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Making the Grade: Texas Early College High Schools Prepare Students for College

Across the state of Texas, 10,000 students attend 49 early college high schools and 5 ECHS/T-STEM (Texas Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) blended schools. The schools are improving student outcomes, and this performance is being achieved by youth who are underrepresented in college, including Hispanic youth, economically disadvantaged students, and first-generation college goers. Early college schools have become an essential part of Texas' strategy to develop a young workforce that can compete in a global, knowledge-based economy. The benefits to taxpayers of having more students progress toward college completion makes the state's support for starting up these sustainable schools a prudent move.

This brief studies the successes and lessons of two Texas early colleges: Mission Early College High School in El Paso and Collegiate High School in Corpus Christi.

This is the second of several publications JFF released during its 3rd annual National Early College High School Week, celebrating the successes of our 230 schools across 28 states. Early college high schools serve more than 50,000 students a year, most of them from minority and low-income families.