Community College and High School Reform: Lessons from Five Case Studies

The research reported in this paper examined a set of innovative high school programs on community college campuses. Specifically, a full-time dual enrollment program and 4 middle college high schools were studied. The authors used in-depth interviews and observational data to investigate the structure, processes, and perceptions of effectiveness of the programs. The study found multiple missions for these programs and identified common features that appear to play an important role in their formation and relative success. Although constituent perceptions of effectiveness were overwhelmingly positive, the programs did not systematically collect and analyze empirical evidence of their effectiveness.