CUMU Conference 2019

Over the past decade, the early college strategy has proved to be a powerful strategy for helping low income and underrepresented students gain access to higher education (Troutman, 2018; An, 2013). Recent analysis shows that these programs are a solid financial investment, generating a return of 15:1 on dollars spent (AIR, 2019) . While many institutions of higher education have developed dual enrollment or early college strategies, critics of the model have pointed to potential unintended outcomes - students failing to thrive in the program, in college, or failing to recruit diverse participants (Gilbert, 2017).

Using an evidence-based approach, programs being launched now focus on the core missions of early colleges, connecting youth less likely to attend college directly out of high school with powerful programming that propels them towards success. This panel will present perspectives from a range of institutions (philanthropy, high school, two-year institutions, and private four-year institutions) that are rethinking these models to maximize community impact and affordability.

Program innovations that will be discussed include: developing programs which tie together high schools, community college, and 4-year college courses; programs that include private as well as public colleges; tying early college programs to scholarship programs; the role of philanthropy in the development of successful programs; and evaluation metrics for early college and dual enrollment initiatives, including real-time data tracking and visualization.