Mandated Engagement: The Impact of Early College High Schools

2013 ◽  
Vol 115 (7) ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Julie A. Edmunds ◽  
John Willse ◽  
Nina Arshavsky ◽  
Andrew Dallas
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
High School ◽  
High Schools ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Small Schools ◽  
Early College ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Early College High Schools ◽  
Study Team ◽  
The Impact

Background Early college high schools, small schools that blur the line between high school and college, have been obtaining very strong results. This paper uses the frame of student engagement to posit an explanation for the success of these schools. Purpose This paper examines the impact of early college high schools on indicators and facilitators of engagement in the ninth-grade. The paper also looks at how early college students perceive these facilitators of engagement. Participants The main sample for this study includes students who applied to an early college high school and went through a lottery process. Student who were accepted through the lottery are the treatment students and those who were not accepted form the control group. Intervention Early colleges are small schools, often located on college campuses, that aim to provide a rigorous course of study with the goal of ensuring that all students graduate with a high school diploma and two years of university transfer credit or an associate's degree. Serving students in Grades 9-12 (or 13), the schools are targeted at students who typically are under-represented in college. Data Collection and Analysis The study uses administrative data submitted to the North Carolina Department of Instruction, including suspensions and attendance data. The study team also administered an original survey to treatment and control students that included scales on indicators and facilitators of engagement. Both the administrative and survey data were analyzed using multiple regression. Finally, the study team collected qualitative data from interviews with early college students. Results Early college students had better attendance, lower suspensions, and higher levels of engagement than control students. Compared to the control students, early college students also reported higher levels of all of the facilitators of engagement examined, including better relationships with teachers, more rigorous and relevant instruction, more academic and affective support, and higher expectations. Conclusions Students in early colleges experienced overall higher levels of engagement on a variety of dimensions. The qualitative data suggest that early colleges make concerted and purposeful efforts to engage students in school. These efforts seem to almost require that students are active participants in school; in other words, early colleges can be seen as essentially “mandating engagement.”

Preparing Students for College: Lessons Learned From the Early College

2017 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie A. Edmunds ◽  
Nina Arshavsky ◽  
Karla Lewis ◽  
Beth Thrift ◽  
Fatih Unlu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
High School ◽  
College Readiness ◽  
Small Schools ◽  
Secondary School Principals ◽  
School Setting ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Early College ◽  
Early College High Schools ◽  
High School Setting

This article utilizes mixed methods—a lottery-based experimental design supplemented by qualitative data—to examine college readiness within an innovative high school setting: early college high schools. Early colleges are small schools that merge the high school and college experiences and are targeted at students underrepresented in college. Results show that early college students are more likely to have successfully completed the courses they need for entrance into college; early college students also graduated from high school at a higher rate. Interview and survey data show that early college students are generally considered similarly prepared to more traditional postsecondary students. The interview data also provide detailed descriptions of the kinds of strategies the schools use to support college readiness. The article concludes with lessons learned for secondary school principals.

“That’s the Point of Going”: A Qualitative Inquiry Into the Experiences of Black Males at an Early College High School

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-34
Author(s):  
Tempestt R. Adams ◽  
Brian K. Williams ◽  
Chance W. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High Schools ◽  
Black Males ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Early College High School ◽  
Early College ◽  
Student Experiences ◽  
Design Data ◽  
Black Male Students ◽  
Early College High Schools

Early college high schools are small schools designed to increase college and career readiness for groups underrepresented in higher education. While some research has focused on student experiences in the early college environment, few have specifically examined the perceptions of Black male students. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of Black males in an early college high school. Using a qualitative case study design, data were collected using focus groups and individual interviews. Emergent themes included students’ descriptions of their learning environment and the benefits and challenges they experienced. The results of this study provide further insight into early college high schools and how they serve their targeted population.

scholarly journals Early College High Schools at Scale: Using Administrative Data to Assess the Impacts of an Educational Intervention on Voting and Crime

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Lauen ◽  
Sarah Fuller ◽  
Tom Swiderski ◽  
Fatih Unlu
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
North Carolina ◽  
High Schools ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Administrative Data ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Early College ◽  
Early College High Schools ◽  
K 12

Early college high schools (ECHS) are small schools of choice which provide students with the opportunity to earn, at no financial cost to them, two years of transferable college credit or an associate's degree while simultaneously satisfying high school graduation requirements. This promising intervention is aimed at smoothing the transition from high school to college for under-represented minorities and students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. There are about 80 ECHS in North Carolina, although the model is implemented in many other states as well. While much is known from prior research about the impacts of the intervention on educational attainment, nothing is known about longer term outcomes such as employment, wages, criminal involvement, and voting behavior. The present study will briefly describe the data collection process, research methods, and preliminary findings on the effects of the intervention on voting and criminal conviction in North Carolina. We will also present results on whether impacts on long term civic outcomes are mediated by educational attainment. Quasi-experimental impacts have been validated against impacts generated from a randomized controlled trial of the same intervention in a subset of the sites during the same time period. The team assembled personally-identified population level statewide administrative data on all NC high school students (including ECHS) and linked it to records housed at community colleges, universities, the Department of Public Safety (incarceration), and Board of Elections (voting). Together this effort comprises one of the more comprehensive administrative data collection efforts linking student level K-12, postsecondary, and longer-term outcomes.

What Happens When You Combine High School and College? The Impact of the Early College Model on Postsecondary Performance and Completion

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-278
Author(s):  
Julie A. Edmunds ◽  
Fatih Unlu ◽  
Jane Furey ◽  
Elizabeth Glennie ◽  
Nina Arshavsky
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
High School ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
Experimental Design ◽  
College Experiences ◽  
Early College ◽  
New Model ◽  
The Impact

Early colleges are a new model of schooling in which the high school and college experiences are merged, shortening the total amount of time a student spends in school. This study uses a lottery-based experimental design to examine the impact of the model on longer term outcomes, including attainment of a postsecondary credential and academic performance in 4-year institutions. Results show that a significantly higher proportion of early college students were attaining postsecondary credentials. The results also show that early college students were completing their degrees more rapidly but that their performance in 4-year institutions was still comparable with the control students.

Analysis of the intervention effect and self-satisfaction of sports dance exercise on the psychological stress of college students

Work ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Changliang Zheng ◽  
Hongmei Ji
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Stress Response ◽  
Psychological Stress ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Response Characteristic ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Observation Group ◽  
Excessive Pressure ◽  
Psychological Pressure ◽  
The Impact

BACKGROUND: College students are a high-risk subpopulation of psychological disorders. The problem of various adverse phenomena and consequences caused by excessive pressure on college students has gradually become the focus of social and psychological academic circles. However, studies related to individual self-concept and psychological pressure are rare. OBJECTIVE: To explore the impact of sports dance exercises on college students’ psychological pressure and improve the psychological effects of their self-satisfaction. METHODS: College students were taken as research objects, randomly divided into a control group and an observation group. The observation group is intervened with sports dance exercises. The observation group was intervened with sports dance exercises. The stress response characteristic questionnaire and multidimensional self-satisfaction rating scale were utilized to measure college students’ conditions before and after the intervention. Finally, the obtained data were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: Generally, the psychological stress response of college students was mild, with self-satisfaction and various dimensions at a moderately higher level. No significant differences were discovered in the psychological stress response and self-satisfaction level between the control group and the observation group before intervention (P >  0.05), which were homogeneous. Compared with the data obtained before the intervention, after the intervention, the control group scores were slightly reduced in all dimensions of the psychological stress response and self-satisfaction. In contrast, the scores were significantly increased in the experimental group (P <  0.05). Psychological stress response could reliably explain 30.4%of the total self-satisfaction variance (P <  0.01). The negative self-evaluation was the most important variable affecting self-satisfaction, followed by poor interpersonal communication and poor sleeping quality. CONCLUSIONS: Sports dance exercises could alleviate the psychological stress of college students and improve their self-satisfaction. Colleges and universities should include sports dance in the content of optional public courses and encourage more college students to actively participate in sports dance exercises to improve their mental health.

Early College, Continued Success: Longer-Term Impact of Early College High Schools

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-142
Author(s):  
Mengli Song ◽  
Kristina Zeiser ◽  
Drew Atchison ◽  
Iliana Brodziak de los Reyes
Keyword(s):  
High Schools ◽  
Early College ◽  
Early College High Schools
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