How To Design Successful Early College High Schools

EARLY COLLEGE SUCCESS STORY
POLICY PAVED THE WAY: EARLY COLLEGE INNOVATION IN NORTH CAROLINA

Since 2004, North Carolina has started over 100 innovative high schools, including 70 early college high schools that serve nearly 10,000 students. The schools’ outcomes—including grade-to-grade dropout rates and higher scores on end-of-course exams—are better than those of high schools in the state with comparable student compositions. A substantial number of early college students complete college courses before high school graduation. Particularly impressive is that many of these students would typically not be expected to start or complete college, perhaps not even graduate from high school.

Policies Paved the Way, by Joel Vargas with Jason Quiara from Jobs for the Future, describes how North Carolina has spurred and supported this successful educational innovation, told from the perspective of leaders of early college schools. It is primarily a success story, one that should encourage North Carolina to hold its course and that illustrates how other states can support the creation of better pathways through high school and college.

The brief can be found at the following link:  http://www.jff.org/publications/education/policies-paved-way-early-college-innovat/1012