Early College High School Initiative Impact Study

Posted by on January 27, 2014

Early College high schools and college-going (update)

A new analysis by the American Institutes for Research finds that Early College high school students are significantly more likely to enroll in college and earn a degree than their peers. Early Colleges partner with colleges and universities to offer high school students the chance to earn an associate’s degree, or up to two years of college credits toward a bachelor’s degree, at little or no cost. The data come from a multi-year study of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Early College High School Initiative, and indicate that during the study period, 25 percent of Early College students earned a college degree (typically an associate’s degree), as compared with only 5 percent of comparison students. Overall, 81 percent of Early College students enrolled in college, compared with 72 percent of comparison students. The authors note that students in the study were between two and four years out of high school, so many would not have had time to complete bachelor’s degrees. Early College students were also more likely than comparison students to enroll in two-year colleges and were just as likely to enroll in four-year colleges. Impact generally did not differ by subgroup, and when it differed, it was generally in favor of underrepresented groups. Impact also did not differ significantly by gender, race/ethnicity, family income, first-generation college-going status, or pre-high-school achievement.

http://www.air.org/files/AIR_ECHSI_Impact_Study_Report-_NSC_Update_01-14-14.pdf