Early College High School Research Articles

Accelerated Postsecondary Pathways: The Longer-Term Impact of the Early College High School Model on Postsecondary Degree Attainment

Accelerated Postsecondary Pathways: The Longer-Term Impact of the Early College High School Model on Postsecondary Degree Attainment

Navigating High School as an Early College Student: How Institutional Agents Support First-Generation College Students

ABSTRACT In this study, we sought to understand how institutional agents at an Early College High School (ECHS) supported first-generation college students (FGCS). Our findings highlight how institutional agents were able to support students’ transitions from an ECHS to two- and four-year institutions. We also discussed the skills, mediated by institutional agents, which were critical in fostering the college-readiness of FGCS. We conclude with discussing implications for how educators can support the increasing number of first-generation college students as they pursue and transition through postsecondary education.

The Implementation of Universal Mental Health Screening in an Early College High School Program

Meeting the needs of gifted students is particularly challenging for school counselors. This practitioner action research study examined the effectiveness of implementing complete universal mental health screening with early college high school students. Using a complete mental health approach, we classified students into need-based groups. The groups were then aligned with the school’s multitiered system of supports (MTSS) and results identified 64 students (20.1%) as needing services beyond Tier 1. The correlational analysis demonstrated a strong negative correlation between social/emotional well-being and internalizing psychopathology ( r = −.579, p < .05). These findings further support the gifted population’s need for tailored identification and can be used to support the expansion of targeted school counseling services, because this group often is overlooked due to their high functioning in certain areas.

The importance of academic advising for dual credit and early college high school students

AbstractAcademic advising for dual credit and early college high school students is significant to postsecondary matriculation and degree completion of these students after high school graduation. Unstructured advising can lead students to take excess credits and have an unclear path to a postsecondary credential. This study focused on the importance of academic advising, ensuring a clear path is identified for each student participating in a dual credit or early college high school program. A qualitative survey identifying high school personnel's understanding of advising, needs to better serve students, and current challenges facing high school counselors is discussed. Quantitative data landscapes student demographics and attempted versus completed credits for both dual credit and early college high school students at multiple high schools. Practitioner recommendations underscore the need for college advising by a college advisor who is familiar with the college advisement process versus a high school counselor who focuses on high school completion needs.

The California Community Colleges dual enrollment student journey: An equitable journey from participation to matriculation?

AbstractAcross the nation, community colleges have expanded dual enrollment programs to increase college enrollment and completion, particularly among historically underserved populations. The California Community College system—the largest system in the nation—is no different and recently expanded its dual enrollment programming to include College and Career Pathways Partnerships, in addition to Middle College High School and Early College High School. This article presents an original analysis of California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office system data to understand the dual enrollment student journey and any equity gaps that might exist in participation and outcomes, including college‐level math and/or English participation and completion, award attainment, and postsecondary matriculation. Though dual enrollment programs can be strategy to support equity, the authors find racial and regional equity gaps persist in both students’ access to these programs and their success. However, practitioners can take action to ensure it is an equitable journey at their school or college.

The Effect of Early College High Schools on STEM Bachelor's Degree Attainment: Evidence from North Carolina

Abstract With growing demand for workers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and health care, it is important to assess not only whether education interventions impact educational attainment, but also students’ majors. This study examines the impact of Early College High Schools (ECHSs) on bachelor's degree attainment by field of study using data on four hundred thousand students from North Carolina (7,300 in an ECHS). Using propensity score weighting, I find that ECHSs increase bachelor's degree attainment within ten years of high school entry by 4.7 percentage points (19 percent over baseline), with STEM degree attainment increasing by 1.3 to 2.4 points (18 to 34 percent). However, within STEM and STEM-related fields, ECHSs increase degrees in the natural sciences (1.3 points or 45 percent), math/computer science (0.6 points or 60 percent), and psychology (1.2 points or 57 percent), but have null and directionally negative effects on engineering (−0.1 points or −7 percent) and health care (−0.3 points or −17 percent). Patterns are generally similar across student subgroups, though male students drive increases in computer science/mathematics, whereas female and White students drive decreases in health care. Thus, ECHSs increase STEM degree attainment overall, but more research is needed to examine whether intensive dual-enrollment experiences like the ECHS may create barriers or disincentives to pursuing certain STEM fields.

A Qualitative Study on the Socialization and Transitions of Early College High School Graduates in Texas

Early College High Schools (ECs) are growing in popularity as an affordable avenue for students to obtain up to an associate's degree while in high school in Texas. Using Merton's (1966) Anticipatory Socialization Theory, this study investigated how ECs shaped 13 graduates’ social behaviors and norms while in high school, and then how they leveraged those behaviors in their transition to college. Results indicate that while ECs proved to be a supportive environment with nurturing teachers, these programs deemphasized social activities, leading to varying preparation of the social skills necessary for college fully. Recommendations for practice and future research are provided.

Multiplying Success: Small-Group Instruction in an Early College High School Mathematics Class

The study was conducted in an early college high school’s 9th-grade Precalculus class and focused on how differentiated small-group math centers impact students’ course grades and overall math progress. Students’ math journals were evaluated on how effective students find the Precalculus math centers to improve their math progress and grade. A paired sample t-test showed that students significantly improved their course grades and overall math knowledge over twelve weeks of instruction. However, students’ views about the small group instruction differed greatly. Working in small group math centers is an effective instructional method. Advanced students can move through the curriculum faster and work on enrichment, while others are given extra time and support to reach proficiency. It is, however, significantly more time-consuming than the traditional lecture/practice method. Capitalizing on the effectiveness of small group instruction is only possible after finding a way to reduce the time it takes to prepare for the centers.

Clark Atlanta University Talent Conference: Building Bridges: Strengthening Collaboration between Industry and Academia

Abstract: In September 2023, the Advertising Educational Foundation, as part of its HBCU Campus Connect program, sponsored the You Might Be a Marketer Conference at Clark Atlanta University for students there and from Spelman and Morehouse Colleges, two other Atlanta area HBCUs. Included in this conference was a session for faculty featuring a conversation about transformative outcomes coming from industry-academic collaborations. This article provides a recording of this dialogue. The session touches on the challenges faced, the need for dedication, and the importance of fresh approaches. The group also discusses examples, such as a collaboration involving high schools, the American Association of Advertising Agencies, P-TECH schools (Pathways in Technology Early College High School), and NASCAR's internship program. Overall, the group stresses the significance of industry-academic collaborations to help students maximize their potential through the practical application of critical thinking skills and knowledge gained through their college education

Supporting Early College High School Students: The Effects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Perfectionism on Perfectionism, Negative Affectivity, and Social–Emotional Well-Being

Supporting Early College High School Students: The Effects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Perfectionism on Perfectionism, Negative Affectivity, and Social–Emotional Well-Being

Cream Skimming in an Early College High School: A First-Year Principal’s Dilemma in a High-Performing Campus

Schools of choice need to provide equitable access and opportunities to all students, including students with disabilities and emergent bilinguals. In the context of Early College High Schools, principals and school districts should be partners in ensuring admissions processes are non-discriminatory. In this fictional case, a new principal in a high-performing early college high school becomes concerned that the school has been denying or not actively recruiting students with disabilities and emergent bilingual students. However, when she raises her concern with her supervisors and predecessor, she gets no support. The teaching notes of this case review the literature on ethical leadership, school administration dilemmas, and bounded ethicality.

Community college library service to early college high school students

This study examined the services provided by community college libraries and librarians to Early College High School (ECHS) students on their campuses. Based on focus group interviews with librarians at four community colleges that serve ECHS students, the researcher then surveyed community college librarians across the state of North Carolina to determine the services and resources provided to these nontraditional students. The results of this study provide information on both the services currently being provided and the barriers to those services. The results of this study could be used in designing librarian preparation programs which will better serve academic librarians serving in libraries with growing high school student populations. Furthermore, this study highlights the need for targeted professional training to better support librarians as their campuses continue to serve ECHS students.

A socioscientific issues approach to ninth-graders' understanding of COVID-19 on health, wealth, and educational attainments.

This study investigated the implementation of a curricular unit of instruction designed to immerse rising ninth-grade students socioscientific issues via data collection and analysis of the relationships between health, wealth, educational attainment, and the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on their communities. Twenty-six (n = 26) rising ninth-grade students (14-15 years old; 16 girls, 10 boys) participated in an early college high school program operated by the College Planning Center at a state university in the northeastern United States. The findings of this study demonstrate how ninth-graders enhanced their understanding of the relationships between COVID-19 and community health, wealth, and educational attainments. The students also identified from their research data that communities in Massachusetts that are more educated and with more financial resources were less impacted less by the virus.

Exploring the Principal’s Role in Cross-Sector Partnerships: Sensemaking and Politics in a High-Performing Early College High School

Secondary–postsecondary partnership reforms have grown in scale and importance throughout the past few decades as part of the national agenda to increase college access, equity, and completion. However, little research has examined the role of the principal in cross-sector partnerships. This qualitative case study explores how one nationally acclaimed principal at an award-winning early college high school made sense of the cross-sector context and negotiated with K–12 and higher education stakeholders to maximize college opportunity for low-income, Latinx, and first-generation students. Our analysis integrates sensemaking and micropolitical theory to identify leadership practices that facilitate effective cross-sector collaboration, with implications for K–12 leadership and cross-sector partnership reform.

“From an ethic of care to queer resistance”: Texas administrator and teacher perspectives on supporting LGBTQ students in secondary schools

LGBTQ students often have a secondary school experience fraught with bullying, mental health struggles, and marginalization. In this qualitative study, we examined teacher and administrator perspectives on school supports for LGBTQ students using data collected for a larger project on early college high schools (ECHS) in Texas. Using an ethic of care in education as a conceptual frame, our findings revealed that participants perceived ECHSs as safe and accepting spaces for sizable populations of queer youth, even in a restrictive state policy context. We suggest that because ECHSs were not intentionally designed to serve LGBTQ students—yet staff perceived to be serving them well—the characteristics embodied by ECHS faculty and staff may serve as aspirational aims for educators in other school contexts.

Missing Academic Targets in Ninth Grade: Do Early College High Schools Give Students Second Chances for College?

Missing Academic Targets in Ninth Grade: Do Early College High Schools Give Students Second Chances for College?

The Impact of Academic Momentum on Postsecondary Matriculation among Early College High School Students

ABSTRACT States have introduced a range of policies and strategies aimed at boosting college readiness by strengthening collaborations between secondary and postsecondary education sectors. One popular strategy is Early College High Schools, which allows historically underserved student groups to complete college-level coursework and improve their college readiness while still in high school. This study examined the influence of academic momentum during high school on key measures of postsecondary success for ECHS students in a suburban school district in Texas. This quantitative study analyzed data for five ECHS graduating classes from a Texas community college and school district. Data analysis for the first research question included descriptive statistics. The second research question used a multinomial logistic regression model to determine the relationship between momentum measures and postsecondary matriculation. At-risk and low SES students were less likely to matriculate to a 2- or 4-year postsecondary institution. Overall, ECHS graduates who earned a degree while still in high school were more likely to matriculate to a 2- or 4-year postsecondary institution. Support structures embedded within the small learning environment of an ECHS can provide graduates an opportunity to learn behaviors important for college success. Recommended strategies for improving the ECHS model are provided.

The Effects of Early College Opportunities on English Learners

Research shows that Early College high schools have a significant impact on high school and college outcomes for students from low income and racial/ethnic minority backgrounds, but how similar opportunities extend to English learners (ELs) remains unknown. We examine a program that offers Early College opportunities in high schools serving large EL populations in California. Leveraging an exogenous policy change and rich administrative records, we look at the outcomes of pre- and postprogram cohorts of ELs (N = 15,090) in treated and untreated high schools. We find large, significant estimated effects on college credits earned in 12th grade but no effect on immediate college attendance after high school. The probability of attending a 4-year college decreased.

“I felt like a butterfly spreading my wings”: early college high schools as educational counterspaces for women from marginalized groups

Early College High Schools (ECHS) partner with post-secondary institutions to award students, specifically those from historically marginalized groups, with significant transferrable college credit—tuition free—along with a high school diploma. Utilizing the frameworks of counterspace and counterstory, this study aimed to understand the perceptions of 13 women who identify as of Color and/or low-income, who graduated from an ECHS and are now in college or are recent college graduates, regarding their experiences attending an ECHS and their preparation for post-secondary success. Qualitative analyses indicated the ECHS served as an educational counterspace with a variety of “structural-cultural” elements that were imperative to the participants’ transition to, engagement with, and success in college.

P-TECH SCHOOL IN TRANSPORTATION AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PROGRAM: A CASE OF BALTIMORE CITY COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Four years high school students took the opportunity of early college access and dual enrolment program by taking college courses while they are at a high school. In recent years several states including Maryland supported the development of a new model of early college access program for high school students called Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools (P-TECH) 9-14 schools. With the P-TECH 9-14 school model in six years or less students graduate with a high school diploma and a no cost two-year associate degree in STEM fields. This paper discusses the recently developed new P-TECH transportation program at Baltimore City Community College. The program focuses on the supply chain management career pathway to meet the present and future needs of the region. P-TECH schools work with industry partners and a local community college to ensure an up-to-date curriculum that is academically rigorous and economically relevant. P-TECH programs also include mentoring, workplace visits and instruction on the skills needed for the industry and paid internships and job consideration with the partnering companies.