Ed Gililland, Board President; Katherine Thorossian, Superintendent; Sue Kaiser, Assistant Superintendent, Educational Services; Catherine Real, Director of Counseling College & Careers; Kirk McGinnis, Principal, Monrovia High School; Felicia Limbrick, Assistant Principal, Monrovia High School
The Monrovia USD Early College Program was developed in the spirit of Assembly Bill 288 and designed to address Monrovia’s inequitable college enrollment and persistence data for historically underrepresented students. The four-year program functions as a cohort model giving students in grades 9-12 the opportunity to earn up to 54 units of transferable college credit guaranteed by all UC/CSU universities. The cohort model increases students’ emotional, behavioral and academic engagement resulting in improved secondary and post-secondary student outcomes. Traditional persistence issues such as time, money and skill level are addressed through participation. The free program gives students the ability to complete two years of college coursework, the UC cost equivalent being $70,000. Students develop the behaviors and skills necessary for college success in a collaborative, cohort setting. As of December 2018, MUSD students had earned 1,377 transferable college units since the inception of the program.