Bard College at Simon’s Rock announced the inaugural release of its digital, open-access academic journal focused on the early college movement, Early College Folio.
Released in June 2021, Volume 1, Issue 1 of Early College Folio, titled “The House of Education Needs Overhaul,” can be downloaded directly from the Bard Digital Commons. To celebrate the launch of the publication, Bard College at Simon’s Rock also hosted a virtual roundtable discussion with several scholars who contributed articles to the first issue.
In 1967, Simon’s Rock founder Elizabeth Blodgett Hall published a landmark essay which declared “the house of education needs overhaul” and described how Simon’s Rock would heed the call by envisioning a new, more robust educational pathway for younger scholars. The first issue of Early College Folio revisits and expands on Mrs. Hall’s credo with a series of essays exploring various aspects of early college from scholars in the Bard network and beyond. Each piece expounds on the transformative potential of early college pedagogy through subjects spanning racial and social justice, music and math, history and language, activism and communal learning, and more.
Dr. John B. Weinstein, Provost and Vice President of Simon’s Rock, explained, “We are thrilled to put Early College Folio out into the world to facilitate greater engagement with the early college concepts, philosophies, pedagogies, and practices—including the multiplicity of viewpoints and visions involved in the movement. Our hope is that this publication becomes a leading resource for the study of early college both around the nation and around the world.”
Published by the Early College Research Institute (ECRI), Early College Folio seeks to regularly publish accurate, innovative, and insightful research about early college applications world-wide, focusing broadly on the theory, pedagogy, and contemporary applications of early college models, including early college high schools, early admission, early entrance, and residential early college programs. The journal includes articles by faculty and staff at early colleges and other experts in the field both in and outside of the Bard network.
The ECRI was launched in 2020 to foster the research, preservation, and scholarly discussion of the theory and practice of early college. Based out of Bard College at Simon’s Rock, the ECRI grounds early college in the broader educational landscape and informs the work of researchers of learning ecologies through its archival collections and Early College Folio.
Early College Folio is now accepting submissions for its second issue, which will explore COVID-19 and early college. Contributors are invited to submit articles, essays, research, interviews, and other creative or collaborative work broadly rooted in applications of early college by contacting earlycollegefolio@simons-rock.edu.
To request or submit materials to the early college collections and to find out more information about ECRI, visit the ECRI webpage.