What’s a better way to facilitate the transition from high school to college better but to physically merge the two? Early College High Schools (ECHS) are high schools that are paired with individual colleges — both on the private college and on the public side. Students who are hard working will be able to earn not just their high school diploma, but also a college associate’s degree or two years worth of college credits, all at the point of graduation from high school.

These schools are by design meant to help high school graduation rates also to do the same with college enrollment with students of color, the disadvantaged, less affluent youth, first-generation college goers, English as second language (ESL) students, and others not very well represented in higher education. Here’s the clincher: Early College high school students can benefit from either free or cheaper tuition at their partner university. While in high school, though, they can take advantage of smaller class sizes and tons of support in the form of tutoring and lots of other services. Tutoring in Fresno California has demonstrated powerful boosts in classroom performance so it is a natural addition to the support system.

Although these schools started because of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, continued operations (possibly expansion) depend on grants from many other philanthropists. These funders are onboard only so long as it can be shown that their money is being deployed to a worthwhile working cause. Assessing this requires a lot of data for analysis, hence the creation of the Early College High School Student Information System.

The Early College High School Initiative that marked the start of these types of schools came into existence because of funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. The initiative has so far retooled 240 schools in 28 states. Even Native American communities have fourteen Early College high schools that serve them.

Data gathered from the Information System in 2013 showed that 86 percent of Early College High Schoolers graduated in contrast to 81 percent of their non Early College High School peers. Also, 80 percent of Early College high schoolers enrolled in two or 4 year colleges compared with 70% of their non Early College high school peers. With success like this, funders are sure to continue their support. The information resulting from these reports will also allow program designers to continually tailor the format according to findings.

At first glance it appears that this program is tailored to the academically prepared students capable of handling higher level high school material and college material — but contrary to first impression, it is designed to serve the lower performers. Early College is an intervention that serves to smooth the transition between high school and college such that students transition over to university without seeing it as a distant, unattainable target. Certainly, students who have always had a tough time taking on high school work cannot all of a sudden acquire the ability to do well in college classes so that is where the extra support really kicks in. There is an enormous amount of counseling and academic support that is part of the system. There is an incredible supply of tutors prepared to work with students before they reach the academic point of no return.

A design feature that gives a psychological boost is that many Early College campuses are located within actual college campuses. This format allows students to experience college general life, again eliminating this idea of college being a far off goal.

According to research, twenty university credits is the threshold that reflects a student’s commitment to college. Students who have below the twenty credit mark are not seen as demonstrating a commitment to stay and complete their degrees. Above twenty credits, students tend to go on until degree completion. Those who complete the program would have earned 60 college credits total. If you are you looking for more in regards to good teachers make learning inviting look at our site. In other words, the completion of early college lands students far beyond the academic at-risk threshold.

Early College is only one of several paths that allow for the accumulation of college credit while still in high school. Advanced Placement is another one, but with AP, test takers are literally so advanced that they can — on a college level — test well enough to qualify for college credit while attending high school. Again, early college targets a completely different group of students, namely those who are academically at risk.

Finland has a school system where it is customary for 19 year olds to have earned something similar to an American college associates degree. Finnish students usually score among the top three performers in worldwide testing. It is somewhat ambitious for the United States to piece together such a parallel given the relatively below average performance of their students.

Performance is so off the mark in the U.S. that there are schools known as «dropout factories.» With continued innovations such as Early College high schools, there is hope that these schools will exist only in the past.

To reiterate, statistics come from reports revolving around 10 Early Colleges, so there might need to be an updated study with a larger sample size. But in the meantime, I think that we can all support these schools that appear to be delivering as promised.

A statistic worth mentioning is that twenty two percent of Early College students achieved a college diploma (mostly associate’s degree), compared to non Early College peers who are measured at two percent. In fact, Early College students completed these degrees by completion of high school!