Gilroy Early College Academy


Dr. TJ Owens Gilroy Early College Academy is an early college high school near Gilroy, California. A California Distinguished School, GECA is among the top high schools in California and the top 1% of the best high schools in the United States.
Founded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2007, GECA operates as an early college school, requiring its students to receive their college preparatory education through a mixture of honors high school classes, Advanced Placement, and college classes. College classes are offered through partnership with Gavilan College, allowing most GECA students to graduate high school with an associate's degree.
Some GECA students were selected as National Merit Scholars and U.S. Presidential Scholars.
WWW geca.gilroyunified.org

History

GECA was founded through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and is now solely funded by the California Department of Education.
Dr. T.J. Owens, GECA's namesake, was the former dean of students at Gavilan College and president of the Gilroy Unified School Board. A prominent member of the national organization 100 Black Men of America and a civil rights activist, Owens died in 2005, two years before the early college academy was established.

Academics

Approximately 90 percent of the class of 2011 graduated and entered a four-year university or continued their education at Gavilan College.
The school's non-weighted average API from 2011 to 2013 is 929 school-wide, 900 for socioeconomically disadvantaged students, and 869 for English learners. Statewide, students of all groups average 790, socioeconomically disadvantaged students 742, and English learners 717.
GECA is one of ten schools participating in A Study of American Public High Schools with Academically-Competitive Admissions, sponsored by Stanford University's Hoover Institution and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Students must also fulfill a requirement of 80 community service hours.

Rankings

GECA is regularly ranked as one of the best high schools in California and the United States as a whole. GECA is the best performing of the 28 early college high schools in California.
The school was ranked 10th in California and 54th in the United States on the 2015 U.S. News & World Report rankings. GECA was ranked the 23rd best high school in California and placed 172nd out of 20,500 public high schools across the entire United States.
GECA is one of 40 Beat the Odds Schools in a study conducted by WestEd, which identified 40 schools that consistently and significantly outperforming schools with similar demographics on the California Standards Tests and the California Academic High School Exit Exam.

Awards

Demographics

2023–2024
  • 290 students: 110 Male, 179 Female
AsianWhiteHispanicTwo or More RacesBlackPacific IslanderAmerican Indian
723614630500
24.8%12.4%50.3%10.3%1.7%0%%

2013–2014
  • 236 students: 114 Male, 122 Female
AsianWhiteHispanicTwo or More RacesAfrican AmericanFilipinoPacific IslanderAmerican IndianNot Reported
497999413010
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