Washington Monthly - September/October 2021 - 38

Pippin says. Pippin, who works as a high school guidance
counselor in Kentucky, says he recommends dual
enrollment to his students based on his own experience.
" It gave me the chance to sit in a college classroom with
college students and engage with college instructors, " he
says. " I had a little bit more experience of what college
was going to look like when I moved away myself. "
And so far, dual enrollment also seems to be somewhat
better at enrolling a diversity of students than AP.
In Texas, for instance, a 2018 study by the University of
Texas system found that the share of Hispanic students
The answer is not to
eliminate Advanced
Placement. When students
have access to classes and
the resources to succeed, the
program provides undeniable
benefits. Ending the
program also wouldn't solve
the underlying inequities
in the K-12 system that
created AP's disparate
outcomes in the first place.
participating in dual credit outstripped that of whites (45
percent versus 38 percent). " Dual and concurrent enrollment
tends to enroll a wider range of students, " says Melinda
Karp, founder of the education consultancy Phase
Two Advisory and an expert on dual enrollment.
Given these benefits, states are increasingly supporting
expansions of dual enrollment. Kentucky, for instance,
offers a Dual Credit Scholarship that covers the
cost of up to two dual credit courses per student per
year for all high schoolers in the state. In 2009, Colorado
passed legislation establishing a tuition-free concurrent
enrollment program with credits transferable to any
Colorado public university. According to a 2020 analysis
by the University of Colorado Boulder, students enrolled
in the program were 25 percent more likely to attend college
than those who did not participate. They were also
10 percent more likely to finish a four-year degree on
time. These findings held true " regardless of student income,
minority status, gender, or ninth grade reading
test scores, " according to the report.
38 September/October 2021
Other studies have found more modest, though still
positive, impacts. A 2012 study by Brian An at the University
of Iowa found a 7 percentage point increase in the
likelihood of earning a four-year degree for dual credit
students, while an evaluation of Texas's dual credit programs
estimated that participation increased collegegoing
by 2.4 percentage points, controlling for student
characteristics.
Nonetheless, dual enrollment isn't perfect. The demographics
of dual enrollment students still skew toward
white and affluent, even if the gaps aren't quite as
glaring. The Department of Education's most recent data
finds that white and Asian students are more likely to
participate in dual enrollment than Black and Hispanic
ones (38 percent of both white and Asian students versus
27 percent of Black students and 30 percent of Hispanic
ones). Despite its success with Latinos, Texas's dual credit
program under-enrolls Black students, who made up
just 7 percent of dual credit students in 2015 even though
they comprised 12 percent of Texas students.
Dual credit programs can also be expensive, which
might explain part of the disparities in participation.
Even though many states and districts cover the tuition
cost, the number of classes covered might be limited, and
students must still pay for books and fees. At Northern
Virginia Community College, for example, dual enrollment
costs $185.50 per credit hour, which means a threecredit
course would cost $556. And as with AP, the students
who do best in dual credit classes tend to be the
ones who are already equipped to succeed.
But if achieving greater equity is the goal, dual enrollment
has more potential than AP, and more states
may want to replicate Kentucky's scholarships to help
defray the costs. The partnerships created between high
schools and community colleges through dual enrollment
could mean more seamless transitions between high
school and college, and more support for students in and
out of the classroom. Flexibility in curricula means that
students can choose the courses best suited to their interests
and career goals. " By design, because it is rooted
in community, it is going to be more equitable, " said
Phase Two Advisory's Melinda Karp.
Nevertheless, the bottom line is that no single
program-whether dual enrollment or AP-can substitute
for the top-to-bottom reforms that K-12 education
needs. " The challenge is that AP is coming in at the
very tail of the educational experience, " the University
of Denver's Klopfenstein said. " While it's certainly desirable
to make AP accessible to all, the first and best solution
would be to make sure that all kids are having a Kthrough-10
educational experience that prepares them to
be ready for AP. "
Anne Kim is a Washington Monthly contributing editor and the author
of Abandoned: America's Lost Youth and the Crisis of Disconnection.
Washington Monthly - September/October 2021

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