By Ranada Robinson, Project Associate. 

My alma mater, Tougaloo College, which is a private college located right outside of Jackson, Mississippi, offers an early admission program for high school juniors who meet certain criteria, like GPA and ACT scores. A participant in that program, I bypassed my senior year of high school to start college with a full scholarship. In my 15-year-old thoughts, I could not rationalize staying in high school for an extra year when I was planning to go to college anyway. I have peers, however, who would not have traded their fun and exciting high school years for anything, but would have loved opportunities to receive college credit while in high school. And there are others who did not meet the criteria.

That’s where the Early College High School Initiative comes in. One of Market Street’s recommended best practices, early college high schools allow high school students to earn up to two years of college credits tuition-free and provides students with expanded academic rigor and preparation. Especially beneficial to prospective first-generation college students, low-income students, and other students with various barriers to scholastic success, these schools give them the extra support they need to get through their first two years of college, increasing their chances to successfully complete four-year degrees.

In August 2009, the Council of State Governments (CSG) released a report, Improving Access to Postsecondary Education through Early College High Schools. In it, CSG outlined why early college high schools are beneficial, what state policies can create barriers, explored the growth of the initiative since the first early college high schools opened in 2002, as well as examined the states of Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas, who have become leaders in this initiative. Here are some interesting facts:

• Over 40,000 students in America attended early college high schools in the 2006-2007 school year;
• Of those students, 67 percent were Black or Latino;
• Of 201 schools in the 2006-2007 school year, 32 served students who had previously dropped out of high school or were considered at-risk;
• Almost 60 percent of students were eligible for free or reduced lunch; and
• The majority of students were first-generation college students.

Here are some promising statistics:
• 85 percent of the first two graduating classes earned at least one semester of transferable college credit;
• 10 percent earned an Associate degree or two years of college credit;
• Over 60 percent were accepted to four-year colleges; and
• Over 250 graduates earned merit-based college scholarships.

Early college high schools are definitely a way to encourage students to continue their studies after high school, increasing the skills and quality of the workforce. They also provide a way to increase access to higher education for at-risk students. Not everyone gets the chance to skip their high senior year, and not everyone wants to—but this opportunity allows students to get ahead, experiencing the best of both worlds.