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GREENSBORO — Anna Batista didn’t fit in at Ragsdale High. She was unhappy, felt neglected by school officials and her grades began to suffer. She was slipping through cracks and, by her own account, had it not been for the Middle College at GTCC-Jamestown, her future could look much different.

“I came in not feeling important to school, now I know I’m important,” she told the N.C. JOBS Commission on Monday.

The commission is a 20-member panel appointed to make recommendations to the State Board of Education and the General Assembly about how the state’s early-college high school programs can align with economic development. The commission’s focus is enhancing science, technology, engineering and math — or STEM — education in the public school system.

Early- and middle-college programs are partnerships between local schools and colleges where high school students can earn diplomas as well as college credit.

Batista, 19, is well on her way to a career in a STEM field. She will graduate with her high school diploma and an associate’s degree from GTCC and wants to study anthropology; several universities have already accepted her.

The commission heard from several presenters in Greensboro about ways the public school system and private industry can work together. Richard Dean, professor emeritus at Wake Forest University Health Sciences, believes those partnerships are integral to strengthen the state’s economy.

“The key is to ignite the curiosity of this at-risk student with something,” Dean said.

Dean sees middle and early colleges as a way to channel those students through high school while preparing them for the workplace and college in practical ways.

Guilford County has six middle colleges and an early college partnership with Guilford College. That partnership was the first of its kind in the state. The Early College at Guilford College and Middle College at GTCC-Jamestown had a 100 percent graduation rate last year.

Those kinds of numbers are exactly why the state needs more early and middle college programs, said Lt. Governor Walter Dalton. Dalton is chairman of the JOBS Commission.

“Do I think we need to create more early colleges? Yes I do,” Dalton said, adding he would like one more program in each of the state’s seven regions.

But with budget cuts looming again in Raleigh, finding money for those programs will be hard to come by. Dalton said the state and school districts should look for ways to fund them with existing money.

Contact J. Brian Ewing at 373-7351 or brian.ewing@news-record.com