Since the start of the Early College High School (ECHS) initiative, the Middle College National Consortium (MCNC) sought to increase both student access and success in higher education by creating small schools in which high school students had the opportunity to earn both a high school diploma and transferable college credits upon graduating.
We developed our first two ECHSs in 2002, and currently assist 20 schools in eight states
, with the largest clusters of schools in California and New York. These schools share common core principles and features associated with our organization’s belief set and instructional practices regarding the successful schooling of underserved high school students.
Download 2008 - 2009 Broadsheet
Over the years, we have increasingly emphasized the importance of data collection and usage in making data-informed, data-driven improvement decisions; it has become one of our core signature features both at the overall organization and individual school levels. “Data is our friend” is a regularly used motto with schools. As one of our strategic partners since the start of the ECHS initiative, NCREST at Teachers College, Columbia University, has been a research, development, and evaluation support for our organization.
