Fourteen-year-old Shannon Crittenden gave a speech to fellow Pasadena City College students about how Latinos in Los Angeles are discriminated against. Like her classmate Erica Garcia, also 14, who chose to sound off on whether shark cartilage ought to be used as a possible cancer cure, Crittenden was fulfilling a "rant and rave" assignment for a college speech class. As two of the first 84 students at the California Academy for Liberal Studies (CALS) Early College High School, these 9th graders have simultaneously started their high school and college careers and plan to have both a diploma and an associate in arts degree in four years.
The idea of high schoolers taking college classes is not new, but such programs, which in the past appealed to the academic elite or teens turned off by conventional schools, are getting a big boost from proponents targeting students who might not have traditionally considered themselves college-bound. With more than $40 million in seed money from a partnership that includes the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, seven nonprofit groups are starting up 70 early college high school programs for low-income and disadvantaged students in cities around the country.
Called the Early College High School Initiative, it differs from dual enrollment programs or Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses that may give students college credits, depending on the institution. The goal of early college programs is to graduate students with two years of college credit, or an associate's degree, so they're ready to enter a four-year college as a junior. Students attend classes in both high school and college settings, using public transportation to get to the college campuses.
Some advocates highlight the savings from two years of college tuition—a significant factor for families with low and moderate incomes—as a draw for participation. But the restructured approach to high school learning is the biggest selling point to students, early college high school officials say. New features include small school size, personalization, and a reconfigured school day. The schedule allows for plenty of instructional support from teachers, whether they are training students in study and time management skills or helping out when the academic going gets rough.
College-High School Collaboration
Early college high school programs also require constant collaboration between the partnering institutions, whether they are high schools, community colleges, or four-year colleges. College and high school staff must work together to ensure that their curricula mesh to advance student learning. "The challenge is that we're accelerating the curriculum for students who were having remediation. The hardest piece is determining what is most necessary for students to learn. In history alone, there are 200 [California] standards to cover in 9th grade," says CALS Director Ref Rodriguez.
But the collaboration between CALS and Pasadena City College and Occidental College in Los Angeles moves beyond curriculum alignment. Occidental College professors also mentor high school teachers to ensure that high school curricula meet postsecondary expectations in each subject area, says Rodriguez. These teachers, who also communicate regularly with Pasadena College professors about student performance, will in turn mentor incoming staff as the high school expands. "It's not business as usual here—it is something way out of the box," Rodriguez remarks.
Researchers attribute the recent increase in the number of transitional programs between high school and college to the growing belief among educators and policymakers that a rigorous high school curriculum will spell success in college. Early college or dual enrollment programs fulfill both an academic need and an informational need by giving students and their families a realistic understanding of college expectations, says Melinda Mechur Karp, research associate at Columbia University's Community College Research Center.
Researchers at the center are planning further investigations next year to evaluate college transition programs for middle- and lower-achieving students. Among the issues they'll explore are high school graduation rates in such programs and the differences between the high school and college curricula. They will also look at "prerequisite creep"—the possibility that a program might start out serving lower achievers but over time raise the academic bar and end up serving a different type of student. "People are under a lot of pressure to be successful, and it's easier to be successful when you start with successful students," says Karp.
Middle School Groundwork
As early college programs grow at the high school level, officials also are working with local feeder middle schools to prepare students for academic success. For example, this year in Durham, N.C., four middle schools have each set up districtwide precollege academies for underprepared 7th and 8th grade students. These students will take part in the Advancement Via Individual Determination program, or AVID, which hones students' study, writing, and organizational skills. The academies also provide content area tutorials sponsored by SECME, an organization with a 30-year history of preparing minority students to achieve in university science, math, engineering, and technology programs.
At any stage, early college high school programs demand dedicated teachers, says Michele Williams, program manager for community engagement at SECME, based in Atlanta, Ga. "Teachers need to care about the curriculum beyond what's written" because they'll be helping students make curriculum links through internships at engineering firms, agribusinesses, or architecture firms, and helping keep parents informed and engaged, she adds.
In Los Angeles, the CALS Charter Middle School is also a key part of the CALS Early College High School, says Rodriguez. Nearly 40 percent of the middle school students are English language learners, so teachers emphasize reading and literacy skills in addition to "strong support" for the core subjects of math, science, and social studies. In math, such support allows students to finish algebra in 8th grade and begin geometry in 9th grade, Rodriguez notes.
The school also provides middle school teachers with one-and-a-half hours of daily planning time to "collaborate, plan exemplary lessons, reflect, and raise student achievement," Rodriguez points out.
Erica Garcia credits an 8th grade transfer to the CALS Charter Middle School as improving her attitude about school. "I changed a lot because of the school. Counselors, teachers, students—they all helped me a lot. Students would introduce themselves. Adults would talk to me a lot about how I liked school," recalls Garcia.
Now that she's taking a college class in public speaking and envisioning a teaching career, Garcia says that she doesn't feel any different from adult Pasadena City College students because "we've all come here to learn."
Garcia's comments echo a positive attitude that some researchers call "the power of place," which refers to high school students' ability to mirror the cultural and academic expectations of college students when they take classes in a higher education environment.
"There's a lot of evidence that average kids do much better in programs that engage them on a college campus," says Michael Webb, program director of early college programs at Jobs for the Future. As these kids spend time with older students and adults, they feel a positive peer pressure—the high school students "don't want to stick out, so they try harder," says Webb. His Boston-based nonprofit organization administers the Early College High School Initiative.
Crittenden, who aspires to be a pediatrician, agrees: "It changes the way I act with other people. Never in my life did I think I'd be giving a speech to 30 adults—me, just a 14-year-old."
Like the early college high school programs themselves, Crittenden and Garcia are just starting out but are full of hope for the future. "If kids don't expect high standards of themselves," Rodriguez observes, "it won't matter what adults expect."
