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This study addresses the growing interest in middle and early college high schools as a tool of reform to transform the philosophy and structure of the traditional high school. The following questions guided this study: 1) What is the set of core factors that tend to permeate successful middle and early college high school initiatives, and 2) What is the effect of these core factors in implementing and sustaining middle and early college high schools? Three approaches were used to answer these questions. First, the literature was analyzed to determine if core factors could be defined from existing research and other sources about middle and early colleges. The result was a coherent set of factors along philosophical grounds fashioned into a theoretical framework that was developed and discussed in-depth. Then, selected North Carolina middle and early college high schools were evaluated and briefly profiled with the core factors in mind. This dissertation focuses upon North Carolina because of its high level of middle and early college high school activity in recent years. This work concludes that evidence from middle and early colleges supports the assertion that the theoretical framework defined herein can positively affect the implementation and sustainability of such high schools. As the middle and early college concepts proliferate as responses to failing high schools, this study increases in significance and invites further study of what enhances success for such schools