The Gates Foundation has given more than US$100 million to establish approximately 160 early college high schools (ECHSs) across the nation. The ECHS goal, to send traditionally low-performing students to college early and graduate them with 2 years of college credit, has been widely recognized for its constructive potential. However, not all EHCS students who participate have constructive experiences, and failing experiences have the potential to be educationally counterproductive by impairing future academic performance. Thus, it is important to examine instances of unsuccessful early college experiences, probing for lessons learned. This report documents one such unsuccessful experience of ECHS students in a large introductory biology course.
American Institutes for Research & SRI International. ( 2006). Evaluation of the Early College High School initiative: 2003-2005. Washington, DC; Menlo Park, CA: Authors.
2.
American Institutes for Research & SRI International. ( 2007). Evaluation of the Early College High School initiative: Select topics on implementation, 2007. Washington, DC; Menlo Park, CA: Authors.
3.
Berglas, S. & Jones, E. ( 1978). Drug choice as a self-handicapping strategy in response to non-contingent success. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 405-417.
4.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (2006 ). All students college-ready: Findings from the foundation’s education work 2000-2006. Seattle, WA: Author.
5.
Cohen, G., Garcia, J., Apfel, N., & Master, A. ( 2006). Reducing the racial achievement gap: A social-psychological intervention. Science, 313, 1307-1310.
6.
Collier, P.J., & Morgan, D.L. ( 2008). "Is that paper really due today?": Differences in first generation and traditional college students’ understanding of faculty expectations. Higher Education, 55, 425-446.
7.
Diener, C.I., & Dweck, C.S. ( 1978). An analysis of learned helplessness: Continuous changes in performance, strategy, and achievement cognitions following Failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 451-462.
8.
Dweck, C.S. ( 1975). The role of expectations and attributions in the alleviation of learned helplessness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 674-685.
9.
Dweck, C.S., & Elliot, E.S. ( 1983). Achievement motivation. In P. H. Mussen (Ed.) & E. M. Hetherington (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 4. Social and personality development (pp. 643-691). New York: John Wiley.
10.
Dweck, C.S., & Leggett, E.L. ( 1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality . Psychological Review, 95, 256-273.
11.
Dweck, C.S., & Reppucci, N.D. (1973). Learned helplessness and reinforcement responsibility in children. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 25, 109-116.
12.
Leggett, E.L., & Dweck, C.S. ( 1987, April 23-26). Children’s effort/ability reasoning: Individual differences and motivational consequences. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore, MD.
13.
Medina, J. ( 2007, August 21). More students finish school, given the time . The New York Times.
14.
Sarason, I.G. ( 1975). Anxiety and self-preoccupation. In I. G. Sarason & C. D. Spielberger (Eds.), Stress and anxiety (Vol. 2, pp. 27-44). Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
15.
Seligman, M.E.P., Abramson, L.Y., Semmel, A., & von Baeyer, C. (1979). Depressive attributional style. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88, 242-247.
16.
Sohn, D. ( 1977). Affect generating powers of effort and ability self-attributions of academic success and failure. Journal of Educational Psychology , 69, 500-505.
17.
Steele, C.M., & Aronson, J. ( 1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 69, 797-811.
18.
Tesser, A., & Campbell, J. ( 1983). Self-definition and self-evaluation maintenance. In J. Suls & A. Greenwald (Eds.), Social psychological perspectives on the self (Vol. 2, pp. 123-149). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
19.
The Early College High School Initiative. (n.d.). Available from http://www.earlycolleges.org
20.
Weiner, B., & Graham, S. ( 1984). An attributional approach to emotional development. In C. Izard, J. Kagan, & R. Zajonc (Eds.), Emotions, cognition, and behavior (pp. 167-191). New York: Cambridge University Press.
21.
Wine, J. ( 1971). Test anxiety and direction of attention. Psychological Bulletin, 76, 92-104.
