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Starter Kit: Launch an Early College

This tool kit is for districts and/or schools that want to launch and continually improve early college and career pathway programs. It includes templates and examples of project planning documents and implementation resources.

At a Glance

This tool kit is for districts and/or schools that want to launch and continually improve early college and career pathway programs. It includes templates and examples of project planning documents and implementation resources.

About the Program

These resources were collected from early college programs in Michigan and Connecticut, as well as other successful early college initiatives throughout the country.

Published jun. 28, 2019
Source

This kit was created by JFF and Teachers College.

Contributors
  • Caesar Mickens Jr.
    Caesar Mickens Jr.

    Director
  • Emily Riddles, Teachers College, NCREST
Capabilites

Design

Scale

Area of Work
  • Ensuring Equity in Advancement
Topics

Sections

How to Launch an Early College Program
Participating Districts
Early College Banner_New

How to Launch an Early College Program

Plan

  • Set Goals and Vision
  • Create Memoranda of Understanding
  • Draft Annual Plans

Execute

  • Hire Staff
  • Develop Course Content

Evolve

  • Guide Students Along Career Pathways
  • Engage in Professional Development
  • Collect and Use Data for Ongoing Improvement

Access the resources below for help with each critical step. You can also reach out to JFF if you want us to consult with you on your early college or pathways initiative. Contact us at info@jff.org.

Tools

Tool

Set Goals & Vision

Creating a scope and sense of what you and your partners want out of your early college development is an important first step in any early college design project. This resource gives example summary overviews of two early project plans, along with resources on the nature of early college design principles.

Tool

Create an MOU

Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) are absolutely necessary, especially for early college and career pathway programs. Although trust should be a major part of working with partners, it’s important to get agreements in writing. MOUs provides an opportunity to clarify the role of each partner and your school. This resource includes examples of MOUs that were executed by early college and career pathway programs.

Tool

Draft Annual Plans

It should come as no surprise that planning is one of the essential components to designing, implementing, and continuously improving early college and career pathway programs. Plans provide an opportunity and framework to establish benchmarks and goals.

Tool

Hire Staff

Creating early college requires some special key players. Why re-create the proverbial wheel? These resources provide examples of job descriptions for early college and career pathway schools. Please feel free to customize them for your school.

Tool

Develop Course Content

These resources will give early college and career pathway programs an opportunity to review course content and syllabi that were offered at various early college and career pathway programs. Feel free to customize these resources to meet the needs in your program.

Tool

Guide Student Career Pathways

Career pathways are a hallmark of the early college experience, which should prepare students to enter either postsecondary or the workforce after completing a credential. This resource shows how to set up and organize career pathways within your curricula for early college students.

Tool

Engage in Professional Development

Professional development for teachers, leaders, and support staff is essential for student and program development. Of course, there are numerous approaches to professional development, such as coaching, workshops, peer-to-peer, etc. These resources will provide a framework for your school to develop and customized meaningful professional development.

Use Data to Inform Ongoing Improvement

Students enrolled in early college programs engage in both college and high school coursework and activities. To better understand students’ early college experiences and ensure that they get the support they need to succeed, it is important to collect data from a variety of sources and review and discuss that data on a regular basis.

Resources

Participating Districts

Here are the school districts that were involved in developing these materials:

  • Genesee Intermediate School District
  • Washtenaw Intermediate School District
  • Delta-Schoolcraft Intermediate School District
  • Lapeer County Intermediate School District

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