Early Colleges (ECs) provide high school students access to college coursework with the goal of increasing postsecondary opportunities for traditionally underrepresented students. We examine the impact of ECs on postsecondary attainment, calculate the resulting monetary benefits, and then estimate the per-student costs of ECs compared to traditional high schools to compare costs and benefits. Our findings indicate that students enrolling in ECs in our study are more likely to attend college and graduate with an associate or bachelor's degree. Increased educational attainment from EC enrollment results in lifetime benefits of almost $58,000 per student. ECs cost approximately $950 more than traditional high schools per student per year, resulting in an overall cost of $3,800 more per student across four years of high school. Comparing benefits to cost, we estimate a net present value (NPV) of $54,000 per student and a benefit to cost ratio of 15.1. Even when using conservative estimates of costs (upper bound) and benefits (lower bound), we calculate an NPV of over $27,000 and a benefit to cost ratio of 4.6. These results indicate that investment in ECs pays off through increased earnings for EC students, increased tax revenue, and decreased government spending.

中文翻译：

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早期大学高中的成本和收益

早期学院（EC）为高中生提供了大学课程的机会，目的是增加传统上代表性不足的学生的中学后教育机会。我们检查了EC对中学学历的影响，计算了由此产生的金钱收益，然后估计了EC与传统中学相比的每学生成本，以比较成本和收益。我们的发现表明，参加本研究的EC的学生更有可能上大学并获得副学士学位或学士学位。通过EC入学教育水平的提高，每位学生的终生收益将近58,000美元。EC每年每名学生的费用比传统高中大约高950美元，因此在四年的高中期间，每名学生的总费用增加了3,800美元。比较成本效益，我们估计每名学生的净现值为（NPV）54,000美元，成本效益比为15.1。即使使用成本（上限）和收益（下限）的保守估计，我们计算出的净现值也超过27,000美元，收益与成本之比为4.6。这些结果表明，对EC的投资通过增加EC学生的收入，增加税收和减少政府支出而获得回报。