Education Week - December 10, 2014 - 11

coursework is seen as a must in the
competitive admissions process; others
hope accelerated courses will
lead to accelerated time to completion
of a degree.
Last year, research from the National
Student Clearinghouse, a
Herndon, Va.-based nonprofit, found
that students who entered higher
education with college-level experience
through dual enrollment had
higher six-year graduation rates.
The Atlanta-based Southern Regional
Education Board reported
that high school students in the
study who took dual-enrollment
courses completed college degrees in
4.6 years, compared with five years
for their peers who did not take college
courses in high school.
Likewise, a study released by the
College Board in January found that
ap exam-takers were more likely
than their demographically and academically
matched peers to graduate
on time in four years.
"We do see cost savings as an incredible
value and benefit of ap,"
said Trevor Packer, the senior vice
president of ap and instruction at the
College Board. "But the cost savings
may come from earning your degree
in four years, rather than 4-and-ahalf
or five."
Earlier research by Kristin Klopfenstein,
the executive director of
the Education Innovation Institute
at the University of Northern Colorado,
in Greeley, reported that with
the exception of students who take a
very large number of ap courses, the
probability that an ap student will
graduate from college in less than
four years or exactly four years is indistinguishable
from that of a similar
student who does not take ap.
The College Board does not "trumpet"
the message that ap equals early
"
The more general
trend is to recognize
and award college
credit."
MICHAEL V. REILLY
American Association of College
Registrars and Admissions Officers
graduation, but the experience can
allow students to take more advanced
coursework, pursue a double major,
add a minor, or have the flexibility to
study abroad, Mr. Packer said.
When Hailey E.Clark graduated
from high school in Bogart, Ga.,
last spring, she had completed 17
ap courses and chose to attend the
University of Georgia, in part because
it accepted her credits while
Ivy League schools would not. She
entered as a junior with 78 credits,
but plans to attend all four years
and go into medicine. Her tuition is
paid in full through Georgia's Hope
Scholarship program, and Ms. Clark
has a double major in biochemistry/
molecular biology and economics.
"While it's tempting to go for two
years and get out of medical school
before I'm 30, I think college is more
about the extracurricular, and I'm
hesitant to give that up. Medical
schools look a lot at résumés," said
Ms. Clark.
Jeff Fuller, the director of student
recruitment at the University of
Houston and the current president
of nacac, said higher education faculty
members often want students
to be educated in the professors' own
instructional models and sometimes
encourage students to retake collegelevel
courses they had in high school,
especially those in their majors.
"There is more [that students]
want to get out of the college experience,
and the rush lessens once they
are here," Mr. Fuller said.
The International Baccalaureate,
with U.S. regional offices in
Bethesda, Md., and programs in
830 U.S. high schools, doesn't exist
for the purpose of getting students
college credit, said Drew Deutsch,
the ib regional director for the
Americas, although many colleges
do award it. The ib experience, with
its emphasis on critical thinking, is
about better preparing students for
college work and setting them apart
in admissions, he said.
"For a student who is experiencing
the educational and social benefits of
college life," said Mr. Deutsch, "who
would want to depart early if they
can financially afford it?"
Policies around the granting of college
credit for ap coursework have
fluctuated more as the total number
of students taking ap exams has doubled
over the past decade, growing
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846,000 in 2005 to 1.5 million today.
Each year, 6 percent of ap credit policies
are modified, balancing between
allowing for more credit or less, according
to the College Board.
In general, Mr. Packer said, those
institutions that are open to accepting
credit are trying to attract students,
while the more-restrictive ones
want students to have most of their
academic experience on campus.
Last year, Dartmouth College announced
it would no longer award
credit for ap, saying it wanted students
to take courses with its faculty
on campus to the greatest extent
possible. The policy change has not
hurt application volume, and it will
be formally reviewed in three years.
Dartmouth still considers ap in admissions
and for placement.
Evolving Policies
Michael V. Reilly, the executive director
of the American Association of
College Registrars and Admissions
Officers, said that while ap and ib
exams have long been recognized,
higher education more recently has
welcomed dual enrollment as new
research has countered early concerns
about quality.
"The more general trend is to recognize
and award college credit,"
he said. "As high school graduating
class numbers flatten, campuses
want to be attractive to students
coming in with advanced standing."
About half the ap students surveyed
this year by the College
Board said they'd be less likely to
apply to a college or university
that didn't give credit for ap exam
scores. About 70 percent of respondents
said that earning college
credit while in high school was the
main reason to take an ap course.
Other factors were to "increase my
chances of college admission" (62
percent) and to build skills needed
in college (54 percent).
At the University of Michigan in
Ann Arbor, more than 60 percent of
incoming freshmen get some credit
for college-level work done in high
school, said Sally H. Lindsley, a senior
associate director in undergraduate
admissions there.
In the past 10 years requirements
for such credit at the university have
inched upward, with many departments
now requiring an ap exam
score of 4 or 5 to receive credit, instead
of a 3, as in the past. The threshold
is a "data-driven decision" based on
tracking how well students do in subsequent
courses, Ms. Lindsley said.
It falls on the shoulders of students
to figure out colleges' credit-granting
policies, said Ms. Klopfenstein of the
University of Northern Colorado.
"I don't think schools are trying not
to be transparent. There just is no
clearinghouse or central place," she
said. "Even within a university, you
have to go to every department. That's
the real challenge-portability."
Special coverage on the alignment
between K-12 schools and postsecondary
education is supported in part by a grant
from the Lumina Foundation, at
www.luminafoundation.org. Education
Week retains sole editorial control over
the content of this coverage.
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Education Week - December 10, 2014

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