"Flying the Plane While We Build It": A Case Study of an Early College High School

Over the past two decades, the perceived failed promise of the comprehensive high school to effectively educate America's youth has generated a national interest in high school reform. One such area of reform is a movement to restructure high schools as small learning communities centered around unique curriculum and state-of-the-art teaching. Financial support from organizations like the Annenberg Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, and, most notably, the Early College High School Initiative (ECHSI) launched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have helped push the small school model from margin to center, and with it, a host of empirical studies to examine the impact on student academic achievement. Empirical studies examining small learning communities are important in developing a comprehensive understanding of the effectiveness of the early college high school model and in developing policy for improvement and sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to offer on-the-ground insight into student and teacher relationships and challenges at one early college high school. The authors use Noddings' ethics of care as a conceptual framework to explore factors that support and constrain student and teacher development and success within one such small learning community. They conclude with several key issues and implications worthy of further consideration and investigative research of early college high schools. (Contains 2 figures, 2 tables, and 2 footnotes.)