Should Students Falling Behind in School Take Dual Enrollment Courses?

Abstract

This study examined the effect of dual enrollment (DE) on college enrollment and degree completion for students with lower prior academic achievement who attended public high schools in Texas. We employed a propensity score matching method to reduce selection bias arising from DE participation and supplemented the analysis with a bounds test. The results showed that DE students were predicted to have a higher likelihood of entering college immediately after high school by 20 percentage points and completing a degree within four and eight years of high school graduation by 7 and 14 percentage points, respectively, compared to similar students who did not take DE courses. This evidence suggested that DE programs contributed to a reduction in educational inequities in college access and degree attainment for students at risk of academic failure. On the other hand, students who were racial or ethnic minorities and students from low-income families were not only less likely to participate in DE programs but were also predicted to have smaller participation effects on college degree attainment than their counterparts, stressing the need for higher education institutions and partnering school districts to provide more robust support to these underserved students for participating in DE programs and making a successful transition into college.