your success?
Our school district has nine attendance areas and our student population consists of students from each area. The community in our school includes the attendance areas where our students live and the college campus. The partnerships we have with the college campus, our Business Expectations Education group, teachers, parents, and the various organizations that sponsor service-learning opportunities have strengthened our student’s connection to their communities and our school’s success. Our students, although they do not all live in the same communities, are able to enrich their communities through involvement with service learning projects completed with their peers in our Advisory program. Students are able to participate in sports in their attendance areas and our teachers attend their events to support them. Partnerships with the college, support our efforts to provide our families with college awareness, scholarships, and careers information through our annual AVID Family Night events.
Stats
  • Category 1

    Selected in 2021

  • Grades: 9 - 12
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 23
    Student Enrollment: 316
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 34%
    White/Caucasian: 39%
    Hispanic: 17%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.3%
    Asian: 1%
    Native American: 1%
    Other: 7%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:20
    % Reduced Lunch: 28.2%
    % ELL Learners: 16.1%
    Founded: 2006
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Demetrius Williams
  • CONTACT:
    2050 Highway 501 Bldg 400
    Conway, SC 29528
    843-349-3131
    DWilliams001@horrycountyschools.net