What Happens When You Combine High School and College?
The Impact of the Early College Model on Postsecondary Performance and Completion
Published in: Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Volume 42, Issue 2, pages 257–278 (June 2020). doi: 10.3102/0162373720912249
Posted on RAND.org on November 25, 2020
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Access further information on this document at Education Evaluation and Policy AnalysisThis article was published outside of RAND. The full text of the article can be found at the link above.
Early colleges are a new model of schooling in which the high school and college experiences are merged, shortening the total amount of time a student spends in school. This study uses a lottery-based experimental design to examine the impact of the model on longer term outcomes, including attainment of a postsecondary credential and academic performance in 4-year institutions. Results show that a significantly higher proportion of early college students were attaining postsecondary credentials. The results also show that early college students were completing their degrees more rapidly but that their performance in 4-year institutions was still comparable with the control students.
This article was published outside of RAND. The full text of the article can be found at the link above.
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