By Katelyn Needham/reporter

Marine Creek Collegiate High School brought home two awards to NW Campus this summer.

The early college high school brought home a gold medal from the National Excellence in Urban Education Awards and a bronze medal based on performance in statewide tests and college preparedness from the U.S. News and World Report.

NW academic affairs vice president Judith Gallagher believes the honors the high school received are a benchmark that shows the success students have with the program. She also hopes that it will bring future students into the program.

In the National Excellence competition, Marine Creek took home $5,000 along with the gold medal. The graduating class from the collegiate program has 4,766 college credit hours total, making for an average of more than 71 hours per student. Of those graduating, 88 percent graduated with both their associate and their high school diplomas.

“During our visit to Marine Creek Collegiate High School, I was incredibly impressed by the consistently high level of rigor in each class observed,” said Granger Ward, an executive coach for the National Center for Urban School Transformation. “The level of student engagement and advocacy for their own educational success was apparent among these hard-working young men and women.”

U.S News and World Report found Marine Creek had 100 percent proficiency on the mathematics state exit exam, 85.8 percent mastery of all state exit exams and a 14.5 percent gap between actual and expected performance.

“TCC has always been respectful of our obligation to serve our constituents throughout the county,” Gallagher said. “The students who participate in the early college high school will have received all the support we can provide to become valuable contributors to the quality of life in Tarrant County.”