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Community Colleges

Enrollment at Community Colleges Is Stabilizing. The Growing Presence of High-School Students Is Why.

By Audrey Williams June March 30, 2023

High-school students taking college courses for credit helped to fuel an increase in community-college enrollment this spring — and brought attention to the outsize role dual-enrollment students have played in the health of the higher-ed sector that’s been most beleaguered by the pandemic.

The number of dual-enrollment students jumped nearly 13 percent from a year earlier, according to preliminary data in the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s most recent spring enrollment report. The subsequent increase in attendance at community colleges was 2.1 percent from a year earlier, the center said.

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High-school students who are taking college courses for credit helped fuel an increase in community-college enrollment this spring — and brought attention to the outsize role dual-enrollment students have played in the health of the higher-ed sector that’s been most beleaguered by the pandemic.

The number of dual-enrollment students jumped nearly 13 percent from a year earlier, according to preliminary data in the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s most recent spring enrollment report. The subsequent increase in attendance at community colleges was 2.1 percent from a year earlier, the center said.

While the larger trend in enrollment at public two-year colleges has been one of steady decline in recent years, the number of high-school students in dual-enrollment programs has been growing — even before the pandemic began. According to the Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College, nearly one in five community-college students in the fall of 2021 was a high-schooler.

Students who get a head start on acquiring college credits are more likely to go on to earn a college degree, the research shows. But what else do the data say about dual-enrollment programs or the students enrolled in them at community colleges?

The number of dual-enrollment students at community colleges has nearly doubled in a decade.

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High-school students have made up an increasingly large share of community-college enrollment in recent years.

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In 15 states, high-school students make up more than a quarter of community-college enrollment.

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Funding structures for dual-enrollment programs vary widely by state.

A version of this article appeared in the April 14, 2023, issue.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
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About the Author
Audrey Williams June
Audrey Williams June is the news-data manager at The Chronicle. She explores and analyzes data sets, databases, and records to uncover higher-education trends, insights, and stories. Email her at audrey.june@chronicle.com, or follow her on Twitter @audreywjune.
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