High schools across the country are taking what might seem like a counterintuitive approach to educating some of their most at-risk students.

They’re enrolling them in college before they even graduate from high school.

A new report from the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy suggests that dual-enrollment programs, where students take classes simultaneously in high school and at a local college, have proven especially successful at getting less-affluent and first-generation students into college—and through it.

“It’s an acknowledgement of the changing demands of our society and the need of our education system to better equip students for the 21st century,” Chad d’Entremont, executive director of the center, told National Journal.

Enrolling high schoolers in college programs helps schools catch weaknesses early, which can help them avoid costly classes later.

Such programs, the center argues in its report, “have the potential to increase the size and diversity of the college-going population.”

And as high schools see an increasingly heterogeneous student body, interest is growing, d’Entremont says.

Click here to continue reading.