Early College High Schools are designed to be rigorous programs that partner with higher-education institutions to help teens earn college credit before graduation, with the aim of improving their chance of success after graduation. There are currently more than 300 of them in thirty states. They go beyond general dual-enrollment programs by requiring students to earn at least twelve transferable credits, providing more support services, and intentionally recruiting students who are underrepresented in higher education.
A recent study by Tom Swiderski of the University of North Carolina uses ten years of student-level data to estimate the effect of Early College High Schools (ECHS) in North Carolina—where almost one hundred of them operate—on bachelor’s degree attainment. It examines those effects by area of study, with a focus on STEM degrees. The sample comprises 400,000 students who attended public high schools in the state, including 7,300 who attended ECHS.
Swiderski starts with high school outcomes, based in part on the idea that any boost to bachelor’s degree attainment may occur because ECHS better prepare students for academic success at the next level. He finds that, compared to otherwise similar students attending traditional public schools, attending an Early College High Schools increased the chance of passing at least one college-level course by the end of twelfth grade (87.8 percent versus 42.5 percent), as well as one college-level math or science course (55.5 percent versus 24.1 percent), and that ECHS students had a higher GPA in their math and science courses at any level (0.15 grade points, a 7 percent bump).
The study also finds that Early College High Schools indeed boost bachelor’s degree attainment of students, compared to similar peers attending traditional public schools, by 4.7 percentage points (from 24.8 percent to 29.5 percent). This includes increases in STEM degrees, but at a rate nearly proportional to overall bachelor’s growth. According to Swiderski, “This suggests that changes in concentrations within STEM fields are likely primarily due to students switching which field of STEM they choose to pursue rather than switching into or out of STEM.”
And there are substantial differences between different STEM and STEM-related fields. Compared to their peers in traditional high schools, for example, ECHS students were significantly more likely to earn a degree in the natural sciences (4.2 percent versus 2.9 percent), math and computer science (1.6 percent versus 1.0 percent), and psychology (3.3 percent versus 2.1 percent)—collectively much higher than the increase in overall bachelor’s degree attainment. It’s a different story in engineering and healthcare, though, where the effects are null or negative: 1.4 percent of ECHS earn a bachelor’s in engineering versus 1.5 percent of the comparison group, and in healthcare, it’s 1.8 percent versus 2.1 percent.
Encouragingly, the study found stronger effects for traditionally underrepresented groups. For example, natural science bachelor’s degree attainment nearly doubled for Black and Hispanic students (from 1.9 percent to 3.7 percent) and economically disadvantaged students (from 1.6 percent to 2.7 percent). However, the gap between economically disadvantaged and non-economically disadvantaged students also grew slightly.
As society becomes ever more dependent on technology, we will need more scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics expects employment in STEM occupations to increase by 11 percent by 2031. And compared to other groups, Black and Hispanic students remain significantly less likely to earn a STEM degree and less likely to work in STEM-related occupations. The study therefore suggests that Early College High Schools can help mitigate these problems. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that, of the 23,000 traditional public and high schools in the United States, less than 400 are Early College High Schools. Lawmakers and state education leaders would do well to consider how they might increase that number.
SOURCE: Tom Swiderski, “The Effect of Early College High Schools on STEM Bachelor's degree attainment: Evidence from North Carolina,” Education Finance and Policy (June 2023).
