More than a third of all high-school students take courses for college credit while in high school, according to a report released this week, but minority and first-generation students are far less likely to get the benefit of this head start.
The findings of the report from the National Center for Education Statistics have important implications for community colleges, which have generally welcomed the influx of students at a time of shrinking overall enrollments. In some cases, high-school students now make up a third or more of their student population.
Four-year colleges have also had to adjust to the wave of students coming in with dozens of college credits, not all of which will count toward their majors. And while studies have shown that taking courses for college credit before graduating from high school improves students’ chances of success in college, the rapid growth of dual enrollment has some educators concerned.
Questions about rigor — whether the classes are truly comparable with those taught in colleges — continue to dog the field despite assurances that they follow the same curricula and are taught by teachers approved by their partner colleges. High-school teachers deputized to teach college courses usually have to have the same qualifications as adjunct professors — typically a master’s degree in the subject being taught.
Equity is another concern, since low-income and minority students are less likely to participate in dual-enrollment courses.
Originally intended only for high-achieving students, classes that offer both high-school and college credit have since been extended to more students, as long as they meet minimum college-readiness standards. Students can enroll in them as early as their freshman year.
The latest report on dual enrollment is based on data from more than 23,000 students who started ninth grade in 2009, the most recent year for which information is available. It found that 38 percent of white and Asian students took college courses while in high school, compared with 27 percent of black students and 30 percent of Hispanic students.
Not surprisingly, students with better-educated parents were more likely to participate. While 42 percent of students whose parents had earned at least a bachelor’s degree enrolled in these classes, participation shrank to 26 percent for students whose parents had less than a high-school diploma.
A Look at Who’s Taking Courses for College Credit in High School
The report covers what are commonly referred to as either dual- or concurrent-enrollment courses, which are based on collaborations between high schools and colleges. It doesn’t include Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate courses.
Eighty percent of the dual-enrollment courses were taught at students’ own high schools by teachers the partner colleges approved, or by college professors beamed in by video. The rest were either on college campuses, online, or at another high school. Students in rural and suburban schools were far less likely to take these courses than those in city schools. When they did, they were usually online.
For community colleges that have struggled with declining enrollments, high-school students are a welcome addition to their rosters.
Overall enrollment in two-year colleges has slid every year since 2010, dropping 14 percent between 2010 and 2017, according to figures provided by the American Association of Community Colleges.
Meanwhile, between 2007 and 2017, the number of part-time students under age 18 enrolled in community colleges nearly doubled. Most of those were students enrolled in high school.
The trend toward taking more and more college courses in high school is posing challenges for many four-year colleges that are seeing declining enrollments in first-year courses in core subjects. A student who takes a dual-credit class in American history while in high school, for instance, is unlikely to enroll in “American History 101" in college.
That can have financial implications, according to some educators. Large introductory courses are relatively inexpensive to offer, helping subsidize more expensive upper-level and lab-based courses. And since 101 courses are often counted on to entice students to major in a subject, recruiting new majors can become even more difficult when students opt to complete that requirement while in high school, some educators contend.
History is a case in point. Nationally, the number of history majors dropped by nearly a third between the 2011-12 and 2016-17 academic years, according to federal statistics.
That’s due, in part, to students gravitating toward STEM and other majors they see as offering better prospects for high-paying jobs. But it could also be partly because fewer students are exposed to history during their freshman year if they’ve already taken a dual-credit class in American history.
High-school students sometimes load up on college courses in core subjects, expecting that they’ll be able to jump right in to a full slate of courses in their major. That can backfire, warned David R. Troutman, associate vice chancellor for institutional research for the University of Texas system.
Taking five engineering or math courses in one semester, rather than breaking them up with other disciplines, is a recipe for failure, he said. He co-authored a report for the University of Texas system that found that dual-credit students have greater retention and graduation rates, and graduate with fewer semester credit hours. At the same time, some faculty and staff members questioned the quality and rigor of the courses students were coming in with.
One surprising finding in Texas is that dual-credit students don’t necessarily save money unless they come in with at least 60 credit hours.
Between 2000 and 2016, the number of high-school students in Texas taking at least one dual-credit course jumped from about 18,000 to 204,000, making the state an important bellwether of the growth happening nationally.
Dual-enrollment classes are promoted as a way to quickly and inexpensively propel more underrepresented-minority students toward college.
The Community College Research Center at Columbia University’s Teachers College is working with the Aspen Institute’s College Excellence Program and higher education agencies in Florida and Washington to identify and strengthen plans that have done a good job accelerating college access among minority and low-income high-school students.
“You want to make sure the supports are there and that you’re steering students into courses where they’ll be successful,” said Elisabeth A. Barnett, a senior research scientist at the center.
“We want to provide a playbook,” she said, to help schools and colleges do that.
Katherine Mangan writes about community colleges, completion efforts, and job training, as well as other topics in daily news. Follow her on Twitter @KatherineMangan, or email her at katherine.mangan@chronicle.com.
