This week, OSFO, Hepcat and I will attend the open house at Bard High School Early College in Queens. We will once again take the G train as we did last week to get to Frank Sinatra School of the Arts to the Queens campus of Bard High School Early College (BHSEC), which is located on the lower east side. Both schools offer students two years of high school education in the 9th and 10th grades. During the final two years at BHSEC, students are enrolled in an early college program rather than in 11th or 12th grade.

According fto the BHSEC website:

BHSEC students take college courses and are offered intellectual challenges equivalent to those found on college campuses across the country—be it a First Year Seminar course in the humanities or a course in Organic Chemistry. The unique partnership between Bard College and the New York City Department of Education allows us to offer this kind of education at no cost to eligible students who are enrolled in the New York City public school system.

Graduates of BHSEC leave after four years with a high school Regents diploma and an Associates degree from Bard College. Nearly all BHSEC graduates transfer to a four-year college to complete a Bachelor’s degree. The BHSEC Queens campus opened in 2008, and we will be proud to graduate our first class of students in June 2010.

In the meantime you can read about our tours of Brooklyn Latin, Edward R. Murrow High School, Midwood High School, the NYC iSchool, Frank Sinatra High School for the Arts and an article about the  specialized schools test.