College Credit Research Articles

Social Justice Leadership: Creating Equity-Driven Advanced Placement Programs

ABSTRACT A rigorous academic education in high school is one of the most important predictors of college success. The College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) program allows students to earn college credit and/or advanced placement in high school. However, the lack of equitable participation in the AP program has not gone unnoticed by educators, policymakers, or researchers. This qualitative study was designed to fill a gap in the existing research by investigating the implementation of equity-focused AP programs in two urban districts in the Midwest. This qualitative, multiple-case study centered on the voices of 29 participants in two urban school districts who shared descriptions of their beliefs, actions, and reflections about their leadership practices regarding their AP programs. The findings show evidence of community-engaged social justice leadership in the school leaders’ personal beliefs about student access to AP, their situational awareness of their respective school communities, and the equity-focused leadership actions in service of their AP programs. Findings also demonstrated the importance of building the capacity of educators in different roles to engage in leadership activities in service of the equity-focused AP program.

Why Students Participate (Or Not) in Dual Enrollment: Results from an Evaluation of North Carolina’s Career and College Promise

ABSTRACT Dual enrollment (DE), or college courses taken in high school, is becoming an increasingly common strategy to expand college access. While much of the research on DE participation focuses on student outcomes, few studies have identified the reasons why students choose to participate (or not) in DE. Drawing on student focus groups and interviews with high school staff from four public high schools, as well as focus groups with community college staff representing 12 school districts in North Carolina, we report findings on the motivations behind student participation (or lack thereof) in North Carolina’s Career and College Promise DE program. Our findings suggest that participation is influenced by several factors, including financial reasons, the opportunity to earn college credits to get ahead, personal interest or reward, and a desire to prepare for careers and college. Eligible non-participants often cited a lack of awareness, concerns over transferability of credits, and logistical challenges as reasons for not participating. Results from this study can assist educational leaders in devising strategies to expand access to DE programs and services.

Dually Noted: Examining the Implications of Dual Enrollment Course Structure for Students’ Course and College Enrollment Outcomes

Dual enrollment (DE)—where students earn college credits during high school—is expanding rapidly. To facilitate DE, institutional actors across K-12 schools and colleges must build or repurpose structures across separate organizations to determine course offerings, assignments, modality, and composition. Yet the organization and implications of those structures remain a black box. Using statewide administrative data from Texas, we describe DE coursetaking and course characteristics for traditional Texas public high school students and examine how DE course characteristics predict students’ course performance and subsequent college enrollment. Our descriptive analyses illuminate striking differences between academic and career and technical education DE, both in students’ backgrounds and course structures. Our regression analyses illustrate how several malleable DE course characteristics predict student outcomes.

Know when parents have rights to access dually enrolled student's education records

Almost 90% of U.S. high schools offer dual enrollment (bit.ly/3G0m2go). Students are increasingly taking advantage of opportunities to earn college credits while still in high school.

Project Impact: A Public Community College Campus–Based Support and Reentry Program for Justice-Impacted Students in New York City

Background: Between 70 million and 100 million Americans have a record of interaction with the criminal legal system, a group facing stigma and discrimination in civic participation, housing, employment, and education. Justice-impacted people face collateral consequences in the community, making reentry programs essential to success at reintegration. Focus of Study: Project Impact (PI) at the Borough of Manhattan Community College/City University of New York (BMCC/CUNY) supports students impacted by the criminal legal system. PI provides direct services to justice-impacted students through an extensive peer mentoring program and a high school equivalency program, and by offering college credit–bearing courses to students presently incarcerated in partnership with John Jay College’s Prison-to-College Pipeline. PI defines “justice impacted” expansively as students who have been formerly incarcerated, have family who have been incarcerated or arrested, have had issues in family court, or in any other way have been significantly affected by the criminal legal system. Research Design/Conclusions: This evaluation provides unequivocal evidence of the strong, positive impact that PI is making, serving as a rare campus-based reentry program within a community college in New York City.

Global Movement Crisis

Background: Physical inactivity has become a global crisis and is adversely impacting the health of our world. Being physically active, even at a minimal level, can positively change physical and mental health. As little as ten minutes a day can result in significant health improvements, such as a decrease in blood glucose levels. Description: Service-learning courses are a way to provide students with job-related training as college credit and offer a needed service of safe physical activity to members of the local community. Learning Outcomes: Student participants learn from teaching exercise, building programs, and implementing a training program for the college employees. Significance and Impact: Physical inactivity is a global health crisis. The lack of activity is causing major health concerns as well as death. This is a call to action to expand healthy activity to the general population using trained student leaders. Teaching Notes: The case includes links to various documents to guide instructors to take advantage of a similar activity.

From Earning to Learning: Reasoning and Participation in Youth Co-design of Digital Badges

Youth co-design has the possibility to reframe learning and participation, repositioning and remediating youth roles. However, youth co-design processes can also unintentionally reproduce normative forms of power and learning. This paper describes how co-design processes can position youth as having full agency for the design of a digital badge system, yet their participation and design are still guided by existing normative concepts of learning. We asked: How do youth roles, positioning, activity structures, and materials shape youth agentic participation in co-design and the disruption of traditional hierarchical design processes? This paper documents the youth co-design of a digital badge system that represented participation in a program at an aquarium where youth volunteers interpret exhibits for aquarium patrons. In coordination with faculty at a local university, the badge system culminated in college credit for qualifying high school youth. During the co-design process, youth initially imported school-based frames of learning and participation that constrained definitions of the who, what, and how of learning. However, with the support of new physical and conceptual resources, the design team expanded how they framed learning and participation, while still maintaining some school-based products and processes. This paper contributes to literature on including youth in design processes, indicating the importance of scaffolding for agency and participation.

Barriers and motivating factors for licensed practical nurses to pursue a bachelor's degree in nursing

BackgroundConnecticut License Practical Nurses (LPNs) face unique challenges in pursuing higher education. Understanding these challenges is essential for addressing the current nursing shortage and enhancing the nursing workforce's educational level. PurposeThis project aimed to identify the barriers preventing Connecticut LPNs from pursuing higher education and the factors motivating them to obtain a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing (BSN) and Registered Nurse (RN) licensure. MethodA survey was administered to 13,684 LPNs in Connecticut after Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. Of these, 1791 LPNs consented to participate, with 1424 completing at least one survey question. The survey was designed to identify the top three motivators and barriers influencing LPNs' decisions to pursue further education. ResultsThe primary motivators identified were the desire for college credits for completed LPN coursework (96.7 %), a simplified BSN enrollment procedure (93.8 %), and potential salary increases (93.7 %). Conversely, the top barriers were current financial position (76.4 %), personal responsibilities (71.1 %), and the requirement to repeat previously taken courses (65.9 %). An unexpected finding was that 63 participants expressed readiness to immediately pursue a BSN degree, indicating a strong latent demand for advanced nursing education. ConclusionThe study highlights the eagerness of LPNs to advance their education, contingent on receiving credit for previous coursework, financial aid, tuition reimbursement, and flexible schooling options. These findings suggest the need for tailored educational programs and support systems to facilitate LPNs' transition to higher educational levels, addressing both the motivators and barriers identified.

An examination of the postgraduation benefits of earning a Seal of Biliteracy

AbstractAcross the United States, students have the opportunity to earn a Seal of Biliteracy (SoBL) when they graduate from high school. Awarded to students who demonstrate proficiency in two or more languages, the SoBL originated to confront English‐only ideologies and promote multilingualism. But critics question the impact of the policy on students and whether English‐dominant students experience greater impacts than their linguistically‐minoritized peers. To that end, this study posed the question, What do recipients report postgraduation as benefits of earning a SoBL? In this qualitative investigation, 33 SoBL earners were interviewed postgraduation to analyze the benefits that they experienced from SoBL attainment. Four themes characterized the findings: increased employability in sales and education, pride and acknowledgment for linguistically‐minoritized students, greater confidence and interest in postsecondary education, and difficulty receiving college credit. The article concludes with implications for strengthening the impact of the policy.

Designing a Dual-Credit Hybrid Health Course

This design case describes the development of a dual-credit hybrid health course for incoming first-year high school students seeking to earn college credit. I developed the hybrid health course from the Personal Health Management course I taught at the university level. During the process, I was communicating with the high school health co-instructor. This one-semester hybrid course allows high school students to learn about the many dimensions of wellness and comprehend concepts related to health promotion and disease prevention. In addition, students can view content online and in class, participate in discussion peer activities, complete weekly quizzes, and develop a personal health management plan. Upon completing the course, students earn 3-credit hours towards their college degree.

Do parents have rights to a dually enrolled student's education records?

Almost 90% of U.S. high schools offer dual enrollment (https://bit.ly/3G0m2go). Students are increasingly taking advantage of opportunities to earn college credits while still in high school. However, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act applies differently to students in secondary schools versus students in postsecondary institutions.

Neoliberal Pressures and Democratic Aims: How Competing Logics of the Community College Influence Dual Enrollment Growth

ABSTRACT Dual enrollment coursework, also known as dual credit (DC), allows high school students to earn college credit through secondary-postsecondary partnerships. DC participation has been positively associated with college completion, though access to coursework is stratified by race and class. DC programs have scaled rapidly over the past decade, with particular implications for community colleges, which offer 70% of DC coursework. Yet, few studies in the DC literature have centered the perceptions of college stakeholders. Drawing on institutional logics, this qualitative study examines the benefits and challenges of DC expansion from the community college perspective. We focus on interviews with 28 administrators and faculty from a large, diverse community college district in Texas, where DC course-takers represent almost 25% of the population. Findings reveal that stakeholders framed DC as promoting college access, equity, and preparation (social-democratic logic), but the rapid pace of program growth (neoliberal logic) sometimes undermined their capacity to advance those aims. The study calls for investing in community colleges to maximize DC benefits.

CTE-focused Dual Enrollment: Participation and Outcomes

Abstract Recent policy efforts have attempted to increase the number of dual enrollment courses offered within Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways, and there is evidence to suggest that this practice is widespread. However, there is very little research on student participation in CTE dual enrollment and on its impacts. This study examines participation in the CTE Dual Enrollment Pathway in North Carolina, finding that about 9 percent of North Carolina students participated in CTE dual enrollment courses in eleventh or twelfth grade and disparities in participation among subgroups were less than for college transfer dual enrollment courses. Using a propensity-score weighing approach that compared outcomes for participating students with a weighted group of nonparticipants, the study found that participation in CTE dual enrollment was positively associated with college credits earned in high school, graduation from high school, and overall enrollment in college within one year after high school. The study also examined results by subgroup.

Banking on Dual Credit: Broadening Opportunities to Earn College Credit in High School and the Transition to College

This article studies state-developed courses in career and technical education (CTE) that offer students the opportunity to earn college credit during high school. Using a regression-discontinuity approach, we examine the effects of passing the end-of-course exam necessary to secure college credit on postsecondary enrollment and choice. We find that barely passing a CTE dual-credit exam increases the likelihood of attending a public, in-state, 2-year institution, with at least part of that increased propensity stemming from a reduction in the likelihood of attending a private in-state institution. Furthermore, we find suggestive evidence that the boost in the likelihood of attending a public, in-state, 2-year college is relatively larger for male compared to female students.

Formative Threads in the Tapestry of College Credit in High School: An Early History of the Development of Concurrent Enrollment and a Case Study of the Country's Oldest Program

While dual and concurrent enrollment (DE/CE) programs are a frequent part of a student’s secondary educational experience today, relatively little is known about how these programs came to be, what factors influenced their development, and what individual and institutional stakeholders were involved. This paper traces how DE/CE programs were created as one of many educational remedies to issues of articulation and duplication between high schools and colleges and the need for acceleration and enrichment for some students during the early and middle twentieth century. At that time, more students than ever were moving through the educational system, education attainment was increasing, and sociopolitical concerns required new ideas for the acceleration and enrichment of students. Additionally, this article also provides a historical review of the longest running CE program in the United States, the University of Connecticut’s Early College Experience Program. The historical review seeks to reflect and exemplify how the broader sociopolitical influences discussed in the first section of the paper influenced the creation of the first CE program in the country. Through understanding how one program came to be, the current landscape of DE/CE–as well as the evolution and future directions–can be better understood and contextualized.

Why AP Human Geography?

This commentary attempts to contextualize the articles in this issue by interrogating the purpose of Advanced Placement (AP) Human Geography. Why should students learn geography? Why should they learn geography as an “AP” course—one that indicates college-level challenge and the potential for college credit? Leveraging David Labaree’s consideration about the public and private purposes of education—social mobility, economic efficiency, and democratic equality—the analysis considers the value of the course to students, their communities, and our country. The commentary concludes that on these three counts, the value of AP Human Geography is mixed. Although the course has potential to further all three goals of education, there remain challenges—some inherent to the AP program, and others specific to AP Human Geography.

College credit plus modality and future matriculation of high school students in Ohio

AbstractCollege Credit Plus (CCP) is a dual enrollment program allowing high school students to obtain both high school credit and college credit by participating in college courses at a local higher education institution. CCP courses can be taken at a college or university, at the student's high school, or online. This research seeks to find if CCP course modality affects future matriculation to the same university following high school. The population of CCP student data was a historical sample collected from the spring semester of 2018 to avoid the influence of COVID‐19 on attendance. Data on the location of CCP courses that the student was enrolled in and whether the student chose to attend the university beyond high school were collected. Chi‐square and the post hoc test, Cramer's V, were used to analyze the data, resulting in a significant association between CCP course modality and future university matriculation. CCP student proximity and familiarity with the university campus may influence the choice to remain at the same institution after high school graduation. These findings can be used to direct further CCP research with a wider scope.Practical Takeaways Students who complete College Credit Plus courses on the postsecondary campus, rather than at their high school or online, are more likely to matriculate to that same institution after high school graduation. This may be a result of success on the university campus, interactions and relationships with faculty and staff, and peer relationships. More research is needed on other factors influencing CCP student matriculation after high school, such as proximity to campus, GPA, student activities and involvement, number of credits completed, and successful courses.

What Knox Achieved

<h3>Abstract</h3> We examine the effect of a last-dollar “free community college” program on college credit accumulation, college completion, and medium-term labor-market outcomes. Knox Achieves pledged tuition-free community college to any Knox County, Tennessee high school graduate and served as the model for the statewide Tennessee Promise program as well as local and state initiatives across the U.S. We find that Knox Achieves eligibility led to a 24 percent higher likelihood of attaining an associate’s degree within nine years of high school, alongside positive but insignificant changes in the likelihood of attaining a bachelor’s degree, and negative but insignificant changes in in-state earnings.

Financial toxicity and quality of life among people with chronic myeloid leukemia on tyrosine kinase inhibitors.

e18918 Background: Costs associated with treatment of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML), along with out of pocket (OOP) expenses related to cancer care, put CML patients at risk for financial toxicity (FT). Although FT is considered a side effect of many cancer treatments, little is known about how FT affects quality of life among CML patients treated with Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors (TKIs). In this study, we examined the association between FT, demographic factors, and health related quality of life (HRQOL). Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted using data from a parent study examining adherence trajectories in people with CML treated with TKIs. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were used to describe the sample, assess demographic and disease-specific FT correlates, and assess the predictive value of FT on HRQOL. FT was assessed by the Comprehensive Score for Financial Toxicity (COST Facit V2; higher scores were better) along with the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). HRQOL was assessed using the EuroQol 5-Dimension (EQ-5D-5L) single summary index score. Results: Of the 118 participant sample, about half were male (52%), White (57%), married (53%), and currently employed (59%) with a mean age of 49. Most had some college credit (76%). Many reported making financial sacrifices because of cancer costs (42% reduced spending on vacation/leisure activities, 31% delayed large purchases, 24% reduced spending on basics like food and clothing, and 27% used savings set aside for other purposes). Most (62%) reported ever being worried about having to pay large medical bills related to their cancer and 15% reported borrowing money or going into debt to cover cancer care costs. About half (51%) reported never discussing OOP costs for cancer care with their doctor. Overall, participants reported low FT (mean = 25, standard deviation = 11), but approximately 26% of respondents noted FT levels associated with significant financial burden (COST &lt; 17.5). In bivariate analyses, greater FT was associated with Black race, not married/partnered status, unemployed, high school education or less, and lower income. FT was not significantly associated with gender or age. In multivariable models, FT was significantly associated with HRQOL index (β = 0.011, SE = 0.002, P &lt; 0.001) after adjusting for individual characteristics. Age (β = -.003, SE = 0.001, P = 0.01) and education (β = .125, SE = 0.05, P = 0.027) also seemed to be important correlates of HRQOL index. Conclusions: Financial concerns are a common worry for individuals receiving treatment for CML. The association between FT and HRQOL suggests a need for assessing and addressing FT as part of routine care of people with CML who are taking TKIs. Further work is needed to understand the longitudinal experience of FT of people with CML on continuous treatment to help identify individuals who are most in need of intervention across the treatment continuum.

Hypertensive Disorders of Pregnancy During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Population-Based Study [ID: 1380265

INTRODUCTION: We previously reported that the prevalence of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to ascertain potential sociodemographic factors contributing to this association. METHODS: This was a retrospective analysis of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Natality Live Birth database (2016–2020). The prevalence of HDP, defined as a composite of gestational hypertension, preeclampsia, and eclampsia, was compared between the COVID-19 pandemic group (births from April 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020; n=2,728,674) and the pre-pandemic group (births from January 1, 2016, to February 29, 2020; n=15,967,803). A comparison of the prevalence of HDP among maternal sociodemographic factors and pregnancy characteristics between the two groups was also performed using χ2 test. Multivariable logistic regression was used to adjust for potential confounders. Statistical significance was set at P&lt;.05. RESULTS: We detected an overall increase in odds of HDP during the COVID-19 pandemic period (8.7% versus 7.1%, adjusted odds ratio 1.25, 95% CI 1.24–1.26). The highest prevalence of HDP during the pandemic was seen in similar sociodemographic subgroups as in the pre-pandemic group, such as older maternal age, patients with some college credit, private insurance, and non-Hispanic Black race. A marked increase in HDP prevalence was noted during the pandemic in most maternal characteristic subgroups evaluated, with the greatest noted in Asian individuals and tobacco users. Interestingly, chronic hypertension, which was more prevalent during the pandemic period (1.2% versus 0.9%, P≤.001), was associated with a lower prevalence of HDP during that time. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of HDP increased in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic among all sociodemographic factors evaluated. Although chronic hypertension was more prevalent during the pandemic period, it had a lower effect on the development of HDP during that time.