Enhancing the effectiveness of Early College High School programs In large urban school districts

Early College High Schools (ECHSs) were established to recruit at-risk students (e.g. those who failed a course in grades 6 through 12, were retained, expelled, etc.) and students who are racially, ethnically or socioeconomically underrepresented in higher education. The objective is for these students to graduate with both a high school diploma and an associate’s degree, thus providing them academic advancement for college or career. However, meeting this goal has been difficult; the benchmark for quality in Texas is to have thirty percent of an ECHS’s students graduate with an associate’s degree by the time they graduate from the ECHS. This statistic suggests only certain students are receiving the support and services to become ‘college prepared’ and thus graduate with the dual degree. Prior research suggests college preparedness among ECHS can be attributed to systemic support structures that develop college preparedness for these unique populations of high school students. This phenomenological study aimed to explore the phenomenon of effective support structures for college preparedness in two ECHSs in a large urban school district, that has experienced success (by graduating over 30% of their student population with an associate’s degree). Three relevant stakeholder groups were interviewed (ECHS alumni (n = 3), ECHS teachers (n =4) and ECHS principals (n = 2)) on their perceptions of what support programs are effective for ECHS student college preparedness and their recommendations for enhancing those support structures.

The findings illuminated themes among the various stakeholder groups. ECHS faculty (teachers and principals) and alumni said that: early access to college academic advising, the use of the learning center and library as an academic support for different subjects, advisory periods embedded into the school day, early detection via progress monitoring, tailoring high school instruction to support college readiness, taking a schoolwide approach in providing academic and social emotional support, and providing personalized support due to the small campus size served as supports for college preparedness. The results mirror prior research on the use of college resources (e.g. learning center, library) and taking a schoolwide approach in providing academic and social emotional support. However, this research extends current thinking about ECHS support systems on early access to college academic advising,

Recommendations for enhancements consisted of transition support via a summer bridge program for ECHS students and parental awareness and education on what the ECHS program entails. Future research for a replication of this study on a much larger scale and a longitudinal study to track students post-ECHS are also described.