Early College High School Initiative Brief overview and Core Principals

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Early College High School InitiativeBrief
overview and Core Principals

• Andrew Smiles
• Program Officer, US Program
• March 25, 2009

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Early College High Schools

• Goal is to provide clear, tightly designed
  pathway to college for students traditionally
  underrepresented in postsecondary institutions
• Offer students a chance to earn an Associates
  degree or up to 2 years of college credit
• College-level coursework in high school
• Increase access to postsecondary
• Enhance motivation, academic momentum
• Compress the number of years to a college degree
• A 2002 vision for creating 100 Bard-lets
• Currently 250 across the country and growing

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Early College High Schools Across the Country
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Early College Core Principles

• Core Principle 1 Early college schools are
  committed to serving students underrepresented in
  higher education.
• Core Principle 2 Early college schools are
  created and sustained by a local education
  agency, a higher education institution, and the
  community, all of whom are jointly accountable
  for student success.
• Core Principle 3 Early college schools and their
  higher education partners and community jointly
  develop an integrated academic program so all
  students earn one to two years of transferable
  college credit leading to college completion.

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Early College Core Principals

• Core Principle 4 Early college schools engage
  all students in a comprehensive support system
  that develops academic and social skills as well
  as the behaviors and conditions necessary for
  college completion.
• Core Principle 5 Early college schools and their
  higher education and community partners work with
  intermediaries to create conditions and advocate
  for supportive policies that advance the early
  college movement.

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ECHS intermediaries

• ECHS Intermediary Organizations
• Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
• Middle College National Consortium
• University System of Georgia
• Texas High School Project
• North Carolina New Schools Project
• City University of New York
• Foundation for California Community Colleges
• Gateway to College
• Center for Native Education
• National Council of La Raza
• KnowledgeWorks Foundation
• Strong momentum at state and national levels

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Additional resources

• Jobs for the Future
• American Institutes for Research
• SRI International
• Visit online
• www.earlycolleges.org

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Early Findings on Early College Schools Andrea
R. Berger ECHSI Evaluation Project
Director American Institutes for
Research Presentation for the Alliance for
Excellence in Educations High School Achievement
Series March 25, 2009
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About the ECHSI Evaluation

• Started in 2002
• Mix of qualitative and quantitative methods
• Based primarily on 2007-08 data from 157 ECSs

Source 2007-08 ECHSI school survey
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Characteristics of ECSs

• 68 are new schools
• 22 existing small schools becoming ECSs
• 5 programs and 5 schools within schools
• 76 have a 2-year public college partner
• 24 have a 4-year college partner
• 53 are located on a college campus
• Most of the remaining are in their own building
• 76 have admissions criteria
• 64 of applicants are accepted
• Fewer than 100 students per grade on average

Source 2007-08 ECHSI school survey
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Who do ECSs serve?

• Minority- 67
• Free or Reduced-Price Lunch Eligible- 59
• Limited English Proficiency- 10
• 1st Generation College Going- 46

Sources 2007-08 ECHSI school survey 2007-08
ECHSI student survey
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What do college classes look like in ECSs?
of ECSs offering college classes by grade level
Sources 2007-08 ECHSI school survey 2007-08
ECHSI student survey
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What do college classes look like in ECSs?

• 61 of students have taken at least one college
  class
• 73 of 12th and 13th grade students
• 50 of college classes are in core academic areas.

Sources 2007-08 ECHSI school survey 2007-08
ECHSI student survey
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What do college classes look like in ECSs?

• 60 of students are integrated with traditional
  college students in a college class
• 9th grade 39
• 10th grade 59
• 11th grade 73
• 12th and 13th grade 76

Sources 2007-08 ECHSI school survey 2007-08
ECHSI student survey
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How are ECS students doing?

• Students reported being academically engaged,
  finding school interesting and worthy of effort.
• Students reported high academic self-concepts.
• 76 of students expected to complete a 4-year
  degree or higher.

Source 2007-08 ECHSI student survey
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How are ECS students doing?

• On average, ECSs have average daily attendance
  (ADA) rates over 94.
• 74 of ECS students are proficient in ELA 67
  are proficient in math.
• ECSs outperformed districts by 7 percentage
  points in both ELA and math.
• On average, 86 of ECS students progress from one
  grade to the next.

Sources 2007-08 ECHSI student survey 2007-08
ECHSI school survey publicly available school
data
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How are ECS students doing?

• Students at ECSs located on a college campus had
  higher outcomes than ECSs at other locations on
• ADA (95 and 93)
• 9th- to 10th-grade progression rates (89 and
  81)
• Achievement proficiency rates (relative to their
  district)
• ELA- 14 above versus 1 below
• Math- 16 above versus 1 below

Sources 2007-08 ECHSI student survey 2007-08
ECHSI school survey publicly available school
data
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How are ECS students doing?

• Based on several sources, graduates earned about
  a semester to a year of college credit while
  enrolled in the ECS.
• 88 of graduates enrolled in college
• 41 in a 4-year college or university
• 47 in a 2-year college

Sources 2007-08 ECHSI student survey 2007-08
ECHSI school survey 2004-05 to 2007-08 student
transcript data
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Summary

• What do we know about ECS students?
• Students are largely from populations
  underrepresented in postsecondary institutions.
• ECS students outperformed districts on state
  assessments.
• Students are accumulating college credit.
• Students expect to graduate from college, and
  many of the early graduates are enrolling in
  college.
• On many outcomes, students in ECSs located on
  college campuses are doing better than those not
  located on college campuses.

Sources 2007-08 ECHSI student survey 2007-08
ECHSI school survey 2004-05 to 2007-08 student
transcript data
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A nationally recognized education model serving
dropout youth
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Every Nine Seconds

• a student in America becomes a dropout
• Average annual earnings for a dropout
  Male 21,447 Female 17,114
• Average annual earnings with a Bachelors degree
  63,084
• US would save 41.8 billion dollars in future
  health care costs if 600,000 students got one
  more year of HS education
• If one third of dropouts could complete their
  diploma 10.8 billion in annual TANF savings

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Gateway to College Dropout Recovery
Essential Elements of Gateway to College

• K-12 and community college partnership to serve
  dropouts or those not on schedule to graduate
• Dual credit earning HS credit towards their
  regular diploma and college credit in most
  classes meet all state academic standards
• Power of place GtC students take all class on
  the community college campus
• Students start in learning communities of peers
  and receive intensive support throughout the
  program

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Expansion from 2003 to 2008
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Total Program Funding for initial three years
(avg.) 2,758,162 Funding Leveraged by
start-up Grants 2,438,162
3rd Party Grants Include State Lottery, WIA,
Federal DOE, and Private Economic Development
Grants
November, 2006
ECHSI Core Principle 2
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Commitment to our Target Population
Students at Entry
Eligibility Criteria

• Avg. age at entry 17.1
• Avg. GPA at entry 1.65
• HS credits at entry 41 of credits needed for
  diploma
• Five or more barriers to success in high school

• Between 16 and 20 years old
• GPA of 2.0 or below
• Behind in high school credits(for age and grade
  level)
• Expressed goal to complete high school diploma

ECHSI Core Principle 1
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Addressing the academic skills
social behaviors, and conditions for college
completion
Average college credits of graduates/Core
Principle
ECHSI Core Principle 4
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Only the beginning of our students success

• Average of 42 developmental/remedial college
  credits at graduation (Core Principle 3)
• 99 grads report continued college plans
• Early NSC data confirms continued enrollment,
  plus many non-grads continuing in college

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Gateway to College Program atMontgomery
CollegeAmy Crowley, Program Director Yesenia
Cruz-Ramos, Student
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Gateway to College Program atMontgomery College

• History of Montgomery College site
• Location Montgomery County, Maryland
• K-12 partner Montgomery County Public Schools
• Population served

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Program Goals

• Provide a second chance in a new and mature
  environment
• Change previous patterns of behavior
• Foster internal motivation
• Provide resources and support from foundation
  term to graduation and on
• Establish an educational plan that provides for
  each student to complete their high school
  diploma requirements while establishing a pathway
  that allows for them to simultaneously earn
  college credits while aligning with their future
  work and educational plans.

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Gateway to College Program Model
GraduationFurther College
College Coursework to Meet High School Diploma
requirements Advanced Coursework Toward Career
Major Multiple Quarters or Semesters
Developmental Ed for Basic Skills College
Skills Course One Quarter or Semester (8th grade
reading level reqd)
Gateway Foundation
Gateway Continuation (comprehensive campus)
Gateway Continuation (comprehensive campus)
Academic and Personal Support Continues During
the Entire Time Students are Enrolled
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How the program works to meet these goals

• Student - Resource Specialist relationship
• The program achieves success by combining high
  academic expectations with one-on-one advising
  and support.
• Foundation (or first) term first experience
  academic, study, life and communication skills.
• High expectations for student behavior,
  attendance and academic achievement.
• Students are held accountable by a team of caring
  adults

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Build bridges with K-12 partner

• MOU
• Alignment of college to high school credits to
  college credit
• State testing and SSL requirements
• Steering Committee and continuous collaboration
  with K-12 partner to facilitate program vitality.

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Results

• 22.4 of the students who entered the program
  have graduated
• Additionally, other students who were re-engaged
  in education have gone on to complete their GED,
  remain at MC, transferred to another educational
  institutions, and returned to high school
• Over 90 of our graduates have continued with
  their education

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The rest of the story

• Membership in Phi Theta Kappa, Renaissance
  scholar's, Deans List, Smithsonian Internship,
  Study Abroad Program, student government, campus
  newspaper, etc.
• 33 candidates for June 09 and 5 candidates for
  August 09 graduation
• A second chance is a clean slate for Gateway
  students

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Early College High Schools Implications for
Federal Policy
Nancy Hoffman, Jobs for the Future Alliance for
Excellent Education, Washington, D.C. March 25,
2009
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Why bother? This is complicated work

• When anticipating their college experience,
  students at the schools shifted from hope to
  belief in their capacity to succeed, and finally
  from belief to knowing that they can succeed.
  This last shift could only occur after students
  had proven themselves through their college
  coursework successes.
• --Harvard research on ECHS (2004-08)
• Its kind of like, wow I can do this for
  myself now. I can sign up for my classes, and I
  can pass them, and I can take good notes,
  college-level notes. I can pass college exams.
• --Jessica Davis, 07 graduate of Harbor
  Teacher Prep Academy, enrolled at UCLA

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Addressing Barriers for Low-Income Students
Requirements
Strategies
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Requirements for Establishing ECHS Dual
Enrollment

• School Practices

• State Policies

• Coherent sequence of courses leading to degree or
  credential
• Authentic college courses and credit
• Low/no-tuition free texts
• Support systems
• High school college partners work to align K-12
  and postsecondary standards

• Do-no-harm financing
• Tuition waivers or support
• Credit transfer assured
• Dual credit permitted
• Course quality assured
• Equity of access and information about
  opportunity
• Nice common course numbering, acceleration
  based on performance

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States are already scaling ECHS

• Total population in 24 states of BMGF funded
  schools 42,000 students
• States with greatest scale New York (15), North
  Carolina (60), Georgia (12), California (43),
  Texas (35)
• States replicating on their own or adding to BMGF
  investment North Carolina, South Carolina,
  Florida, Michigan Texas, Georgia

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Implications for Federal Policy

• What can the Feds do to support the scaling of
  early college and other blended pathways?
• Approaches
• Removal of Federal policy barriers
• Legislation to support SEAs, LEAs and non profits
  to create more ECHS using state enabling rules
• Incentive and innovation funds permissible for
  scaling ECHS

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Barriers/Enablers

• Financial aid policy
• Pell Grants
• Academic Competitiveness Grants
• 4-Year Cohort Graduation Rate
• Highly qualified teacher provision of NCLB
• Other Issues
• Organization of USDOE and 9-14 pathways
• Focus of OVAE

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Legislation to Scale ECHS/Blends

• Graduation Promise Act
• Formula grants to states for improving high
  schools with lowest grad rates and highest
  concentration of low income students separate
  title for new models
• Amount authorized 2.5 billion
• GRADUATES Act
• Competitive grant program to partnerships to
  expand innovations (multiple pathways, extended
  day, secondary/HE transition programs
• Amount authorized 500 million

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Legislation (cont.)

• Every Student Counts Act
• Establishes cohort graduation rate as common
  measure and annual growth rate for grad rates
  below 90 allows ECHSs flexibility on 4 year
  grad rate
• Fast Track to College Act
• Establishes competitive grant program to start or
  grow early college high schools and dual
  enrollment programs
• Amount Authorized 150 million

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Fast Track to College Act (CONT.)

• Purpose increase credential attainment rate
• Supports new or expands existing ECHSs and dual
  enrollment programs
• 50 s for EHCS 50 for dual enrollment
• Authorizes 10 million for 5 year grants to
  states for TA, outreach and support services
• Sponsored by Congressman Dale Kildee (MI) and
  Senator Herb Kohl (WI)

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Early Promise from the Early College High School
Initiative

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