The Middle College High School (MCHS) in Tennessee is an alternative school located on the Shelby State Community College (SSCC) campus, designed to provide special counseling, college preparation, and access to SSCC facilities for potential high school dropouts who have the capacity for secondary and postsecondary success. The program, which was based on the LaGuardia Community College (LCC) Middle High School model, was intended to accommodate 100 sophomore-level students during its first year of operation, with an additional grade level to be added each subsequent year. The MCHS's curriculum was designed to ensure that students meet the new, more rigorous, fall 1989 admissions standards for Tennessee State Board of Regents (SBR) Colleges and Universities, as well as high school graduation requirements. A study was conducted to determine whether the MCHS was meeting its retention and college preparation goals after one semester. Study findings, based on first-term retention data, course enrollment information, national and state statistics on high school dropout rates, and data on LCC's Middle High School, included the following: (1) 95.5% of the 89 MCHS students completed the first semester; (2) MCHS's first-term retention rate was 10% higher than LCC's and 28.8% higher than the retention rate for sophomores for the state of Tennessee; and (3) 83% of the MCHS students were enrolled in math classes, 53% in social science classes, and 71% in foreign language classes to fulfill SBR admissions requirements. (EJV)