Building a Foundation for Early College Success. A Practice Brief

Abstract

The Massachusetts Early College Initiative eases the pathway to postsecondary education for thousands of high school students annually. Early college programs provide strategically-sequenced, real college classes with strong career orientations during students' regular high school day. When fully realized, they also provide enhanced academic and guidance support, ensuring high school students successfully complete rigorous college coursework, graduate with significant college credits, and progress toward a degree (Song et al., 2021). Students in early college programs also gain confidence, habits, and skills needed for sustained postsecondary and life success (Edmunds et al., 2017). This brief aims to provide early college practitioners with guidance on how to support students' development of foundational skills in English Language Arts (ELA) and math with the goal of building strong on-ramps to college level coursework. It outlines how practitioners may prioritize their time to accelerate and augment student learning, plan and collaborate across partnerships, and, most importantly, move forward with the implementation of evidence-based practices. Included are both proactive strategies to ensure students are college ready, and interventions designed to address and eliminate learning gaps for students already enrolled in college courses. [This report was co-produced with the Massachusetts Alliance for Early College (MA4EC).]