College course taking, a tool for high school reform

Overview

Titles: The Postsecondary Achievement of Participants in Dual Enrollment: An Analysis of Student Outcomes in Two States

Author(s): Melinda Mechur Karp, Juan Carlos Calcagno, Katherine L. Hughes, Dong Wook Jeong, and Thomas R. Bailey

Research Methods: Quantitative Analysis

Publisher: Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University

Peer Reviewed: No

Released: October 2007

The question(s):

What are the short-term effects of high-school students’ participation in a dual enrollment program as measured by high school graduation and college enrollment rates?
What are the effects of participation in a dual enrollment program on their initial entry into postsecondary education?
What are the effects throughout a student’s college career?
Do program effects vary by student race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, or number of dual enrollment courses taken?

Dual enrollment programs allow high school students to take college courses prior to earning their high school diploma.

The study:
Researchers analyzed longitudinal data from Florida and New York City. The New York City analysis included only those students who enrolled in one of the city’s 19 vocational high schools and had enrolled in City University of New York (CUNY) for the first time in 2001 or 2002. The Florida dataset included all students in the state from the class of 2000-01 or 2001-02. For both New York City and Florida, data from the Common Core of Data (CCD) and the 2000 Census were also used to obtain school-level and neighborhood-level information respectively.

The researchers performed separate regression analyses for Florida and New York City to determine what impact each dual enrollment program had on student outcomes such as high school graduation, college going, and college performance. The researchers used the students’ demographic, prior achievement, high school attended, and neighborhood information to determine if outcomes differed for similar students who did and did not participate in a dual enrollment program.

Full Report:
http://ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/Publication.asp?UID=547

Low-income students benefit from taking college courses while still in high school, according to a report released this month by the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education called The Postsecondary Achievement of Participants in Dual Enrollment: An Analysis of Student Outcomes in Two States. The report found that students, especially low-income students, who participate in dual enrollment programs are more likely to graduate high school and enroll and excel in college than students who do not participate.

The findings

Florida

Dual enrollment students were more likely than other similar students to:

Earn a regular high school diploma
Enroll in the state’s university system
Achieve a higher GPA, especially for those students who took five or more college courses while still in high school.
Remain in college three years after graduating high school
Earn more college credits by their third year, especially for those students who took five or more college courses while still in high school.

Low-income dual enrollment students were more likely than higher-income dual enrollment students to:

Enroll in college after high school
Achieve a higher GPA their first semester and have a higher cumulative GPA after three years of college.

New York

Dual enrollment students were more likely than other similar students to:

Pursue a four-year degree.
Earn a higher GPA in their first semester in college, particularly for students who took two or more dual enrollment courses
Accrue more credits three and half years into college, especially for students who took two or more dual enrollment courses

Limitations of the report

Since students were not selected at random, the study is unable to control for all preexisting differences between students and make it possible to truly isolate the effect of the dual enrollment program.
The findings are based on data from one state (Florida) and one large city (New York City) so caution should be taken when generalizing the results to the national student population.
New York City data is based only on students attending vocational schools in the city and may not be representative of the entire New York City student population.
Students who enroll in private colleges or colleges outside of the Florida public postsecondary systems are not included as college attendees.

Conclusion

Because the report is based on only two states, it is not definitive. Nonetheless, the results provide evidence that dual enrollment programs can be an effective tool for high school improvement. Not only do they provide more challenging work to the more advanced students, they provide a portal into the postsecondary world that many disadvantaged students may not otherwise see. By helping more students see college as a possibility, more students are likely to graduate high schools and to attend and succeed in college.

To expand the impact of dual enrollment programs the report recommends that policymakers:

Implement or expand dual enrollment programs to a greater number of students, not just the most academically advanced. Students across the academic spectrum should have access to dual enrollment programs.
Colleges should allow students participating in a dual enrollment program to take a wider variety of courses beyond the mainly liberal arts courses most colleges currently allow.
States should encourage more college course-taking by:
- Ensuring students are recruited into dual enrollment programs early enough in high school so they have the time to take multiple courses.
- Working with their students to develop a clear sequence of courses.
Expand outreach to traditionally underserved students, including minority and low-income students, who are less likely to know or to take advantage of dual enrollment programs.
- States should require that all students be notified of the program and provide districts the funds necessary to do so.
- States should provide funds to cover the cost of tuition for low-income students.

School boards can play an important role in expanding access to dual enrollment. If states allow it, school boards can lift or limit restrictions on the type of students that can participate in dual enrollment programs. Even if that isn’t possible, school boards can take a lead role in ensuring that all eligible students are aware of and are encouraged to participate in dual enrollment programs. By doing so more of their districts graduates are likely to be prepared for postsecondary education.

Posted: October 31, 2007