Objective: Increasing college readiness and college success is a national priority. Early College High Schools (EC) are a popular educational reform employed to prepare typically minoritized students for postsecondary success. This qualitative study examined the schooling experiences of 13 EC graduates in Texas. Methods: This qualitative study…

This study examined the effect of dual enrollment (DE) on college enrollment and degree completion for students with lower prior academic achievement who attended public high schools in Texas. We employed a propensity score matching method to reduce selection bias arising from DE participation and supplemented the analysis with a bounds test. The…

Dual enrollment policies and programs, where students earn both high school and college credits, have been scaled up across the United States in the last two decades. In this mixed methods study, we survey high school principals in Ohio and Texas, two states with robust dual enrollment policies. The study addressed one broad research question:…

This qualitative study examines an intervention program assisting students in passing the Texas Success Initiative (TSI) at ELITE High School in Houston, Texas. The Texas Education Agency has provided a blueprint for the target populations of the early college high school and the TSI is the gatekeeper for students' success in post-secondary…

This study investigates the dual credit (DC) college readiness indicator among secondary students in Texas during 2019-2021 COVID-19. Utilizing publicly available administrative data from the Texas Education Agency and a hierarchical linear model, the paper identifies changes in Texas school districts' college readiness DC course completion rates…

Since fall 2019, Odessa College's dual credit program has grown by 67%. Texas' initiatives, around college, career, and military readiness (CCMR), certainly provided an impetus for growth in dual credit, but this tremendous level of growth points to a number of structural changes Odessa College made to its dual credit program. The article focuses…

This study considers whether dual enrollment is associated with students' financial outcomes over a longer, twelve-year time horizon after high school graduation than previously analyzed in the existing literature. Using longitudinal administrative data that span K-12, higher education, and the workforce, we conduct a propensity score analysis to…

Secondary-postsecondary partnership reforms have grown in scale and importance throughout the past few decades as part of the national agenda to increase college access, equity, and completion. However, little research has examined the role of the principal in cross-sector partnerships. This qualitative case study explores how one nationally…

Early College High Schools (ECHS) partner with post-secondary institutions to award students, specifically those from historically marginalized groups, with significant transferrable college credit--tuition free--along with a high school diploma. Utilizing the frameworks of counterspace and counterstory, this study aimed to understand the…

Dual enrollment (DE) offers students the opportunity to earn college credits while in high school. Although variation in partnership contexts likely contributes to differences in DE access, structures, and outcomes, the extent of variation across DE partnerships is unclear. To build an understanding of variation in key DE structures and outcomes…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore college and career counselors' perspectives of students on the factors that influence the persistence of dual credit students in local high schools in North Texas. The theoretical foundation of this study was from Rendon's Validation Theory that is of the belief that institutional validation…

Dual enrollment--in which students take college credit-bearing courses when still in high school--is becoming increasingly popular. Community college programs account for about 70% of the dual enrollment that more than one million high school students participate in each year nationwide. Yet dual enrollment can be a big financial burden for…

This quantitative study examined the comparative factors of academic success between ECHS students (ECHS) and non-ECHS traditional college students, and utilized secondary data from National Student Clearinghouse and an East Texas community college. The enrollment of students in ECHS and non-ECHS traditional college students guided the study. The…

This phenomenological study examined students' experiences with the academic support services provided during their enrollment at an Early College High School (ECHS) in South Texas. The participants in this study earned an associate degree from a community college while enrolled in an ECHS. Semi-structured one-on-one interviews were conducted with…

The interest and participation in dual credit programs and courses has grown over the past several decades, especially within Texas; however, there is a lack of research that shows how the participation in dual credit programs and courses has impacted leading and lagging student success metrics once they enroll at a post-secondary institution. The…