Estimating the Cost of Early Colleges: Three Complementary Approaches

Early college high schools offer students many dual enrollment courses and the opportunity to earn an associate degree while in high school. In this paper, we assess the costs of the early college model in North Carolina relative to costs for typical high school education. We use three complementary approaches: one using administrative expenditure data from high schools and colleges across the state, one using the ingredients method based on in-depth subject matter expert interviews in five case study districts, and a third “hybrid” approach combining the two methods. Our findings suggest that educating an early college student incurs higher relative costs in high school that are offset by lower costs to a college degree for students who eventually complete a postsecondary credential. However, excess credit attainment attenuates the postsecondary savings. We discuss the implications of these findings for implementation of the early college model and for cost study methodologies.