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Are dual credit programs preparing student enough for college? 

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Are dual credit programs preparing student enough for college? 

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Yes some of them will be but in my experience it seems to be a smaller number of students actually ready verse the large majority who take dual credit.

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I offer this idea freely to anyone running, or thinking of running, for office. I won't even ask for attribution.

Let financial aid be used for dual enrollment.

In plain English, students who have graduated high school (or attained an approved alternate, such as a GED) and are American citizens without drug convictions are eligible for financial aid for credit-bearing college programs. (There are more asterisks, but the statement is broadly correct.) But students who are still in high school while taking college courses -- typically called dual or concurrent enrollment -- aren't.

This one's a head scratcher.

For present purposes, I'll set aside the issues around drug convictions and citizenship status. They're both real issues with disparate impacts across race and class, fully deserving of examination in their own rights. But for now, I'll just focus on dual enrollment.

Dual enrollment programs can be effective ways to improve college completion rates and reduce student debt. They offer greater academic challenge than most high school curricula, and can offer students affirmation that they are, in fact, "college material." In some cases, that affirmation alone makes a meaningful difference. College completion rates for first-generation and low-income students who are offered dual enrollment opportunities are higher than the rates for similar students who aren't.

Done well, it's a win. When local high schools team up with a community college -- as Middletown, Wall, and Keyport high schools did this week with Brookdale -- they can offer their students a chance to avoid senioritis and get a head start on building transcripted college credits.

But right now, unless there's a donor or a local program, students who would have been eligible for Pell after graduating high school have to put cash on the barrel for dual enrollment.

That rule is almost perfectly designed for maximum harm. It targets the students who benefit the most from dual enrollment, while having no effect on the more affluent students. It forces low-income students, who are often in academically weak high schools, to wait it out, while their better-off peers get a jump start.

Pell for dual enrollment would open up college classes for more students under terms they could actually afford. It would enable more districts to participate, too, because they could reduce their own instructional costs without having to put money towards the students' college tuition.

I'm guessing that the rule about Pell is an accident of history. These programs are often created with less forethought than one might like, and revisited mostly in the context of finances. When the program started, in the early 1970's, most community colleges were less than ten years old. Dual enrollment was relatively rare, and student debt lay mostly in the future. ("Free community college" was a reality at CUNY and in California at the time.) I don't fault its founders for not thinking of it; there's no reason they would have. But the world has changed since the early 70's. Income polarization has grown, good jobs for people without degrees have become scarce, and college costs have exploded. In the early 70's, this might have been a solution in search of a problem. Now the problem is staring us in the face.

So kudos to Middletown, Wall, and Keyport for joining Raritan, St. John Vianney, Neptune, and Asbury Park in working with Brookdale to offer dual enrollment. And any political candidates who would like to curry favor with working class parents who want the best for their kids -- not a small group -- could pick up a big win here. Reduce local taxes, support your local community college, and help students get a jump on college: you could do worse. Any candidates who want it, are welcome to it. I won't even ask for a footnote.

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Financial Aid for Dual Enrollment | Confessions of a Community College Dean

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I offer this idea freely to anyone running, or thinking of running, for office. I won't even ask for attribution. Let financial aid be used for dual enrollment. In plain English, students who have graduated high school (or attained an approved alternate, such as a GED) and are American citizens without drug convictions are eligible for financial aid for credit-bearing college programs. (There are more asterisks, but the statement is broadly correct.)

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Increase Enrollment but discounted course. 

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Increase Enrollment but discounted course. 

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Community colleges are seeing a steady decline in adult students enrolling at their campuses. As the national economy continues to improve, two-year institutions are finding their adult working and returning student populations dwindling.

But many of them are turning to a popular source in an effort to boost those overall enrollment numbers or, at the least, keep them stable -- high school students.

The growth of dual-enrollment programs at community colleges across the country has given these institutions an additional source of students -- and sometimes tuition dollars. Some experts worry whether these programs, especially as they become more popular among policy makers, are sustainable, however.

"It's both a concern and an opportunity, but the concern varies by state," said Davis Jenkins, senior research associate at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College of Columbia University. "Colleges are making up for the declines in adult enrollment with dual-enrollment high school students."

Jenkins said the concern is related to both the quality of the programs and whether they prepare and educate students at the same level as comparable college courses, and whether the programs are financially sustainable for their institutions.

State policies vary on whether colleges are getting tuition for dually enrolled students, and the amount of state subsidy may vary as well. Many colleges with dual-enrollment programs are already discounting their courses.

And those discounts are going to a significant population of young people now filling community college campuses. For instance, in Texas, high school students enrolled in dual-credit courses account for at least 25 percent of the total enrollment in 17 of the state's 50 community college districts.

At Iowa's Indian Hills Community College, enrollment of high school students has been increasing for the past 10 years.

This past fall, 1,733 high school students were taking dual-credit courses through the college, while overall fall enrollment was 4,366, said Matt Thompson, vice president of academic affairs for the college. Back in 2009, however, there were 1,245 high school students enrolled and overall enrollment was 5,137. Thompson added that in 2009 the unemployment rate in the state was also 6.6 percent, compared to about 3 percent today.

Even with more adults employed and not enrolled at the college, and with more high school students attending, Thompson said the college isn't relying on the high school student population.

"We built the infrastructure, and we have the academies and the instructors," he said. "We're really trying to have conversations about what future employment opportunities are about and having just a high school diploma won't cut it anymore. They really need to have a credential, a certificate, diploma or two-year degree, and if you can do that in high school, it'll lead you in the right direction."

Nationwide, college enrollments have been on the decline. The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center recently found enrollment at community colleges fell 2.5 percent from the spring semester of 2016 to spring 2017, to 5,399,145 -- slightly less than the 3.3 percent decline from 2015 to 2016. That decrease is due to the over-24 population of students, of which 244,000 fewer enrolled this year.

Many colleges may be quick to point out the cyclical economic trend that tends to affect two-year institutions, in which as the economy improves and more adults find employment, there is less need for them to enroll at community colleges.

But Jenkins points to long-term trends that show the adult population, except during the Great Recession, has been rejecting community colleges.

"Community colleges have experienced an astounding drop in the number of students 25 or older," he said. "There was a spike after the Great Recession. A one-time big spike, but the drop has been more dramatic than one would expect in an improving economy."

As of 2015, there were fewer adults over the age of 25 at two-year institutions than there were in 1995, when adult students outnumbered traditional-age students, Jenkins said citing National Center for Education Statistics data.

"The long-term trend is an increase in traditional-age students, a decrease in adult age and dramatic increases in dual-enrolled students," he said.
Accreditor's Policy Hits Enrollment
Some college administrators, however, point out that the goal of dual enrollment is not to boost institutions' enrollment numbers, but to create a college-going culture and help jump-start students' collegiate careers.

"While we do see a decline in enrollment at community colleges and four-year colleges, for that matter, concurrent and dual enrollment is about helping students get a jump start on their college education and not about boosting our numbers," said Rakhshi Hamid, director of high school programs at Laramie County Community College in Wyoming.

There's one additional factor complicating the picture for dual-credit programs, especially those that fall within the Higher Learning Commission's accrediting jurisdiction. Two years ago the nation's largest accreditor clarified its policy on teaching credentials, so now all instructional college faculty -- including those high school teachers in dual-credit courses -- must have a master's degree in the specialty they're teaching, or they need at least 18 graduate-level credit hours in that specialty.

The policy hit thousands of dual-credit high school teachers hard, as many of them may have a master's degree in education, but not in the college-level subject they're teaching. HLC did agree that starting Sept. 1 it will offer five-year compliance extensions to those colleges that have already applied for one. But the policy effects have already been felt across some colleges and high schools, which have subsequently seen a decrease in dual-credit enrollment.

So while the adult population has been decreasing on the Laramie campus, the dual-credit population has been stagnant for the past two years because of the HLC guidelines. Hamid said the college's high school population has remained steady at about 1,000 enrolled students. Meanwhile, overall enrollment on the Wyoming campus was approximately 6,500 students last year, compared to about 8,000 in 2009.

"We have some teachers who have been teaching math for 20 years with their master's in education," Hamid said, adding that many of them are so close to retirement it isn't cost-effective or to their benefit to meet the HLC guidelines. "The guidelines hit us pretty hard."

National Park College in Hot Springs, Ark., saw the same effect from the HLC requirement.

"A lot of high schools can't afford to credential faculty or they won't spend the money to do it," said Jeff Weaver, vice president for external affairs at the college, adding that the population of high school students declined with the policy.

The college has about 600 high school students enrolled in dual-credit courses, while the overall population of students taking credited courses is about 4,000.

Weaver points out that because of the effects of the HLC policy change, colleges like National Park don't see any benefit from dual-credit students on enrollment numbers. They also don't use dual-credit programs as a recruitment tool for future enrollment.

"We'd love to see them, but we don't," he said, adding that they're going to universities or leaving the region. "So we're really using it as a service to an economically challenged part of the state and an economic development tool that will hopefully pay off in the long run."

Even if that payoff may not arrive for years, Weaver said they're optimistic they're creating a generational college-going cycle.
Discounting Tuition
In one way, dual-credit students could be viewed as a sustainable population, because high school students are not going away anytime soon, but the larger question is whether or not it can be sustained with reduced tuition.

"You walk into a high school or go to into a rural school of 200 students and you capture that 200 instead of having to make 200 individual contacts in the community," said Adam Lowe, executive director of the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships. "But can you sustain it on a reduced tuition? Maybe not if you're bringing them on campus, but if you're going to the high school and using a high school teacher, then the overhead is reduced. If you want to scale up, then running from the high school is sustainable."

Funding models vary, not only by state but often by college and school district. Some states, like Georgia, cover the tuition for dual-credit courses at a negotiated rate, Lowe said, while others like Florida and Ohio require the school districts to pay the colleges.

"Colleges are essentially offering dual-enrollment courses at a discount, so it would be in their interest to capture those students after high school and have them get an associate degree," Jenkins said. "On one hand they're performing a service and not getting credit, but on the other hand, there's this myth that most of these students go to four-year institutions, and that's not true. They may eventually, but those who were formerly dual enrolled go to the community college."

But places like National Park don't immediately see a return on their investment in dual-credit students, and there isn't a guarantee they will. School districts with high school students who take classes on National Park's campus pay $62 per credit hour, while those who take dual credit in the high school are charged $12 per credit hour. National Park college students pay $88 per credit hour.

"At our price point, right now we're trying to break even, and we see this as a way to get high school students acclimated or at least exposed to college life so they'll go to college somewhere," Weaver said. "We'd love for them to come to National Park, but that's not a requirement."

Policy makers are showing an increasing interest in these programs. U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican who leads the House education committee, has expressed support for dual-credit programs, most recently in March, for their role in career training.

Jenkins said this can only make financial issues worse for some colleges, especially if they're in states that are cutting higher education dollars.

"Policy makers are in favor of dual enrollment because of the cost savings for families, but colleges don't get full tuition revenue from them," he said, adding that state funding cuts have forced many community colleges to rely on tuition. "You're forcing them to take these students they lose revenue on. We don't want to see states pushing it without providing these colleges with a way that's sustainable financially, and if they do it strategically, it can improve access and success for students."

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Dual enrollment provides boost to community colleges but may hide extent of enrollment declines

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Community colleges are seeing a steady decline in adult students enrolling at their campuses. As the national economy continues to improve, two-year institutions are finding their adult working and returning student populations dwindling. But many of them are turning to a popular source in an effort to boost those overall enrollment numbers or, at the least, keep them stable -- high school students.

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While many community colleges are dealing with decreasing enrollments, some in Texas have boosted their numbers with students who are still attending local high schools.

And with dual enrollment on the rise in Texas, the state has become more open to making college free for these students.

"The goal is to have 60 percent of Texans having some sort of degree or certification by 2030, and as part of this entire effort to increase the level of education in the state," said Stephen Head, chancellor of the Lone Star College System, a network of two-year colleges around the north side of Houston. "And dual credit is being promoted here in Texas as a way to get students committed to college at an earlier age, when they're [high school] juniors and seniors."

Dual enrollment, also known as concurrent enrollment or dual credit, certainly isn't new to the state. But Texas community colleges have seen tens of thousands of high school students enrolled in their courses in recent years -- and that number is only growing.

Last year, there were more than 133,000 Texas high school students enrolled in dual-credit courses, compared to about 17,800 dual-credit students in 2000, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. These students account for at least 25 percent of the total enrollment at 17 of the state's 50 community college districts. The growth is spurred partially by the affordability of dual enrollment for students, but also by colleges and high schools working together to better perfect the handoff of students.

"As we grew and learned more about what we could do to improve those handoffs and transitions, we realized we couldn't completely rely on a student graduating high school to enter college," said Joe May, chancellor of the Dallas County Community College System. "We can't completely rely on the system for students completing an associate degree to go into a bachelor's degree."

At Alamo Colleges, a network of community colleges located in San Antonio, about 11,000 of the system's 60,000 credit-earning students are dual-credit high schoolers, said Bruce Leslie, the system's chancellor.

Meanwhile, Lone Star has the state's second-largest dual-enrollment program, with more than 13,000 high school students taking dual-credit courses. Head said those students outperform their community college counterparts on grading by 15 percent.

About 13,000 dual-credit students are enrolled in the Dallas system's seven community colleges, a number that has more than doubled in the last 10 years. This spring about 1,000 of those students graduated with both an associate's degree and a high school diploma, May said.

"I'm always impressed when talking to 15- and 16-year-old students. What they want is to be treated like an adult and so often the school system doesn't do that," Leslie said. "So many of our young people are talented and have passions and are finding themselves, and dual credit helps them."

Dual-credit students in the state are not only participating in general academic programs, but also taking courses that more commonly fit the career and technical education moniker.

The Alamo, Lone Star and Dallas County districts do not charge their dual-enrolled students tuition. Dallas offers scholarships, and Lone Star charges fees. Some colleges across the state charge tuition while others are completely free. There are only nine states in the country where the cost of tuition and fees for dual-credit students is completely covered by the state or school district, according to the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships.

Leslie said one reason Alamo chooses not to charge tuition to dual-credit students is because they can't use federal Pell Grants to attend. Too often, community college students run out of Pell Grant eligibility because they take more courses than they need before transferring or graduating.

Both the school districts and the colleges share the official count of students in state funding formulas -- so their enrollment numbers benefit both sectors. That's particularly helpful, as state contributions have declined in recent years.

"It's increasingly more difficult to do this, so all of us are trying to figure out how to keep it going, not only with dual credit but with several different groups that receive waivers from the Legislature, like foster-care students and veterans," Leslie said. "We invest $25 million a year in what we call [dual-credit] scholarships."

Lone Star, on the other hand, invests about $500,000 a year to cover fees for students through the institution's foundation, Head said.

"We believe students should pay about a third of the cost, with some exceptions," Head said, adding that dual-credit students typically cover the costs of their books and about $60 per course in fees, which he describes as a "great bargain for students."
En Vogue With Republicans
Politically, Republicans in the state -- and perhaps in Washington -- favor dual credit because of the affordability they see in students not paying tuition and potentially completing a college degree in high school.

Leslie said he sees the free community college conversation that has dominated the sector during the Obama administration shifting to something more like dual enrollment. Hopefully the Trump administration will be receptive, he said.

Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, of Tennessee, who leads Senate's education committee, said he's in favor of students enrolling in community college courses while in high school as a way to get college credits under their belt. But he is opposed to any new federal program to do so, said an Alexander spokesperson, who added that students should be allowed to use federal aid at the school of their choice.

"In Texas, the legislators see the value of it. We have students that are graduating from these programs and going immediately into careers," Leslie said. The traditional route has been for students to continue straight through college and to get their first career in their early 20s, he said. In contrast, dual-credit students are hired out of high school and encouraged by their employers to continue in college, often eventually seeking a bachelor's degree.

Part of the growth in dual enrollment is due to the state opening up the ability for community colleges to work with high schools outside of their service areas, Head said. That has led to some competition and friction between high schools and community colleges, as well as between the two-year institutions, but Head said those typically have been local problems the institutions worked out.

Most dual-credit courses take place on the college campuses or in early-college high schools, which are specific classes that have to be approved by the state. Or they're offered in career academies, which typically are "schools within a high school" that are awaiting the early-college high school designation.

"We're out of space in some locations in the college, and in that case the school district has agreed to take a separate wing of a high school and set that apart, remodel it and set it up as collegiate space," May said, adding that it's not unusual to have more interest from high school students than there are slots available.

While the enrollment benefit has been good for the colleges, May said the better outcome has been the partnering between high schools and colleges to make the transition seamless and to expose students to college early so the chances are better of them continuing along the path to a four-year degree or higher.

Adam Lowe, the executive director of the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships, said dual enrollment's newfound popularity in Texas could come with some challenges.

"The concerns about the growth of dual credit in Texas are ones that we have seen in other states where rapid expansion has occurred," Lowe said in an email. "If students are going to fully realize the benefits of this experience, it is imperative that the colleges and universities commit resources, particularly faculty time and effort, to ensuring that appropriate levels of academic oversight occur."

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Dual enrollment on the rise for Texas community colleges

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While many community colleges are dealing with decreasing enrollments, some in Texas have boosted their numbers with students who are still attending local high schools. And with dual enrollment on the rise in Texas, the state has become more open to making college free for these students.