This journal article discusses findings from a study that used a randomized controlled trial to assess the impact of Early College High Schools on students’ high school graduation, college enrollment, and college degree attainment, as well as students’ high school experiences using extant data and survey data. The findings indicate that Early Colleges had positive impacts on college enrollment and college completion as well as students’ high school experiences.

This brief presents findings from interviews with North Texas juniors and seniors on the factors, influences, and resources that impact students’ decision-making process as they make post-high school plans.

This brief highlights evidence-based practices related to early college high schools that promote college and career readiness.

This journal article discusses a study investigating whether college readiness improved among high school students affected by the early stages of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) implementation and whether students from different backgrounds and types of high schools were affected differently. In the case of the CCSS transition in Kentucky, the findings suggest that students continued to improve their college readiness, as measured by ACT scores, during the early stages of CCSS implementation. Furthermore, evidence suggests that the positive gains students that made during this period accrue to students in both high- and low-poverty schools.

This paper from the CALDER Center examines how different measures of teacher quality are related to students’ long-run trajectories. Comparing teachers’ test-based value-added to nontest value-added – based on contributions to student absences and grades – they find that test and nontest value-added have similar effects on the average quality of colleges that students attend. However, test-based teacher quality measures have more explanatory power for outcomes relevant for students at the top of the achievement distribution such as attending a more selective college, while nontest measures have more explanatory power for whether students graduate from high school and enroll in college at all.

This study from the CALDER Center examines the short-, medium-, and long-term effects of remedial courses in middle school using a regression discontinuity design. While the short-term test score benefits of taking a remedial course in English language arts in middle school fade quickly, the study found significant positive effects on the likelihood of taking college credit-bearing courses in high school, college enrollment, enrolling in more selective colleges, persistence in college, and degree attainment.

In this journal article, researchers examine whether, how, and for whom a new counseling model aimed at providing college-related social resources may improve college enrollment. Following nearly all seniors in Chicago Public Schools from their senior year through the fall after high school, the findings indicate that coaches may improve the types of colleges that students attend by getting students to complete key actions.

This report identifies type of high school enrollment (e.g., traditional public schools, charter schools, and private voucher schools) for Indiana students enrolled in grade 9 in 2010/11–2013/14 and examines their performance on indicators of college and career readiness and early college success.

In this journal article, researchers estimate the effects of Washington’s College Bound Scholarship program on students’ high school grades, high school graduation, juvenile detention and rehabilitation, and incarceration in state prison during high school or early adulthood. The findings indicate insignificant and substantively small or negative effects on these outcomes, calling into question the rationale for such early commitment programs.

This journal article uses data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study and hierarchical generalized linear modeling to examine both student- and school-level characteristics that explain variations in college enrollment among African American men and women (with Caucasians included as a contrast group). The results showed that student-level characteristics, including gender, socioeconomic status, and race, were all significant predictors of postsecondary enrollment.