A new report by MassINC and MBAE charts a path to address the growing healthcare workforce crisis building on the popular Early College health career pathways programs. Tapping the Power of Health Pathways in Early College High Schools lays out a plan to evolve and strengthen these programs allowing students to explore their interests in clinical professions and putting them on a firmer and faster course through postsecondary studies and into medicine, nursing, and allied health careers.

Based on current trends, if MA expands Early College to reach 45,000 students in grades 9 through 12, the program could ultimately contribute approximately 1,200 workers annually to the healthcare workforce, a 25% uptick from what we are currently producing from traditional community and four-year colleges.

Importantly, that workforce is likely to represent a significantly more diverse demographic: students of color currently make-up nearly two-thirds of enrollment in Massachusetts’s Early College programs, and the increases in postsecondary enrollment and persistence for students of color in Early College exceed the gains of white students.

The state is poised to make the investments necessary for this model to work.  The state legislature is steadily providing the support necessary to reach this scale, doubling funding for Early College in each of the last two state budgets and proposing significant increased investments in 2024. Drawing on proceeds from the Student Opportunity Act, federal recovery funds, and other local sources, school districts are also devoting more resources to their Early College programs.

There are still challenges including a clinical educator staffing shortage, lack of predictability in “fifth year” programs (Early College model with an additional fifth year of high school), low state reimbursement for Early College lab sciences, and the need for more summer/mentoring programs. But this report makes it clear that if there is will at the state level, there is a policy way to achieve a workforce goal in one of the state’s most important industry.

A companion MassINC report, Early College as a Scalable Solution to the Looming Workforce Crisis, provides a high-level look at how Early College programs can be enhanced to help meet growing demand for skilled workers in a variety of sectors. The report shows how weaving more robust career pathways into Early College will encourage many more students to participate in these programs and produce even stronger long-term outcomes.