Early College, Maura Healey, Fitchburg High School
Gov. Maura Healey meeting with students taking part in Fitchburg High School’s early college program on April 6, 2023. (Photo via Flickr/Governor's Press Office by Joshua Qualls)

THE RECENT expansion of the MassGrant Plus and MassReconnect programs and tuition equity for Massachusetts students are landmark investments in college access for students across the state who may see college as cost prohibitive for them and their families. We celebrate these efforts to ensure that students from all backgrounds can pursue higher education, and we know that it will require complementary efforts to ensure that those students earn a degree when they get there.

While cost is a major barrier for many students, it is not the sole barrier driving inequities in college access and success. In fact, there is a comprehensive body of evidence from decades of research that shows success in college is impacted by the development of social, cognitive, noncognitive, and academic skills that support students in navigating the college environment and adjusting to the rigors of college coursework. 

Due to inequities in the opportunity to hone these critical skills, Massachusetts suffers high rates of attrition in college persistence and staggering equity gaps in college completion. According to a report issued last year by the National Student Clearinghouse, there were more than 350,000 people in Massachusetts ages 20-34 with some college credits but no degree, and data from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education indicate that while 50 percent of White students earn a degree within six years of high school graduation, only 24 percent of Black students and 17 percent of Latino students achieve the same success. 

In order to maximize the return on our investments in college affordability, we must ensure that students of all backgrounds can not only afford college, but can complete their degrees at much higher rates than they are today.

That’s why we are deeply committed to growing Early College, an initiative that can complement and increase the state’s investments in college affordability, by addressing academic and non-academic barriers to college completion. In Early College programs, students take rigorous, transferable college courses during their regular high school day, and receive significant wraparound supports to ensure they can succeed in the college environment. 

Students learn key skills like time management and how to navigate the social and logistical challenges of the transition from high school to college, and they graduate from high school with significant college credits along with the confidence and habits to be successful in their next step. We also know that it’s working. Early College students are 14 percentage points more likely to both enroll and persist in college than matched peers, and these increases are consistent across categories of race, family income, and prior academic achievement. Given those outcomes, research from MassINC suggests that Early College doubles the odds of a student immediately enrolling and then persisting to a second year of college.

The colleges we lead collectively partner with high schools to provide Early College programs that serve students from Lynn, Salem, and other surrounding communities. Currently, there are 876 Early College high school students enrolled at North Shore Community College, and 393 additional students enrolled at Salem State University. 

Students in our programs are studying for potential careers in fields like computer science/IT, health care, business, and education, and are accumulating college credits that reduce their time to degree completion in the future. Across both of our campuses, Early College students earned nearly 8,400 credits in the 2022-23 school year, and are slated to earn even more this year. Through these opportunities, students are free to explore their interests in potential majors and career fields, setting them up to make more informed choices as they pursue college after completing high school. Additionally, students take these classes with college professors, often located on a college campus, providing critical exposure to the rigors of college academics and the unfamiliar and sometimes daunting college environment.

We believe that the combination of Early College and programs that address college affordability presents powerful opportunities for students throughout the Commonwealth. Particularly for students who have historically been underserved in our higher education system, such as students of color, students from low-income homes, and English language learners, among others, we can address the financial barriers to college access, but also the academic, social, and cultural barriers to college success that contribute to much lower rates of degree attainment for students from these groups.

Through Early College, students are better prepared to finish their degrees, and do so in less time, ensuring the state’s investments in MassGrant Plus and other forms of state aid are fully leveraged to benefit students, colleges, and the future workforce. This has all been made possible thanks to the leadership over a number of years of the Legislature and the executive branch, which has seen the potential in this effort and has supported it fiscally and through their priorities. 

Of course, we also want to celebrate the bold efforts of high school and college educators and other community leaders who have done the hard work of building the state’s initial high-quality programs and authentically engaging students and families to understand this unique educational opportunity.  

For students, these programs reduce the time and cost to degree completion, and support thoughtful planning around majors and career paths. For school systems, these programs provide a strategy for addressing academic performance declines and ensuring students succeed in more rigorous and relevant coursework. 

For the Commonwealth, Early College increases the likelihood of developing a diverse, skilled, and prepared workforce in our most important and competitive industry sectors, like education, health care, technology, and other STEM-related fields. We believe strongly in the power of Early College, and look forward to continuing to build on the successful foundation for growth that’s been developed over the last five years.

Erika Giampietro is executive director of the Massachusetts Alliance for Early College. William Heineman is president of North Shore Community College. John Keenan is president of Salem State University.