News and Announcements
ECRC staff and project partners will be attending several conferences and presenting their latest findings in the spring of 2026.
Association for Education Finance Policy (AEFP) Conference
March 19 – 21 | Chicago, IL
March 19, 8:15 am: What happens after students fail a dual enrollment course?– Marieke Visser (ECRC Quantitative Research Specialist)
March 19, 8:15 am: Dual Enrollment Course Delivery Modalities: Who Participates, Who Succeeds, and What Happens Next? – Brian Phillips (ECRC project partner, RAND)
March 20, 2:45 pm: Transfer, Accelerate, Complete, Engage (TrACE): Experimental Evidence on Transfer Student Success at Four-Year Universities in North Carolina – Steven Hemelt (ECRC project partner, UNC-Chapel Hill Department of Public Policy)
March 21, 8:15 am: The Transfer of College Credits Earned in High School – Julie Edmunds (ECRC Director)
Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC) Conference
April 2–4 | Salt Lake City, UT
Date and Time TBD: The Transfer of College Credits Earned in High School – Julie Edmunds (ECRC Director)
Date and Time TBD: Dual Enrollment Modality and Student Success in North Carolina: the Time and Place – Emily Smail (ECRC project partner, NC Community College System), Jess Edwards (Belk Center for Community College Leadership & Research at NC State), and Julie Edmunds (ECRC Director)
American Educational Research Association (AERA) Conference
April 8–12 | Los Angeles, CA
April 10, 11:45 am: Promise Fulfilled? The Transfer of College Credits Earned in High School – Symposium with Julie Edmunds (ECRC Director), Christine Mulhern (ECRC project partner, RAND), Laura Rosof (ECRC Senior Research Specialist), Brian Phillips (ECRC project partner, RAND), and Holley Nichols (ECRC project partner, Belk Center for Community College Leadership & Research at NC State)
April 11, 3:45 pm: Advising Around Postsecondary Pathways – Symposium with Nina Arshavsky (ECRC Senior Research Specialist), Bryan Hutchins (ECRC Senior Research Specialist), Christine Mulhern (ECRC project partner, RAND), and John Sludden (ECRC project partner, Research Alliance for New York City Schools at New York University)
New National Rural Higher Education Research Center
The federal Institute of Education Sciences has announced a five-year award to MDRC to develop the National Rural Higher Education Research Center, and the Early College Research Center is excited to be an official partner of the center. Dr. Julie Edmunds will serve as Co-Principal Investigator for the project.
The new center will assess strategies for improving rates of postsecondary enrollment and success for students from rural communities across the United States, as college-going and college completion rates are far lower in rural communities than in other geographical settings.
The center has also partnered with state-level higher education agencies and intends to conduct research activities in 10 states, including 25 colleges and universities, along with practitioner and researcher advisors representing a total of 21 states.
In addition to its research activities, the center will engage with national and regional higher education associations to disseminate the results of its research broadly, build the capacity of researchers and rural-serving institutions to conduct research, and support practitioners and early career researchers seeking to improve postsecondary outcomes for rural students.
Early Colleges As A Model for Schooling: Creating New Pathways for Access to Higher Education
This new book uses early college research to argue that all students should have access to a combined high school and college experience.
Read the Washington Post article. Book available at: Harvard Education Press and Amazon
Q&A – Research reveals the strengths and challenges of the early college model.
EdNC interviewed Dr. Julie Edmunds (Executive Director with the Early College Research Center at UNC Greensboro, Dr. Nina Arshavsky (Senior Research Specialist with the Early College Research Center at UNC Greensboro), and Dr. Beth Glennie (Senior Research Education Analyst, RTI International) about the early college high school model. Read the interview.
“North Carolina has a comprehensive vision of how the early college high school should be implemented, which creates a positive experience for students and contributes to a broad-based commitment to the model within the community.”
Dr. Julie Edmunds
Listen to the 3-part podcast series featuring Dr. Julie Edmunds, Executive Director of the Early College Research Center at UNC Greensboro, and Mr. Matt Bristow-Smith, Principal at Edgecombe Early College High School. The episodes broach the topic of Early College High Schools giving insight into the rights of all students to have an equal choice and voice to excel in an Early College High School environment. All three episodes provide a rare opportunity for two experts, a researcher, and a practitioner, to offer insight into the topic of Early College High School. Listen to the podcasts.