Students enrolled in accelerated academic programs are not immune to mental health concerns that other students may face. Despite the increasing evidence that perfectionism is correlated with psychological distress among adolescents, there is a gap in the literature on how interventions developed for use in adolescent populations may affect this…

Teachers, as the primary human capital resource within a school, are the most significant lever in the educational success of students. High-quality teachers are necessary for the academic growth and development of all students at each level of rigor. At the high school level, courses are designated in two primary categories determined by the…

Early college high schools (ECHSs), which combine high school with the first two years of college, have grown in popularity nationwide. Research suggests ECHS participation has positive impacts on college enrollment and completion, but little is known about how ECHS graduates experience university life. Using a framework of college belonging and…

In recent years, state and local support for academic acceleration has created opportunities for students with advanced learning needs to move through their education at a pace that matches their abilities and may be faster than their same-age peers. As a result, it is not uncommon for exceptionally bright students to complete their high school…

Georgia established the Dual Enrollment Accelerated Career Diploma (ACD) program in 2015 to address its skilled trades workforce shortage (Dual Enrollment Act, 2015: Williams, 2015). ACD allows high school students to earn their diplomas by replacing several of their graduation-required credits with technical college credentials earned through…

Amidst the tapestry of public education lie the stories of early college high school (ECHS) students, students with valuable insights into the transformative nature of juggling secondary and postsecondary education. Their experiences are somewhat unknown to the education community at large. ECHS programs are designed to bridge the gap between high…

This paper investigates the impact of assignment to the Accelerating Literacy for Adolescents (ALFA) Lab, an additional semester-long class taken during an elective period, on ninth grade student reading achievement, motivation, and frequency. We conducted a regression discontinuity (RD) study where 1,378 students from diverse high schools in four…

The pivotal role of Algebra in the educational trajectories of U.S. students continues to motivate controversial, high-profile policies focused on when students access the course, their classroom peers, and how the course is taught. This random-assignment partnership study examines an innovative district-level reform--the Algebra I…

The University of Minnesota Talented Youth Mathematics Program (UMTYMP) is a selective, five-year accelerated mathematics program for students in grades 6-12. During the program, students take college mathematics courses on University of Minnesota campuses, starting with algebra and continuing through logic and proofs, linear algebra, and…

Academic advising for dual credit and early college high school students is significant to postsecondary matriculation and degree completion of these students after high school graduation. Unstructured advising can lead students to take excess credits and have an unclear path to a postsecondary credential. This study focused on the importance of…

Dual enrollment is an early college opportunity for high school students who are in an eligible high school class with a qualified high school instructor. Research has shown that participation in an early college program like dual enrollment increases college persistence and retention rates post high school. However, students from underrepresented…

LGBTQ students often have a secondary school experience fraught with bullying, mental health struggles, and marginalization. In this qualitative study, we examined teacher and administrator perspectives on school supports for LGBTQ students using data collected for a larger project on early college high schools (ECHS) in Texas. Using an ethic of…

Early colleges are high schools that blend the high school and college experiences. They have been shown to increase college enrollment and completion; however less is known about the costs of the early college model relative to traditional high schools. We leverage randomized assignment of North Carolina students to early colleges to estimate the…

Early colleges can play a key role in bridging the gap between high school and higher education. In addition to allowing students to earn transferrable college credits for free, these schools boost students' chances of applying to and earning a college degree. This pertains especially to students who are traditionally underrepresented in higher…

This research articulates the views of 25 early college high school leaders regarding their leadership philosophies and how their perspectives inform ECHS student outcomes. The research sought to understand how leaders describe how their philosophies and leadership attributes support student achievement in ECHS. The research posed three questions:…