Dual enrollment has long functioned as a “program of privilege,” researcher John Fink says. The system that allows students to knock out high-school and college courses at once, at little-to-no cost, often favors white people, native English speakers, and those of a higher socioeconomic standing.
As participation in dual enrollment skyrockets, Fink and his research partner, Davis Jenkins, argue it’s time for that to change. In new reports released Tuesday, the duo from the Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College presents a framework aimed at ensuring that all students can take advantage of such programs. The goal is to get more students on a college track early, saving them time and money en route to a degree.
The researchers’ model, coined dual-enrollment equity pathways, or DEEP, attempts to do so through four core tenets: focus outreach on underserved students; link dual-enrollment participation to career interests; leverage early-career advising and planning; and offer programs with high-quality academic instruction and support.
The framework isn’t so much tangible steps as it is a mind-set and guiding vision, Fink said, but it presents some ways colleges can follow each tenet.
Active outreach to low-income and underserved-minority communities as early as middle school can help raise awareness about which dual-enrollment programs exist in their area and prepare students to take college coursework in high school, Fink said. Colleges should then help students map out which courses to take based on their educational and career interests. (They’re often advised to take general-education courses that might not transfer to another college or help them progress toward their intended degree.)
The report also encourages colleges to pick up the slack from overburdened high-school teachers and counselors by extending campus academic-support resources and career services to dual-enrollment students.
Quality and Access
When Fink and Jenkins looked at the federal data on dual enrollment across schools and districts, they found that students of color, students with disabilities, non-native English speakers, men, and low-income students had less access.
While Black students are the most underrepresented by race — accounting for nearly 15 percent of high-school students but just 9 percent of those participating in dual enrollment — the largest gaps affect students with disabilities and English-language learners, who make up only 3.9 percent and 2 percent of dual-enrollment students, respectively.
The researchers also discovered a phenomenon they dubbed “random acts,” in which students enroll in dual-credit courses without intentional advising — a path that often leads them to take a jumble of classes that either don’t transfer or won’t apply to their intended major.
“What’s so powerful about these courses is, you know, a high-school student having the confidence to go to college because they’ve already taken a college course and they’ve had a faculty member say, ‘You can do this. You’re great.’ So that’s powerful,” Fink said. “But what’s also powerful is connecting to students’ purposes and their interests and, you know, why they would want to go to college in the first place.”
States and colleges with high dual-enrollment rates have grappled with concerns about academic rigor. At some community colleges, which offer the vast majority of dual-enrollment programs, high schoolers account for as much as 40 percent of the student body.
But as more high schoolers enroll in dual-credit classes, some worry that not all of them are truly ready for a college-level curriculum.
Skeptics argue that expanding access to dual enrollment could exacerbate that problem: If more students who aren’t prepared for college-level coursework enroll, the curriculum may have to be watered down.
But it’s not an either-or situation, Fink said. The two go hand-in-hand.
“You can’t have equity without quality,” Fink said. “You can’t just try to broaden access and not give students a good-quality, well-aligned dual-enrollment course. That’s not doing anybody any favors.”
There’s a tension between expanding access and upholding standards, he said, but the burden rests with institutions to ensure quality by using the same college-level textbooks and assignments, among other things.
Amy Williams, executive director of the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships, echoed Fink’s sentiments, saying growth and quality aren’t “mutually exclusive.”
The group, which sets standards for and accredits dual-enrollment programs, said it’ll keep the new framework in mind when talking with colleges about best practices.
Florida and Texas, where the research was conducted, both have recently passed laws barring publicly funded institutions from spending money on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
Despite those laws, Fink said the colleges they studied are using the DEEP principles to achieve what he says are widely shared goals of increasing access to postsecondary education. “There’s really just a focus on college access and affordability,” Fink said.
Williams said she hopes to see colleges invest not just in establishing more access but ensuring that access can be retained. In the midst of budget cuts, if colleges have to retrench or cut programs, “they kind of default back to working with the easy students,” Williams said. Then, all the work to close equity gaps starts to fade.
“I would really love to see that a piece like this kind of opens eyes to administrators or leaderships of programs, so that they really understand that there’s a lot of complexity involved,” Williams said.
