Leadership Lessons from the Early College Expansion Partnership

Early college high schools have raised high school graduation and college success rates for students from underrepresented groups for 15 years, and education leaders nationwide are now scaling up early college designs in efforts to improve the performance of entire school systems. This brief explores the leadership practices responsible for spreading early college districtwide in South Texas and Denver through the Early College Expansion Partnership, led by JFF and Educate Texas and funded by a five-year federal Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) grant. Among the lessons learned: success hinges on shared leadership at multiple levels, from the superintendent’s office to individual school buildings and in between.