A new program at the University of the District of Columbia could enable a small group of high-performing D.C. public school students to get a bachelor’s degree two years after graduating high school.

The pilot program, which could be launched as soon as fall 2012, is an attempt to attract bright students who might otherwise choose to leave the area, UDC spokesman Alan Etter said.

“We first began talking about these issues when it first became obvious that we needed to create a better feeder system,” he said.

Under the proposed plan, accepted students would begin taking classes at UDC during their junior year of high school. After graduating from high school, students would take two more years of college coursework to earn a bachelor’s degree.

The pilot program would at first only accept students from Woodrow Wilson Senior High School, the District’s largest comprehensive public high school which is currently holding classes on the UDC campus while their building is being renovated, and the School Without Walls, a small public magnet high school in Foggy Bottom. The program is part of a larger initiative by UDC to recruit more motivated students, according to The Washington Post.

A similar program kicked off at The George Washington University in 2009 with 14 students from the School Without Walls; six more joined the program this year. The UDC plan is different, however, in that it does not grant students an associate degree when they graduate high school, but instead funnels them directly into a bachelor’s program.

High school students would take college courses that count for dual credit during the last two years of high school and then graduate with a bachelor’s degree two years later, according to The Washington Post.

George Mason University also offers a similar program, Pathway to the Baccalaureate, which guides high school students through Virginia community colleges and to four year schools, according to the program’s website.

“This is cutting-edge for D.C. [public schools], and it’s cutting edge for much of the metro area,” Sheila Harris, a former School Without Walls principal and director of the GWU program, said to The Washington Post.

The UDC partnership still needs to be approved by DCPS interim chancellor Kaya Henderson (SFS ’92), but Etter said he does not foresee major obstacles.

DCPS officials declined to comment until a formal agreement with UDC is reached.