Abstract:
This case study examined the student perceptions of their time in one of Georgia’s Early College High Schools as related to their confidence in preparation for college. The mixed method design allowed for a look into the experiences of both recent graduates and current students. This Early College High School campus is one of eight in the state of Georgia. This campus targets a diverse population of first-generation college students and enrolls them in a program that is located physically adjacent to the public state university campus. Traditionally, many of the students who are enrolled in this program would not be expected to continue into postsecondary education and the population of the Early College campus is representative of communities that are not well represented in college campus environments. Recent graduates were interviewed using an in-depth approach via Google Meet. For phase two of the study, students who are currently enrolled in the Early College were offered a survey. This survey included items related to student perception, college readiness and additional topics of interest that arose from the phase one interviews. Three key findings resulted from the analysis of this research study. First, students’ perception of family engagement was more highly correlated with college readiness confidence than either the perception of academic preparation or social engagement. Second, students who noted a perception of positive academic preparation were also likely to perceive positive social engagement. Finally, while both current students and recent graduates perceived a high degree of self-advocacy within the Early College model, they described less certainty about relying on self-advocacy after their time in the Early College setting.
Keywords: Early College, First Generation College