I have been critical of dual enrollment (also called concurrent enrollment in some states) for a while. Education Next published a long and interesting report on the subject last week. It seems that my concerns about the rigor of the courses, the level of preparation of the students involved, and the unequal availability of these courses are more widely shared than I thought. Texas, which has been at the forefront of the dual enrollment movement is starting to have second thoughts.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the article concerned the low quality of most of the research on the subject.
From the article:
Studies in Texas and elsewhere have found that dual enrollment boosts key student outcomes, including high school graduation, college enrollment, college persistence and completion and time to degree.
Still, most of the evidence for dual credit has come from small-scale, single-state studies that haven’t controlled for selection bias: the possibility that students who choose the classes are more motivated, and more skilled, than those who don’t. In a 2017 literature review,
the Institute of Education Sciences found only two studies that met its standards for rigor, and both focused on early-college high schools.In Texas, a pair of recent studies has ignited a debate over the benefits of dual credit. One, by the University of Texas system, found that dual credit students had higher GPAs than students who came in without college credits, and were three times as likely to graduate in four years.
The other, commissioned by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, found that dual credit increased the odds of graduating for traditionally advantaged students only; for lower income students, it actually hurt their chances of completing college.
One surprising finding in the system’s study was that dual credit did not reduce borrowing for the majority of participants. While students surveyed by the researchers cited “saving time and money” as a major motivator for taking dual credit courses, only those who entered college with 60 or more credits— the number required for an associate’s degree—saw any significant reduction in student loan debt.
The study apparently does not offer an explanation for why dual enrollment might hinder lower income students from finishing college, but I wonder if going directly into upper-level courses because you have already done most of your general education in high school, gives vulnerable students less time find their sea legs.