Outcomes for Students on a Fast Track to College: Early College Entrance Programs at the University of Washington

Abstract

Radical acceleration from middle school to university is an unusual option in the United States. The Early Entrance Program and the University of Washington (UW) Academy for Young Scholars housed in the Halbert and Nancy Robinson Center for Young Scholars are two of only 21 early university entrance programs offered in the United States. Due to the uniqueness of the participants and the programs, there currently exists a significant gap in the literature associated with the long-term impact of early university entrance programs. This article shares specifics of the early entrance programs and reports the preliminary results of the 35th-year follow-up study of the Early Entrance Program and the first alumni study of the UW Academy for Young Scholars. Findings relate to graduates’ personal, academic, and professional lives since they graduated from the university.

Keywords:

• academic career
• acceleration
• early entrance
• high achieving
• long-term impact
• long-term outcomes
• social–emotional development

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Notes on contributors

Nancy B. Hertzog

Dr. Nancy B. Hertzog is Professor in the area of educational psychology at the University of Washington and Director of the Halbert and Nancy Robinson Center for Young Scholars. She has an extensive background in gifted education and expertise on curriculum development. Her master’s degree in gifted education is from the University of Connecticut under the mentorship of Joseph Renzulli, and her PhD is in special education from the University of Illinois. From 1995 to 2010 she held a faculty position in the Department of Special Education and directed University Primary School, an inclusive early childhood setting that serves children from preschool through first grade at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Her primary area of interest relates to ways in which teachers engage and challenge all students. Currently, Dr. Hertzog’s research focuses on how teachers differentiate their instruction to address the diverse needs of their students. She is the author of two books and has published in the Journal of Curriculum Studies, Gifted Child Quarterly, Journal for the Education of the Gifted, Roeper Review, TeachingExceptional Children, Early Childhood Research and Practice, and Young Exceptional Children. [email protected]

Rachel U. Chung

Rachel U. Chung, MEd, is a PhD prospective candidate in the College of Education at the University of Washington and a predoctoral research associate at the Halbert and Nancy Robinson Center for Young Scholars. She received her BA in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin and her MEd in counseling psychology from Washington State University. She is certified in the State of Washington as a school counselor and has over 10 years of combined experience teaching and advising K–12 students. Her research interests are best described as an intersection between gifted education, mental health, and immigrant issues. [email protected]