Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n Students will graduate with not only a high school diploma, but also an associate\u2019s degree and a guaranteed spot at Delaware State, founded in 1891 and ranked 10th overall among all HBCUs today. Just as important, they will experience a unique school culture modeled after Delaware State and other HBCUs. In fact, by their junior year students will be taught directly \u2014 but remotely \u2014 by Delaware State professors for certain courses.<\/p>\n Although New York City is home to more than 100 higher education institutions, it has no HBCUs. In fact, there are none in all of New York state.<\/p>\n \u201cYoung people of color just are not being exposed to HBCUs at all,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWe\u2019re not even talking about HBCUs,\u201d whose distinguished list of graduates include former Vice President Kamala Harris, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and actor and producer Samuel L. Jackson, to name a few. \u201cAnd if we are, we\u2019re either discrediting them, or we\u2019re telling students that they can\u2019t afford it, or they don\u2019t give scholarships \u2014 none of which is true.\u201d<\/p>\n That concern is echoed in UNCF\u2019s recent Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges<\/a>, which finds that many K\u201312 students \u2014 especially students of color \u2014 still lack meaningful exposure to HBCUs. The report underscores the urgent need for clearer, intentional pathways connecting young people to these historically Black institutions.<\/p>\n The new school, and the broader effort to develop HBCU-inspired high schools, is made possible with support from a partnership between UNCF (formerly the United Negro College Fund), the XQ Institute and Transcend, a national nonprofit that helps to design and support innovative schools. This coalition of organizations is also in the early stages of transforming an existing New Orleans public school into an HBCU-inspired, early college high school, with other communities also being explored for such efforts.<\/p>\n Related<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018Stage Is Shifting Rapidly\u2019 for High Schools: Are States Helping Them Keep Up?<\/p>\n \u201cThis work only happens because of the strength of the partnership,\u201d said Sarah Navarro, the chief of schools and systems for the XQ Institute. \u201cUNCF brings deep expertise in what makes HBCUs so powerful for student success. Transcend supports and facilitates the design process with communities. XQ ensures the model is built to transform high school \u2014 not just launch a single school.<\/p>\n \u201cTogether, we\u2019re not just opening a new campus. We\u2019re building a scalable model for how high schools across the country can connect students to college, culture and opportunity in a lasting way.\u201d<\/p>\n Key hallmarks of HBCU Early College Prep include accelerated coursework, youth voice and choice, real-world learning and a deep connection to the local community.<\/p>\n Students are taking college courses beginning in ninth grade, with teachers receiving training by faculty at Delaware State, said Shawn Rux, a senior executive director in the Office of New School Development & Design at the NYC Department of Education, a key partner of the coalition. Eventually, those students will take virtual classes with Delaware State professors.<\/p>\n \u201cThe \u2018intentionality around the school design\u201d is key to this enterprise,\u201d said Sekou Biddle, vice president for advocacy at UNCF. As part of the effort, the team asked, \u201cWhat is it that we know about the HBCU experience that is so catalytic for students? And what if we were intentional about bringing those elements into high school?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s around [school] culture, it\u2019s around instruction, but then it\u2019s around bringing those principles to life,\u201d Biddle said.<\/p>\n Channeling the \u2018HBCU Magic\u2019<\/p>\n To Rux and others, it\u2019s not just the academic challenge; it\u2019s the combination of that rigor with a strong, positive school culture that nurtures students and provides them a thoughtfully designed support system.<\/p>\n \u201cI call it the HBCU magic,\u201d said Rux, a Delaware State alumnus himself.<\/p>\n A valuable resource and reference point for the design of the new school came from a 2020 UNCF report, \u201cImparting Wisdom: HBCU Lessons for K-12 Education,\u201d<\/a> Biddle said.<\/p>\n \u201cHBCUs are often overlooked as sources of effective methods for producing high-achieving Black students, although their existence is based on this very premise,\u201d the Imparting Wisdom report notes. \u201cHBCUs have been engines for ingenuity, academic excellence and social justice for decades, and the strategies and practices they implement can inform educational practices and systems.\u201d<\/p>\n The report identifies a series of recommendations based on three \u201cbest practices\u201d among HBCUs including: cultivating nurturing support systems with a high level of student and faculty interaction; leveraging African American culture and identity; and setting high academic expectations and an intentional college-going culture.<\/p>\n Students participate in a classroom discussion. They begin taking college classes in ninth grade and will eventually be taught by Delaware State University professors. (HBCU Early College Prep High School)<\/p>\n Competition to attend the new public high school was fierce, with some 1,000 applicants for about 100 seats. The school will grow each year, as it progresses from having ninth graders only to eventually a full slate of students in grades 9 through 12.<\/p>\n To apply, students are required to not only submit their academic credentials (including test scores), but also write a short essay about the Amanda Gorman poem, \u201cThe Hill We Climb,\u201d\u00a0and submit a video statement about themselves. While many students in the new class attended other New York City public schools previously, some came from private and parochial schools, according to Johnson.<\/p>\n \u201cOur school is actually bringing students back into the public school system,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Designed for Belonging<\/p>\n Among those to earn a spot at the new Queens public school are ninth graders Mya Williams and Chance Thomas.<\/p>\n Mya, an aspiring veterinarian, was attracted to the school after hearing about it at a school assembly. Principal Johnson had been visiting middle schools to drum up interest.<\/p>\n \u201cShe talked about how we would get an associate\u2019s degree at the end of our four years, and we would get college credits,\u201d Mya said. \u201cAnd that really caught my attention.\u201d<\/p>\n Both students describe their new school as academically demanding, but also supportive.<\/p>\n According to Chance, the school is cultivating students\u2019 work ethic and valuable skills like time management. \u201cThey definitely push us with the workload and the expectations, because a lot of our peers [at other schools] don\u2019t have that,\u201d she said. \u201cExpectations are really high, but our professors [how teachers are referred to] are really supportive.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s good that we\u2019re challenged,\u201d Mya said. \u201cIt\u2019s preparing us for college.\u201d<\/p>\n Related<\/a><\/p>\n Early College Offers Students More Than Just Higher Ed Credits<\/p>\n The two students also highlighted the \u201chouse\u201d system, akin in some respects to sororities and fraternities, or to the student houses featured in the Harry Potter books and films, an analogy offered up by Principal Johnson. In fact, HBCU Early College Prep uses a point system like Hogwarts School, with rewards for those that amass the most. But in this case, the houses are named after well-known HBCUs like Spelman College and Howard University.<\/p>\n The experience \u201cbuilds a sisterhood and brotherhood within those houses,\u201d Chance said.<\/p>\n \u201cListen to how these students talk about their school. They\u2019re describing rigor and community in the same breath,\u201d said Aylon Samouha, co-founder and CEO of Transcend. \u201cThat\u2019s not an accident. That\u2019s the result of intentional design.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen students feel like they belong to something meaningful,\u201d Samouha said, \u201cwhen the adults around them have high expectations and real support structures, engagement stops being something you have to manufacture. It becomes the natural byproduct of a school that was designed with students\u2019 full humanity in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n Coming \u201chome\u201d<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t take long for ninth graders at the new school to experience Delaware State firsthand. In November of last year, HBCU Early College Prep organized a field trip for students over homecoming weekend.<\/p>\n During the visit, the ninth graders toured campus and participated in a pinning ceremony with the college president. Over time, students will have the chance to attend career fairs and other activities at Delaware State, said Kareem McLemore, the university\u2019s vice president for strategic enrollment management and international affairs. And, they will be earning college credits from the institution each year.<\/p>\n The high schoolers also had a chance to meet with upperclass students at an existing early college high school located on the Delaware State campus to better understand the accelerated model.<\/p>\n As part of the model, each student also is paired with a \u201csuccess coach,\u201d an upperclassman from Delaware State who can provide remote support, including tutoring and personalized academic advising.<\/p>\n As a brand new school with only ninth graders right now, HBCU Early College Prep is still early in its journey. But Principal Johnson, Rux from the city education department and their coalition partners are aiming high:<\/p>\n \u201cWe just want to make sure,\u201d Rux said, \u201cthat when students walk out that door at the end of their four years, they\u2019re fully prepared to really take on the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Disclosure: The XQ Institute<\/a> is a financial supporter of The 74<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Principal Asya Johnson talks about her alma mater, Delaware State University, what comes through is not simply…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59102,59103,59098,7375,59100,59099,9,11,10,59101],"class_list":["post-139981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-academic-rigor","tag-asya-johnson","tag-delaware-state","tag-delaware-state-university","tag-high-school-diploma","tag-historically-black","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-school-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Students](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/88efcef110f6b40127f019c032685c8d.jpeg\"\/)
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