Education Week - June 4, 2014 - 6

Costs, Quality on Radar
As Dual Enrollment Rises
Many states move to expand access
By Caralee J. Adams
As dual-enrollment programs surge
in popularity, policymakers and advocates
are wrestling with how to
pay the costs and promote access
for all high school students who
are eligible to earn college credit,
especially low-income and minority
populations. Along with the rapid
expansion of such offerings also
comes pressure to ensure quality
in the courses students take.
In Florida, legislation approved
last year shifted the cost burden
for dual-enrollment courses from
higher education institutions to
K-12 districts, much to the dismay
of many school systems.
Meanwhile, Alabama lawmakers
this year overwhelmingly pushed
through a new tax credit on donations
to a fund that could generate
up to $10 million each year
for scholarships so high school
students can earn postsecondary
credits in career-technical education
fields.
The governors of Connecticut,
Delaware, and South Dakota were
among about a dozen state executives
to promote dual enrollment in
their State of the State addresses
this year.
"We know that students who are
challenged in high school with college-level
material often rise to the
occasion," said Delaware Gov. Jack A.
Markell in his January address. He
proposed a new scholarship program
so that "all low-income Delaware students
with college potential can take
credit-bearing courses during their
senior year of high school."
Also, a handful of states have
named task forces recently to
study and make recommendations
regarding access, quality, and funding
for dual-enrollment programs.
Dropout Prevention?
At the federal level, advocates
are turning to Congress to help increase
access. One idea is to expand
Pell Grant eligibility to high school
students so they could tap into the
$33 billion federal student-aid program
to pay for such classes.
At a House education committee
hearing in late April, U.S. Secretary
of Education Arne Duncan
was asked about dual-enrollment
initiatives.
"I'm a big, big fan," he said. "And
to be very clear, this is not just good
for the high flyers. I actually think
these are good dropout-prevention
programs."
Two lawmakers inquired about
expanding the Pell program to
pay for dual enrollment. Mr. Duncan
stopped short of endorsing the
idea, but expressed an openness
to further conversation. However,
some outside observers say such a
change may be a long shot.
Recent federal data indicate rising
demand among high school students
for college-level coursework.
About 82 percent of U.S. public
high schools reported that students
were enrolled in a dual-credit course
in 2010-11, according to the National
Center for Education Statistics. That
adds up to about 1.4 million students
taking 2 million courses, compared
with just 800,000 students enrolled
in such programs in 2002-03, the
nces data show.
Dual-enrollment programs vary
in form, but students typically can
participate by taking the courses in
high school classrooms, on college
campuses, or online. The courses
span many disciplines, including
college algebra, principles of economics,
U.S. history, and introduction
to sociology, to name a few.
In the career-technical area, high
school students tend to gravitate
toward the health sciences, information
technology, and business
courses, educators say.
It's often an affordable way to get
a jump-start on college. Still, there
are expenses and someone must
pick up the tab.
Sometimes courses are free to
students, or discounted to as low
as $75 per class, while others can
cost them as much as $400. Most
frequently, the cost of dual enrollment
is absorbed by postsecondary
institutions, followed by parents
and students, high schools and
school districts, and the state, the
nces reports.
These arrangements, however,
are being debated at the state and
federal levels as policymakers try
to balance sustaining programs financially
with encouraging more
students to enroll.
"There is so much activity at the
state level that is percolating up,"
said Adam I. Lowe, the executive
director of the National Alliance
of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships,
an organization based
in Chapel Hill, N.C., that has been
accrediting programs since 2004
to ensure that the quality of college
courses offered in high schools
matches the content expected by
colleges.
A growing body of research about
the effectiveness of dual enrollment
is helping to make the case.
For example, students who took
such courses were 10 percent more
likely to complete a bachelor's degree
than a comparison group of
entering college freshmen, according
to a study published in the journal
Educational Evaluation and
Policy Analysis in 2013. The edge
was even greater -12 percent-for
students whose parents never attended
college.
Shifting Landscape
Even as participation in dualenrollment
programs expands,
the Education Commission of the
States cautioned in a recent report
that with the "possible exception
6 | EDUCATION WEEK | June 4, 2014 | www.edweek.org
Katie McIntosh, a junior at Mayfield High School in Mayfield, Ky., signs up for dual-enrollment courses. The
program allow high students to earn college credit through West Kentucky Community & Technical College.
of Massachusetts, minority and/or
low-income students tend to be underrepresented
in statewide dualenrollment
programs."
The policy and budgetary landscapes
for dual enrollment are shifting
rapidly, as more states enact
measures to expand access and ensure
better quality.
Just nine states now require
families to pay the cost of dual-enrollment
programs, down from 22 in
2008, according to Jennifer Dounay
Zinth, a senior policy analyst at ecs.
About a dozen states mandate these
courses be available to students at
no cost.
Thirty-seven states now have requirements
regarding the quality
of instruction for dual enrollment,
up from 29 states six years ago,
according to Denver-based commission.
Some states require that
participating high school teachers
have adjunct faculty status, have
professional development from
subject-area faculty at partnering
institutions, or mandate curriculum
be identical, including syllabi,
tests, and grading practices, said
Ms. Zinth.
One state ecs highlighted for
its policy on quality is Minnesota.
In 2011, a new policy took effect
whereby the state would only reimburse
districts for the costs of
programs that met certain quality
criteria, such as gaining accreditation
by nacep.
This spring, Alabama added a
new, $5 million appropriation for
state community colleges for 201415
to help cover the cost of dualenrollment
programs for careertechnical
education. Republican
Gov. Robert J. Bentley also signed
legislation creating a scholarship
program, to be funded by private
donations, to support students interested
in cte dual credit. Contributors
are eligible for tax credits
beginning in 2015 for up to 50
percent of their donation, up to
$500,000. The cte scholarships will
cover the total costs for participating
students.
The idea was championed by
state Rep. Mac Buttram, a Republican,
to encourage students to get
a professional certification and
quickly enter the workforce.
The plan put forward by Democratic
Delaware Gov. Markell would
provide $300,000 for dual-enrollment
scholarships, with a preference
given to students from lowincome
families. As of last week, its
fate was still up in the air as the
state budget had not been finalized
by lawmakers.
In Connecticut, Gov. Dannel P.
Malloy, a Democrat, requested $2.5
million for dual enrollment, in part
to support plans to open an earlycollege
high school in collaboration
with IBM, similar to what's known
as the p-tech model established in
New York. The legislature ultimately
provided $1 million, and the governor
recently unveiled plans for the
grades 9-14 school to open next fall
in Norwalk.
Managing Costs
Kentucky recently changed the
prices charged to students for dual
enrollment and began to encourage
programs to meet standards similar
to those required in nacep accreditation.
Students in the state's technical
high schools used to take dual-enrollment
courses at no cost, while those
in general education dual-enrollment
courses were charged the full rate of
$144 per credit hour.
"There was a big gap between one
group engaging in dual enrollment
for free and another paying 100 percent,"
said Jay K. Box, the chancellor
of the Kentucky Community and
Technical College System.
Starting in the fall of 2012, all students
taking technical dual-enrollment
courses, such as construction
technologies or blueprint reading,
pay a $50 administrative fee (but
still no tuition), and general education
students can enroll at half the
price of tuition, or about $230 per
course.
At the same time the price structure
changed, postsecondary institutions
agreed to infuse quality
standards into their dual-credit programs
to look at student success and
achievement, not just access.
"We want to make sure what the
student is getting is really seen as
college work," said Mr. Box.
In Florida, the state's public
higher education institutions have
traditionally absorbed the cost of
dual enrollment, but postsecondary
leaders began to look for relief
as the programs exploded from
33,300 students in 2007-08 to
52,500 in 2012-13, according to the
Florida Department of Education.
State institutions were losing approximately
$52 million a year in
potential tuition by offering dual enrollment,
said Randy W. Hanna, the
chancellor of the division of colleges
at the state department.
While college presidents had
pushed for a new, dedicated funding
stream for dual enrollment,
the legislature instead shifted the
costs to districts. So, school systems
had to quickly come up with
funding for the first time (at a cost
of more than $200 per course). The
courses remain free to students,
and one year after the shift, participation
continues to grow, state
officials say.
To deal with the new tuition
costs, the Hernando County district
in Brooksville, Fla., paid for
high school teachers to get certified
to teach the college-level
courses.
"That began putting capacity in
our building," improving access for
students and lowering the fees paid
to the college, said Marcia Austin,
the supervisor for dual enrollment
in the 22,000-student district.
Ms. Austin expects the legislative
switch cost the district about
$400,000 this academic year.
The change last summer came
with no warning, said William J.
"Bill" Montford, the chief executive
officer of the Florida Association of
District Superintendents, and a
Democratic state senator.
"This put quite a burden on
local school districts-not only the
cost, but the timing as well-and
caused some difficulty," he said.
The legislature this year did allocate
$10 million specifically for
instructional materials for dualenrollment
courses.
Special coverage on the alignment
between K-12 schools and postsecondary
education is supported in part by a grant
from the Lumina Foundation. Education
Week retains sole editorial control over
the content of this coverage.
Joe Buglewicz for Education Week

http://www.edweek.org

Education Week - June 4, 2014

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