The Early College High School Initiative provides students the opportunity to receive a high school diploma and an associate degree or up to two years of college credit, by taking a mixture of high school and college classes. This differs from dual enrollment, as dual enrollment students are enrolled in a traditional high school and take college classes, whereas early college students take high school classes in preparation for full college workloads. At early colleges, students also have fewer high school classes because some of their college classes replace their high school classes. Early colleges differ from closely related middle colleges.