For many young people, early college high schools are opening the door to higher education and better-paying careers. The 230 early college schools serve more than 50,000 students in 28 states, targeting groups that are underrepresented in higher education. These students and the schools they attend are refuting the conventional wisdom that such…

For many years, the General Educational Development (GED) credential has been viewed as the high school dropout's safety net. Though not as well regarded as the high school diploma, the GED has opened up educational and economic opportunity for millions of young people and adults who did not finish high school. Nearly 680,000 people take the full…

Solving America's dropout crisis requires immediate, drastic action. Intractable as the dropout problem may seem, recognition of its magnitude has created an environment ripe for action. Most notably, federal regulations adopted in 2008 require states to use more accurate ways of counting dropouts and holding districts and schools more accountable…

Across the nation, early college schools are creating a path to college success for young people underrepresented in higher education. For a decade, these innovative public schools blending high school and college have proven that, with the right support, all high school students can tackle college work. Now, a Texas school district near the…

Today, states and the federal government recognize the potential of early college designs to improve the economic prospects of future generations. But individuals are just beginning to put in place public policies that promote and support early college designs on a significant scale. Jobs for the Future (JFF) prepared this guide to help…

Early college schools are part of a national initiative to align high school and college through a rigorous, college-prep curriculum coupled with high expectations and comprehensive student supports. The schools provide all students with direct experience, preparation, and support in taking college classes through a proficiency-based curriculum…

The Hidalgo Independent School District (ISD) in Texas has raised the bar on what it means for a school system to focus on college readiness. This paper tells the story of how Hidalgo ISD, located in one of the most economically depressed metropolitan areas with one of the lowest number of college-educated adults, is preparing all of its students…

In the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas, the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District has achieved a startling success over the last two years: it has recovered and graduated over 600 dropouts and put them on a clear pathway to college. Just a few years ago, low graduation rates, struggling high schools, and poor staff and student morale…

Texas is a national leader in creating early college high schools, an innovative small school model that blends secondary and postsecondary education with intensive supports to increase college readiness and success for underachieving students. The state has 29 early college schools, with more opening in the 2008-2009 academic year, thanks largely…

This report, comprised of key indicators and projections related to postsecondary attainment, is designed to help institutional, system, and state leaders advance a conversation about the need to increase college access and success for all students. The profiles included show that while states vary considerably in their current and expected…

Calls for improved outcomes in U.S. science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education are frequent and insistent. In 2009, the Commission on Mathematics and Science Education, convened by the Institute for Advanced Study and Carnegie Corporation of New York, concluded that: "Knowledge and skills from science, technology, engineering…

One of the most persistent inequities in U.S. education is the gap in math achievement along income and race lines. Yet some secondary schools beat the odds, producing consistently strong math performance with students who likely would fail in traditional settings. This report advocates that the math achievement gap is not the result of poor and…

This report describes the "Year Up" program, an innovative technology training program, that prepares and places low-income, urban young adults in entry-level IT jobs while also preparing them for college. The program targets recent high school graduates and GED recipients between the ages of 18 and 24 who are either unemployed or…

Schoolwide literacy--the teaching of reading, writing, speaking, and thinking practices in all content areas--is generally considered an effective, even necessary, approach to addressing the learning needs of adolescents. In early college high schools, which blend high school and college for students who are underserved in higher education, the…

This report focuses on the efforts of two troubled high schools (Wallis Annenberg High School in Los Angeles and Dayton (OH) Early College Academy) to launch early college programs. These two schools are a new breed of institution that combines high school and college into a coherent educational program and helps to bridge the gap between…