English Learners’ Access to Massachusetts Early College Programs

Authors: Yasuko Kanno, Andrew Bacher-Hicks, Pierre Lucien 

Project Summary

Early college programs (ECPs) are an increasingly common approach for promoting college enrollment and degree/credential completion, particularly for historically marginalized students. In Massachusetts, ECPs launched in 2017 and have since scaled rapidly. To better understand whether English learners (ELs) are taking advantage of these promising programs, the authors of this study examined the extent to which ELs are participating in Massachusetts ECPs, analyzing patterns across schools and subgroups.

Key Findings

• Current ELs in 12th grade are substantially underrepresented in Massachusetts ECPs.
• Former ELs in 12th grade are slightly overrepresented in Massachusetts ECPs.
• Current ELs are more underrepresented in ECPs at schools with higher shares of Hispanic/Latinx students, low-income students, and ELs.

Policy Implications

These findings indicate that simply offering ECPs in schools with a large EL population does not ensure equitable access for this subgroup. Following Massachusetts’ lead, other states and districts could adopt strategies for sharing ECP participation data publicly, making sure ELs and other targeted groups are not overlooked in data tracking. However, data tracking is not sufficient for changing student outcomes. This study highlights the need for better understanding the mechanisms driving enrollment disparities.