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The Early College Alliance is an early college program based at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan that allows its students to earn sixty free credits of EMU classes. It began in 2007, becoming the ninth early college program in Michigan. It takes high school students who show interest from many surrounding school districts each year, giving them a chance to enter through a raffle. After beginning college classes at EMU, they can stay until they're twenty years of age or have completed their sixty credits.

Involved School Districts
When the program began in 2007, there were five school districts taking part in the program: Milan Area School District, Lincoln Consolidated Schools, Whitmore Lake Public Schools, Ypsilanti Public Schools and Chelsea School District. Being added to the program in 2011 are two more school districts: Ann Arbor Public Schools and Willow Run Community Schools. Some of these schools have more available slots than others due to district size.

Staff
There are currently thirteen members of the ECA staff. Of these, three are administrators, nine are teachers and one provides instructional support. They include:

Amber Bishop, Social Studies Instructor

Andrea Pisani, Mathematics Instructor

David Dugger, ECA Director

Ellen Fischer, Assistant Director of Instruction

Gina Wilson, Mathematics Instructor

Keith Kellman, Mathematics Instuctor

Michelle Peet, English Instructor

Pete Sutherland, D.V.M., Science Instructor

Randall Cooper, Assistant Director of Operations

Ryan Hyde, English Instructor

Sandy Krikos, Ph.D., Instructional Support

Valerie Canter, Social Studies Instructor

Wendy Benya, Science Instuctor

Goals and Education
The program’s goal is to enroll 150 new students per year, with 400-500 overall students at a time in the program. Incoming students begin by taking four core high school classes: English, Math, Biology and History or Government. The students are evaluated on their academic commitment, development and emotional readiness coupled with basic skills, dubbed “Soft Skills” by the program. Depending on these factors and how well they do in their classes, students are moved on into EMU classes or, in some extreme cases, removed from the program. ECA has very high standards in terms of their students' performance. If students don't pass their Eastern classes with a C or higher, it is treated as a failure and, if the class is required, the student will have to retake it.