Dual Enrollment Programs: Easing Transitions from High School to College

Abstract

Research demonstrates clear economic benefits for students who continue education beyond high school (NCES, 2001). Yet the transition from high school to college is an unsuccessful one for many. Of those high school graduates who entered postsecondary education for the first time in the 1995-1996 school year, 37 percent had left two years later without having earned a degree or certificate. This slippage results from a variety of causes. Some students are unsure how to apply for college or how to pay for it; some are academically unprepared for higher education; some face a frustrating task of balancing school and work. As postsecondary education becomes increasingly necessary to gain access to most reasonably well-paid jobs, the sharp division between high schools and colleges becomes more problematic. The American Youth Policy Forum (2000) and the National Commission on the High School Senior Year (2001) have called for a re-thinking of how students move from secondary to postsecondary education. We briefly review two approaches that attempt to link high schools and colleges—the coordination of high school exit and college entry standards, and Tech Prep. The remainder of this Brief is devoted to a discussion of one rapidly growing and promising initiative, dual enrollment. The strongest predictor of bachelor’s degree completion is the intensity and quality of students’ high school curriculum (Adelman, 1999). The efforts of the last few years towards raising academic standards have achieved some progress in this regard. In 1982, only 14 percent of high school students took the minimum coursework recommended by the 1983 Nation At Risk report (four years of English and three each of science, math, and social studies). In 1994, 51 percent of students did so (Jennings & Rentner, 1998). Enrollments in advanced math, science, and AP classes are higher than they were a decade ago (Jennings & Rentner, 1998). However, school district requirements for graduation still often fall short of those for college entry and success (The Education Trust, 1999). The National Commission on the High School Senior Year (2001) reported that only ten states have aligned their high school graduation and college admissions requirements in English and only two have done so in math. Tech Prep offers students planned career pathways that link high school classes to advanced technical education at colleges. These programs usually begin during the last two years of high school and continue into the first two years of college. Tech Prep has made some progress in formalizing articulation between secondary and postsecondary education (Orr, 1998; 1999; Bailey & Morest, 1998). Its growth, however, has been hampered by the perception that it is a vocational program, while the emphasis of secondary education is increasingly on academics.