Earn 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.

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.

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.

A comparison of the university mathematics learning environment with its high school equivalent.

In light of rising college student debt, many states now offer multiple options for students to earn college credit while still in high school. Concurrent enrollment programs, which allow qualified high school teachers to teach college credit-bearing classes in the high school, are one such option. Because concurrent enrollment classes teach college-level material at college-level rigor, they offer an ideal way to compare the secondary and tertiary learning environments across identical academic expectations. This study sought to compare the university mathematics environment with its concurrent enrollment counterpart. The WIHIC was found to be valid and reliable for the university population. The comparison of 242 students in university classrooms with 260 students in concurrent enrollment classrooms revealed a statistical difference, with the concurrent enrollment setting scoring higher in Involvement, Teacher Support, and Student Cohesion and the university setting scoring higher in Task Orientation. This implies that earning college credit in a secondary setting is a viable, and possibly even preferable, alternative to earning it in a university setting. We examine the discrepancy in scores-particularly the large discrepancy in Task Orientation-and discuss the benefit of the flipped classroom as one path to improving the university learning environment.

Unmet Need: Evaluating Pell as a Lever for Equitable Dual Enrollment Participation and Outcomes

Dual enrollment is an increasingly popular avenue for high school students to earn college credit. However, low-income students are underrepresented among dual enrollment participants. In this study, we use a difference-in-differences design to evaluate a unique federal pilot program that allowed high school students to access Pell Grants to fund their dual enrollment. Generally, we find a negative effect of the pilot program on dual enrollment participation, with no effect on subsequent college attendance. Our qualitative analysis suggests this initiative did not sufficiently meet students’ specific needs, required strong partnerships with high schools to ensure high school counselors informed students about the program, and involved substantial financial and administrative burden for participating institutions.

College Credit on the Table? Advanced Placement Course and Exam Taking

Millions of high school students who take an Advanced Placement (AP) course in one of over 30 subjects can earn college credit by performing well on the corresponding AP exam. Using data from four metro-Atlanta public school districts, we find that 15 percent of students’ AP courses do not result in an AP exam. We predict that up to 32 percent of the AP courses that do not result in an AP exam would result in a score of 3 or higher, which generally commands college credit at colleges and universities across the United States. Next, we examine disparities in AP exam-taking rates by demographics and course taking patterns. Most immediately policy relevant, we find evidence consistent with the positive impact of school district exam subsidies on AP exam-taking rates. In fact, students on free and reduced-price lunch (FRL) in the districts that provide a higher subsidy to FRL students than non-FRL students are more likely to take an AP exam than their non-FRL counterparts, after controlling for demographic and academic covariates.

Dual Credit Courses and Legislation: Does Public Policy Align with Academic Outcomes?

The opportunity to earn college credit while in high school is an attractive option for high school students to start a college career. The process is referred to as dual credit courses. In 2015 Texas law from House Bill 505 allows for high school freshmen and sophomores to take college courses to increase certificate and degree completion, thus meeting the goals of the Texas higher education masterplan. The purpose of the study was to examine how student characteristics among 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th-grade high school students relate to academic success in a dual credit environment. However, results showed a lack of participation grounded in the foundation of House Bill 505. Results of statistical and policy analyses show the law falls short of its intended outcomes and may have adverse effects.

Block Credit Prior Learning Assessment Theory to Practice

ABSTRACT An increasing number of universities have implemented prior learning assessment (PLA), but little research has examined the non-course matching approach referred to as block credit PLA. Adult learners pursuing a college degree often bring professional competencies, knowledge, and skills to the classroom. PLA enables adult learners to earn college credit hours based on prior college-level learning gained outside the traditional classroom. This study operationalized Block Credit Prior Learning Assessment to award college credit hours for adults enrolled in a college completion program. Participants were comprised of 280 undergraduate students who submitted a PLA portfolio for evaluation by trained raters. Research methods included computing Cronbach’s alpha for inter-rater reliability and conducting principal component analysis to weight four internal variables for computing a score. Results indicated a weighted score from internal variables combined with external variable scores aligned with college credit hours. This study relates PLA theory to practice in implementing Block Credit Prior Learning Assessment.

College Credit on the Table? Advanced Placement Course and Exam Taking

Millions of high school students who take an Advanced Placement (AP) course in one of over 30 subjects can earn college credit by performing well on the corresponding AP exam. Using data from four metro-Atlanta public school districts, we find that 15 percent of students' AP courses do not result in an AP exam. We predict that up to 32 percent of the AP courses that do not result in an AP exam would result in a score of 3 or higher, which generally commands college credit at colleges and universities across the United States. Next, we examine disparities in AP exam-taking rates by demographics and course taking patterns. Most immediately policy relevant, we find evidence consistent with the positive impact of school district exam subsidies on AP exam-taking rates. In fact, students on free and reduced-price lunch (FRL) in the districts that provide a higher subsidy to FRL students than non-FRL students are more likely to take an AP exam than their non-FRL counterparts, after controlling for demographic and academic covariates.

Dual‐Credit Courses and the Road to College: Experimental Evidence from Tennessee

AbstractDual‐credit courses expose high school students to college‐level content and provide the opportunity to earn college credits, in part to smooth the transition to college. With the Tennessee Department of Education, we conduct the first randomized controlled trial of the effects of dual‐credit math coursework on a range of high school and college outcomes. We find that the dual‐credit advanced algebra course alters students’ subsequent high school math course‐taking, reducing enrollment in remedial math and boosting enrollment in precalculus and Advanced Placement math courses. We fail to detect an effect of the dual‐credit math course on overall rates of college enrollment. However, the course induces some students to choose four‐year universities instead of two‐year colleges, particularly for those in the middle of the math achievement distribution and those first exposed to the opportunity to take the course in eleventh rather than twelfth grade. We see limited evidence of improvements in early math performance during college.

Need supportive instructor training: perspectives from graduate teaching assistants in a college/university physical activity program

ABSTRACTBackground: In the U.S. college/university setting, physical activity courses are often offered as part of the general education program, where students earn college credits towards the completion of their degree program. These courses are typically taught by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), who face several challenges in instructing undergraduate students. Often, GTAs are thrust into their roles without the preparation that traditional teachers receive as customary with education degrees. Literature on need supportive teacher training, as part of self-determination theory, indicates that teachers including GTAs, can be successfully trained to meet the needs of their students regardless of years of previous experience. Presently, there is little information on the impact of such a training program from the perspective of the GTAs participating in the program.Purpose: The aim of this study is to provide in-depth perspectives on need supportive training through examination of GTAs reflections of the training process.Participants and setting: Fourteen GTAs from a university physical activity and healthful living program were recruited for this study, but two dropped out. All participants taught one of the following courses: aerobics, basketball, body conditioning, bowling, flag football, golf, racquetball, soccer, tennis, ultimate frisbee, volleyball, or yoga.Data collection: Teaching reflections were written by participants at the end of a year-long training program.Data analyses: Written reflections completed by the GTAs were analyzed via content analysis. Data were organized by how strategies were implemented, most/least successful use of the strategies, and adherence to the training. Once organized, the data was examined by two different researchers independently and themes were shared with participants as part of the member checking process. Searches for negative cases were utilized during the analysis process as well.Findings: Across the data, it was determined that the GTAs felt the training to be beneficial, influencing much of how they worked with students. Results suggested that GTAs found several ways to implement the reviewed need supportive teaching strategies, including giving students the choice of activities and group membership. They were also able to better respond to students’ negative affect and give explanatory rationales. Goal setting was a consistently used strategy by the GTAs; however, it was cited as one of the least successful strategies due to the inability to effectively follow-up on the goals made during classes with the students. Additionally, it was noted that the GTAs had difficulties with devising their own ways of implementing the strategies and relied heavily on the examples that were provided during their training sessions.Conclusion: In better understanding, the perceptions of GTAs who engage in need supportive training programs, researchers can better gauge the effectiveness of such programs and how they can be improved. Future research should focus on how to help GTAs to engage in more creative ways of using need supportive teaching strategies in physical activity environments.

Advanced Placement: The Dual Challenge of Equal Access and Effectiveness

The Advanced Placement (AP) program offers an opportunity for students to earn college credit and develop college-ready skills in high school. The curriculum was initially designed for “superior” students at exclusive private schools. Recently, however, the AP program has expanded to serve more students from marginalized backgrounds, and equitable access has become one of its core objectives. Scholars have questioned whether AP can continue to offer effective college preparation while expanding beyond the populations it was initially designed to serve. This literature review summarizes existing research on whether the AP program has achieved its dual goals of equal access and effectiveness. The extant literature suggests that, despite impressive gains in access to AP, significant barriers remain to its becoming a program that ensures equal access for all students and effectively prepares them for college coursework. Assessing whether these barriers can be overcome, however, demands new approaches to AP research.

Early Colleges at Scale: Impacts on Secondary and Postsecondary Outcomes

We examine the impacts of early college high schools, small schools of choice located on college campuses. These schools provide a no-cost opportunity for students to earn college credit—or a 2-year degree—while in high school. Using rich administrative data on multiple cohorts of students and quasiexperimental methods informed by the within-study comparison literature, we estimate program impacts of enrolling in a North Carolina early college in ninth grade on a variety of secondary and postsecondary outcomes. We include all such schools in the state, and we report generally promising findings. Early colleges increase important high school outcomes, boost associate’s degree completion, and raise 4-year-college enrollment at less selective public institutions. We also show the differences of these impacts across race, home-district performance, and host site, helping us better understand the implementation and effects of this promising intervention in one state that has brought this school reform model to...

Context Is Key: School Leaders’ Approaches in Creating and Maintaining Dual Enrollment Opportunities in South Texas

ABSTRACTDual enrollment courses provide high school students an opportunity to graduate having been exposed to the academic rigor necessary to be successful in college-level coursework, while potentially getting a head start on earning college credit. In Texas, school districts are required by law to offer students opportunities to earn at least 12 college credit hours either through dual enrollment courses, advanced placement, or International Baccalaureate programs. This study utilized a borderlands framework to examine how school leaders in South Texas, a region historically underserved and underfunded in education, approached the task of seeking and establishing dual enrollment opportunities for students.

Doing Time and College: An Examination of Carceral Influences on Experiences in Postsecondary Correctional Education

Imprisonment pains often accompany confinement to correctional institutions and can be manifested through controlled interactions that are an ingrained part of these contexts. Less is known about how related discomforts and deprivations might specifically impact participation in postsecondary correctional education. This paper will shed light on possible ways that encounters between incarcerated college students, other prisoners, prison educators and corrections officers can influence their access to and quality of higher education received. It is based on qualitative data collected from interviews with 34 formerly incarcerated individuals who were past and present members of a higher education program post-release. This research has important policy implications given that individuals who earn college credits during incarceration are more likely to secure gainful employment and avoid crime post-incarceration. Particularly, it can be used to guide the development of carceral college programs that account for educational challenges that typically emanate from prison sub cultural influences.