Dual-enrollment programs, through which high-school students can earn college credit by taking college courses, have been growing in popularity in recent years — especially at community colleges.
For institutions, such programs provide a mechanism for increasing enrollment at a time when the pool of traditional-age college students is shrinking. For students, they offer an opportunity to get ahead academically while saving thousands of dollars. In many states, taking college courses as a dual-enrollment student is either free or close to it.
Research shows that dual enrollment benefits both students and the larger public. A study conducted by the Community College Research Center at Columbia University, which looked at three states where dual-enrollment programs are particularly popular — Texas, Florida, and New York — found that “DE can help … students succeed in higher education by giving them a realistic idea of what college requires and … a head start on college- level work.” Dual enrollment is also associated with higher rates of “college enrollment and persistence, greater credit accumulation, and higher college GPA.”
Yet dual enrollment is not without its detractors. Complaints range from unequal access and students’ lack of preparation to the cost of the program and a perception that students profit from grade inflation — especially when their “college” courses are actually taught on high-school campuses.
While I’m not blind to the challenges facing dual-enrollment programs, I believe they are fundamentally worthwhile. I’ve been involved with such programs for 32 years at practically every level. As a faculty member, I’ve taught dual-enrollment courses at local high schools and in college. As a department chair, I staffed dual-enrollment classes on campus and off, and as an academic dean I oversaw the entire program, with the campus coordinator reporting to me. All four of my children “did” dual enrollment.
But to be worthwhile, the programs must be designed and administered properly. Based on my experience, multiple conversations with other dual-enrollment administrators, and a review of the research, here are the steps I believe your institution needs to take to offer a top-notch dual-enrollment program:
Make sure the administration is on board — at all levels. No dual-enrollment program can prosper without people at the top — presidents and vice presidents — who believe in it and see it not just as a cash cow but as a genuine good for students, the institution, and the community. Such leaders will conspicuously support the program by making sure it has adequate resources, financial and otherwise.
Just as important are the midlevel administrators — deans and department chairs — who must allocate those resources, which in addition to funds can include physical space, time slots on the course schedule, and faculty members. Without cooperation from those who schedule and staff the classes, it’s almost impossible to maintain a viable dual-enrollment program.
Hire a dedicated director. I chose that term advisedly, convinced that both the adjective and the noun are crucial.
First, it’s important to have someone leading your dual-enrollment program whose main job is leading your dual-enrollment program. In addition to handling all the necessary administrative tasks — budgeting, scheduling, staffing — that person is also a de facto admissions counselor and academic adviser, working with potentially hundreds of students. That’s far too big a job for a faculty member with one or two courses of release time.
That person must also be dedicated in the more traditional sense of the term — utterly devoted to the program, the institution, and especially the students. The director must be a constant advocate for dual enrollment, internally and externally, as well as an ambassador for the program and sometimes even a cheerleader. Expecting a part-timer to do all that is unfair to the individual and shortchanges the program.
Finally, note the title: “director.” The person running the program needs the necessary decision-making authority as well as a title with some heft. That helps when dealing with other administrators, as well as with parents, guidance counselors, and principals.
Assign the best professors. The key to success for any dual-enrollment program is having the best possible faculty members. Believe me, word gets around at high schools, and many students will either be drawn to the program or decide to ignore it based on what they hear about the professors. I’ve seen situations in which sending the wrong person to teach at a high school led to that school’s canceling its dual-enrollment courses and ending its relationship with the college. Teachers have that much influence, for good or for ill.
The problem is that senior faculty members, who tend to have a great deal of control over their schedules, often don’t want to teach dual-enrollment courses, especially off campus. Chairs must then assign either less-experienced full-timers or adjuncts. Some of those folks are excellent; unfortunately, some of them aren’t.
One answer to this staffing dilemma, for many colleges, has been to use high-school teachers to teach dual-enrollment courses at the high school. That, I’m convinced, is the worst possible model — not necessarily because of the teachers themselves, some of whom are highly qualified and quite good, but because of what they represent to the students. A course taught at the high school by a high-school teacher will not, for most students, have the feel of a real college course. As one longtime dual-enrollment coordinator put it, “body in high school, mind in high school.”
There are, however, other ways to get your best faculty members to teach dual-enrollment students without twisting arms. Here’s the first:
Have reasonable admission standards. Many faculty members are disinclined to teach students who have a lot of catching up to do. I understand the desire to open up dual enrollment to more students, but research, experience, and common sense all dictate that, for students to succeed in college courses, they must be at least minimally college-ready. Otherwise we’re just setting them up for failure.
Based on three decades of seeing what works and what doesn’t — which students make it and which ones don’t — I recommend a high-school GPA of at least 3.0 (3.2 would be better) and a minimum score of 1000 on the SAT. I also believe that dual enrollment should be limited to high-school juniors and seniors, with few exceptions. Remember, dual-enrollment courses, generally speaking, are not remedial courses; they’re actual, college-level courses that require a degree of academic preparation and maturity — “real college for ready students,” in the words of one experienced administrator.
College leaders need to believe in the program and see it not just as a cash cow but as a genuine good for students, the institution, and the community.
Create the right environment. Another way to get faculty members on board, and the last requirement for a top-notch dual-enrollment program, is an environment conducive to college-level learning. Ideally, that means bringing students to the college campus rather than teaching them at the high school. I realize that’s not always practical; institutions must do what’s necessary to make sure their program is sustainable. But on-campus classes are optimal, both for students and for the institutions themselves.
According to the Columbia research center’s study, “students who took dual enrollment on college campuses had higher rates of college enrollment and degree attainment, [whereas] students who took dual-enrollment courses on high-school campuses showed no significant improvement in college outcomes.” If the aim of dual enrollment is not just to help students acquire a few hours of college credit but to actually prepare them for college work, then a college campus is the obvious place to do that.
Furthermore, the institutions themselves benefit from this arrangement, since students who come to campus usually end up taking more hours. A qualified student who has the opportunity to enroll in, say, a college English class at the local high school probably will do so. But a student who comes to campus might very well take that English class plus one or two others — maybe even a full load. Since the gold standard in enrollment management is full-time equivalency, not head count, it makes sense for institutions to encourage this model.
On the campus, dual-enrollment students can take classes with whichever professors they want, within reason. That means there’s no need to persuade top professors to go to them; they’ll go to the professors.
Again, for a variety of reasons — including relationships with local school systems — not all colleges will be able to confine dual-enrollment programs to campus. The model I’ve described is the ideal; colleges must do what they think best on the basis of their own circumstances.
Nevertheless, the closer they come to that ideal, the stronger their dual-enrollment programs will be. That, in turn, will enable them to serve more students, to serve those students better, and to become a greater force for good in the community — with a reputation to match.
Rob Jenkins is an associate professor of English at Georgia State University’s Perimeter College who writes regularly for The Chronicle’s Advice pages. Follow him on Twitter @HigherEdSpeak.
