Comparison of High School Dual-Enrollment and Traditional First-Term General/Organic/Biochemistry College Chemistry Class Outcomes

Abstract

Student performance in a high school dual-enrollment chemistry course was compared with student performance in the corresponding traditional college course. The two courses were taught by the same instructor and evaluated using the same American Chemical Society (ACS) standardized examination. Interestingly, the high school dual-enrollment students have outperformed the traditional college students on the college-level exam in each of the years that the dual-enrollment program has been in existence. Dual-enrolled students also consistently did better on the ACS college-level exam than they did on the ACS high school exam.