Texas is a national leader in creating early college high schools, an innovative small school model that blends secondary and postsecondary education with intensive supports to increase college readiness and success for underachieving students. The state has 29 early college schools, with more opening in the 2008-2009 academic year, thanks largely to Texas’s education reforms favorable to their development.

Texas leaders hope to further expand the model, using it as a priority strategy to boost college success rates. JFF’s Susan Goldberger and Janet Santos detail the efforts of El Paso Community College, South Texas College, and their partners to build regional clusters of early college high schools. Their experiences highlight important lessons about how to make the most of a state’s public policy environment to create, sustain, and expand early college schools.