Colorado is a leader in the dual-enrollment education trend, where students can gain college credit for courses completed in high school.
When I entered my freshman year of college X-number of years ago, I already had nine credit hours that I'd completed at Arapahoe Community College during my senior year in high school. I felt like it gave me a boost -- a head-start on my degree -- since English 101, Speech Communication, and Intro to Shakespeare were all successfully behind me. At the time, dual-enrollment (taking college-level courses while still in high school) was a relatively new idea, and in the years since, it's actually become commonplace. But is that a good thing? In 2009, Colorado went one step farther than my experience, passing legislation that allowed school districts to work with colleges and universities in the state to provide college-caliber courses and credit to high school students -- without charging them full tuition. That is, of course, a very attractive option for students from low-income families who want to go on to college but aren't sure how they'll pay for it. As a result, dual-enrollment has become very popular in the years since the law went into effect.
During the 2015-16 academic year, approximately 38,500 high school juniors and seniors in Colorado (more than one third) were enrolled in dual-enrollment programs. The Wall Street Journal reports that that number went up even higher last year, though the exact figure has not yet been released. And at Gateway High School in Aurora, the number of participating students has almost doubled in the past year.
Obviously, knocking out college credits while you're still in high school would be beneficial, on the surface. Recognizing the high price but high pay-off of a college education, some school districts even pay for the programs, hoping to help launch their students' interest in higher education and hopefully make it easier for them to complete their degrees in the long-run.
We want every student to have credentials that open doors,” Charles Dukes, Aurora Public Schools director of college and career success, said, according to The Wall Street Journal.Colorado, specifically, has set a goal for 66 percent of its adults to have a postsecondary degree by 2025. Currently, 39.9 percent of Colorado adults over the age of 25 hold a bachelor's degree or higher, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But at what point does the line between high school and college begin to blur? Does the educational quality of the courses drop as these dual-enrollment classes become more and more available? Through some programs, like CU Succeed, students don't even have to leave their high school campus to take their college-level courses. Their high school teachers are accredited through the CU Succeed program, which qualifies the course to count for both high school and college credit. But some more selective colleges, like Tulane University in New Orleans, don't accept any courses on a transcript that were not taught on a college campus by an actual college professor. That could be an interesting development for high-achieving students who think they're doing themselves a favor with dual-enrollment and actually end up in a bind, having to repeat those courses down the line.
So Colorado is diving into the issue, using a $400,000 federal grant to launch a two-year study into whether or not the dual-enrollment programs are actually beneficial and whether the college credits students are earning are actually increasing college enrollment and contributing to actual degree completion. Early studies several years ago showed that the programs -- which, at that time, were generally limited to the more academically inclined -- did indeed pay off toward the earning of a degree. But times have changed, and the programs are now available to a "more diverse set of students." The longterm success among that dynamic demographic has yet to be determined.
[caption id="attachment_25649" align="aligncenter" width="800"] Image courtesy of Community College of Denver[/caption]
The grant, which is coming from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, will allow research into the programs' cost, educational outcomes, and overall investment return, specifically narrowing in on Denver Public Schools' relationship with Community College of Denver, Aurora Public Schools' relationship with Community College of Aurora, and Salida and Delta County school districts' relationships with Western State Colorado University.
This study will help us identify the hallmarks of successful dual enrollment programs as we look to make them universally available to Colorado students,” Kim Hunter Reed, executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education, told The Denver Post.In the same vein, another trailblazer in the dual-enrollment trend is Colorado Early Colleges (CEC), an alternative charter high school (with four campuses along the Front Range) that advertises the chance for students to graduate from high school with up to their associate's degree already completed -- all at no cost to the student or their family. The entire school is built around the idea of dual-enrollment. So is it a high school? A college? Or both? [caption id="attachment_25648" align="aligncenter" width="881"] Image courtesy of Colorado Early Colleges[/caption] Besides the obvious financial benefits to a program like CEC, I struggle with the idea of robbing a student of the traditional high school and college experience. It's like we're rushing students to adulthood -- providing them with a shortcut that may or may not be lucrative, or respected, among higher education institutions. Sure, high-achieving, eager students should be given the opportunity to take courses that consistently challenge them, and if warranted, earn the appropriate college credit. But in a society where dual-enrollment is almost becoming the norm, I wonder at what point does the line between high school and college blur, ultimately "muddling" the quality of the education and making it difficult to distinguish when a student is actually ready for a postsecondary education. Is student progress and achievement being accurately measured? Those are the questions we're hoping Colorado's grant-funded research will answer.
For me, I found that the nine credit hours I completed on the community college campus were a great experience -- and one that I think is important for high school students who want to dip their toe into higher education. It can be exciting and inspiring.
But education officials need to tread very carefully as they work to draw the lines between high school and college. They need to ensure that the quality of both levels of education is preserved, while still raising the standards and encouraging our students to go higher and farther.
What do you think? Weigh in below, and let's get the conversation started!