Early College Innovation—Access and Opportunity in North Carolina
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June 2010, Volume 23, Number 6
By Joel Vargas and Jason Quiara
The Early College High School Initiative serves more than 46,000 students at 212 early colleges in 24 states. One-third of these schools are in North Carolina, where state officials have enacted policies that enable innovative school designs to provide underserved youth and first-generation college students with the opportunity and support to simultaneously earn a high school diploma and one to two years of transferable college credit—tuition free.
Each of these early colleges has a postsecondary partner: a two- or four-year college or university that co-shapes the curricula, awards credit for college-level classes, and gives early college students experience with the norms of being a college student.
North Carolina is reaching significant numbers of its low-income high school population, and the innovative use of dual crediting, combined with student supports in these schools, provides a model for creating effective, financially sustainable pathways from grades 9 to 13. North Carolina’s success at nurturing innovation to increase educational attainment for its young people—especially underrepresented students—can provide a model for other states.
Policies Paved the Way reports on early college innovation, telling the North Carolina story from the perspective of leaders at early college high schools. It is a story of how state policies combine with educational practice to help students—especially minority and low-income students—become college ready. North Carolina’s success can both encourage the state to hold its course and illustrate how other states can support the creation of better pathways through high school and college.
Background. Since 2004, North Carolina has started over 100 innovative high schools, including 70 early college high schools. The schools are designed so that students—especially those with traditionally low rates of high school and college success—can graduate high school with an associate’s degree or up to two years of transferable college credit at no cost.
Although the schools are young, they already show outcomes that compare favorably with those of other high schools in the state with similar student compositions: lower grade-to-grade dropout rates and higher scores on end-of-course exams. A substantial number of early college students are also completing college courses before high school graduation.
Results. On average, dropout rates in early college schools (0.78 percent) are significantly lower than statewide rates for traditional schools (4.97 percent). More than 60 percent of early college schools outperform other schools in their districts on improvement targets for state end-of-course exams. Early college students also complete significant amounts of college coursework: most students enroll in college courses as early as the ninth grade, and they complete several courses in their first two years of study. Over 90 percent of students receive passing grades in their college courses; over 82 percent receive a C or better.
School leaders say that they have been aided by formal state processes and policies, such as waivers for early college schools and similar efforts. Even more emphatically, they believe that the foundation for innovation was laid in the strong signals state leaders sent—and continue to send—to local superintendents, school boards, and college leaders encouraging innovation in cooperative programs between high schools and colleges.
How Policies Paved the Way.This success has been the product of leadership in communities and concerted state-level action and support. This began under the administration of former Governor Mike Easley, who launched the state’s early college initiative; it continues under Governor Beverly Perdue and the current legislature.
By taking at least three key steps, state leaders have cultivated a climate for colleges and schools to work together creatively:
- Enacting the Innovative Education Initiatives Act in 2003, which erected a platform for creating early college schools;
- Supporting the North Carolina New Schools Project, an independent nonprofit created in 2003 to plan and support implementation of more than 100 new high schools and school redesigns, including early college schools; and
- Granting start-up funds to early college high schools, thereby supporting the costs of high school-college coordination and other important activities.
Several pre-existing state policies also paved the way for the creation of early college schools. These policies and processes include dual enrollment policies that allow students to get both high school and college credit for the same courses, calendar policies that better align high school and college schedules, and support for high school-college liaisons who help the high school and partner college coordinate their support of students. These steps, combined with the supportive climate for innovation, helped forge a can-do attitude among local education leaders in creating North Carolina’s early college schools.
Next Steps. Early college high school leaders do cite barriers to continuing innovation as well. These are indicative of larger misalignments between the expectations of high school and those of college, and they suggest that North Carolina must bridge such fissures in order to sustain and expand the practices that early college schools have demonstrated can improve college readiness and completion for all students.
For example, state-mandated end-of-course exams align poorly with the demands of college courses, preventing schools from further streamlining the course of study for grades 9 through 13. Currently, school leaders feel compelled to enroll students in the corresponding high school courses, even when college courses serve them effectively—and more efficiently. While schools have made great strides in helping a broad range of students succeed in a significant number of college courses, school staff say traditional high school assessments do not correlate to college success.
A Tipping Point. North Carolina may be at a tipping point. Early college schools, including several with high percentages of low-income students, already serve nearly 10,000 students statewide. As these schools mature and demonstrate continued success, they and other college credit in high school designs may prompt their wider adoption by districts and colleges, yielding significant increases in high school and college success rates.
Scaling up and making successful innovation the norm will require the removal of remaining obstacles. And in these tough economic times, it will first and foremost require sustained commitments by state and local leaders. Districts and colleges under increasing financial strain may feel pressure to sacrifice innovation for conservatism at a time when innovation is most needed. For example, the state’s colleges—particularly community colleges—are absorbing large enrollment increases in a time of declining resources. It would be tempting to decrease early college access for high school students in the face of such pressures, but college and state leaders have admirably held steady in their support because of the visible success of early college students.
Download the full report, Policies Paved the Way, at www.jff.org/publications/education/policies-paved-way-early-college-innovat/1012. For printed copies, contact Jayme Rubenstein at jrubenstein@jff.org.
Joel Vargas is a program director and Jason Quiara is a senior project manager at Jobs for the Future.
Comments
Linda Mann wrote on 06/23/10 5:49 AM