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Teachers College, Columbia University
Dual Enrollment
Dual enrollment is one of the fastest growing educational innovations that involve high schools and postsecondary institutions. Yet, little rigorous research exists that compares the outcomes of students who have participated in dual enrollment to the outcomes of non-participants. Researchers from the Postsecondary Center are conducting analyses of student unit-record data from Florida to examine the effects of dual enrollment, as well as tracking student participants in a career-oriented dual enrollment program in California.
States have reported increases in the numbers of students participating in dual enrollment, and a federal government survey found that the vast majority of high schools take part, with upwards of 800,000 high school students participating in the 2002-2003 school year. The presumed benefits of dual enrollment—the availability of rigorous coursework for high school students, college credits that are often low- or no-cost, a smoother transition to college, which should yield better odds of long-term success—address national concerns about academic standards and postsecondary access and success. Responding to the strong interest in dual enrollment, in the last several years the Community College Research Center completed several studies for the U.S. Department of Education that examined dual enrollment literature, state policies, and specific programs. As there is still little definitive research on the effectiveness of dual enrollment, a focus of the Postsecondary Center will be quasi-experimental and other studies of dual enrollment.
Our current work with data from the Florida K-20 Education Data Warehouse examines the effects of participation in dual enrollment on students' initial entry into postsecondary education, such as enrollment in and completion of developmental coursework, first-semester grade point average, and persistence to the second semester. We also examine the long-term effects of participation in dual enrollment, as measured by persistence toward a postsecondary credential. Early findings from this work have been presented at the 2010 meetings of the American Educational Research Association and the Association for Institutional Research. The final report will be available in late summer 2010.
Dual enrollment in career and technical fields is the focus of the Concurrent Courses: Pathways to College and Careers Initiative. This California initiative is being implemented with funding from the James Irvine Foundation, and managed and evaluated by CCRC. Funds have been granted to eight secondary/postsecondary partnerships to develop, enhance, and expand career-oriented dual enrollment opportunities for low-income, academically struggling, and traditionally underrepresented high school students. Additional support is being provided by IES through NCPR to track the outcomes of the initial student participants and to determine the feasibility of conducting a random assignment experimental study in the future. The findings will be available in June 2011.
For further information, please contact Dr. Katherine Hughes at 212-678-3091.
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