State Policy Center: Increasing The Accessibility of Dual Enrollment Courses by Providing No-Cost Options, in Priority Course Areas, for High School Students
While research shows that participation in dual enrollment courses can increase the likelihood that students enroll in and persist in college after graduation, these opportunities are still not equitably distributed among all students. In particular, Black and Latinx students from households in lower-income socioeconomic brackets are less likely to be enrolled in dual enrollment than their white peers and those from higher-income socioeconomic brackets.
There are many contributing factors that yield these inequities, but one critical strategy to reduce barriers for many students is to provide low- or no-cost postsecondary credit opportunities to as many students as possible nationwide. While some states have programs to cover all or some of the tuition and fees associated with dual enrollment courses, data from a 2010 national survey found that 45 percent of students reported paying full or partial tuition to access dual enrollment coursework.
In removing this critical cost barrier, states have pursued policies that create and expand postsecondary scholarships, establish stipends, and provide free or low-cost dual enrollment for all qualifying high school students in the state.
Below, All4Ed provides a model policy that would establish a list of priority dual enrollment courses in a state and cover all tuition and fees for students accepted into and enrolled in those specified courses. This bill would allow students to enroll in early postsecondary opportunities free of charge, while allowing the state to establish critical course priorities, including at least one 30 credit course sequence transferable as two semesters of general education credit to in-state postsecondary institutions and high-quality credentials linked to workforce needs in the state for high-skill, high-wage, in-demand career opportunities.
States use a broad range of terms to talk about early college credit opportunities for high school students. Often these terms are created for purposes of funding, regulatory oversight, and general organization, though they can cause confusion where states often use similar terms to mean different things.
Some states use dual enrollment, dual credit, concurrent enrollment, and early college credit interchangeably, while others use different terms to denote whether the courses are taught in a physical high school, on a college campus, or if dual credit is awarded at all (versus only postsecondary credit).
For purposes of the State Policy Center, All4Ed uses the term dual enrollment to encapsulate all of these opportunities. When using dual enrollment, All4Ed means an opportunity to earn both secondary and postsecondary credit simultaneously, whether offered in a physical high school, on a college campus, or virtually; and whether taught by a dual enrollment certified secondary instructor or by a postsecondary faculty member. When adjusting model bills to a state, these terms should be replaced with the relevant language currently in common usage in the state’s education system.
Model Policy
Dual Enrollment Access Act: Funding Sequenced Postsecondary Coursework for All Students
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