A Comparative Analysis of College Entrance Examination Scores and Retention of Early and Middle College High School Graduates and Traditional High School Graduates Attending Historically Black Colleges & Universities

Despite continuous K-16 education reform efforts, educators are still faced with the growing challenge of preparing at-risk students for college. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) accept and enroll a tremendous number of at-risk students and struggle with stagnant graduation rates. Located on college campuses, the Early Middle College High school (EMC) was developed to help prepare at-risk students for college, provide access, and facilitate a seamless transition between high school and college. A vast majority of the research on Early and Middle Colleges focused on student outcomes as high school students. This quantitative study was a comparative analysis of the college entrance examination scores and college retention rates of early and middle college high school graduates and traditional high school graduates who attend HBCUs.;Four HBCUs have early and middle college high school programs; three of which were included in this study. The data collected from the three colleges reflected a population that was majority Black or African American and classified as low socio-economic status. As a program in the early stages of implementation, gains in college entrance examination scores were evident for EMC graduates, but not statistically significant different than college entrance examination scores of traditional high school graduate. Using the two-sample independent t-test and Chi-square analysis respectively, the findings indicated there were no statistically significant differences in SAT scores or retention rates of Early and Middle College high school students compared to traditional high school students over a four-year span. A major conclusion from the study is that EMCs should focus on enrolling a larger number of males as this research demonstrates that female and male EMC graduates were retained at similar rates in college. Further analysis revealed that EMC graduates who left college had significantly higher SAT scores than the traditional high school graduates who left college.