Early College High School Philosophy and Policy---How Q-Methodology Reveals Form, Process, and Leadership

This two phase mixed methods study examined how national to local Early College High School (ECH or ECHS) philosophy and policy shaped the form, process, and leadership of three local ECHs. Phase One interviewees included leaders of national and state-level ECH-related organizations and school leaders from three local ECHs. In Phase Two of the study, Q-Methodology was used to determine how administrators and teachers from three local ECHs perceived their educational form and process to function.;Phase One of the research included eight semi-structured interviews of organization leaders from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Jobs for the Future, The North Carolina New Schools Project, and ECH administrators from three local ECHs. The questionnaire used in Phase One of the study was generated by the principal investigator, with open-ended questions drawn from an extensive review of the professional literature on ECHs serving as a knowledge base. Data from Phase One interviews was used to link Phases One and Two of the study by serving as a background and contextual source of information for the natural concourse set of statements sorted in the second Q-Methodology phase of the study.;Phase Two of the study utilized Q-Methodology to determine four model Q-Sorts that provided snapshots of ECH process as reported by 40 participants of administrators and teachers from three local ECHs. Phase Two participants sorted 40 items of a natural concourse set of statements derived from findings of the Phase One interviews and literature review. The set of natural concourse statements was member checked by Phase One interviewees and the leaders of the participant ECHs prior to use. The four model Q-Sorts were named The Tutor, The Mentor, ECH Core Values, and Popular Secondary Instruction. The names were derived from the positively valued natural concourse item statements that embodied the essences of the four solution model factor array.;In this mixed-method design structure, the findings from the qualitative Phase One interviews and the quantitative Q-Methodology model sorts complemented each other in providing multiple perspectives on how ECH philosophy and policy shape the form, process, and leadership of three local ECHs around the Triangle Region of North Carolina. Study findings and discussion addressed: the alignment between national, state-, and local-level ECH-related organizations and local ECH process; a contemporary secondary reform model that serves traditionally underrepresented higher education demographic subgroups, i.e., progeny of first-time aspiring college attendee families; an educational reform model and process that reaches, supports, and promotes secondary and post-secondary academic attainment on the part of underrepresented higher education demographic subgroups; and four viewpoints for understanding the successful educational philosophy, policy, structure, process, and leadership of ECHs at the local level. The study augments the growing dissertation-strata body of research on ECHs, and is the first to examine local ECH process with Q-Methodology.