A Job and a College Degree Before You Graduate High School
This article in Washington Monthly describes the encouraging success of the Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) model, with a focus on the program's use in Dallas Independent School District in Texas. As implemented by the Dallas school district, the P-TECH model is a nonselective dual enrollment program that enables primarily students of color from lower-income households to gain work-based experience and earn up to 60 college credit hours or an associate degree, along with industry certificates, in four to six years while in high school. The author highlights that while there are more than 21,000 public high schools in the United States, only about 1 percent offer the P-TECH program and encourages a national-level investment to spread the program to high schools around the country. The article references the research team at MDRC that is conducting an evaluation of the New York City P-TECH high schools as part of our Network.